Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
As per the recent report of S&P Global Ratings, the GDP growth of India in the financial year 2020-21 is slashed to 3.5% from its earlier forecast of 5.2%.
The main reason for the decrease is said to be the huge dip in output from the covid-19 outbreak for the Asia-Pacific region. It had also forecasted the Asia-Pacific economy will grow at 2.2% in 2020. Earlier Moody’s Investors Service slashed India’s economic growth projection for 2020 to 2.5%.

Notes:
Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan recently announced that Saudi Arabia has assured India of uninterrupted supply of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG).
The Minister announced this after his discussions with Saudi Minister of Energy, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman. As the cooking gas demand surged due to the nation-wide lockdown, Saudi Arabia has assured of LPG supplies to support the domestic requirement in the upcoming days.

Notes:
The state government of Jharkhand has launched a mobile application called ‘PRAGYAAM’ to issue e-passes to the people engaged in delivery of essential services during the national lockdown.
The country observes a 21-day nation-wide lockdown to combat the spread of coronavirus. After verifying and uploading the documents through this android-based application, the District Transport Officers will issue e-passes.

Notes:
The Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan recently launched the ‘National Teleconsultation Centre (CoNTeC)’.
CoNTeC is a Tele-medicine Hub, which has been implemented by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. Expert doctors from various domains will be available to resolve and answer the questions from all over the country.

Notes:
The 2nd Extraordinary G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting was recently organised via tele-conferencing under the Presidency of Saudi Arabia.
Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman participated in the virtual meeting. The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy and markets was discussed and coordinate efforts in response to this global challenge. Finance Minister asked for reviewing and enhancing the IMF toolkit.

Notes:
India’s leading private lender ICICI Bank recently announced the launch of banking services on WhatsApp amid the nation-wide lockdown resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.
The customers have to save ICICI Bank’s verified WhatsApp profile number in their contact. Using the WhatsApp banking services, the customers are provided with several banking services including checking their savings account balance, last transactions, credit card limit and blocking/unblocking credit and debit card.

Notes:
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has registered its first overseas case and has started investigation into the terrorist attack on a gurdwara at Kabul, Afghanistan.
On March 25, 2020, some gunmen entered a gurdwara in Kabul and fired, which killed 27 devotees and injured several others. The recent amendments in NIA Act have permitted NIA to investigate cases against the Indian citizens or affecting the interest of India, which are committed at places outside India.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India recently released some measures to deal with the consequence of the coronavirus pandemic. As per the new export norms, the exporters can take 15 months to realise their export proceeds, for exports made up to July 31 against the earlier 9 months.
RBI also increased the Ways and Means Advances limit for state governments and UTs by 30 % till September 30. It also said that the banks are not required to activate counter-cyclical capital buffers for one more year.

Notes:
The Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Philip Anderson recently passed away in the United States at the age of 96.
The physicist was known for making the science community understand about magnetism and superconductivity and for starting solid state physics as a field. He had been the inspiration for other Nobel-prize winning physicists including Brian Josephson (1973) and F. Duncan Haldane (2016).

Notes:
An India-based non-profit organization ARMMAN has been awarded the prestigious Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship 2020.
The NGO has been selected for its contribution towards the maternal and child health sector in India. Out of the five organisations which won this USD 1.5 million award, it is the only one selected from Asia and Africa. The NGO has been implementing mobile health programs in partnership with the Government of India.