Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
The World Bank recently announced that it estimates that remittances to South Asia will drop 22% by this year.
India is the largest recipient of remittances of the world, which increases the foreign exchange reserves of the country. The reserves are used to fund the current account deficit of the country. After the lock-down and the resulting economic slow-down, the loss of income of expatriate Indians who work in foreign countries will affect the remittances. About 12% of the total inflow is the remittances form people working abroad. The Bank also estimated that Global remittances would drop by 20%.

Notes:
International Girls in ICT Day is the flagship initiative of the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union, ITU.
This year, the International Girls in ICT Day is celebrated on 23 April. The day is celebrated to sensitise people and empower girls to take up their career in Information and Communication Technologies. ITU hosted an online dialogue on “Girls in ICT: Inspiring the Next Generation”.

Notes:
China has named its Mars exploration mission, proposed to be launched this year as ‘Tianwen-1’. It named its first Mars mission on the occasion of the Space Day, which marked the 50th anniversary of the country’s first satellite Dong Fang Hong-1.
‘Tianwen’ in Chinese means Questions to Heaven, as per a Chinese poet Qu Yuan Aiming. India, U.S., Russia and the European Union have previously launched Mars mission. On the same lines, China’s mission aims to complete orbiting, landing and roving in a single mission.

Notes:
The World Malaria Day is observed on April 25 every year by the World Health Organisation (WHO), across the world. This year WHO has partnered with the global platform RBM Partnership to promote “Zero malaria starts with me” campaign.
The campaign aims to sensitise malaria politically, mobilize additional resources and encourage people to fast-track malaria prevention and care.

Notes:
The UN body for Trade and Development, UNCTAD recently released a report titled ‘From the Great Lockdown to the Great Meltdown’.
In the report, the agency highlights that the repayment of the developing countries towards their public debt will amount to between $2.6 trillion and $3.4 trillion in 2020 and 2021. It also proposed a global debt deal to prevent Covid-19 pandemic from aggravating economic disaster.

Notes:
The state of Tamil Nadu promulgated an ordinance which made blocking the dignified burial or cremation of victims of notified disease, a criminal offence.
As per the official release, the people involving in such acts will face a minimum jail term of one year to a maximum three-year imprisonment, under section 74 of ‘The Tamil Nadu Public Health Act, 1939’. This decision has been taken at the backdrop of agitations against the burial of two doctors who died of Covid-19.

Notes:
The World Intellectual Property Day 2020 is celebrated every year on April 26, across the world. The Geneva-based UN specialised agency, World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) leads the celebration.
This year, the theme of the World Intellectual Property Day 2020 is ‘Innovate for a Green Future’. While the WIPO could not organise any physical event amidst the Covid Pandemic, it highlights innovation and the IP rights as the main tools to create a green future. It encouraged its offices to celebrate the day through virtual channels.

Notes:
India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced a ₹50,000-crore special liquidity facility for mutual funds.
The package has been released at the backdrop of the shutting down of six debt funds by the Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund. Banks can borrow the 90-day funds from RBI at the current repo rate of 4.4% and use it to exclusively on-lend to mutual funds. The banks can also purchase investment grade corporate papers held by Mutual Funds.

Notes:
The CRISIL rating agency has recently released a report, which slashed the GDP forecast of India to nearly half from its previous estimate to 1.8 per cent for 2020-21.
The agency also estimated that the total losses to be faced by the country would be Rs 10 lakh crore or Rs 7,000 per person due to the impact of the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19. The agency also asked the government to increase the stimulus response and support.

Notes:
‘World Day for Safety and Health at Work’ is being celebrated on 28 April, every year since 2003, across the world.
This year the theme/campaign on this special day is ‘Stop the pandemic: Safety and health at work can save lives’. The aim of celebration of this day is to highlight the prevention of accidents and diseases at work. 28 April is also the ‘International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers’.