Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
The International Day for the fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is observed every year on June 5. The purpose of this day is to sensitise about the threats posed by unregulated fishing activities to the fisheries resources.
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) declared June 5 as the International Day for the fight against IUU fishing in November 2017. The first such day was celebrated in the year 2018. The Agreement on Port State Measures was brought into force on the same day.

Notes:
Article 1 of the Indian constitution reads “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States…”. Recently a petition was filed at the Supreme Court, which sought to remove the name of ‘India’ from the first article.
The Chief Justice of India Sharad Bobde said that Bharat and India are both names given in the Constitution and that India is already called ‘Bharat’ in the Constitution. However, the court said that the writ petition should be treated as a representation and to be sent to the Centre for final decision.

Notes:
Member countries of the Group of 20 (G 20) recently pledged more than USD 21 billion to fight the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
Earlier in the month of March, the G20 countries injected more than $5 trillion into the global economy to fight the virus and its economic impact across the world. The member countries also urged the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to support the vulnerable countries.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Rajasthan Ashok Gehlot has recently launched the Raj Kaushal Portal and Online Shramik Employment Exchange through video conferencing.
This initiative will enable the migrant labourers who have lost their livelihoods, to get employment and to provide suitable labour force to the industries facing shortage in labour. The portals have been developed by the State IT Department Rajasthan Skill and Livelihoods Development Corporation. The portal has data of nearly 53 lakh workers and 11.18 lakh industries.

Notes:
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is an intergovernmental organization of 13 nations, headquartered in Vienna, Austria.
OPEC and allied nations including Russia are set to extend the cut in production of nearly 10 million barrels of oil a day till the end of July. This decision is expected to boost the price of oil which has been hit hard by Covid-19 crisis. Soon after they announced the decision, Oil prices rose more than 2%.

Notes:
India and Denmark have recently signed an MoU for developing cooperation in the power sector, between the two countries.
Under the MoU, a long-time co-operation in power sector is to be developed by collaborating in areas like offshore wind, long term energy planning, variability in renewable energy production, among others. A Joint Working Group co-chaired by Joint Secretary level officials will also be established.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Jharkhand Hemant Soren has approved the Border Roads Organization (BRO) to recruit over 11,800 workers from the state for critical projects.
The projects include the critical areas including those near the China border in Ladakh for Operation Vijayak and in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. The state is also set to sign a first-of-its-kind memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the BRO to ensure welfare of all workers to be recruited in the future.

Notes:
The president of the UN General Assembly is Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, who is a Nigerian diplomat. He had also served as the Vice President of UNGA.
Tijjani Muhammad-Bande has recently announced that world leaders will not be arriving in New York for their annual gathering in late September. This happens for the first time in the 75-year history of the UN due to the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic. The 193 heads of state and government will give speeches during the General Debate, the process of which will be announced.

Notes:
The Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) has sought special proposals from Amazon for selling masks and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits.
Since a huge market has been formed for masks across the world particularly among all fashion brands, several Indian players have started exporting non-medical and designer masks. The exporters are also exploring measures of getting international certifications needed to export to other countries.

Notes:
The Union Government has created the Micro Irrigation Fund with the corpus of Rs. 5000 crore with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
Under the fund, NABARD will provide the amount to states on concessional rate of interest to promote micro-irrigation. Moreover, the annual allotment of Rs. 4000 crore has been made under the ‘Per Drop More Crop’ component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY- PDMC). The scheme focuses on improving water use efficiency through micro Irrigation techniques.