June 1st Week 2020 Current Affairs Online Test

 Recently, a new silver fish species has been discovered by the Head of the Zoology Department from a Kollam-based College, Kerala at Velankanni, Tamil Nadu. The small freshwater fish belongs to the family Cyprinidae and it has been named as ‘Puntius sanctus’.  His research was funded by the Department of Science and Technology. The new fish is deposited in Zoological Survey of India. It has also been registered with ZooBank of the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature.

 Bev Q, a virtual queue management app developed by a Kochi based startup Faircode Technologies, has recently been approved by Google after 2 level testing. This is to be implemented to manage queues of liquor shops.  The state government of Kerala announced that liquor shops would not be opened until a queue management system is implemented. The staff working at the shops are being trained through online and video tutorials in coordination with the Kerala State Beverages Corporation.

 The Harry Potter fame author J K Rowling recently unveiled her story online for the kids across the world,. The title of the story is ‘The Ickabog’ and it is her first children’s story not linked to Harry Potter.  The chapters of the story will be published daily until July 10, in an exclusive website recently created for the story. The author also announced that she had written this story a decade ago.

 Narmada Basin Projects Company Ltd is a wholly owned company of Madhya Pradesh government. Central PSU under Ministry of Power, Power Finance Corporation has recently partnered with NBPCL to fund projects worth ₹22,000 crore in Madhya Pradesh.  Hydroelectric projects and power components of 12 major multipurpose projects are to be set up by deploying the funds. Major multipurpose projects, which are to be financed include Basaniya Multipurpose Project, Chinki Boras Multipurpose Project Dudhi Project, among others.

 World’s leading toy brand the LEGO Group has recently collaborated with NITI Aayog and Save the Children, to support children impacted by COVID-19 in India.  Under the partnership, LEGO will promote ‘Learning through Play’ and support home based learning for children aged 3-8 years during the lockdown times.  The initiative will improve access to quality pre-school education through the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and pre-school centres.

 Ola Electric, the subsidiary of the India ridesharing platform Ola, has recently acquired Netherlands-based OEM (Original Equipment manufacturer) Etergo BV.  By this acquisition, Ola Electric is set to enter the premium electric 2 wheeler market, both domestic and global. Ola Electric is to use the design and engineering capabilities of Etergo to build its smart electric two-wheeler and launch in India in the year 2021.

 Facebook has recently launched CatchUp application, that lets the users make free phone calls. The application developed by internal R&D group of Facebook - NPE Team, allows the users to make phone calls up to 8 people simultaneously.  It uses the Facebook account in the phone to coordinate the service. It is launched at the US as a pilot service and expected to be launched across the world soon.

 The Survey team of China became the first to climb and reach the peak Mt. Everest this year. This is a part of the project to remeasure the exact height of the Everest.  Both China and Nepal cancelled the ‘spring’ climbing season on the world’s tallest mountain in order to prevent the expedition teams from getting infected by coronavirus. Hence the Chinese survey team is likely the only team to reach the peak of Everest, this year.

 According to the government–backed news agency of Russia, the country has started developing its first stealth bomber named ‘PAK DA’.  It is estimated the aircraft would be completed next year and it would be able to carry an array of advanced missiles and bombs, including hypersonic weapons. This will compete with the B2 strategic stealth bomber of the United States. China is also in the process of developing its own stealth bomber, Xian H20.

 Multinational service network Deloitte recently conducted ‘Global State of the Consumer Tracker’ survey using an online panel, among the people across the world aged above 18.  As per the study, consumers in India are the most worried during these uncertain times and are placed at the top of the Global anxiety index with a score of 33.

 World Hunger Day is an initiative by ‘The Hunger’ Project, which is a New York based organisation committed to end hunger across the world, through programmes in various parts of the world.  It is celebrated on May 28 every year across the world. According to the UN’s recent data, the number of people suffering from hunger is rising continuously after 2015. The aim of World Hunger Day is to spread awareness about the impact of acute hunger and solutions to solve hunger and poverty.

 National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), that operates retail payments and settlement systems in India has recently launched an artificial intelligence (AI) based chatbot named ‘PAi’.  The virtual assistant has been launched with an aim to create awareness about its flagship products like FASTag, RuPay, UPI, and AePS on a real time basis. Users can send queries about the products and they get verified automated responses. Global RuPay Card holders can access the chatbot.

 Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology (CIPET) has been renamed as Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering & Technology (CIPET).  CIPET is a premier national institution under the Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers. It is located at SIDCO Industrial Estate, Chennai. With expanded coverage, CIPET will undertake efforts to promote the entire petrochemical sector with a focus on Academics, Skill improvement and Research.

 Facebook has recently launched an experimental short music videos application called ‘Collab’. The videos created using Collab app can be published on other platforms including Instagram and Facebook Stories.  The research team of Facebook, NPE Teams has developed this application. Earlier, the team had developed some other apps including CatchUp & Hobbi.

 Manushi Chillar, who won the title of Miss World in 2017 has joined hands with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to spread awareness about menstrual hygiene. Manushi runs an initiative on menstrual hygiene named Project Shakti.  With this partnership, she will promote the efforts to educate girls about menstrual hygiene and to construct sanitation facilities. On May 28, World Menstrual Hygiene Day, she participated in UNICEF global initiative called the Red Dot Challenge.

 Every year, May 28 has been celebrated as the World Menstrual Hygiene Day across the world. It is a global platform initiated by the German non–profit organisation WASH United.  This year, the theme of Menstrual Hygiene Day is ‘Periods in Pandemic’. Several government agencies, individuals, non–profits and media join hands to create awareness about the safe menstruation practices and hygiene management

 The International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers is celebrated on 29 May every year, to pay tribute to the contribution of the peacekeepers. This year the theme of the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, 2020 is “Women in Peacekeeping: A Key to Peace”.  This year also marks the 20th anniversary of the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace & Security. UN honours more than 3,900 UN peacekeepers who have lost their lives during their service, since 1948.

 The state of Madhya Pradesh has recently launched a new scheme called ‘Rozgar Setu’ scheme, with an aim of providing employment to the skilled workers who have returned to the state.  The state is surveying the skilled workers who were employed at industries in other states and have returned now. The government will contact the owners of industries and factories and contractors associated with infrastructure projects such as road and bridge construction.

 Ministry of Tribal Affairs has announced Inclusion of 23 additional Minor Forest Produce (MFP) items in the Minimum Support Price List.  Under the “Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce through Minimum Support price and development of Value Chain of MFP” scheme of 2011, the forest dwellers are safeguarded by a minimum price. This inclusion has increased the coverage from 50 to 73 items in the list.

 The foundation stone for setting up a Missile Park ‘Agneeprastha’ was recently laid at INS Kalinga, Visakhapatnam by Commodore Rajesh Debnath, who heads INS Kalinga. A 2 MW solar photovoltaic plant was also commissioned at INS Kalinga by the Vice Admiral of Eastern Naval Command.  This is the largest plant in the Eastern Naval Command and has an estimated life of 25 years. This step is in line with the National Solar Mission proposed by the Union Government to achieve 100 GW of solar power by 2022.

 The Union Ministry of Labour and Employment has partnered with TCS iON to offer free online “Career Skills Training” on its National Career Service (NCS) portal. This scheme is to be implemented under the Ministry’s National Career Service (NCS) project, which provides several employment related services.  This course also includes soft skills required by several industries. The training module is available to the registered job seekers in both Hindi and English.

 The National Geographic channel has released a film titled ‘Swachh Bharat: India’s Sanitary Revolution’, in collaboration with the Union Ministry of Drinking Water & Sanitation.  The film was recently premiered at a special screening for the Indian President and also on the NatGeo channel. The film is also made available on the YouTube channel of Swachh Bharat Mission Grameen. Many ‘Ambassadors of cleanliness’ share their connection with the scheme in the film.

 As per the data from the Controller General of Accounts (CGA), India’s fiscal deficit was 4.59% of gross domestic product (GDP) for the year 2019–20. Fiscal Deficit is the gap between the government’s revenue and expenditure the govt’s revised target for its fiscal deficit was 3.8%, and the real deficit has exceeded it.  However, the budget estimate was 3.5% of GDP. The Union Finance Minister invoked the escape clause in the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act to peg the deficit 0.5% higher than the Budget estimate.

 The United Nations General Assembly has recently adopted a new voting procedure for the upcoming election of new members of the Security Council.  This change is due to the restrictions for large gathering and to ensure social distancing during the COVID–19 pandemic. Usually, the assembly meet in a horseshoe–shaped assembly chamber at UN headquarters. But now, the ambassadors from 193 UN member nations will cast secret ballots at predetermined places & time slots.

 The World No Tobacco Day is observed every year on May 31 to encourage a 24 hour period of abstinence from all forms of tobacco consumption around the globe.  The day is further intended to draw attention to the widespread prevalence of tobacco use and to negative health effects, which currently lead to nearly 6 million deaths each year worldwide, including 600,000 of which are the result of non–smokers being exposed to second–hand smoke. The 2020 theme is “Protecting Youth”.

 The President of the United States Donald Trump has recently announced that US is terminating its relationship with World Health Organization over its handling of the COVID–19. The President has been blaming WHO and China for the deaths and damages caused by the pandemic across the world. The President also said that the funds provided by the US to WHO will be redirected to other global public health needs. He also issued directions to deny entry to certain Chinese nationals and tightened regulations against Chinese investments in America.

 Swiss Tennis legend Roger Federer has been ranked at the top spot in the annual Forbes ranking of highest–paid athletes. As per the magazine, the total earning of Federer amounts to USD 106.3 million.  He is the winner of record 20 Grand Slam singles titles, the prize money of which gave him USD6.3 million. Federer is followed by the football trio in next three ranks: Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Neymar. Two female Tennis stars Naomi Osaka and Serena Williams were found in the top 100 list.

 The Union Government has approved 445 crore rupees for implementation of Jal Jeevan Mission in Chhattisgarh during 2020–21, to provide tap connections to 20 lakh households.  The aim of Jal Jeevan Mission is to provide potable drinking water on a long–term basis to every rural household of the country by 2024. During the Union Budget 2020, 3.6 lakh crores has been allocated for this scheme. The migrant labours returned to Chhattisgarh will be involved in the jobs related to water supply.

 Russia, that currently holds the BRICS Presidency, hosted the meeting of the Heads of Tax Authorities of the BRICS countries. Though the meeting was originally scheduled to be held in Moscow, owing to COVID–19 restrictions, it was held through video conferencing.  The Finance Secretary of India Ajay Bhushan Pandey represented India at the meeting. Possibilities of exploring areas of cooperation in tax matters and response of tax authorities were discussed.

 Major technology firm Google has launched a new application named ‘Sodar’, to help people maintain social distancing. The application uses Augmented Reality (AR) for this purpose.  It creates a visual boundary using the user’s smartphone camera and show who is breaching that distance, on a realtime basis. Earlier, the UN Technology Innovation Labs released a free mobile social distancing app 1point5 which uses Bluetooth signal.

 The Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan has announced that Kerala Fibre Optic Network (K–FON) project would be launched by December 2020.  The objective of the Rs 1,500 crore scheme is to provide free internet access to the poor and at affordable rates to others. It is being implemented by Kerala State IT Infrastructure Limited and Kerala State Electricity Board. Using the KSEB posts, optical fibre cables are being laid across the state.

 Goa is the smallest state of India, by are and the fourth–smallest state by population. It recently celebrated its statehood day on May 30. In 1961, Indian Army invaded and annexed Goa, Daman and Diu into the Indian union, through Operation Vijay.  After that, Goa along with Daman and Diu, was categorised as a centrally administered Union territory of India. On 30 May 1987, the union territory was split and Goa was made the 25th state of India and Daman and Diu remained as a UT

 The state government of Uttarakhand has recently launched a scheme called ‘Mukhya Mantri Swarojgar Yojana’, to provide loans to the migrant workers amid Covid–19 pandemic. Under the scheme, Uttarakhand government will provide loans worth ₹25 lakh in the manufacturing sector and ₹10 lakh in the service sector.  The migrant workers who are returning to the state are eligible to apply for the loans that will be provided by nationalised banks, scheduled commercial banks and co–operative banks.

 International Everest Day is celebrated on May 29, across the world every year. On the same day in the year 1953, Tenzing Norgay of Nepal and Edmund Hillary of New Zealand had successfully scaled the Mt. Everest.  The mountaineer duo were the first human beings to achieve the prestigious feat. Nepal decided to observe the day as International Everest Day since the climber Edmund Hillary passed away in the year 2008.

 As per the recent announcement of the Deputy Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, the state is to develop 800 km roads as Herbal roads in the state. The Herbal roads will have medicinal trees on both sides, including Peepal, Neem, Sehjan and other important herbal trees. The state’s Public Works Department will implement the project and rain water recharging system on the roads.

 The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Mann Ki Baat address announced the Video Blogging Contest named “My Life – My Yoga” (also called “Jeevan Yoga”). It is a collaboration of Ministry of AYUSH and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).  The contest is a part of activities related to the 6th International Day of Yoga (IDY) on 21st June 2020. The contest is open to participants from all countries.

 As per the recent order issued by the Department of Telecom, it has directed all internet service providers (ISPs) to block the computer file–sharing website ‘We Transfer’, due to security reasons.  All Internet Service Providers are directed to block two download links on the website WeTransfer as well as the entire website. ‘We Transfer’ is an Internet–based computer file transfer service platform founded at Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

 The Banks Board Bureau (BBB) has recently recommended the appointment for the toplevel position of three public sector banks. The BBB recommended the appointment of Ashwani Bhatia as the next Managing Director of State Bank of India.  Ashwani Bhatia is currently the Deputy Managing Director in SBI. The Board also recommended the appointment of Matam Venkat Rao as the MD & CEO of Central Bank of India and PP Sengupta as the MD & CEO of Indian Overseas Bank.

 G7 is an association of seven of the world’s largest economies namely the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan. Previously it included Russia and was called the G8.  The 47th G7 summit was originally scheduled to be held in the month of June 2020, at Camp David, United States. The US President Donald Trump recently announced that he is postponing the 47th summit to September or November. He also suggested to expand the G7 bloc to include India, Australia, South Korea and Russia.

 The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has nominated Indian cricket star Rohit Sharma for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.  Other stars including Ishant Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Deepti Yadav have been shortlisted by the BCCI for the Arjuna Award. The period of consideration for the awards is between 2016 January 1 to 2019 December 31. Rohit Sharma has been named the ICC ODI Cricketer of the Year for 2019.

 The Union Government has launched a national programme for the youth, called “Responsible AI for Youth”. It has been developed by the Ministry of Electronics and IT in collaboration with Intel India, with support from Department of School Education and Literacy. It aims to equip young students with new generation technology.  A dedicated portal for Artificial Intelligence, which will be a platform for all AI related developments in India, was also launched to mark the first anniversary of the second tenure of the government. It has been jointly developed by the Ministry of Electronics and IT and NASSCOM.

 World Milk Day is celebrated on June 1, every year across the world. The first World Milk Day was held in the year 2001.  The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN chose June 1 as the World Milk Day, to highlight the role of milk and to publicise activities connected with milk and the milk industry. This year theme is “20th Anniversary of World Milk Day”. A virtual campaign rally named ‘Enjoy Dairy Rally’ was held from May 29–31.

 As per the recent announcement from the Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry, three more States namely Odisha, Sikkim and Mizoram have recently joined the ‘One Nation–One Ration Card’ scheme.  This addition has taken the total number of states and union territories that have joined the scheme to 20. In the three states, the necessary infrastructure work for joining the scheme including upgradation of electronic Point of Sale (e–PoS) software have been completed.

 June 1 was declared as the Global Day of Parents by the UN General Assembly in 2012. Since then, June 1 is being celebrated as Global Day of Parents every year.  The day is celebrated with an objective of honouring all the parents around the world for their commitment and sacrifice they do for their children. Among the efforts to build social development, the UNGA proclaimed 1994 as the International Year of the Family and 15 May of every year as the International Day of Families.

 As per the test report of the Animal Husbandry Department of the state of Uttarakhand, the quality of the state’s sheep wool compiled was similar to the Merino sheep wool.  The Merino sheep wool of Australia is famous across the world in the textile industry for its fine texture. India imports nearly 8000 MT of fine wool every year. Uttarakhand received 250 Merino sheep under the national livestock scheme last year. With appropriate breeding programmes, Uttarakhand would produce high quality fine Merino wool.

 Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers implements the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojna scheme through the network of Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Kendras. The scheme aims to make quality medicines available at affordable prices to all and reduce out expenses for healthcare.  The scheme was seen in news recently, as it achieved sales of Rs. 100.4 Crores in the first two months of 2020–21. During March, April & May 2020, the Kendras have sold Rs. 144 Crores worth affordable medicines.

 As per the recent order issued by the Department of Telecom, it has directed all internet service providers (ISPs) to block the computer file–sharing website ‘We Transfer’, due to security reasons.  All Internet Service Providers are directed to block two download links on the website WeTransfer as well as the entire website. ‘We Transfer’ is an Internet–based computer file transfer service platform founded at Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

 The Banks Board Bureau (BBB) has recently recommended the appointment for the toplevel position of three public sector banks. The BBB recommended the appointment of Ashwani Bhatia as the next Managing Director of State Bank of India.  Ashwani Bhatia is currently the Deputy Managing Director in SBI. The Board also recommended the appointment of Matam Venkat Rao as the MD & CEO of Central Bank of India and PP Sengupta as the MD & CEO of Indian Overseas Bank.

 As per the recent announcement from the Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry, three more States namely Odisha, Sikkim and Mizoram have recently joined the ‘One Nation–One Ration Card’ scheme.  This addition has taken the total number of states and union territories that have joined the scheme to 20. In the three states, the necessary infrastructure work for joining the scheme including upgradation of electronic Point of Sale (e–PoS) software have been completed.

 Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers implements the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojna scheme through the network of Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Kendras. The scheme aims to make quality medicines available at affordable prices to all and reduce out expenses for healthcare.  The scheme was seen in news recently, as it achieved sales of Rs. 100.4 Crores in the first two months of 2020–21. During March, April & May 2020, the Kendras have sold Rs. 144 Crores worth affordable medicines.