Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) is to invest $100 million equivalent in the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund-NIIF’s Fund of Funds.
ADB joins the Government of India (GOI) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as an investor in one of the instruments of NIIF of India. NIIF is an investment platform for Indian and international investors where they are mandated to invest equity capital in domestic infrastructure.

Notes:
NASA has recently selected a new space capsule from Elon Musk-owned SpaceX to ferry cargo and supplies to be used in its proposed lunar space station.
The Lunar space station aims to build a permanent post on the moon and mount future missions to Mars. SpaceX will get a portion of a $7 billion NASA contract to send ‘Dragon-XL’ spacecraft by using its Falcon Heavy rocket.

Notes:
The Department of Science and Technology has released Rs. 1 Crore to an incubatee firm called Science and Technology park also called as Scitech park.
The Pune-based Scitech park has developed a novel air-purifying technology, which is expected to be used during the ongoing response of the country against Covid-19. The production of the new purifier called ‘Scitech Airon’ is to be scaled up and 1000 units will be soon installed in hospitals.

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:
From April 1, 2020, several changes are coming into force in the direct tax regime of India, with the changes in provision of Finance Act.
The prime change is with respect to the Non-Resident Indians. The NRIs with over ₹15 lakh income from Indian sources will be deemed as Indian residents for the purpose of taxation, if they had spent 120 days in India in the previous year. Earlier the number of days needed to be spent was 182.

Notes:
Domestic payment company BharatPe has partnered with ICICI Lombard General Insurance to launch the country’s first coronavirus insurance cover for merchants.
The insurance policy which can be purchased from the BharatPe mobile application aims to cover about 40 lakh shop-keepers, who are more prone to the coronavirus infection amid the lock-down. The health cover pays out 100% of the sum insured if they are tested positive for the pandemic for a premium of ₹199 for a ₹25,000 cover for one year.

Notes:
On April 1, the 70th anniversary of the establishment of Diplomatic relations between India and China was celebrated on April 1.
As per the release of the Union External Affairs Ministry, the Presidents, Prime Ministers and External Affairs Ministers of India and China exchanged messages of felicitation to mark the 70th anniversary. India was the first non-Communist country in Asia to establish diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC), on April 1, 1950.

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:
Indian-origin South African and world-renowned virologist Gita Ramjee passed away after contracting coronavirus.
Gita Ramjee was a veteran virologist and a research leader in HIV prevention. She was the Unit Director of the HIV Prevention Research Unit of the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) offices in Durban. She was the recipient of ‘Outstanding Female Scientist Award’ by the European Development Clinical Trials Partnerships.

Notes:
Following the lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Fitch Ratings has slashed India’s growth forecast for the current fiscal to 2 per cent.
This GDP forecast is the lowest prediction in the last 30 years of the agency’s estimates. The Ratings agency had earlier predicted that Indian economy would grow at 5.1 per cent. The Fitch Ratings also announced that it also expects a global recession this year.