Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
For the year 2020, Russia is the Chair of the BRICS bloc, which has 5 members namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Recently, Russia chaired the BRICS Foreign Ministers meeting on coronavirus, conducted through video conferencing. Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also participated in the virtual meeting. The representatives discussed on the significance of joint vaccine production and strategic partnerships within the BRICS.

Notes:
According to an official statement, Chhattisgarh has topped the list of states in providing employment to unskilled labourers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
Out of the total 77.85 lakh labourers employed under MNREGRA across the country, 18.51 lakh labourers are from Chhattisgarh, which is about 24% of the labourers. Rajasthan comes second with 14% of the total number of labourers, and Uttar Pradesh is ranked third with 12% of the total number of labourers.

Notes:
The Task Force on National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) submitted its Final Report for FY 2019-25 to the Union Finance Minister. The summary report was released in December last year.
The National Infrastructure Pipeline was announced during the 2019-20 budget. The exercise aims to invest Rs. 100 lakh crore on infrastructure of the country over the next five years. The Final Report of NIP Task Force projects total infrastructure investment of Rs 111 lakh crore during the period FY 2020-25.

Notes:
The monthly Index of Eight Core Industries (ICI) is a production volume index. ICI performance of production in selected eight core industries namely Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Refinery Products, Fertilizers, Steel, Cement and Electricity.
Recently, ICI was in news as during the April-March 2019-20 period, core industries recorded 0.6 percent growth, whereas it was 4.4 percent during the same period in 2018-19. Also, the output of eight core infrastructure industries contracted by 6.5 percent in March.

Notes:
Veteran Indian football player Chuni Goswami, who led the gold medal-winning Indian team in 1962 Asian Games, passed away in Kolkata.
Chuni Goswami was the most successful Indian football captain ever. He led the team to win the gold medal in 1962 Asian Games and the team that was the runner-up in 1964 Asian Cup. Chuni Goswami played 50 football games representing India and as many as 46 first-class games.

Notes:
The Election Commission of India (ECI) recently granted permission for holding elections to the Legislative Council (MLCs) in Maharashtra.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is not a member of either house of the State Legislature and he should be elected to the Council before May 27. The ECI granted permission to hold the elections before the deadline of May 27. The election process for these nine seats was withheld in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Notes:
International Astronomy Day is celebrated twice a year, during autumn and spring. The Astronomy Day 2020 is celebrated on May 2 and the next edition of this year on September 26, 2020.
The President of the Astronomical Association of Northern California had organised the celebration of first Astronomy Day in 1973. The objective of celebrating this day is to inculcate the awareness about the universe and the field of astronomy.

Notes:
As per the recent reports, the Parliament of Iran has passed a bill to allow the Government to change the national currency from Rial to Toman.
Since 2017, the value of Iranian currency fell after heavy U.S. sanctions, which led to huge inflation and resultant street protests across the country. Now under the bill, the Government will slash four zeroes from the from its currency ‘Rial’. This bill should be approved by the clerical body before coming into effect.

Notes:
‘Internet Saathi’ is an initiative of the Technology giant Google in India, along with the Tata Trusts, launched with an objective to improve digital literacy among rural women of the country.
Recently, Google announced in a statement that the company is assisting the female Internet trainers or Saathis to share official health advice in their villages. Moreover, Google has also enabled the local governments to share the location of food centres, shelters and test centres in Google Maps.

Notes:
The state government of Uttar Pradesh has recently launched a mobile application called ‘Ayush Kavach-Covid’, which has been developed the Ministry of AYUSH.
The application was launched with an aim of providing health remedies and measures to boost immunity in the process of fighting Covid-19. The app provides a lot of information authorised by the AYUSH Ministry about the medicinal properties of certain ingredients. It also enables the users to seek advice from experts in the AYUSH field.