Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
Punjab National Bank has unveiled its new logo ahead of its merger with the United Bank of India and the Oriental Bank of Commerce.
The new logo bears the symbols of all the three public sector banks. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued a notification that the merger of ten banks into four will be carried out as scheduled, on April 1, 2020. After the amalgamation process, PNB will become the second largest lender in India after the State Bank of India.

Notes:
As per the recent notification from the country’s largest lender State Bank of India said Insurance Australia General (IAG) of Australia has exited from SBI General Insurance.
IAG sold its entire 26 per cent stake in the SBI General insurance, for USD 310 million (about Rs 2,325 crore) to Napean Opportunities and WP Honey Wheat Investment Ltd, which are subsidiaries of Premji Invest and Warburg Pincus group respectively. SBI owns 70 per cent stake in its insurance arm.

Notes:
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has released an analysis report titled ‘The COVID-19 Shock to Developing Countries: Towards a ‘whatever it takes’ programme for the two-thirds of the world’s population being left behind’.
As per its analysis, the world economy will go into recession this year except India and China. The loss to be incurred is estimated to be several trillions of dollars due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Notes:
The Research and Development team of the Pune-based Mylab Discovery, headed by the virologist Minal Dakhave Bhosale has designed the first made-in-India testing kit for the Covid-19 disease.
This first indigenous kit, which has been developed in a record time of six weeks, is called ‘Patho Detect’. Usually developing such testing kits would take three to four months. Mylab Discovery is a molecular diagnostic company, which is also the first Indian firm to get full approval to make and sell Covid-19 testing kits.

Notes:
The Government of India has recently launched a mobile application named ‘Aarogya Setu’, to enable people assess the risk of coronavirus infection.
The app is built in a public-private partnership mode and has been launched on both the Google Play Store and the Apple Store. The app assesses the risk of a person based on their interactions, by using Bluetooth technology and Artificial intelligence. The app will detect other devices with the same app installed near-by.

Notes:
The Union Agriculture Minister launched new features of National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) platform amid the lockdown, which includes Warehouse based trading module in e-NAM software, FPO trading module in e-NAM where FPOs can trade their produce from the collection centre and enhanced version of logistic module.
e-NAM platform was launched in India on 14 April 2016 as a nation-wide electronic trade portal, which links APMCs across the state. 585 mandis in 16 States and 2 Union Territories have been integrated on e-NAM portal.

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:
Aerobiosys Innovations, an incubated start-up of Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Center for Healthcare Entrepreneurship (CfHE) has developed an affordable and emergency-use ventilator called ‘Jeevan Lite’.
This portable device is Internet of Things (IoT)-enabled and can be operated through a mobile application. The ventilator can also be operated by a battery, which enables it to be deployed in areas without power supply.

Notes:
The Government of India placed curbs on exports of diagnostic kits (diagnostic or laboratory reagents on a backing, preparation diagnostic or laboratory reagents) with immediate effect.
As per the recent notification of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT), this step has been taken to discourage shipments amid the coronavirus outbreak. An exporter will have to get license from the DGFT for shipments, which were allowed without restrictions earlier.

Notes:
As per the notification of the Union Health Ministry, India has received 1.70 lakh personal protection equipment (PPE) coveralls, which have been donated by China.
The 1.7 lakh coveralls along with 20000 domestic coveralls, a total of 1.90 lakh equipment are to be distributed to hospitals. After the supply lines from abroad have been opened up, India has received the donation of coveralls for the first time. It also said that about 3.87 lakh PPEs are available in India.