Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
As per the recent report of S&P Global Ratings, the GDP growth of India in the financial year 2020-21 is slashed to 3.5% from its earlier forecast of 5.2%.
The main reason for the decrease is said to be the huge dip in output from the covid-19 outbreak for the Asia-Pacific region. It had also forecasted the Asia-Pacific economy will grow at 2.2% in 2020. Earlier Moody’s Investors Service slashed India’s economic growth projection for 2020 to 2.5%.

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:
On the 125th anniversary of the Olympic Games in 2019, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) formally opened its new headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.
IOC was seen in news recently as the Tokyo Olympics which was scheduled to be held this July has been shifted to be held from July 23 to August 8 in 2021. IOC also announced that the Paralympics Games will be organised from August 24 to September 5, 2021.

Notes:
Switzerland based Technology company Acronis recently unveiled the inaugural edition of ‘2020 World Cyber Protection Week Survey’.
As per the survey, 42% of companies experienced a data loss event that resulted in interruption last year. It also revealed that traditional strategies of data protection can no longer keep up with the modern technology needs of individuals and organizations.

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 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:
As per a recent survey conducted by the World Economic Forum (WEF), about one-fourth of the consumers in India pay for news at present but nearly two-third of the population are willing to pay.
Amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the role of media has become vital in the society. The World Economic Forum (WEF) conducted a survey of news and entertainment consumers in six markets including China, Germany, India, South Korea, the UK and the US. It also revealed that 60% of consumers registered for a media service.

Notes:
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has notified three incentive schemes to boost electronics manufacturing namely Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI), Electronics Manufacturing Clusters 2.0 (EMC 2.0), Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronics Components and Semiconductors (SPECS).
The schemes which were cleared by the Cabinet last month, include incentives worth more than Rs 48,000 crore. PLI is the largest scheme with an outlay of Rs 40,000 crore which will give incentives of 4-6% on incremental sales on mobile phones and specified electronic components.

Notes:
The animal rights body PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) India has conferred the ‘Hero to Animals Award’ on the Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik.
The Chief Minister was selected for his empathetic act of allocating Rs 54 lakhs from relief fund, to feed public animals in the municipal corporations and all municipalities of Odisha during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Notes:
A four-year-old female tiger named Nadia from the Bronx Zoo in New York City, has been tested positive for the coronavirus.
This is claimed to be the first known case where transmission of the coronavirus from human to an animal has been confirmed. The tiger is believed to have been infected by an asymptomatic zoo-keeper. Later, six other animals, including lions and tigers, have also been showing symptoms.