Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan recently announced that Saudi Arabia has assured India of uninterrupted supply of Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG).
The Minister announced this after his discussions with Saudi Minister of Energy, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman. As the cooking gas demand surged due to the nation-wide lockdown, Saudi Arabia has assured of LPG supplies to support the domestic requirement in the upcoming days.

Notes:
According to the April 2020 update of the World Bank, titled ‘East Asia and Pacific in the Time of Covid-19’, it has estimated that nearly 11 million people would be affected by poverty in East Asia and the Pacific as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The World Bank has earlier estimated that about 35 million people would escape poverty in East Asia and the Pacific in 2020.

Notes:
The Indian state of Odisha was formed on 1st April 1936. Its statehood day is called as ‘Utkal Divas’, which is celebrated in the state and across the country.
On the memory of the formation of Odisha as a separate state from the earlier Bihar and Orissa province, the day has been celebrated. Due to the nation-wide lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic, there were no prominent celebrations in the state.

Notes:
Manila-based Asian Development Bank released its annual economic publication- Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2020 recently. As per the report, India’s growth is to slow down to 4%, from the earlier estimate of 5% in the current fiscal year.
Weak global demand and the containment efforts of the government amid Covid-19 are cited as the reasons for the slash. The report also estimates the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) to grow at 6.2% in FY22 provided full economic activity resumes from the second quarter of FY21.

Notes:
An online hackathon to find working solutions for overcoming COVID-19 pandemic, called ‘Hack the Crisis- India’ has been recently launched.
This hackathon is being organised by ‘Hack A Cause – India’ and ‘FICCI Ladies Organization Pune’. It is supported by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. Minister of State of HRD and IT Sanjay Dhotre who launched the hackathon said that over 2,000 teams and 15,000 participants will be participating in 48-hour hackathon.

Notes:
An India-based non-profit organization ARMMAN has been awarded the prestigious Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship 2020.
The NGO has been selected for its contribution towards the maternal and child health sector in India. Out of the five organisations which won this USD 1.5 million award, it is the only one selected from Asia and Africa. The NGO has been implementing mobile health programs in partnership with the Government of India.

Notes:
Basketball legend, who died in a helicopter crash earlier this year, Kobe Bryant along with eight others, were selected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
Other personalities include American basketball coach Tim Duncan and former professional basketball player Kevin Garnett. The Honourees will be officially inducted in on August 29 in Massachusetts, United States, where the basketball museum, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is located.

Notes:
Kolkata Port Trust has recently declared force majeure at its Haldia Dock Complex from 06:00 Hrs on 22 March to 06:00 Hrs on 15 April 2020, thereby becoming the first state-owned major port trust to invoke the clause, at the backdrop of coronavirus outbreak.
The force majeure clause is invoked when the firms are not able to meet their contractual commitments for reasons beyond their control. During the nationwide lockdown, as the trade is grippled, several private ports and terminals operating in the country already invoked the clause.

Notes:
The United Nation has been observing April 6 as the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace.
This year, the international day focusses on health benefits of participating in sporting and physical activity, during this time of pandemic and social distancing. The UN also announced a tagline for this day as “For the International Day of Sport this year, let’s Be Active and healthy to beat COVID19”.

Notes:
The World Health Organisation has recently released a report titled ‘State of the World’s Nursing 2020’, on the occasion of the World Health Day on 7th April 2020.
It states that Nursing is the largest occupational group in the health sector, which accounts for about 59% of the health professions. The report highlights that Investment in nurses will contribute not only to health-related SDG targets, but also to education (SDG 4), gender (SDG 5), decent work and economic growth (SDG 8).