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:
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:
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:
As per the new stipulation of the Reserve Bank of India, all private sector and foreign banks will have to intimate cases of re-appointment of Managing Director and Chief executives to the Central Bank, 6 months in advance.
Earlier the practice was intimating the cases 4 months in advance. The number of names required to be mentioned in cases of fresh appointments of MD and CEOs has also been reduced to two, from three earlier.

Notes:
India’s leading private lender ICICI Bank recently announced the launch of banking services on WhatsApp amid the nation-wide lockdown resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.
The customers have to save ICICI Bank’s verified WhatsApp profile number in their contact. Using the WhatsApp banking services, the customers are provided with several banking services including checking their savings account balance, last transactions, credit card limit and blocking/unblocking credit and debit card.

Notes:
The state government of Andhra Pradesh has recently issued modified guidelines in the Navaratnalu – Pedalandariki Illu (houses for all the poor) scheme, under which 25 lakh house sites are to be distributed at concessional rates to the poor.
As per the recent order, the house sites will be allotted at a concessional rate of ₹1 for the beneficiaries with white ration cards. A sum of only ₹ 20 will be collected from them towards cost of stamp paper and lamination charges. The distribution is also postponed to April 14, from March 25.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation has launched a new initiative called ‘Lifeline Udan’ under which flights are operated to transport essential medical supplies across the country amid coronavirus lockdown.
The air carriers which are involved in Lifeline Udan operations include Air India, Alliance Air, Indian Air Force and Pawan Hans. Cargo hubs have been established at Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kolkata

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 Hercules aircraft of Indian Air Force recently delivered about 6.2 tonnes of essential medicines to Maldives as assistance to tackle the consequences of COVID 19.
The medicines were procured from various cities to be delivered to the neighbouring country. India has earlier sent a medical team along with essential medicines to Maldives. As the island country is mostly dependent on imports from India, essential food grains and consumables were also supplied.