Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

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:
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has recently announced that it has completed the construction of 3979 km of highways in the financial year 2019-20.
Its official statement also read that this is the highest ever highway construction achieved in a financial year by NHAI, since its inception in 1995. Though NHAI could not meet the target of 4500 km for the current fiscal, it has seen a steady growth in the construction phase.

Notes:
The Information Technology Industry body NASSCOM announced that it has appointed Infosys Chief Operating Officer UB Pravin Rao as its chairman for the year 2020-21.
Pravin Rao is set to replace the incumbent Chairman WNS Global Services Group CEO Keshav Murugesh. The Chairman and Senior Managing Director of Accenture in India, Rekha M Menon has been named as the vice chairperson for 2020-21.

Notes:
The Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe recently declared a state of emergency in the country, due to the rise in the coronavirus cases.
A month-long state of emergency starting from April 7 has been declared in the capital city Tokyo and six other parts of the country. This move gives powers to local governments to contain the spread of the coronavirus, by urging residents to stay at home and calling for businesses to close.

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).

Notes:
The former Prime Minister of Libya, Mahmoud Jibril passed away recently at the age of 68, after contracting coronavirus.
He was the founder of the National Forces Alliance and the former head of the Libyan rebel government that overthrew the country’s long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011. He had also been the interim leader until Libya conducted its first free elections in 2012.

Notes:
The Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) recently announced that it will provide emergency loans to small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) named ‘SIDBI Assistance to Facilitate Emergency’ -SAFE PLUS.
Working capital of up to Rs 1 Crore will be provided to small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) engaged in manufacturing of medical equipment and products related to Covid-19. The SAFE PLUS collateral-free loans will be disbursed within 48 hours at an interest rate of five per cent. The limit of the loans has been enhanced from 50 lakh rupees to two crore rupees.

Notes:
According to a recent report form International Labour Organisation (ILO) titled ‘ILO Monitor 2nd edition: COVID-19 and the world of work’, about 400 million workers of India will fall into poverty.
India has nearly 90 per cent of its people working in informal economy. It also revealed that the lockdown measures in India have impacted these workers significantly. The measures are at the high end of University of Oxford’s COVID-19 Government Response Stringency Index.

Notes:
The Union Minister of Human Resource Development Ramesh Pokhriyal has launched a ‘Bharat Padhe Online’ campaign for crowd sourcing of ideas to improve online education ecosystem of India.
This week-long campaign invites all the people in the country to share suggestions and solutions about overcoming constraints of online education. The ideas can be shared directly with HRD Ministry through their mail address or their twitter account.

Notes:
Bengaluru-based aerospace and defence Public Sector Undertaking (PSU), Bharat Electronics Ltd has partnered with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh and developed a remote monitoring system for COVID-19.
This newly developed system reduced the need for personal protective equipment as it uses non-invasive sensors to measure the main parameters of a COVID-19 suspected patient including temperature, pulse rate and respiration rate.