Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

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.

Notes:
Veteran Indian-American journalist Brahm Kanchibotla has passed away due to Covid-19 at the age of 66, in the United States.
He was serving as one of the correspondents for United News of India. He had settled in the United States after a long experience in Indian publications. He had been in the field of journalism in the United States for nearly 28 years. He was associated with Merger Markets and News India-Times weekly.

Notes:
Representatives of SAARC had a discussion on the impact of Covid-19 situation on intra-regional trade through video-conferencing.
The senior trade officials of all SAARC countries except Pakistan, also discussed the impact of travel restrictions. This is the follow-up of the first virtual meeting held on March 15. The eight member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Notes:
According to a recent report released by the government, India’s fiscal deficit stood at 5.07% of gross domestic product (GDP) in February. Industrial output, measured in terms of Index of Industrial Production (IIP), was also at 4.5% in February.
The Government has revised its fiscal deficit target of 3.8% of GDP for FY20, during the 2020 Union Budget presentation. With a 5.07% fiscal deficit, it is expected that the revised target for the year 2019-20 would be difficult to be achieved.

Notes:
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is celebrating the ‘Play True Day 2020’ on April 9, which has been celebrated since 2014.
Canada-based World Anti-Doping Agency is a foundation launched by the International Olympic Committee, to promote awareness against drugs in sports. WADA is celebrating the day this year with the theme ‘Play Safe on Play True Day 2020’.

Notes:
Jim Corbett, the oldest National Park of India, has set up the country’s first quarantine facility for animals. The national park is situated in Paurhi Garhwal region in the state of Uttarakhand.
After a Malayan tiger was tested positive for COVID-19 in Bronx zoo in the United States, the Indian park has started to set up about 10 quarantine centres within its premises to isolate animals. The cages built for wild animals are also to be converted into quarantine facility.

Notes:
A subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure Ltd, GMR Airports Limited has received the Letter of Award for the development and operation of a greenfield international airport at Bhogapuram.
Bhogapuram is located in the state of Andhra Pradesh. The airport is to be constructed about 45 kilometres from the proposed executive capital of the state, Vishakhapatnam. The project is to design, construct, operate and maintain the international airport for 40 years. GMR Airports had previously developed Delhi and Hyderabad international airports.

Notes:
Veteran advocate and former Attorney General of India Ashok Desai has passed away recently at the age of 87.
Ashok Desai was considered as one of the leading advocates in post-Independence India and was largely involved in striking down of censorship laws in Maharashtra. He held various crucial designations including the offices of Attorney General of India and the Solicitor General of India. He was also a recipient of the prestigious ‘Padma Bhushan’ award.

Notes:
According to a recent notification from the Ministry of Finance, the Government of India has decided to issue Sovereign Gold Bonds, after consultation with the Reserve Bank of India.
The Gold Bonds are set to be issued in six tranches from April 2020 to September 2020. As per the prevalent practice, the minimum subscription for an individual in the bond is 1 gram of gold whereas the maximum subscription is 4 kg. The maximum subscription for a HUF and trusts are 4 kg and 20 kg respectively.

Notes:
The state of Uttar Pradesh becomes the first to be approved by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) to start the method of ‘Pool Testing’ the samples for Covid-19.
The pool testing method is aimed at speeding up the process of testing the samples. In this method, multiple swab samples are pooled together and tested. If the result of the particular pool comes negative, it is assured that all samples of the pool are negative. If the result is positive, all individual samples are tested again. This method was widely used in Germany.