Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
The Union government recently announced that it has removed customs duty and health cess on the import of medical equipment related to COVID-19 till September 30, 2020.
The exemption on customs duty and cess have been given to all related medical equipment including ventilators, surgical masks, PPE, and test kits. This step is expected to boost availability of the products in the country, as per the Department of Revenue. The exemptions will be applicable on inputs used to manufacture the equipment.

Notes:
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Ropar has developed a technology to sanitise groceries and currency notes from Covid-19. IIT-Ropar is located in the state of Punjab.
The team has developed a trunk-shaped device fitted with ultraviolet germicidal irradiation technology. The device has to be placed at doorsteps and all items brought from outside including grocery and currency notes have to be placed inside it. It takes 30 minutes to sanitise the items.

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:
The Chief of International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva has recently named former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India Raghuram Rajan and 11 other experts in her external advisory group.
The group is expected to provide perspectives on policy issues and responses to the challenges faced by the world due to the coronavirus pandemic. The group has 12 eminent individuals who have expertise in policy-making, global market and private sector. Raghuram Rajan is currently serving as a professor at the University of Chicago.

Notes:
Veteran Hindustani classical singer and Padma Shri awardee Shanti Hiranand Chawla passed away at Gurgaon, at the age of 87.
The renowned singer was trained in several styles of music including thumri, dadra and ghazal. She had conducted several stage-performances in Indian and abroad. She had been conferred with several accolades including the prestigious Padma Shri award in 2007.

Notes:
Every year April 10th is observed as World Homeopathy Day. The theme of this year’s World Homeopathy Day is selected as “Enhancing the scope of Homeopathy in Public Health”.
This day is celebrated to commemorate the birth anniversary of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the father of the Homeopathy system of medicines. Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy (CCRH), under the Ministry of AYUSH organized an international webinar on the occasion of World Homoeopathy Day.

Notes:
The United Nations General Assembly declared 12 April as the International Day of Human Space Flight in the year 2011.
12 April 1961 was the date of the first human space flight, carried out by the Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who was the first person to fly in space. The day is celebrated to commemorate this historic event which opened the way for space exploration across the globe.

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:
The Reserve Bank of India has recently announced that the banks that have availed funds under the first tranche of the targeted long-term repo operations (TLTRO) route, will have to deploy the funds raised within 30 days.
If the banks fail to deploy funds within the stipulated time from the auction, they shall have to pay a penal interest of an additional 200 basis points (bps)in the policy repo rate, for the number of days these funds are not deployed.

Notes:
South Korea recently held the parliamentary elections of the country, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, becoming one of the first countries to hold election, after the pandemic began.
On the day of election, the total number of positive cases in South Korea was 10,564, according to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The self-quarantined citizens were allowed to vote after the other voters left. All voters are made to maintain safety measures while waiting to vote.