Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

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:
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:
The Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place on 13 April in the year 1919. The people of the country and all national leaders paid tributes to the martyrs on the 101st anniversary of the massacre.
A group of unarmed people gathered in Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar, Punjab to condemn the arrest of two national leaders. The troops of the British Indian Army, under the Colonel Reginald Dyer fired machine guns on the crowd extensively. Though 379 people were killed as per the official British records, other sources estimate over 1000 people were massacred.

Notes:
As per a survey released by the National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCAER), incomes of about 85% of households in the National capital region (NCR) have been impacted by the Covid-19 outbreak and the resulting lockdown.
The survey also highlighted that casual labourers were excessively affected with the wages of nearly 75% of them were affected. For salaried class, the income was affected for about 46.7% of the employees.

Notes:
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is a leading non-government and non-profit Industry association of India. It has recently released a report titled ‘Exit from The Lockdown- A CII Strategy’.
In the report, the association suggested that government should give adequate notice before announcing the end of restrictions. It also recommended a calibrated lifting of the lockdown. The association also expects the announcement of an economic package before the lifting of lockdown.

Notes:
For the first time in the year 2020, April 14 has been celebrated as World Chagas Day by the World Health Organisation.
In May 2019, the decision-making body of the World Health Organisation, the World Health Assembly announced that April 14 would be observed as World Chagas Day, to create awareness about the infectious disease, caused by parasites. On the same day in 1909, the first patient of this disease was diagnosed.

Notes:
The Government of India has constituted a committee of experts in August 2019, to suggest measures on an institutional framework for regulation and development of valuation. The committee was headed by the Chairperson of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI), M S Sahoo.
Recently, the committee submitted the ‘Draft Valuers Bill, 2020’ and suggested to establish a National Institute of Valuers. Union Corporate Affairs Ministry has recommended to set up the proposed institute.