Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
Article-316 of our constitution explains about the appointment and term of office of members of the Union Public Service Commission. The President appoints the Chairman and the ten members of UPSC. The term of a member of UPSC is six years from the date he enters his office or until the age of sixty-five years.
Recently, the chairman and members of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) have decided to give up 30 per cent of their basic pay for one year to the PM CARES fund and support the government in fighting Covid-19 pandemic.

Notes:
Algerian author Abdelouahab Aissaoui has been selected for the prestigious ‘International Prize for Arabic Fiction’ for his novel “The Spartan Court”.
The prize is backed by the Booker Prize Foundation of the United Kingdom and financed by Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism. The winner was announced online and as per the announcement, Aissaoui will receive $50,000 and assistance for translating the book to English.

Notes:
The Indian Government has planned to set up a chain of retail shops across India called ‘Suraksha Stores’. The stores provide essential goods and services to people by following stricter safety and sanitation measures.
Recently, the top 12 packaged consumer goods manufacturers of the country have partnered with the government in operating the Suraksha Stores. The firms will educate the retail stores to become certified sanitised retail outlets. The stores will also be compliant to the Aarogya Setu application.

Notes:
Order books, inventories and capacity utilisation survey (OBICUS), is the flagship survey conducted by the Reserve Bank of India. It is a quarterly survey of the manufacturing sector, which has been conducted by the RBI since 2008.
Recently, the country’s central bank released the 49th round of the OBICUS survey for the period January-March 2020. The survey collects information on the new orders received, backlog of orders, finished goods, etc. As per the recent survey, both capacity utilisation and orders received declined.

Notes:
World Haemophilia Day is observed every year on 17 April across the world, to increase awareness of haemophilia, von Willebrand disease and inherited bleeding disorders.
This year is the 30th anniversary of the Haemophilia day. The theme of this year’s observance is “Get+involved”. The international organisation, World Federation of Haemophilia was established by a businessman Frank Schnabel in 1963.

Notes:
Veteran freedom fighter R V Bhuskute recently passed away at the age of 94 due to age related ailments. He had participated in the Quit India Movement and various other national events.
The veteran fighter has also written several books on land laws. He strived hard towards the release and rehabilitation of bonded labourers in tribal areas of his state, Maharashtra.

Notes:
The Union Home ministry has red flagged popular video-conferencing software Zoom, as vulnerable to cyber-crimes.
The software has gained several million users as most of the professionals are working from home amid the Covid-19 outbreak. The Government has also directed Ministers and Central government officers not to use third party video conferencing applications and software. Cyber Coordination Centre (CyCord) under the MHA has released security guidelines for using the Zoom software.

Notes:
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has lifted restrictions on export of formulations of Paracetamol and fixed dose combinations of the drug.
In the wake of domestic supply concerns, the DGFT has barred the export of paracetamol and 13 other active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), as well as their formulations, in March 2020. Now though the restriction is relaxed, export of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) remains barred.

Notes:
The Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has recently launched a mobile application named ‘Kisan Rath’, for better transportation of perishable agricultural goods during lockdown.
Developed by the National Informatics, the mobile application assists the farmers to find transport facility. The app is expected to include as many as 5 lakh trucks and 20,000 tractors in the chain, to transport the agricultural goods to markets. Recently, a nation-wide call centre has also been launched for the same purpose.

Notes:
With an aim to create awareness about intangible cultural heritage elements from different Indian states, the Union Minister for Culture (I/C) Prahlad Singh Patel has recently launched the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) of India.
The Minister launched the list in New Delhi and also highlighted that our country comprises of several Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) traditions. As many as thirteen traditions were recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.