Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
A strategic bridge over River Subansiri in Upper Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh has been recently revamped and inaugurated by the Chief Minister of the state Pema Khandu.
The bridge was in run-down condition and transport across the bridge had been restricted. The reconstruction project of the bridge was accomplished by the Border Road Organization (BRO) under Project ARUNANK.

Notes:
The present Chairperson of the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) and veteran bureaucrat Kapil Dev Tripathi, has been appointed as the Secretary to the Indian President Ramnath Kovind, as per the recent notification of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.
Mr.K.D.Tripathi is a retired IAS officer (1980 batch) of Assam-Meghalaya cadre. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment on contract basis, until the tenure of the President.

Notes:
Union Finance Minister of India Nirmala Sitharaman participated in the 5th Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of New Development Bank (NDB).
The Finance Minister also appreciated the efforts of NDB in granting an emergency financial assistance of about $5 billion to BRICS countries including an assistance of $1 billion to India, for fighting the coronavirus pandemic. The Minister also suggested to upgrade the assistance to $10 billion.

Notes:
Vienna-based UN office, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) has launched a mentorship series named ‘Lockdown Learners’.
The online dialogues are to be conducted with students and educators in India on the impact of COVID-19 on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), peace and law. This program has been launched under the Education for Justice initiative of UNODC.

Notes:
The World Bank recently announced that it estimates that remittances to South Asia will drop 22% by this year.
India is the largest recipient of remittances of the world, which increases the foreign exchange reserves of the country. The reserves are used to fund the current account deficit of the country. After the lock-down and the resulting economic slow-down, the loss of income of expatriate Indians who work in foreign countries will affect the remittances. About 12% of the total inflow is the remittances form people working abroad. The Bank also estimated that Global remittances would drop by 20%.

Notes:
Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia was named as the World Book Capital for the year 2020 by UNESCO.
Every year, April 23 is celebrated as the World Book and Copyright Day across the world. UNESCO along with the international organizations associated with publishers, booksellers and libraries, select the World Book Capital for a year. This year, Kuala Lumpur has been named for 2020.

Notes:
English Language Day at the United Nations is celebrated annually on 23 April, the birthday and date of death of William Shakespeare. English is one of the two working languages of the UN, while UN has six official languages.
Along with English language day, Spanish Language Day is also celebrated, to raise awareness about the history, culture and use of Spanish. April 23 is also the death anniversary of the Spanish legend Miguel de Cervantes.

Notes:
The state of Odisha has launched a portal for registration of migrant workers to contain the spread of Covid-19 pandemic, as over five lakh migrant workers are expected to return to the state after lifting the lock-down.
Forms are available in the portal covid19.odisha.gov.in and in every gram panchayat for registration of names and address of the workers who want to return to Odisha.

Notes:
Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan was seen in news recently because she has been given a three-month extension after the Central Government made a major top-level bureaucratic reshuffle.
Ms.Preeti Sudan who is at present the Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, was due to superannuate on April 30. The reshuffling has been done amidst the coronavirus pandemic. About 23 senior IAS officers have been appointed as secretaries in different central government departments.

Notes:
The Government Hospital of Ernakulam, Kerala has deployed a robot named ‘KARMI-Bot’, to serve food and medicines to coronavirus patients in the Covid-19 isolation wards.
The robot has been introduced to reduce risk of the doctors and health workers from being contracted to the coronavirus. Asimov Robotics, a start-up company working under the Kerala start-up mission, has developed the robot. It is also designed to collect trash, disinfect the room and enable video call between the doctor and patients.