Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
The UN General Assembly resolution adopted a resolution, drafted by Mexico, on fair, transparent and equitable access to essential medical supplies and any future vaccines developed to fight COVID-19.
India along with another 174 countries co-sponsored the resolution, among the 193 members of the assembly. The resolution was titled ‘International cooperation to ensure global access to medicines, vaccines and medical equipment to face COVID-19’.

Notes:
The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act passed by the Parliament in April 24 1992 provided constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj Institutions of the country.
The status was given through inserting Article 243 to Part IX of the Indian Constitution. To commemorate the occasion, 24 April is celebrated as the Panchayati Raj Day, across the country. The act added certain provisions in constitution including forming Gram Sabha in a village or group of villages; constitution of Panchayats at village levels and direct elections to all seats in Panchayats.

Notes:
As per the recent announcement of the Union MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari, he has devised a scheme to set up a Rs 1 trillion fund, which is to be launched by the Government after the approval of Cabinet.
This fund will be utilised for repaying outstanding payments to MSMEs owed by the PSUs, central and state governments and major industries. This is also expected to increase liquidity in the market. As per his statement, the Ministry is also working on fast-tracking GST refunds to help MSMEs.

Notes:
Saudi Arabia has abolished flogging, which means beating with whips, as a punishment, as per the order of the Supreme Court. Hereafter, the judges will pronounce fines, jail sentences or community services as punishments.
Several Human rights activists have been condemning the Court-ordered floggings in Saudi Arabia, which sometimes extend to hundreds of lashes. Recently, a blogger named Raif Badawi was sentenced to 7 years in prison and 600 lashes and then resentenced to 10 years and 1,000 lashes. He later won the European Parliament’s Sakharov human rights prize.

Notes:
As per the latest data from the US Treasury Department, Japan was the largest holder of US securities worth over $1.268 trillion at February end.
It was followed by China with securities worth $1.092 trillion. India is at the 13th position in terms of holding securities. India’s holding of US government securities rose by $13 billion in a month to record high of $177.5 billion at February end. The overall holding of India increased by $33.2 billion in the last year.

Notes:
According to the recent annual report of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the United States continue to be the highest military spender in the world in 2019 with $732 bn.
This is the first time two Asian countries China and India occupied the top-three positions. The military expenditure of China reached $261 billion in 2019, which is a 5.1% increase from the previous year. India’s expenditure rose by 6.8% to reach 71.1 billion.

Notes:
The Prime Minister of India recently launched the SWAMITVA Scheme, on the occasion of National Panchayati Raj day. It was in news recently, as the Union Minister of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj Narendra Singh Tomar issued guidelines regarding the scheme.
SWAMITVA scheme aims to provide rural people with the right to document their residential properties by engaging the latest Drone surveying technology. It is currently being implemented in six states – Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

Notes:
‘World Day for Safety and Health at Work’ is being celebrated on 28 April, every year since 2003, across the world.
This year the theme/campaign on this special day is ‘Stop the pandemic: Safety and health at work can save lives’. The aim of celebration of this day is to highlight the prevention of accidents and diseases at work. 28 April is also the ‘International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers’.

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.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Finance has established the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA), which will be headquartered in Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
This body will regulate all financial products and financial services in International Financial Services Centres (IFSCs) in the country against multiple regulators including RBI, SEBI, IRDA and PFRDA. The IFSCA will have a chairperson and one member each nominated by the regulators. It will also include two members from the central government and full-time or part-time members.