Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
The United Nations designated 21 April as World Creativity and Innovation Day, to raise awareness about the role of creativity and innovation in overall human development.
As per the Creative Economy report titled “Widening local development pathways”, jointly published by UNESCO, UNDP and UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), Creativity and innovation are the true wealth of nations in the 21st century.

Notes:
The state government of Madhya Pradesh has launched a welfare scheme called ‘Chief Minister COVID-19 Yoddha Kalyan Yojana’.
Under the scheme, about one lakh Anganwadi workers and Assistants of the state will be provided a special health insurance cover of Rs 50 lakhs. Earlier, the Centre announced Rs 50 lakh insurance cover per person for frontline health workers involved in managing the Covid-19 outbreak.

Notes:
The World Food Programme (WFP) is the largest humanitarian organisation of the world and the United Nations’ intergovernmental agency for food assistance. The Headquarters of UN WFP is located at Rome, Italy.
As per the recent fourth annual Global Report on Food Crises of WFP, the prevailing coronavirus pandemic could double the number of people who will face acute hunger to 265 million, across the world in this year. The report also warned that another 183 million people are at the risk of falling into food crisis.

Notes:
The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has planned and constructed a Class-70 all-weather permanent bridge on the river Ravi.
The bridge is 484-meter long and was built by the 49 Border Roads Task Force (BRTF) of Project Chetak. The project of the Kasowal bridge entails a cost of Rs.17.89 crore. It connects the Kasowal enclave of Punjab with the rest of the places of the country.

Notes:
Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT) is a research and educational Institution under the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), with its main campus located at Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu.
The institute was seen in news recently, as it has been manufacturing nutrient-rich foods with indigenous products for COVID-19 patients who are placed in examination and those who recovered from the disease after treatment at Thanjavur Medical College, Tamil Nadu.

Notes:
The World Immunization Week 2020 is being celebrated from April 24 to 30, this year by the World Health Organisation.
The day is celebrated with an aim to promote the use of vaccines for protecting people across the world from diseases. The theme of this year’s week is Vaccines Work for All. The theme highlights the importance of vaccines and the persons developing them. WHO also announced that about 20 million children in the world today remain unvaccinated.

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:
Domestic Credit rating agency India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has further decreased the GDP growth rate of India to 1.9% for the current fiscal. It had previously estimated the growth rate for this fiscal to be 3.6%. The estimate was significant as this would be the lowest GDP growth in the last 29 years.
The report also highlighted that in the absence of any stimulus measures from the government, the fiscal deficit would touch 4.4% of GDP in this fiscal 2020-21, the official target being 3.5%.

Notes:
A new high-pressure ventilator named VITAL (Ventilator Intervention Technology Accessible Locally) has been developed by the engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
VITAL has been designed to treat patients with milder symptoms so that the traditional ventilators may be used for critical patients. The device has passed a critical test and waiting for the fast-track approval from FDA.