Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
World Champion and ace Tennis star of India P V Sindhu has been named as one of the ambassadors for Badminton World Federation (BWF)’s ‘i am badminton’ awareness campaign.
The campaign is aimed at highlighting the efforts of the Federation towards honesty in the game. The Badminton World Federation formed Integrity Unit five years ago. Several other shuttlers of Canada, China, England and Germany were also named along with Sindhu

Notes:
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act was making news recently, as the Supreme Court of India held that the quantity of the banned drug mixture will determine the punishment than its purity. Under the current provisions, higher punishment is awarded for possessing commercial quantity of the banned drugs than smaller quantity. The Act comes under the Finance Ministry.
A three-judge bench of Justices said that the 2008 verdict was not a good legislation which held that the actual weight of the banned substances to determine whether it is a small or commercial quantity under the NDPS act.

Notes:
Defence Research and Development Organisation has collaborated with the ESIC medical college & hospital, Hyderabad and developed the country’s first COVID-19 sample collection mobile lab.
The mobile lab has been named “Mobile BSL-3 VRDL Lab” and was inaugurated by the Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The lab has been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and can process over 1000 samples a day. The lab has been developed in a record 15 days and can be positioned at any place.

Notes:
On April 24, 1990 NASA had launched Hubble Space Telescope, which is one of the longest-living observatories of the space agency.
Hubble is the first major optical telescope to be placed in space. NASA runs the observatory in partnership with the European Space Agency (ESA). The agency also announced that they will continue to operate Hubble as long it remains productive.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh has launched a new scheme called ‘Jeevan Shakti Yojana’, which aims to encourage urban women to make masks and provide them a financial assistance to sustain their livelihood.
The urban women of the state who are interested in joining this scheme will have to register themselves through the Call centres. Then, as per the orders they receive they can start making cotton masks and submit to nodal officers. A payment of Rs.11 per mask will be credited to their bank account.

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:
On April 26, 1986, the nuclear accident took place in the Chernobyl power plant in the Pripyat city of Ukraine. It is one of the worst nuclear disasters that has ever taken place in the world.
In the year 2016, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution designating 26 April as International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day. In the year 2009, UN launched the International Chernobyl Research and Information Network (ICRIN), to support the programmes in developing the affected places.

Notes:
India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has announced a ₹50,000-crore special liquidity facility for mutual funds.
The package has been released at the backdrop of the shutting down of six debt funds by the Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund. Banks can borrow the 90-day funds from RBI at the current repo rate of 4.4% and use it to exclusively on-lend to mutual funds. The banks can also purchase investment grade corporate papers held by Mutual Funds.

Notes:
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental economic organisation which aims to stimulate economic progress and world trade. It is headquartered at Paris, France and has 36 member countries.
Recently, the President of the United States has nominated veteran Indian-American diplomat Manisha Singh as America’s next envoy to OECD. The diplomat had previously served in several significant positions which includes her present role as the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs.

Notes:
United Kingdom recently launched a new scheme called ‘Bounce Back Loan Scheme’, to assist the small businesses of the country to tackle the impact of Covid-19 pandemic.
The Finance Minister of UK launched this state-backed fast-track finance scheme in the House of Commons. Under the new scheme, small businesses can borrow between 2,000 pounds and 50,000 pounds as interest-free loans. The support schemes released in the last few weeks had provided about 15 billion pounds for business revamping.