Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
A five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Justice Arun Mishra quashed the earlier order of which state, which provided 100 per cent reservation to ST teachers in schools in the scheduled areas.
The bench noted that the January 2000 order was arbitrary and not permissible under the constitution. The judges quoted the 1992 Indra Sawhney judgement and the 50 per cent quota associated with the case, while delivering this judgement.

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:
As per the notification of the Shipping Ministry, the government has approved reconstitution of the National Shipping Board. It is the highest advisory board on matters associated with Indian shipping.
The reconstituted board with 16 members is to be headed by Malini Shankar, former Director General of Shipping. Other members include representatives from the Ministry, Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard, National Union of Seafarers of India, Maritime Union of India representative, Thakur and National Ship Owners’ Association.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the mobile portal called E-Gram Swaraj Portal and Swamitva Scheme on April 24, which is also celebrated as the Panchayati Raj Day.
Swamitva Yojana is launched with an aim of creating a record of property ownership of land in rural areas. The lands in rural areas are to be mapped using modern technology. The E-Gram Swaraj platform will provide records of projects implemented in every village panchayat under Gram Panchayati Development Plan (GPDP). General public can create an account in the mobile portal and view the projects.

Notes:
China has named its Mars exploration mission, proposed to be launched this year as ‘Tianwen-1’. It named its first Mars mission on the occasion of the Space Day, which marked the 50th anniversary of the country’s first satellite Dong Fang Hong-1.
‘Tianwen’ in Chinese means Questions to Heaven, as per a Chinese poet Qu Yuan Aiming. India, U.S., Russia and the European Union have previously launched Mars mission. On the same lines, China’s mission aims to complete orbiting, landing and roving in a single mission.

Notes:
International Delegate’s Day has been celebrated on April 25 for the first time in the year 2020. It marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of the San Francisco Conference, a historic event which laid the foundations of the United Nations. It is also known as the United Nations Conference on International Organization.
The day is observed to raise awareness of the role of the representatives and delegates of the United Nations’ Member States.

Notes:
The Department of Medical and Health of Andhra Pradesh has recently launched a mobile application called ‘Covid Pharma’.
The application aims at tracking the people who purchase medicines over the counter (OTC) for symptoms like cough, cold and fever from medical stores across the state. This database would help the state in tracing the people who may contract coronavirus.

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:
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.