Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
The President of India Ramnath Kovind approved the promulgation of the ordinance which seeks to make the violent acts against healthcare personnel fighting COVID-19 pandemic as cognizable and non-bailable offence.
The ordinance amends the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and provides for compensation for injury or for causing damage or loss to property. The acts of violence are punishable with imprisonment for a term of three months to seven years and with a fine of Rs. 50000 to 5,00,000, depending on the act.

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:
Kolkata-based veteran theatre personality and Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee, Usha Ganguly recently passed away in Kolkata, at the age of 75.
Usha Ganguly was the founder of the unique theatre group named ‘Rangakarmee’ in 1976. She was famous for introducing an alternative Hindi theatre form in West Bengal, where people were only acquainted to Bengali theatre and English theatre.

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:
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:
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:
The state of Tamil Nadu promulgated an ordinance which made blocking the dignified burial or cremation of victims of notified disease, a criminal offence.
As per the official release, the people involving in such acts will face a minimum jail term of one year to a maximum three-year imprisonment, under section 74 of ‘The Tamil Nadu Public Health Act, 1939’. This decision has been taken at the backdrop of agitations against the burial of two doctors who died of Covid-19.

Notes:
Global Telecom giant Nokia has recently partnered with the leading telecom services company Bharti Airtel in India, to enhance network capacity.
As per the multi-year agreement claimed to be worth about $1 billion, the Single Radio Access Network (SRAN) solution of Nokia is to be deployed across nine circles in India. This partnership would help Airtel in enhancing its 4G network capacity and introduction of 5G connectivity in the future.

Notes:
The Ministry of Shipping in its recent statement has announced a compensation of Rs 50 lakh for people employed with major ports in the country.
Under the plan, direct employees as well as contractual labourers are covered. In case they lose their lives to Covid-19, the government will pay an ex-gratia compensation to the dependent members or legal heirs of the port employees. India has 12 major ports situated along the eastern and western coasts.

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.