Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
International Girls in ICT Day is the flagship initiative of the Geneva-based International Telecommunication Union, ITU.
This year, the International Girls in ICT Day is celebrated on 23 April. The day is celebrated to sensitise people and empower girls to take up their career in Information and Communication Technologies. ITU hosted an online dialogue on “Girls in ICT: Inspiring the Next Generation”.

Notes:
The first International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace and was first observed on April 24, 2019.The International Day of Multilateralism and Diplomacy for Peace was established on 12 December, 2018 by the UN General Assembly.
All UN member states and organisations celebrate the day to create awareness about the advantages of multilateralism and diplomacy for peace by educational and awareness campaigns.

Notes:
According to the report titled “World Leaders on Facebook” released by global communications agency BCW (Burson Cohn & Wolfe), US President Donald Trump topped the rankings for the most interactions in his Facebook page over the past 12 months, with 309 million comments, likes and shares on his Facebook page.
Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro with 205 million interactions, followed Trump. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the most popular world leader on Facebook with 44.7 million likes on his page. 721 Facebook pages of the international heads were analysed using the CrowdTangle tool of Facebook.

Notes:
The World Malaria Day is observed on April 25 every year by the World Health Organisation (WHO), across the world. This year WHO has partnered with the global platform RBM Partnership to promote “Zero malaria starts with me” campaign.
The campaign aims to sensitise malaria politically, mobilize additional resources and encourage people to fast-track malaria prevention and care.

Notes:
In its latest circular, the labour and employment ministry has notified that the banking industry is classified as a public utility service for six months with effect from April 21. The Department of Financial services also notified about the classification of the labour ministry.
This declaration has been made under the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act. After being placed under this act, the people working in banking sector would not be able to participate in any strike during the said period.

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:
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:
The chemical exports of India increased by 7.43 per cent to 2.68 lakh crore rupees during April-January period of the last fiscal.
The chemical industry became the top exporting sector of the country for the first time. The export of chemicals in the said period constitutes 14.35 per cent of the total exports. This was announced by the Union Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers.

Notes:
Bio-con Founder cum Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has recently been named in the ‘Medicine Maker Power List 2020’.
The list celebrates 60 leaders across the world, who had significantly contributed and innovated in the field of biopharmaceuticals. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has been ranked in the prestigious list for six years in a row, since 2015.Recently, she has received EY’s ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ award.

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.