Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
The Australian Government is set to ask the global technology giants Google and Facebook to pay the media outlets for news content they produce in Australia, as announced by the country’s Treasurer.
The competition regulator of the country, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is expected to release the stipulation formally. This decision has been taken now as the advertising revenues have been collapsed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Notes:
As per the recent statement of the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in India, the country has asked India to revise the recent amendments in the Foreign Direct Investment policy.
Recently, India amended its FDI policy and mandated all countries sharing land borders with India to invest only under Government route. China said that India should promote a fair and equitable trade environment and this restriction violates the norms of World Trade Organisation.

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:
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 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:
Retired IAS officer and the secretary to the President since 2017 has been appointed as the Central Vigilance Commissioner of India.
The post of the chief of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has remained vacant since June 2019 after the tenure of K V Chowdary was over. The name of Kothari was recommended by a high-level selection panel headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The process was claimed as unconstitutional by opposition parties as Sanjay Kothari was not an applicant not been shortlisted.

Notes:
The World Health Organisation has announced an initiative called ‘Access to Covid Tools’ (ACT) Accelerator, which will be a collaborative step towards developing a vaccine and managing the pandemic.
Several heads of states and political leaders committed themselves to join this initiative and ensure the availability of vaccine and other drugs associated with Covid-19, to all countries of the world. The European Union will start the funding campaign from May along with European countries and Middle East countries.

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:
The UN body for Trade and Development, UNCTAD recently released a report titled ‘From the Great Lockdown to the Great Meltdown’.
In the report, the agency highlights that the repayment of the developing countries towards their public debt will amount to between 2.6 trillion and 3.4 trillion in 2020 and 2021. It also proposed a global debt deal to prevent Covid-19 pandemic from aggravating economic disaster.

Notes:
The Government Hospital of Ernakulam, Kerala has deployed a robot named ‘KARMI-Bot’, to serve food and medicines to coronavirus patients in the Covid-19 isolation wards.
The robot has been introduced to reduce risk of the doctors and health workers from being contracted to the coronavirus. Asimov Robotics, a start-up company working under the Kerala start-up mission, has developed the robot. It is also designed to collect trash, disinfect the room and enable video call between the doctor and patients.