Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
The state of Uttar Pradesh has claimed to be the first in the country to geotag its community kitchens and community shelters across the state.
The state has geotagged its 7,368 community kitchens and community shelters, it has set up across 75 districts of the state. The establishments were created in partnership with the civil society and various non-governmental organisations. The state also partnered with Google, to integrate the locations in the Google Maps.

Notes:
The present Chairperson of the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) and veteran bureaucrat Kapil Dev Tripathi, has been appointed as the Secretary to the Indian President Ramnath Kovind, as per the recent notification of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions.
Mr.K.D.Tripathi is a retired IAS officer (1980 batch) of Assam-Meghalaya cadre. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment on contract basis, until the tenure of the President.

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:
On April 21, 1947 the first Home Minister of India Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel addressed the probationers of Administrative Services Officers in 1947.
While delivering the historical address at the Metcalf House, Delhi, he described the Civil servants as ‘steel frame of India’. To commemorate this occasion, April 21 has been observed as the Civil Services Day every year, across the country.

Notes:
Leading Private sector bank of India, ICICI Bank recently launched voice-banking services to its customers by integrating its AI chatbot iPal with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
This initiative is aimed at assisting customers avail the banking services amid the nation-wide lockdown due to Covid-19. The customers will have to download the Alexa / Google Assistant and link their ICICI Bank account to it. Queries about their account and products of the bank will be answered by the voice assistant apps.

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:
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:
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:
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:
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.