Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act was making news recently, as the Supreme Court of India held that the quantity of the banned drug mixture will determine the punishment than its purity. Under the current provisions, higher punishment is awarded for possessing commercial quantity of the banned drugs than smaller quantity. The Act comes under the Finance Ministry.
A three-judge bench of Justices said that the 2008 verdict was not a good legislation which held that the actual weight of the banned substances to determine whether it is a small or commercial quantity under the NDPS act.

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:
The 73rd Constitutional Amendment Act passed by the Parliament in April 24 1992 provided constitutional status to the Panchayati Raj Institutions of the country.
The status was given through inserting Article 243 to Part IX of the Indian Constitution. To commemorate the occasion, 24 April is celebrated as the Panchayati Raj Day, across the country. The act added certain provisions in constitution including forming Gram Sabha in a village or group of villages; constitution of Panchayats at village levels and direct elections to all seats in Panchayats.

Notes:
As per the recent announcement of the Union MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari, he has devised a scheme to set up a Rs 1 trillion fund, which is to be launched by the Government after the approval of Cabinet.
This fund will be utilised for repaying outstanding payments to MSMEs owed by the PSUs, central and state governments and major industries. This is also expected to increase liquidity in the market. As per his statement, the Ministry is also working on fast-tracking GST refunds to help MSMEs.

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:
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:
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:
A unit of the top IT firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), TCS iON, has recently launched a free online self-certification course for frontline health workers, named ‘Corona Warriors’.
The health workers who are dealing with COVID-19 patients will be offered profession-specific modules. The digital course is available in English and it is offered through TCS iON Digital Learning Hub. The software venture of TCS, Digitate has also announced a platform called ‘ignio Cognitive Procurement’ to assist enterprises in decision making of purchases.

Notes:
Basava Jayanthi, the birth anniversary of the 12th century poet, philosopher and social reformer, Lord Basaveshwara, is prominently celebrated in the state of Karnataka.
Also called as Basavanna, he was the founding saint of the Lingayat sect. He was also known for establishing a spiritual democracy called ‘Anubhava Mantapa’ in the 12th century. The era starting from his birth-year is also called as the Basava era in the state.

Notes:
International Labour Organisation (ILO) has recently released a report titled ‘In the face of a pandemic: Ensuring Safety and Health at Work’. The report has been released on the occasion of World Day for Safety and Health at Work on April 28.
The report highlights the occupational safety and health (OSH) risks which are arising due to the spread of COVID-19. It also asked the governments to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the work-places across the world.