Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
Every year, April 22 has been celebrated as the Earth Day. The United Nations designates the day as World Mother Earth Day.
This year, April 22 is the 50th anniversary of the World Earth Day. The theme of this year’s observance is ‘Climate Action’. It has been celebrated from the year 1970, when about 20 million Americans participated in a historic environmental protest. This year, several artists participate in the protest under the name #EarthDay2020Halt.

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 Games was previously scheduled to be held in Birmingham, Alabama, United States in July 2021. It comprises of sports and events that do not fall under the Olympics.
As it was postponed to 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the organising committee has recently unveiled an updated logo, website and title. ‘The World Games 2022’ is the modified title of the games, which will be held in July 2022.

Notes:
As per the notification of the Shipping Ministry, the government has approved reconstitution of the National Shipping Board. It is the highest advisory board on matters associated with Indian shipping.
The reconstituted board with 16 members is to be headed by Malini Shankar, former Director General of Shipping. Other members include representatives from the Ministry, Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard, National Union of Seafarers of India, Maritime Union of India representative, Thakur and National Ship Owners’ Association.

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 Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh YS Jagan Mohan Reddy recently launched a scheme in Amaravati, which seeks to provide loans to the women Self Help Groups (SHGs) of the state, at zero percent interest.
The Chief Minister released about ₹1,400 crore for the scheme, which is expected to benefit nearly 8.78 lakh SHGs. The interest component of ₹20,000 to ₹40,000 will be borne by the state government. At present, the SHGs borrow from banks at interest rate of 7 to 13 per cent.

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:
Domestic Credit rating agency India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has further decreased the GDP growth rate of India to 1.9% for the current fiscal. It had previously estimated the growth rate for this fiscal to be 3.6%. The estimate was significant as this would be the lowest GDP growth in the last 29 years.
The report also highlighted that in the absence of any stimulus measures from the government, the fiscal deficit would touch 4.4% of GDP in this fiscal 2020-21, the official target being 3.5%.

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:
United Kingdom recently launched a new scheme called ‘Bounce Back Loan Scheme’, to assist the small businesses of the country to tackle the impact of Covid-19 pandemic.
The Finance Minister of UK launched this state-backed fast-track finance scheme in the House of Commons. Under the new scheme, small businesses can borrow between 2,000 pounds and 50,000 pounds as interest-free loans. The support schemes released in the last few weeks had provided about 15 billion pounds for business revamping.