Current Affairs Quiz - April, 2020

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India recently directed all banks to extend the benefit of interest subvention and prompt repayment incentive to short term crop loans, to the accounts which have become due or will become due between March and May 2020.
The government offers an interest subvention of two percent per annum to banks and an additional 3 per cent interest subvention to farmers who pay their loans promptly. Hence the effective rate of interest is 4 per cent.

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 Union Cabinet recently approved ₹15,000 crore for ‘India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package’.
An amount of ₹7,774 crore has been kept as provision for immediate COVID-19 emergency response. The package is launched with an aim of developing diagnostics and COVID-dedicated treatment facilities, thereby slowing down the spread of coronavirus. The initiatives would be implemented under the overall umbrella of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Notes:
Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia was named as the World Book Capital for the year 2020 by UNESCO.
Every year, April 23 is celebrated as the World Book and Copyright Day across the world. UNESCO along with the international organizations associated with publishers, booksellers and libraries, select the World Book Capital for a year. This year, Kuala Lumpur has been named for 2020.

Notes:
Defence Research and Development Organisation has collaborated with the ESIC medical college & hospital, Hyderabad and developed the country’s first COVID-19 sample collection mobile lab.
The mobile lab has been named “Mobile BSL-3 VRDL Lab” and was inaugurated by the Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. The lab has been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and can process over 1000 samples a day. The lab has been developed in a record 15 days and can be positioned at any place.

Notes:
The state of Mizoram has launched a mobile application named ‘mCOVID19’, which enables easy transportation of essential goods by the truck drivers to the state from other states.
The new application will act as the online license or pass for the truck drivers. The drivers of the interstate-vehicles will be screened at the entry point. On registering with the application, they will be generated a license called mPASS. An sms with information about the goods and place, will be sent along with a mPASS id, which will be stored at the entry point.

Notes:
China has named its Mars exploration mission, proposed to be launched this year as ‘Tianwen-1’. It named its first Mars mission on the occasion of the Space Day, which marked the 50th anniversary of the country’s first satellite Dong Fang Hong-1.
‘Tianwen’ in Chinese means Questions to Heaven, as per a Chinese poet Qu Yuan Aiming. India, U.S., Russia and the European Union have previously launched Mars mission. On the same lines, China’s mission aims to complete orbiting, landing and roving in a single mission.

Notes:
One of the largest Asset Management companies in India, the Franklin Templeton Mutual Fund has recently announced to have shut down six of its funds owing to market disruptions amid Covid-19.
The Association of National Exchange Members of India (ANMI) sought the intervention of the SEBI and Finance Ministry to protect investor capital in six mutual fund schemes. These funds collectively managed a corpus of over ₹25,000 crore.

Notes:
The Department of Medical and Health of Andhra Pradesh has recently launched a mobile application called ‘Covid Pharma’.
The application aims at tracking the people who purchase medicines over the counter (OTC) for symptoms like cough, cold and fever from medical stores across the state. This database would help the state in tracing the people who may contract coronavirus.

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.