Current Affairs Quiz - April, 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 Odisha has launched a portal for registration of migrant workers to contain the spread of Covid-19 pandemic, as over five lakh migrant workers are expected to return to the state after lifting the lock-down.
Forms are available in the portal covid19.odisha.gov.in and in every gram panchayat for registration of names and address of the workers who want to return to Odisha.

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:
On April 26, 1986, the nuclear accident took place in the Chernobyl power plant in the Pripyat city of Ukraine. It is one of the worst nuclear disasters that has ever taken place in the world.
In the year 2016, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution designating 26 April as International Chernobyl Disaster Remembrance Day. In the year 2009, UN launched the International Chernobyl Research and Information Network (ICRIN), to support the programmes in developing the affected places.

Notes:
Pitch Black is a biennial multilateral air combat training exercise hosted by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
The exercise was recently in news as Australia has informed India recently that the training exercise Pitch Black 2020, which was scheduled from July 27 to August 14 has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The next edition of the exercise is scheduled in the year 2022.

Notes:
The Prime Minister of India recently launched the SWAMITVA Scheme, on the occasion of National Panchayati Raj day. It was in news recently, as the Union Minister of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj Narendra Singh Tomar issued guidelines regarding the scheme.
SWAMITVA scheme aims to provide rural people with the right to document their residential properties by engaging the latest Drone surveying technology. It is currently being implemented in six states – Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

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:
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is an intergovernmental economic organisation which aims to stimulate economic progress and world trade. It is headquartered at Paris, France and has 36 member countries.
Recently, the President of the United States has nominated veteran Indian-American diplomat Manisha Singh as America’s next envoy to OECD. The diplomat had previously served in several significant positions which includes her present role as the Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs.

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.

Notes:
The Ministry of Shipping in its recent statement has announced a compensation of Rs 50 lakh for people employed with major ports in the country.
Under the plan, direct employees as well as contractual labourers are covered. In case they lose their lives to Covid-19, the government will pay an ex-gratia compensation to the dependent members or legal heirs of the port employees. India has 12 major ports situated along the eastern and western coasts.