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:
Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology (IIFPT) is a research and educational Institution under the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), with its main campus located at Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu.
The institute was seen in news recently, as it has been manufacturing nutrient-rich foods with indigenous products for COVID-19 patients who are placed in examination and those who recovered from the disease after treatment at Thanjavur Medical College, Tamil Nadu.

Notes:
The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has bagged three national awards for outstanding contribution by its Panchayati Raj Institutions in socio-economic development projects.
While Panchayat Jamola Lower has been awarded “Child-friendly Gram Panchayat Award 2020”, Panchayat Dhangri has been awarded “Nanaji Deshmukh Gaurav Gram Sabha Puraskar” for improving the socio-economic aspects of the panchayat. Panchayat Zaloora B has been selected as best performer in “Gram Panchayat Development Plans” awards.

Notes:
An e-office application called ‘e-karyalay’ has been launched by Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to prevent coronavirus infection.
The e-office application enables digital movement of files in offices, which is similar to the physical and traditional file movement in CISF offices. The application has been developed by the in-house technical team and they have also created the data recovery site.

Notes:
The Kusuma School of Biological Sciences (KSBS) of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi has developed a COVID-19 test kit and it has been approved by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), thereby becoming the first institute to be approved for a real-time kit.
The test kit, which tests the swab of the suspected patient is also claimed to be more affordable than the other kits available. Commercial production can be easily done as the kit does not require fluorescent probes, as per the researchers.

Notes:
Retired IAS officer and the secretary to the President since 2017 has been appointed as the Central Vigilance Commissioner of India.
The post of the chief of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has remained vacant since June 2019 after the tenure of K V Chowdary was over. The name of Kothari was recommended by a high-level selection panel headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The process was claimed as unconstitutional by opposition parties as Sanjay Kothari was not an applicant not been shortlisted.

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:
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:
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:
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.