Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
11 Renewable Energy Management Centres (REMCs) were inaugurated by the Union Power Minister R K Singh, for renewable energy integration. He also inaugurated the Northern Region Renewable Energy Management Centre (NR-REMC).
The government had approved the implementation of the Renewable Energy Management Centres -REMCs as a central scheme. Maharatna CPSE under the Ministry of Power, PowerGrid was named as the implementing agency.

Notes:
Veteran historian Dr S Shettar recently passed away in Bengaluru, at the age of 85. He taught history in many universities for more than twenty-five years.
Shettar completed his Ph.D from Cambridge University in England. He had held several important positions including Director of the Institute of Indian Art History at Karnatak University, Dharwad, and Chairman of Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi.

Notes:
Major General Dr. Madhuri Kanitkar is the first woman paediatrician to be elevated to the highest rank of Lieutenant General for Indian Army Doctors.
She is the former Dean of Armed Forces Medical College Pune and has been promoted to the second-highest rank of Lt. General in the Indian Army. She is also the only doctor on the Prime Minister’s STIAC (S&T) Innovation Advisory Committee.

Notes:
RaIDer-X is a new explosive detection device, which was recently unveiled at the National Workshop on Explosive Detection (NWED-2020) in Pune. It has been co-developed by the laboratory of DRDO-High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL), Pune and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
It is claimed that the device can detect explosives from a stand-off distance and even bulk explosive in concealed condition. The device can be engineered to detect a number of explosives even with contaminants.

Notes:
The United Nations recently released $15 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to fund global efforts to tackle COVID-19 (coronavirus).
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently upgraded the global risk of the coronavirus outbreak to “very high”, which is the highest level of risk assessment. Recently the death toll touched 3000 and the cases of infections multiplied to several thousands.

Notes:
World Wildlife Day is celebrated every year on March 3, across the world. On 20 December 2013, the United Nations General Assembly decided to proclaim March 3 as World Wildlife Day. The day is observed to celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild fauna and flora.
On the same day, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was adopted in 1973. The theme of World Wildlife Day 2020, “Sustaining all life on Earth”.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India is conducting one-year and three-year tenor LTRO to help banks to reduce their lending rates. In the latest bi-monthly policy review, it announced term repurchase agreements (repos) of one-year and three-year tenors for Rs 1 trillion at the policy repo rate.
RBI has conducted three LTRO- Long-term repo operation on February 17, February 24 and March 1. The fourth operation is scheduled on March 9. In the third LTRO of three-year tenor, RBI has received 66 bids amounting to Rs 1.71 trillion.

Notes:
Union Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs is the nodal ministry for implementing the ‘e-Vidhan’ project in all 31 states and Union Territories of the country.
The National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA) creates a massive data depository and aims to bring all the legislatures of the country on a single platform. Recently the assembly of Arunachal Pradesh implemented the e-Vidhan project under which data can be accessed anywhere at any time by the legislators.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Haryana recently announced during the budge session that the state government is to provide credit guarantee of loans for higher education, so that the students can avail loans without the collateral guarantee required by the banks.
The state has also created a separate Foreign Cooperation Department for the welfare of non-resident Indians and employment.

Notes:
The government approved a scheme for the amalgamation of 10 state-owned banks into four, in the month of March 2020 and announced that the integration will be made effective from April 1, 2020. After this process, India will have 12 Public Sector Banks.
Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, and United Bank of India will amalgamate to form India’s second largest bank after the State Bank of India. Other groups are Canara Bank- Syndicate Bank, Union Bank of India-Andhra Bank-Corporation Bank and Indian Bank- Allahabad Bank.