Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of the current Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey as the new Finance Secretary of India.
Ajay Bhushan Pandey replaces current Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar, who got superannuated last month. The senior-most bureaucrat among all secretaries in the Finance Ministry is usually designated as the finance secretary. Debasish Panda was recently appointed as the Secretary, Department of financial services.

Notes:
The second phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) was recently launched by the Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat. The total project outlay is Rs 1,40,881 crore.
Phase II will focus on effective solid and liquid waste management (SLWM) in every gram panchayat of the country. SBM Phase II is to be implemented from 2020-2021 to 2024-2025.

Notes:
The 16-year-old Indian cricketer Shafali Verma was seen in news recently, as she was placed in the top spot in the ICC women’s T20 International rankings.
She achieved the feat following her outstanding performance (161 runs in four innings) at the ongoing World Cup. She has become only the second Indian batter after Mithali Raj to top the women’s T20 International rankings

Notes:
The Direct Tax Vivaad Se Vishwas Bill 2020 has been recently passed by the Lok Sabha. The bill was introduced in Lok Sabha by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on February 5, 2020.
The Bill provides a mechanism for resolution of pending tax disputes in direct tax including income tax and corporation tax. It seeks that taxpayers can settle disputes by paying their due taxes with waiver of interest and penalty by March 31, 2020.

Notes:
Veteran architect duo- Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara were recently selected as the recipients of the 2020 Pritzker Prize, the highest honour in the field of Architecture.
The Dublin-based architects are the first two women to share the prestigious global award. Their remarkable projects include the University of Engineering and Technology in Lima, Peru, which also won the RIBA International Prize. It is referred to as “modern-day Machu Picchu”.

Notes:
Markets regulator SEBI (Securities Exchange Board of India) recently launched a mobile application for assisting investors to enter grievances in SEBI Complaints Redress System (SCORES) portal. The app has all the features of SCORES web portal for grievance redressal, which is already functioning.
The app, ‘SEBI SCORES’, which is to be available on both iOS and Android platforms, will encourage investors to lodge their complaints on SCORES instead of sending physical letters.

Notes:
The state Government of Maharashtra has recently renamed the Aurangabad Airport of the state as Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj Airport.
The airport has been renamed after Sambhaji, the son of the great Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji. The airport is owned and operated by the Airports Authority of India.

Notes:
An autonomous R&D Centre of Department of Science and Technology (DST) – International Advanced Research for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad has developed ‘Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), which are to be used in natural disaster management.
ARCI is also planning to set up an in-house PEMFC system up to 10 kW at Tamil Nadu State Emergency Operation Centre to operate early warning systems.

Notes:
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced that it will provide 50 billion dollars through its rapid-disbursing emergency financing facilities. The fund is to be given for low income and developing countries to combat the spread of coronavirus.
10 billion dollars of the fund is available at zero interest for the poorest members under the rapid credit facility. Recently, the World Bank and the United Nations announced financial assistance of USD 12 billion and USD 15 million respectively.

Notes:
As per the recent rankings of top-500 global NGOs published by the Geneva-based organization NGO Adviser, the Bangladesh-based NGO BRAC has secured the first position for the fifth consecutive year.
BRAC is an international development organization which was founded by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972, after Bangladesh came into existence as an independent nation in 1971. The NGO aimed at helping the returning war refugees with relief and rehabilitation project. It works in Bangladesh and 11 other countries in Asia and Africa.