Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced that it will provide USD 200 to companies which manufacture and distribute medicines and other things required to combat the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
The financial assistance will be made available through ADB’s Supply Chain Finance Program and provided to selected companies. This support is to provide additional working capital to such manufacturing companies for their requirements to address the virus outbreak.

Notes:
The state government of Haryana has declared the contagious coronavirus infection an epidemic.
As many as 270 isolation wards with 1200 beds have been set up in government and private hospitals to deal with any contingency related to the outbreak. The state government has also issued several regulations under ‘The Haryana Epidemic Disease, COVID-19 Regulations, 2020’, to control the spread of the virus.

Notes:
India recently handed over 600 tonnes of rice and relief material to flood-hit Madagascar. Indian Naval Ship (INS) Shardul carried 600 tonnes of rice, as per directives of Indian Government.
In the month of January this year, the Indian Navy launched ‘Operation Vanilla’ in support of the national disaster in Madagascar, to provide humanitarian assistance and disaster through Indian Navy Ship Airavat.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet approved the Remission of Duties or Taxes on Export Products (RoDTEP). It is a scheme for exporters to reimburse taxes and duties paid, like value added tax, coal cess and electricity duties which are not exempted or refunded under existing mechanism.
Last year, the RoDTEP scheme was announced by the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at an estimated cost of Rs 50,000 crore, to incentivise exporters. It will replace the Merchandise Export from India Scheme (MEIS) which will be phased out.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank on Friday issued regulatory guidelines for implementation of Indian Accounting Standards (Ind AS) by Non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and Asset reconstruction companies (ARCs) when they prepare their financial results from FY20.
Indian Accounting Standards is the Accounting standard adopted by companies in India and they are issued under the supervision of Accounting Standards Board (ASB). The Ind AS have been formulated to converge our standards with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)

Notes:
The US President Donald Trump recently announced that tech giant Google is engaged in the process of developing a website to help with coronavirus test.
He also revealed that more than 1700 engineers are working on the project to develop the website. It will determine whether a test is necessary and will also enable testing at a convenient location nearby. Donald Trump also declared national emergency in the wake of coronavirus outbreak.

Notes:
Renowned poet and Malayalam scholar Puthussery Ramachandran recently passed away at the age of 91. He played an instrumental role in making Malayalam getting recognised as a classical language by the union government in 2013.
Ramachandran has won several prestigious awards, including the Sahitya Akademi award, the Ezhuthachchan Puraskaaram in 2015, Kerala Sahitya Akademi award among others. He was also associated with the Communist movement of Kerala.

Notes:
A meeting of the heads of countries of the SAARC alliance was held via video conferencing recently. Last time the leaders had a meeting together in November 2014.
During the meeting, the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi proposed a “Covid-19 emergency fund” to which India would provide $10 million as an initial contribution. He offered the services of a rapid response team of doctors armed with testing kits. The Prime Minister also offered online training for health workers in SAARC countries for upgrading skills to tackle Covid-19.

Notes:
A passenger ferry service called ‘Ropax’ was launched between Mumbai and Mandwa of Maharashtra by the Union Minister of State for Shipping Mansukh Mandaviya.
The vessel which can carry as many as 200 cars and 1,000 passengers was built in Greece. The Ropax jetty and terminal at Mandwa has been built by Maharashtra Maritime Board while the jetty facilities at Mumbai were set up by Mumbai Port Trust.

Notes:
The competition authority of France recently slapped a record 1.1 billion euro (equivalent to $1.2 billion) fine on US tech major Apple.
The fine was imposed for the firm’s anti-competitive behaviour towards its independent retail distributors. The country’s authority announced that it found Apple prevented independent retailers in France from competing on price and allegedly used its economic power on them.