Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
United Nations has recently adopted a basic political declaration on women’s rights during the 64th session of the Commission on the Status of Women.
The adopted text follows the theme of the ‘Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of 1995’, which sought to promote liberation and progress of all women around the world. The UN declaration on women is approved every five years.

Notes:
The World Economic Forum recently launched a new platform with the support of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to convene the global business community for a collective support for the COVID-19 outbreak.
The newly formed platform is called ”COVID Action Platform” and is open to all businesses and industry groups and other stakeholders including the governments around the globe. This first of its kind platform will integrate the efforts of all the entities in tackling the outbreak together.

Notes:
Major Technological Company Facebook launched its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative called ‘Pragati’ in India.
The initiative which aims to boost women entrepreneurship in India, is powered by N/Core (The/Nudge Centre for Social Innovation). The project will incubate and accelerate early-stage women-led non-profit units that work on women entrepreneurship. The initiative will award four financial grants of up to ₹50 lakh for each non-profit organisation.

Notes:
The World Kidney Day is celebrated on the second Thursday of the month of March every year, across the world. This year’s theme is ‘Kidney health for everyone everywhere – from prevention to detection and equitable access to care’.
Two international bodies namely the International Society of Nephrology (ISN) and the International Federation of Kidney Foundations (IFKF) jointly organise the global campaign.

Notes:
World Athletics Council imposed a USD 10 million on the Athletics Federation of Russia (RusAF) for breaching anti-doping rules.
World Athletics has capped the number of Authorised Neutral Athletes (ANA) allowed to compete in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and other specified senior events at 10. However, the number of authorised neutral athletes that can compete in international events is not restricted.

Notes:
As per the recent data of the Government, Expenditure under MNREGA during 2017-18 to 2019-20 was Rs 1.83 lakh crore.
When compared to 2011-12 to 2013-14 period, the expenditure on MNREGA almost doubled to Rs 1.83 lakh crore from Rs 92,483 in the former period. It was also announced that 526.97 lakh households were provided employment in the current fiscal through the scheme.

Notes:
Veteran Bengali actor Santu Mukhopadhyay recently passed away of cardiac arrest at Kolkata. He was known for his roles in Bengali films such as ‘Sansar Simante’ and ‘Bhalobasa Bhalobasa’.
The actor has performed in several memorable films and his acting career spanned a period of over four decades. He was born in 1951 in Kolkata and his debut movie was ‘Raja’ in the year 1975. The actor also featured in television serial shows and advertisements.

Notes:
ICDS-Common Application Software (CAS) is developed under the POSHAN Abhiyaan (Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition). It is a flagship programme to improve nutritional outcomes for children, pregnant women and lactating mothers.
Recently it was seen in news as the Women and Child Development Ministry announced that Anganwadi Workers are provided with Smart phone through States, for ICDS-Common Application Software developed under POSHAN Abhiyaan, for efficient service delivery and monitoring.

Notes:
India has appealed against the closure of Ambedkar House memorial to the United Kingdom government. Recently the UK accepted the proposal and announced that the memorial in in north London will remain open to visitors.
Earlier, the memorial faced closure due to a breach of planning norms for residential area. Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar lived in 1921-22 when he was studying at London School of Economics in Camden. The home was bought by the Maharashtra government and it was renovated into a memorial.

Notes:
The Goods and Services Tax Council chaired by the Union Finance Minister announced that it has decided to increase GST rates on mobile phones to 18 per cent from 12 per cent with effect from 1st of April.
The Council also waived the late fee for delayed filing of annual returns for the financial years 2018 and 2019 by entities with a turnover of less than Rs 2 crore. It also decided to reduce GST on maintenance, repair and overhaul services for aircraft to 5 per cent from 12 per cent. GST on handmade and machine-made matchsticks has been updated to 12 per cent.