Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
As per the recent announcement of the International Cricket Council, Indian bowler Poonam Yadav is the only Indian player to feature in the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup team of the tournament.
Poonam Yadav secured ten wickets in the tournament, including four wickets in the opening match of the tournament against the host Australia. Another Teen-aged Indian player Shafali Verma has been selected as the 12th member of the team. She scored 163 runs in the tournament and reached the top spot in ICC T20 rankings.

Notes:
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) recently released its annual “Trends in international arms transfers 2019” report.
As per the report, India retained its rank as the world’s second largest arms importer during 2015-19. The five largest arms importers during the five-year period were Saudi Arabia, India, Egypt, Australia and China, which was 36% of all arms imports together. Russia remaining the largest supplier of arms.

Notes:
The Largest lender of India, State Bank of India (SBI) recently announced that the penalty charges for non-maintenance of average monthly balance (AMB) for all its savings bank accounts are to be waived.
At present, the customers shall have to maintain average monthly balance of ₹3000, ₹2000 and ₹1000 in metro, semi urban and rural areas respectively. The Bank levies a penalty of ₹5 to ₹15 plus taxes when average monthly balance is not maintained. Now the penalty has been waived for all its 44.51 Crore savings bank account holders. The bank also lowered interest rate on all SB accounts to 3%.

Notes:
World Economic Forum (WEF) released its new list of 115 Young Global Leaders. As per the report, these young global leaders from 52 countries under the age of forty are working in their respective fields to change the world and are called ‘change-makers’.
Five Indians are named in the coveted list including Byju Classes’ founder Byju Raveendran, Zomato’s co-founder Gaurav Gupta, Tara Singh Vachani (CEO of Antara Senior Living), Vinati Mutreja (Managing Director and CEO, Vinati Organics Limited), and Swapan Mehra (CEO, IORA Ecological Solutions).

Notes:
As per the recent notification of the Reserve Bank of India, Current Account Deficit (CAD) was 0.2% of GDP in December quarter when compared to 0.9% of GDP in the September quarter.
It also stated that the CAD narrowed to 1% of GDP in April to December of 2019-20 when compared to 2.6% in April-December of 2018-19. The main reason for the easing was the reduction in the trade deficit which decreased to $118.9 billion in April-December 2019-20.

Notes:
Indian mountaineer Bhawna Dehariya has successfully scaled Mount Kosciuszko, the highest mountain peak of Australia.
The mountaineer had scaled Mount Everest and Mount Kilimanjaro last year and has successfully climbed the 2,228-metres Mount Kosciuszko now. Bhawna Dehariya hails from the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

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 Saurashtra cricket team led by an inspiring skipper Jaydev Unadkat recently won the maiden Ranji trophy of the team.
At the final clash on the fifth and final day at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot, the team stopped Bengal cricket team from clinching the trophy. There were several outstanding performers in the tournament including Arpita Vasavada, who scored a hundred in both semi-final and final, all-rounder Chirag Jani and Sheldon Jackson, who scored over 800 runs for the second successive season.

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:
National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research, Bengaluru
Scientists at the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune have isolated 11 strains of the Covid-19, which is the first step towards developing a vaccine for containing a disease. India has become the fifth country to successfully isolate the strains.
NIV Pune is a part of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), which has more than 6,500 samples of 5,900 individuals. It is also the testing agency for the virus and has expanded its network of labs equipped to test Covid-19 from 51 to 65.