Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
The Necurs is a botnet and is one of the largest networks in the spam-mail threat system. It has infected more than nine million computers worldwide. Botnet means a computer network which is infected with malware, through which cyber criminals gain access to computers.
It was seen in news recently as Microsoft and its partners across 35 countries took legal and technical steps to disrupt Necurs botnet.

Notes:
The civil aviation exhibition and air-show ‘Wings India 2020’ has commenced in the capital city of Telangana, Hyderabad.
It is a biennial event organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Airports Authority of India (AAI). The event was planned to be held for four days but was later reduced to a two-day event from March 12-14.

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:
Mumbai headquartered IDFC FIRST Bank recently announced that it has appointed veteran Bollywood celebrity Amitabh Bachchan as its first ever brand ambassador.
The IDFC bank was originally founded in 2015. It was founded as a new entity after the merger of IDFC Bank and Capital First in December 2018. At present, the bank has 424 bank branches with 104 asset branches and 272 ATMs.

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:
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.

Notes:
Sadanand Fulzele, the founder secretary of the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Smarak Samiti, recently passed away at the age of 91.
The federation looks after Deekshabhoomi in Nagpur, the site of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism in 1956. Fulzele was a follower of Ambedkar’s ideologies and was instrumental in building the stupa at the place. Fulzele was also the Deputy Mayor of Nagpur when the leader converted along with over 6 lakh followers.

Notes:
Microsoft Bing team has launched a web portal for tracking COVID-19 infections worldwide. The interactive website has been developed to provide up-to-date infection statistics for each country.
It also features an interactive map for number of cases for specific location and related articles from publishers. The portal hosts the data from reliable sources like the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Notes:
A bench headed by Justice DY Chandrachud pronounced the landmark judgment, which ordered the government to grant permanent commission to female officers in Indian Navy.
After Indian Army, the female officers of Indian Navy are also to be granted permanent commission, which will let them serve for 14 years against the Short Service Commission (SSC), in which they retire in 10 years.

Notes:
Manila-based Asian Development Bank recently announced an initial package of $6.5 billion (equivalent to ₹48,230 crore) to cater the immediate needs of its developing member countries in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.
As per the announcement of the Development bank, out of the total package, 3.6 billion will be made available to governments for addressing health and economic consequences of the pandemic and 1.6 billion for micro, small and medium enterprises, domestic and regional trade.