Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
The 1952 javelin champion of Helsinki Olympics, Dana Zatopkova recently passed away at the age of 97. She belonged to and represented Czech Republic.
Her husband Emil Zatopek is also a four-time Olympic running champion. Zatopkova also won the Olympic silver in Rome in 1960. In 1958, the champion set the world record of 55.73 metres at the age of 35. She also became the European champion in 1954 and 1958.

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.

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:
The Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir, Baseer Ahmed Khan, a 2000-batch IAS officer, has been appointed as the fourth advisor to Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor G C Murmu. An order regarding the appointment was issued by Deputy Secretary, Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
The other three advisors are former CRPF DG Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar, who was appointed as the advisor on January this year, IPS officer Farooq Khan and IAS officer K K Sharma.

Notes:
As per the recent information from the Union Defence Ministry, the share of Indian companies in contracts awarded by the Union Defence Ministry for procurement of defence equipment is 75.03 per cent in 2019-20.
The share has increased from 39.06 per cent in 2015-16 to 75.03 per cent in 2019-20 as the Ministry tries to procure indigenously manufactured equipment to the maximum extent. In the last five years 158 contracts were signed with Indian vendors against 100 foreign contracts.

Notes:
The famous annual Chaitra Jatra festival is celebrated in the state of Odisha. The festival which was scheduled to be held on March 17 at the Tara Tarini hill shrine of the state was cancelled as a precautionary measure against COVID-19 outbreak.
According to the state officials, more than 1.5 lakh visitors usually arrive for the festival and some out of them reach the hill-top to offer prayers, as a part of the festival.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has extended the validity of authorization issued to IT service management company Vakrangee, to setup, own and operate the White Label ATMs (WLA) in India.
The validity of authorization has been extended till 31 March 2021. RBI has assigned a target of minimum 1,000 ATMS to be deployed by Vakrangee for three years starting from 2020, with the stipulated ratio in Metro & Urban, Semi-Urban and Rural regions.

Notes:
Roger Mayweather, who passed away recently at the age of 58, was a two-time world champion turned trainer in boxing.
He was also the uncle of the boxing star Floyd Mayweather, and trained him for most of the latter’s boxing career. Roger Mayweather had won world titles at super featherweight and super lightweight categories. During his 20-year boxing career, he gained a total of 59 triumphs.

Notes:
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is to organise the first Global AI Summit in India (RAISE 2020).
This was in news recently, as the AI summit was postponed to October 5-6, 2020 due to the rising number of cases of Covid-19. It was initially scheduled to be held in the month of April. The summit is to be attended by academics, AI start-ups and big tech firms.

Notes:
American actor-singer Kenny Rogers recently passed away at the age of 81. He was a three-time Grammy-winning singer.
The singer was famous for various genres of his music albums including jazz, folk, country and pop. Some of his popular musical works includes ‘Lucille,’ ‘Lady’ and ‘Islands in the Stream’. He was celebrated as a Superstar by his fans during 1970’s and 80’s.