Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

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:
The Gollapudi Srinivas National Award 2019 is to be presented jointly to two debutant film-makers for the first time since 23 years of its inception.
Aditya Dhar for the Hindi film ‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’ and Madhu C. Narayanan for the Malayalam movie ‘Kumbalangi Nights’ are selected as the winners. Both the filmmakers will be awarded at a ceremony in Chennai. The award was established in 1998 after Gollapudi Srinivas, a young director, who passed away tragically.

Notes:
The Union Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar recently informed that the number of job seekers in the country marginally declined between 2015 and 2017 from 4.35 crore in 2015 to 4.24 crore in 2017.
This is the count of job seekers who registered on live register of employment exchanges. The minister also added that all of them may not necessarily be unemployed. The Labour bureau has revamped quarterly employment survey (QES) with the objective to measure relative change in employment situation.

Notes:
Scientists from the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science & Technology, have developed a material called ‘Hemostat’.
It is a starch-based ‘hemostat’ developed to stop rapid blood loss during accidents, as it physically absorbs excess fluid and concentrates the natural clotting factors in blood. The product possesses increased absorption capacity, improved absorption, inexpensive and biodegradable.

Notes:
Business application Khatabook entered into a strategic partnership with former Indian cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
M.S.Dhoni is set to invest in the firm and also serve as their brand ambassador. Khatabook is an application which helps MSMEs to streamline their business transactions online. The start-up firm has recently crossed 2 crore registered merchants on its app.

Notes:
A bill that seeks to convert three existing regulatory bodies under the Civil Aviation Ministry into statutory bodies was passed by Lok Sabha. The Aircraft (Amendment) Bill, 2020 was passed by a voice vote and the bill seeks to amend Aircraft Act, 1934.
The regulatory institutions, which are mentioned in the bill are DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation), BCAS (Bureau of Civil Aviation Security) and AAIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau).

Notes:
S&P Global Ratings lowered India’s economic growth forecast to 5.2 per cent for the year 2020. The rating agency had earlier predicted the growth rate of 5.7% for 2020.
The agency also estimated that the Asia-Pacific economic growth in 2020 will dip to less than 3 per cent. It also revealed that saying the global economy is entering a recession amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

Notes:
Centre for Media Studies (CMS) in partnership with World Health Organization (WHO) is implementing a media fellowship programme on road safety, called WHO Road Safety Media Fellowship.
Recently it was offered to 12 journalists based in Delhi and Karnataka from print, broadcast and online media of Hindi, English and Kannada languages. The fellowship is aimed at improving the capacities of journalists in coverage of news related to road safety.

Notes:
The Fifteenth Finance Commission is to set up a panel soon, which will examine the fiscal and debt situation of the Centre and states.
This panel is to be headed by the Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission N.K.Singh. It will present a road map on the lines of the erstwhile Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management panel, which was also headed by N.K.Singh. The panel may include or receive suggestions from former RBI Governor Urjit Patel, former chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian among others.

Notes:
In a ceremony at iconic Panathenaic stadium of Athens, Greece has handed over the Olympic flame to Tokyo 2020 organisers.
The ceremony did not include the planned cultural ceremonies from Greece or Japan, due to COVID-19 pandemic. The Governing Olympic body of Greece, Hellenic Olympic Committee’s President Spyros Capralos handed the torch over to the Tokyo Organising Committee. The Hellenic Olympic Committee organises the lighting ceremony of Olympic Torch and its relay in Greece.