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 Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has recently approved the proposal of Department of fertilizers to remove ambiguities in the Modified New Pricing Scheme -III (NPS-III) in determining the fixed costs for the urea units.
The Modified NPS-III was notified on 2nd April, 2014 but it has not been implemented. This approval will result in providing a grant of additional fixed cost of Rs 350 per tonne to 30 urea manufacturing units and will reduce import dependency.

Notes:
The government has appointed Justice Bansi Lal Bhat as the officiating chairperson of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT).
He will replace the previous Chairperson Justice Sudhansu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya, who recently retired. Justice Bansi Lal Bhat is a former judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court and he is appointed for a period of three months with effect from 15.03.2020 or until a regular Chairperson is appointed or until further orders.

Notes:
The Union Government has sanctioned Rs 365 crore for constructing a new Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Sabroom along the India-Bangladesh border. It is the southernmost town in the north-eastern state of Tripura. This is the second ICP after Akhaura check post set up in 2013.
The state government of Tripura had sent the Sabroom ICP proposal to the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2016 for linking the bridge on river Feni with Chittagong port city of Bangladesh.

Notes:
Chameli Devi Jain Award is an annual award which has been presented since 1981 for outstanding performers in the field of Journalism. Chameli Devi Jain was a legendary freedom fighter and community reformer.
This year, the award for outstanding woman journalist was presented jointly to the Journalist of ‘The Wire’- Arfa Khanum Sherwani and a freelance journalist named Rohini Mohan. Arfa was chosen for her reporting from Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh while Rohini was awarded for her investigative coverage on the NRC exercise in Assam.

Notes:
The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet recently passed the ‘Recovery of Damage to Public Properties Ordinance 2020’ for recovery of losses caused by damage to public property during violent protests.
The decision which was taken in a cabinet meeting headed by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath aims to prevent loss of public property in the state. The damages in the violence shall be recovered from the rioters, as per the ordinance. This comes at the backdrop of several violent protests in the state against Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

Notes:
World Consumer Rights Day is celebrated every year on March 15 across the world to spread awareness about the rights and needs of a consumer. Several awareness programmes are held across the world on this day.
This year, the theme of the World Consumer Rights Day, according to the Consumers International organisation is – “Sustainable Consumer”. In India, 24th December is observed as National Consumer Day every year.

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:
The Indian Institute of Technology-Madras has recently launched a re-skilling programme for women called ‘Career Back 2 Women’.
The programme aims at offering 150 hours of training to re-skill women who have taken a break from their career. The certification course comprises of artificial intelligence, machine learning, cyber security data science and big data. This programme is done through the Institute’s Digital Skills Academy.

Notes:
The Union Health Ministry has issued a toll-free number 1075 for the public to inquire about coronavirus (COVID-19).
As the number of infections keeps rising, a high-level meeting of the Group of Ministers COVID-19 was held in New Delhi under the chairpersonship of Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan. Travel of passengers from member countries of the European Union, the European Free Trade Association, Turkey and the United Kingdom to India is prohibited.