Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
National Mission for Clean Ganga which functions under the Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation-Ministry of Jal Shakti organised its flagship rafting and kayaking expedition programme called “Ganga Amantran Abhiyan”.
The exploratory open-water rafting programme was organised from Devprayag (Uttarakhand) to Gangasagar (West Bengal). The programme which concluded recently allowed people to connect with the river Ganga.

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:
The competition authority of France recently slapped a record 1.1 billion euro (equivalent to $1.2 billion) fine on US tech major Apple.
The fine was imposed for the firm’s anti-competitive behaviour towards its independent retail distributors. The country’s authority announced that it found Apple prevented independent retailers in France from competing on price and allegedly used its economic power on them.

Notes:
The Prime Minister of Russia recently announced that the country will create a $4 billion (300-billion rouble) anti-crisis fund with an aim of protecting its economy from the coronavirus attack.
He also announced that Russia may miss its growth targets this year and international markets have been crashed by the impact of the virus. Huge drop in the price of Russia’s main export, Oil has made its economy dip and made its currency rouble being pegged at four-year lows against the dollar. The country is set to unveil new support measures would include tax breaks for tourism companies and airlines.

Notes:
The former Chief Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi has been nominated to Rajya Sabha by the President Ram Nath Kovind, as per the notification of the Union Home Ministry
The nomination is done to fill the vacancy arising due to retirement of one of the members. The maximum strength of Rajya Sabha is 250 members out of which 12 are nominated by the President of India. Gogoi was the 46th Chief Justice in India and was known for his several landmark judgments.

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 most populous state of the country, Uttar Pradesh is planning to provide cash transfers to daily-wage labourers to protect them from income loss in economic slowdown due to COVID-19.
The state has set up a panel to study the proposal for transferring cash directly to bank accounts of labourers. The report is expected to be submitted within three days. Several countries have already launched ‘stimulus package’ to protect their economy and working population.

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:
Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) approved the procurement of 83 Tejas fighter aircrafts, which are manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
The Light Combat Aircraft Tejas is indigenously designed by Aircraft Development Agency (ADA) under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). This order of 83 air-crafts is in addition to the previous order of 43 air-crafts approved earlier.

Notes:
Facebook-owned WhatsApp has recently announced the global launch of “WhatsApp Coronavirus Information Hub” in partnership with the World Health Organization, United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and the United Nations Development Program.
It has also contributed $1m to the Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), to enhance the fact-checking network to curb fake news and rumours around coronavirus.