Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
Global rating agency Moody’s Investors Service has revised downward its growth projections for India to 5.3% for 2020 from its earlier projection earlier this month-5.4%.
The latest revision is part of the rating agency’s latest ‘Global Macro Outlook’ report. As per the agency, an extensive crash due to the COVID-19 outbreak will reduce growth to 5% during the same calendar year. The OECD last week lowered India’s growth forecast for 2020-21 to 5.1%

Notes:
Google India unveiled DigiPivot, a skill development programme for women who seek to return to their corporate careers after a break or plan to shift to digital marketing career.
The programme is developed in association with a career portal service for women-Avtar and the Indian School of Business. The programme aims to provide an opportunity for 200 women professionals to re-skill themselves.

Notes:
The Qutb Shahi Tombs were in news recently, as the United States Ambassador to India Kenneth Juster announced the completion of a US-funded restoration project of the tombs of Taramati and Premamati within the Qutb Shahi Tombs complex.
They are 17th century tombs located in Telangana’s capital city of Hyderabad. In February 2019, the Ambassador had partnered with Aga Khan Foundation and announced a $ 103,000 grant through the Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. In 2014, the tombs received a similar grant for mapping and documenting the place’s structures.

Notes:
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has recently updated the ‘Inclusive Internet Index 2020’ list, which includes 100 countries of the world.
As per the updated list, Sweden topped the 2020 index followed by New Zealand and the United States. India’s rank in the list is 46 this year, which is a rank higher than last year’s rank of 47. In the readiness pillar, India is ranked 12th in the list. But it has a poor performance in the pillar of ‘Ensuring female access to the Internet’. India is also the top ranker among South Asian countries.

Notes:
The US Congress approved a resolution to restrain the US President Donald Trump from attacking Iran. The House of Representatives joined the Senate in support of the resolution.
As per the resolution, no military action shall be taken against Iran without an explicit vote from the Congress. Earlier, a rocket fired on a military base north of Baghdad killed an American soldier, a British soldier and a US contractor. In January 2020, Trump ordered a drone strike that killed Iran’s military general, Qassem Soleimani, at the Baghdad airport of Iraq.

Notes:
World Athletics Council imposed a USD 10 million on the Athletics Federation of Russia (RusAF) for breaching anti-doping rules.
World Athletics has capped the number of Authorised Neutral Athletes (ANA) allowed to compete in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and other specified senior events at 10. However, the number of authorised neutral athletes that can compete in international events is not restricted.

Notes:
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the founder of e-commerce major Alibaba Group, Jack Ma gained the top position in Asia, replacing Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani.
Mukesh Ambani gave up $5.8 billion from his net worth due to the recent freefall in oil prices. The severe impact of the COVID-19 epidemic and the recent crash in the oil markets made him follow the Chinese billionaire Jack Ma. Ambani’s current net worth amounts to $41.8 billion whereas that of Jack Ma amounts to $44.5 billion.

Notes:
The Government has notified the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Rules, 2020 which enables implementation of recent amendments to the Act. Under the new rules, punishment for child abuse has been made more stringent.
The rules state that any person who has received any pornographic material involving a child or any information regarding such material being stored, distributed or is likely to be distributed in any manner shall report the contents to the Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU) or Police or the cybercrime portal.

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:
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.