Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
A meeting of the heads of countries of the SAARC alliance was held via video conferencing recently. Last time the leaders had a meeting together in November 2014.
During the meeting, the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi proposed a “Covid-19 emergency fund” to which India would provide $10 million as an initial contribution. He offered the services of a rapid response team of doctors armed with testing kits. The Prime Minister also offered online training for health workers in SAARC countries for upgrading skills to tackle Covid-19.

Notes:
Sadanand Fulzele, the founder secretary of the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Smarak Samiti, recently passed away at the age of 91.
The federation looks after Deekshabhoomi in Nagpur, the site of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism in 1956. Fulzele was a follower of Ambedkar’s ideologies and was instrumental in building the stupa at the place. Fulzele was also the Deputy Mayor of Nagpur when the leader converted along with over 6 lakh followers.

Notes:
The city of Kishangarh in Ajmer district of Rajasthan is called the ‘Marble city of India’. Recently the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) today flagged off the first-ever thrice-weekly flight from Indore to Kishangarh, under the RCS-UDAN scheme.
Star Air has been awarded the Indore-Kishangarh route during the UDAN 3 bidding process. With this route, the Civil Aviation Ministry has operationalised 268 routes under the UDAN scheme.

Notes:
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, also known as Bangabandhu was the Founder President of independent nation of Bangladesh. He led the movement against the Pakistani rulers in the then East Pakistan, which led to the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971.
His birth centenary was celebrated on March 17, this year in Bangladesh and across the world. The year-long celebration has been named as ‘Mujib Barsho’.

Notes:
Europe’s largest bank and multinational investment bank HSBC recently announced that it appointed Noel Quinn as Chief Executive officer.
Noel Quinn joined the HSBC bank in 1987 and took interim charge of HSBC last August after the sudden exit of the previous CEO John Flint. There have been several speculations regarding the appointment, which ended now as an insider has been appointed.

Notes:
The scientists at Himachal Pradesh based Council of Scientific & Industrial Research -Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (CSIR-IHBT) have developed a chemical-free hand sanitiser in India.
Due to the increasing demand for sanitisers amid the corona virus scare, many companies manufacture fake products. Hence the Scientists have developed this product with the natural constituents and alcohol content as per the guidelines of the World Health Organisation (WHO). Another firm is to commercially produce this sanitiser as per a new agreement.

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:
Manila-based Asian Development Bank recently announced an initial package of $6.5 billion (equivalent to ₹48,230 crore) to cater the immediate needs of its developing member countries in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.
As per the announcement of the Development bank, out of the total package, 3.6 billion will be made available to governments for addressing health and economic consequences of the pandemic and 1.6 billion for micro, small and medium enterprises, domestic and regional trade.

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:
Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) has launched an initiative called ‘Tech for Tribals’ in partnership with Institutes of National Importance (INIs) to promote entrepreneurship among tribal people.
The initiative, which is supported by Ministry of MSME, aims to impart entrepreneurship skills to tribal forest produce gatherers who are enrolled under the Pradhan Mantri VanDhan Yojana (PMVDY). The programme will be conducted for 30 days.