Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
World Poetry Day is celebrated on March 21 every year across the world. During the UNESCO’s session held in Paris, in 1999, it was decided that 21 March shall be celebrated as World Poetry Day.
One of the prime objectives of the Poetry Day is to support linguistic diversity through poetry and to provide opportunity to the endangered languages to be heard within their communities. The Day also encourages oral tradition of poetry recitals and teaching of poetry.

Notes:
The United Nations General Assembly declared 21 March as the International Day of Forests in 2012. United Nations Forum on Forests and the Food and Agriculture Organization are the main organisers of the Forest Day.
The Day is celebrated to raise awareness about the importance of all types of forests. The theme for each International Day of Forests is selected by the Collaborative Partnership on Forests. The theme for 2020 is Forests and Biodiversity.

Notes:
In 2013, the United Nations General Assembly announced the decade commencing 1 January 2015 and ending on 31 December 2024 as the International Decade for People of African Descent. The theme of the international decade is “People of African descent: recognition, justice and development”
Every year, March 21st is celebrated as ‘International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’ across the world.

Notes:
On the World Water Day, which falls on March 22, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that between 3.5 and 4.4 billion people in the world will live with limited access to water.
He also announced that out of the people with limited access, more than 1 billion of them would be in major cities. He revealed that the world’s water resources are under threat and 2.2 billion people and 4.2 billion people lack safe drinking water and sanitation facilities respectively.

Notes:
Veteran Kollywood Director cum Actor M.R. Viswanathan, who was popularly known as Visu, passed away at the age of 75.
Besides being a stage artist, he had also worked as a screen writer for several famous Tamil films. He was famous for his witty and funny one-liners. He acted in more than 60 films and directed nearly 25 films, most of which were celebrated by people then.

Notes:
Canada became the first major country to pull out of the Tokyo Olympics over coronavirus fears. Australia has also directed its athletes to prepare for the 2021 games, as it could not be held this year.
Earlier, the Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe has announced for the first time that the Olympic Games might get postponed. The International Olympic Committee is expected to decide about the schedule of the games soon, which had been planned to commence from July 24 this year.

Notes:
One of the founders of bacteriology, German physician Robert Koch, discovered the anthrax disease cycle and the bacteria responsible for tuberculosis and cholera. He received the Nobel Prize for Physiology in 1905 for his research on tuberculosis. To commemorate the day of his discovery, World Tuberculosis day is being celebrated on March 24.
Government of India has committed to eliminate prevalence of TB by 2025, by formulating National Strategic Plan (NSP) for Tuberculosis Elimination (2017-2025) and campaigns like “TB Harega Desh Jeetega”.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet has recently approved the signing and ratification of an extradition treaty between India and Belgium.
This ratification will enable the two countries to repatriate any person who is accused or convicted in an extraditable offence. An offence punishable under the laws of both the countries with imprisonment for one year or more is called an extraditable offence. The treaty would give a legal framework for extradition of terrorists, economic offenders and other criminals from and to Belgium.

Notes:
Chief Minister of Odisha Naveen Patnaik launched ‘Mo Jeeban’ programme and advised people to take a pledge for staying indoors to fight the coronavirus outbreak.
The Chief Minister asked people to take oaths of staying indoors and send him those videos. He also asked the people to paste a sticker on the gate of their houses to show their determination to follow this direction.

Notes:
The CRISIL rating agency recently announced its estimate on growth rate of India for 2020-21 as 3.5 per cent. The agency had earlier projected the growth rate of India to be 5.2 per cent for the next financial year.
The recent pandemic outbreak in India and the resulting 21-day consequent lockdown are the main reasons for the agency to slash the growth rate. It also announced that the dip in growth will be concentrated in the first half of the next fiscal whereas the second half would see a mild recovery.