Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
The city of Indore of Madhya Pradesh has become the first city in the country to deploy drones to sanitize city areas against the coronavirus outbreak by sprinkling chemicals.
The Municipal Corporation of Indore has hired two drones for sprinkling sanitising chemicals. Public places like vegetables markets and streets of the city are being disinfected by spraying. The chemicals are selected such that they are not harmful to the people.

Notes:
The SAARC Disaster Management Centre has recently launched a website for information related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the region.
The website shows the number of coronavirus cases in the SAARC member states with live updates on the count of active cases. This initiative was earlier proposed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the recent video conference with the leaders SAARC member nations.

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:
Bollywood film-maker Zoya Akhter was presented the IIFTC Tourism Impact Award 2020, at the Asia’s largest film tourism event, 8th India International Film Tourism Conclave (IIFTC), held recently in Mumbai.
The Director was selected for her outstanding contribution to the world tourism through her films which were shot in Spain and Turkey.

Notes:
The state government of Karnataka tabled the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Bill, 2020 in the Legislative Assembly. The Bill seeks to enable public participation in various levels of municipal governance.
The Bill also provides for an independent legislation and seeks to improve decentralisation, integration of public participation at various levels of municipal governance and also to ensure efficient decision making by the BBMP.

Notes:
The King of Saudi Arabia Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is set to chair an emergency virtual summit of G20 leaders, to accelerate the response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
At present, Saudi Arabia holds the G20 presidency and it called for the Virtual Leaders’ summit to be held on March 26. This is the first meeting of the G20 leaders after the world has been affected by the outbreak of coronavirus.

Notes:
Scientists at Agharkar Research Institute (ARI), Pune, which is an autonomous institute under the Department of Science & Technology, have developed a biofortified high-protein wheat variety MACS 4028.
The development of the crop was published in the Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant Breeding. It is a semi-dwarf variety which exhibits a higher yielding ability of 19.3 quintals per hectare. It is claimed to be resistant to several pests and diseases unlike the normal wheat varieties.

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.

Notes:
The G-20’s first ever virtual summit, chaired by Saudi Arabia, was recently held through video conferencing. Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi also attended the virtual meeting.
Leaders of the G20 major economies pledged to restore global growth and infuse over $5 trillion into the global economy. The countries also vowed to take necessary steps to minimize the economic and social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Notes:
National Book Trust of the Union Human Resource Development Ministry has launched a campaign called ‘StayHomeIndiaWithBooks’, to encourage people to stay home amid the Covid 19 pandemic.
As a part of this initiative, NBT is making its select and best-selling books available for free Download. More than 100 books are made available in PDF format and can be downloaded from the website of NBT.