Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

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:
Hillel Furstenberg of Israel and Russian-American Gregory Margulis are the recipients of the prestigious Abel Prize for the year 2020, one of the highest awards in the field of Mathematics.
The two mathematicians were selected for introducing the use of methods from probability and dynamics in group theory, number theory and combinatorics. They were the first to use randomness to make the certainties of mathematics easily understandable by the people.

Notes:
The country’s largest bank State Bank of India (SBI) announced that it will provide 0.25% of its annual profit for the year 2019-20 to support health care for underprivileged people and fight the coronavirus pandemic.
As per the statement of the bank, the contribution will be made from CSR funds. The government has recently notified spending by companies for tackling the coronavirus outbreak as corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity under the Companies law. Recently SBI opened an emergency credit line to meet any liquidity mismatch for its borrowers.

Notes:
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has introduced an Artificial Intelligence (AI) bot, called ‘Clara’ to assist people in finding the potential symptoms of COVID-19.
The CDC has collaborated with CDC Foundation and Healthcare Bot service of Microsoft Azure to develop the self-checking bot Clara. It is currently available only in the United States on the CDC website. It provides information about the disease, suggests the course of action and helps to handle the illness at home.

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:
The Scientists from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG), Dehradun have recently found that glaciers in Sikkim are melting at a higher magnitude than other Himalayan regions. The Institute is an autonomous research institute for the study of Geology of the Himalayas, under the Department of Science and Technology.
The study, which has been published in Science of the Total Environment, revealed that glaciers in Sikkim have deglaciated at a higher magnitude from 1991 to 2015. They also revealed that small-sized glaciers in Sikkim are disappearing and larger glaciers are thinning due to climate change.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation implements the Members of Parliament Local Area Development (MPLAD) Scheme.
As per the ministry’s latest notification, the Members of Parliament can use the funds allotted to them under the MPLAD scheme to buy testing kits and other medical equipment needed to fight coronavirus pandemic. ₹5 crore is given to every member of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, per year under the MPLAD scheme to use for developing the community.

Notes:
Under the Drugs & Cosmetics Rules, those drugs classified under Schedule H1 should not be sold over the counter. The schedule was introduced in the year 2013.
Earlier, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recommended the drug for front line medical workers and high risk-people who were in contact with the coronavirus infected patient. As common people rushed to buy this medicine in large numbers, there were reports of hoarding and shortage of this medicine.

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.

Notes:
The Central Government recently unveiled a Rs. 1.7 lakh crore worth fiscal stimulus to help people tackle the lock down amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Among various measures announced by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, it was notified that the MGNREGA wages will rise to Rs 202 per day per person from the earlier daily wage of Rs 182. This step is expected to benefit 136.2 million families.