Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
Recently, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has pledged 5 Million US dollars to the COVID-19 SAARC Emergency fund, which was proposed by Prime minister Narendra Modi.
This Emergency Fund will as a security blanket for the SAARC countries, which can be used by the countries for dealing with issues related to COVID-19. After India made an initial contribution of 10 million US Dollars, other SAARC member countries also started pledging to the fund.

Notes:
The birth anniversary of Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, was recently observed on March 23. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tributes to the leader.
Ram Manohar Lohia was born on 23 March 1910 and was one of the founders of the Congress Socialist Party. He was also the editor of the Congress Socialist journal. He had also as the secretary of the Foreign Department of the All India Congress Committee (A.I.C.C)

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:
India’s largest lender State Bank of India has recently unveiled an emergency credit line to meet liquidity mismatch for its borrowers, amid the coronavirus pandemic scare.
The additional liquidity facility called Covid-19 Emergency Credit Line (CECL) will provide credit up to 200 crore rupees. This loan facility will be available till June 30 where the loan will be offered at an interest rate of 7.25 per cent with a 12-month tenure.

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 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 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 Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the construction of 22 km-long railway flyover between Aligarh-Harduaganj in Uttar Pradesh.
The project entails an estimated cost of ₹1,285 crore to remove traffic jam in the area. This project is expected to curb the delays and detention of trains at Aligarh junction. The flyover project is expected to be completed by 2024-25.

Notes:
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved a Rs 1,340-crore recapitalisation plan for the weak regional rural banks (RRBs).
This recapitalisation will help them to improve their capital to risk weighted assets ratio (CRAR) during the financial year 2020-21, as they are stipulated to maintain a minimum CRAR of 9 per cent. The Centre and the respective sponsor banks provide the funds in the ratio 50:50, as they fund Rs. 670 Cr each.

Notes:
The Government of India has launched a mobile application to track the risk of coronavirus infection called ‘Corona Kavach’.
The application is jointly developed by the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It uses the person’s location to assess if they are in the high risk geographical zone. It is now available in beta version in the Google Play Store.