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:
World Meteorological Day is celebrated on 23rd March of every year, which commemorates the inception of the Convention which established the World Meteorological Organization on the same day in 1950.
Since 1961, the Geneva headquartered World Meteorological Organization has been celebrating World Meteorological Day with a unique theme. “Climate and Water” is the theme of this year’s World Meteorological Day.

Notes:
Senior leader of the Bharathiya Janata Party, Shivraj Singh Chauhan recently took oath as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh for the fourth time.
The leader had ruled the state for nearly thirteen years, before Kamal Nath won in the assembly elections in December 2018. Now Kamal Nath has resigned after 22 rebel MLAs who were the supporters of Jyotiraditya Scindia, who recently joined BJP, resigned.

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:
America-based Heritage Foundation released its Index of Economic Freedom last week. Singapore emerged as the top nation in the index and overtook Hong Kong as the world’s most independent and free economy.
Singapore achieved this feat for the first time since 1995, the report was first published. Hong Kong has ever been placed at the top since then. India is ranked in 120th position in the report and It improved its score by 1.3 points from 2019 to score 56.5 in 2020

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:
A specialised agency of the United Nations- International Telecommunication Union (ITU) launched ‘The Global Network Resiliency Platform’.
The platform aims to ensure availability of telecommunication services during the ongoing coronavirus crisis. The new platform will assist governments and the private sector by ensuring that the networks are kept strong and telecommunication services are made available to all.

Notes:
The Indian arm of then US-based retailer Walmart recently announced the appointment of Sameer Aggarwal as the Chief executive officer of its Best Price Modern Wholesale stores in India.
Sameer Aggarwal is promoted as CEO and will replace Krish Iyer, who is to retire from the top post. Krish Iyer will continue to serve as the advisor to Best Price, Walmart India. Sameer had joined Walmart as executive Vice president in 2018 and was made the Deputy CEO in January 2020.

Notes:
Renowned photographer Nemai Ghosh passed away recently at Kolkata at the age of 86. He was known for his long and close association with the legendary film-maker Satyajit Ray.
He worked in several movies of Satyajit Ray as a still photographer. Associated in the photography field for nearly 50 years, he was also the recipient of the Padma Shri award in 2010. He was the author of several books including ‘Satyajit Ray at 70’, ‘Satyajit Ray: A Vision of Cinema’ and ‘Manik-Da: Memories of Satyajit Ray’.

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.