Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is conducting Open Market Operations (OMO) in the form of purchase of Rs 10,000 crore worth government securities.
This important step of the central bank has been announced at the backdrop of the increased risks of COVID-19 pandemic. The operation would increase the liquidity in the Indian economy and would help the financial market segments which are affected by the economic risks.

Notes:
Legendary India footballer P.K. Banerjee recently passed away at the age of 83. He was a member of the 1962 Asian Games gold-medal winning India football team.
The veteran football player scored 65 international goals in a total of 84 appearances for the national team. Banerjee represented India in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics and led India in the 1960 Rome Olympics. The international governing body of Football game, FIFA awarded him the Centennial Order of Merit in 2004.

Notes:
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh unveiled an updated manual DPP-2020 (Defence Procurement Procedure-2020).
For the last 18 years, this DPP is the procurement manual that has been used for governing the purchase of weapons and equipment from the defence capital budget. The 2020 draft version aims to promote more indigenous content in defence equipment which are manufactured in India. It also introduced ‘leasing’ as another category to make defence equipment affordable.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has appointed former RBI Deputy Governor R Gandhi and former banker Ananth Narayan on the board of Yes Bank.
They have been appointed as Additional directors on the board for two years. Ananth Narayan was serving as the regional head of financial markets in the Standard Chartered Bank. R Gandhi was earlier appointed to Yes Bank’s board last year. Prashant Kumar has been appointed Chief Executive of Yes Bank.

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:
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:
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 government recently approved to continue the scheme for Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies (RoSCTL) on export of garments beyond March 31.
It is to be continued till it is merged with the Remission of Duties and Taxes on Exported Products scheme (RoDTEP), which was introduced in last September. By continuing RoSCTL scheme, all taxes and levies in the textile sector which are not rebated under other mechanisms will be rebated.

Notes:
The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India recently made an announcement after the Monetary Policy committee (MPC) meeting, to tackle the crisis caused by Covid-19 pandemic.
RBI had advanced the MPC meeting due on March 31- April 3 to March 24-27. It has announced that the Cash Reserve Ratio has been decreased 100 bps to 3 per cent and the repo rate has been decreased to 4.4 per cent. Policy rate corridor has been widened from 50 to 65 bps. All commercial banks are permitted to allow a 3-month moratorium on repayment of term loan EMIs.