Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
The most populous state of the country, Uttar Pradesh is planning to provide cash transfers to daily-wage labourers to protect them from income loss in economic slowdown due to COVID-19.
The state has set up a panel to study the proposal for transferring cash directly to bank accounts of labourers. The report is expected to be submitted within three days. Several countries have already launched ‘stimulus package’ to protect their economy and working population.

Notes:
Centre for Media Studies (CMS) in partnership with World Health Organization (WHO) is implementing a media fellowship programme on road safety, called WHO Road Safety Media Fellowship.
Recently it was offered to 12 journalists based in Delhi and Karnataka from print, broadcast and online media of Hindi, English and Kannada languages. The fellowship is aimed at improving the capacities of journalists in coverage of news related to road safety.

Notes:
The state government of Uttarakhand issued orders to remove reservation in promotions for SC/ST employees.
In the month of February 2020, the Supreme Court stated that the government is not bound to make reservations and claiming reservation in promotions is not a fundamental right. Now Uttarakhand government has implemented government order which bans reservation in promotion and removed the restriction in promotions in all state government departments.

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:
The United Nations introduced Language Days in 2010, to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity of various languages.
The United Nations celebrates six Language Days each year, dedicated to the six official languages of the UN, namely Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish. Among them, the ‘French Language Day’ is celebrated on March 20, which marks the creation of the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF).

Notes:
The International Day of Happiness is celebrated on March 20 all over the world. The General Assembly of the United Nations proclaimed 20 March the International Day of Happiness in 2012.
The day is celebrated to highlight the relevance of happiness as universal goal in the lives of human beings and to reflect it in public policy objectives. The resolution to the United Nations was initiated by Bhutan, the country which adopted the goal of Gross National Happiness over Gross National Product.

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:
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 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.