Current Affairs Quiz - July, 2020

Notes:
National Productivity Council (NPC) is a national level autonomous organization under the administrative control of the Department for Promotion of Industry & Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, to promote productivity culture in India.
Recently, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal chaired the 49th Governing Council Meeting of National Productivity Council (NPC).

Notes:
The electoral commission of the East African country Malawi has declared opposition alliance leader. Lazarus Chakwera, as the winner of the country’s presidential re-election.
The result of the previous May 2019 election has been declared invalid by the constitutional court, over allegations of irregularities. Lazarus Chakwera secured the required majority defeating the incumbent President Peter Mutharika, who has been in power since 2014.

Notes:
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) is a United Nations office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, headquartered at Vienna, Austria.
According to the latest UNODC World Drug Report, about 26.9 crore people used drugs in 2018, which was 30% more than the 2009 count. The largest share of drug users comprised of adolescents and young adults. Overall opioid users in India is estimated to have increased five times, as compared to those in 2004.

Notes:
The state government of Maharashtra has launched the world’s largest convalescent plasma therapy project named PLATINA, for treating COVID-19.
The trial-cum-project is expected to save at least 500 lives of critically-ill Covid-19 patients in the state. The trial will be carried out in government medical colleges and BMC medical colleges. All critical patients will receive two doses of 200 ml of convalescent plasma under the project, free of cost.

Notes:
International Day of the Tropics is celebrated every year on 29 June. The United Nations General Assembly declared the day in the year 2016.
The International Day of the Tropics was designated to raise awareness to the specific challenges faced by tropical areas. June 29 was selected because on the same day in 2014, the inaugural State of the Tropics Report was launched by leading tropical research institutions.

Notes:
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has recently released the ‘State of World Population 2020’ report.
UNFPA is the sexual and reproductive health agency of the United Nations (UN) located in New York. As per the report, the number of missing women has more than doubled over the past 50 years, from 61 million in 1970 to 142.6 million in 2020. Out of that, India accounts for 45.8 million of missing females of the world.

Notes:
An Artificial Intelligence enabled digital platform of the Indian Government named MyGov Corona Helpdesk bagged two awards at the Global Leadership Summit, CogX 2020.
The helpdesk bagged two awards under categories namely “Best Innovation for Covid-19 – Society” and “People’s Choice Covid-19 Overall Winner”. CogX 2020 is a prestigious Global Festival of AI & Emerging Technology held annually in London.

Notes:
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has released the Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report.
As per the report, 40% of poorest countries failed to support learners at risk during COVID-19 crisis. It also revealed that fewer than 10% of countries have laws that help ensure inclusion in education. UNESCO urged all countries to focus on people who are left behind and improve inclusion.

Notes:
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has constituted a national level committee for reform in criminal law.
The committee is to be headed by Ranbir Singh, who is the Vice-Chancellor, National Law University-Delhi. The committee has many veteran legal academicians and it has invited opinions online on the possible reforms in the Indian Penal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure and Indian Evidence Act.

Notes:
India celebrates National Doctor’s Day on July 1 each year, in honour of the birth and death anniversary of Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy.
He was a veteran physician of the country and the second Chief minister of West Bengal. Indian Government established the Doctor’s Day in the year of 1991. This year, the theme of the day is “Lessen the mortality of COVID-19”.