Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, has released the Provisional Estimates of National Income for the financial year 2019-20.
As per the data, the Indian economy grew by 4.2 percent in the year 2019-20, as compared to the 6.1 percent growth in 2018-19. This GDP growth rate is said to be the lowest in past 11 years. Also, during the January-March (final) quarter of the year 2019-20, the growth rate of GDP fell to 3.1%. The Per Capita Income (real) had a growth of 3.1 percent during 2019-20, as against 4.8 per cent in the previous year.

Notes:
The United Nations General Assembly has recently adopted a new voting procedure for the upcoming election of new members of the Security Council.
This change is due to the restrictions for large gathering and to ensure social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic. Usually, the assembly meet in a horseshoe-shaped assembly chamber at UN headquarters. But now, the ambassadors from 193 UN member nations will cast secret ballots at predetermined places and time slots.

Notes:
California-based American aerospace manufacturing and space transportation services firm SpaceX has become the first private company to send astronauts into space.
The firm is owned by the tech-billionaire Elon Musk. The Crew Dragon spacecraft of SpaceX carried two astronauts of NASA Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station (ISS). Earlier, this feat has been achieved by the governments of the United States, Russia and China. The US halted to use its own shuttles nine years ago.

Notes:
G7 is an association of seven of the world’s largest economies namely the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan. Previously it included Russia and was called the G-8.
The 47th G7 summit was originally scheduled to be held in the month of June 2020, at Camp David, United States. The US President Donald Trump recently announced that he is postponing the 47th summit to September or November. He also suggested to expand the G7 bloc to include India, Australia, South Korea and Russia.

Notes:
As per the recent announcement from the Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry, three more States namely Odisha, Sikkim and Mizoram have recently joined the ‘One Nation-One Ration Card’ scheme.
This addition has taken the total number of states and union territories that have joined the scheme to 20. In the three states, the necessary infrastructure work for joining the scheme including upgradation of electronic Point of Sale (e-PoS) software have been completed.

Notes:
The Agriculture Ministry has released its second advance estimates of total horticulture production in 2019-20.
As per the estimate, the total horticulture production would be 320.48 million tonnes in this year, which is 3.13% higher than last year. The production of fruits is estimated to be 99.07 million tonnes as compared to 97.97 million tonnes in 2018-19. The total production of vegetables is estimated to be 191.77 million tonnes as compared to 183.17 million tonnes in 2018-19.

Notes:
The Central Government has initiated a consultation process for formulation of a new national Science, Technology and Innovation Policy (STIP 2020).
To formulate this policy, the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) have jointly initiated a decentralised process. This is the 5th Science and Technology policy of the country.

Notes:
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to have his first ever virtual bilateral summit with the Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison.
As per the statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs, as the Australian head’s visit to India was cancelled due to Covid-19 crisis, this virtual summit is taking place. The leaders will discuss their responses to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. This summit is expected to promote the bilateral tie

Notes:
The Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Ministry of External Affairs have jointly launched a new initiative named SWADES.
SWADES stands for Skilled Workers Arrival Database for Employment Support. Since many Indian citizens are returning under Vande Bharat Mission, this scheme aims to conduct a skill mapping exercise of the qualified people. The information will be shared with the companies for suitable job opportunities in the country.

Notes:
Indian writer Kritika Pandey has won the regional award for Asia of the prestigious Commonwealth Short Story Prize for this year.
The writer was selected for her work titled ‘The Great Indian Tee and Snakes’. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best unpublished short fiction, every year. She had also been earlier nominated for the Pushcart Prize. To be eligible for the award, one must be a commonwealth citizen aged above 18 years.