Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
International Everest Day is celebrated on May 29, across the world every year. On the same day in the year 1953, Tenzing Norgay of Nepal and Edmund Hillary of New Zealand had successfully scaled the Mt. Everest.
The mountaineer duo were the first human beings to achieve the prestigious feat. Nepal decided to observe the day as International Everest Day since the climber Edmund Hillary passed away in the year 2008.

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:
The Union Government has recently launched a new micro-credit facility scheme named PM SVANIDHI – Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor’s Atmanirbhar Nidhi.
Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry launched the scheme, which aims to provide affordable loans to street vendors. The duration of the scheme is till March 2022 and is expected to benefit over 50 lakh street vendors. The vendors can avail a working capital loan of up to Rs 10000, which is repayable in monthly instalments in one-year tenure.

Notes:
After the United States President Donald Trump announced that the country is to terminate its relationship with the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is set to become the largest funder of WHO.
This would be the first time a private foundation is to become the biggest funder of a United Nations Agency. Among the present top 10 funders, only four are member countries, one is European Commission and the remaining are foundations or philanthropies.

Notes:
Apex Governing body of men and women’s hockey, Hockey India has recently nominated national women’s team captain Rani Rampal for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.
Rani Rampal is the first Indian to be named as the World Games Athlete of The Year. She played an important role in the FIH Olympic Qualifiers in 2019. Hockey India also nominated other players Vandana Kataria, Monika and Harmanpreet Singh for the Arjuna award.

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:
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister has given its approval for signing a Memorandum of Understanding between India and Bhutan on cooperation in the field of Environment.
Under the agreement, the countries will work together in the areas of environment protection including air, waste, chemical management, climate change and management of natural resources by taking into account the applicable legal provisions in each country.

Notes:
A tropical storm named Cristobal has been formed in the southern Gulf of Mexico. A heavy flood threat has been announced for Mexico.
Earlier in the year 2016, a tropical storm named Colin formed in the Gulf. As per the warning from the U.S. National Hurricane Center, the storm is expected to dip near the flood-prone city of Ciudad del Carmen and then make a northward turn and head towards the U.S. Gulf coast. It was formed from the miscellanies of the recent Tropical Storm Amanda.

Notes:
India is the sole contender for the Asia Pacific seat in non-permanent category of the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member.
The General Assembly of UNSC is to hold elections for the five non-permanent members of the Security Council on June 17. It has also proposed new secret ballot voting arrangements due to the Covid-19 restrictions. India has been elected as a non-permanent member of UNSC for seven terms starting from 1950-51 till 2011-12.

Notes:
The United General Assembly decided to commemorate 4 June of each year as the ‘International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression’.
The objective of the day is to acknowledge the pain of the children across the world who are the victims of physical, mental and emotional abuse. UN had also ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Moreover, the target 16.2 of the UN’s 2030 SDG agenda seeks to end all forms of violence against children.