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:
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:
Major technology company Microsoft has announced the launch of a programme named “Microsoft for Agritech Startups”.
The programme is to focus on the start-ups that are committed to driving transformation in agriculture. The programme seeks to assist start-ups in building industry-specific solutions, access to deep technology and markets. The selected start-ups can also get access to Azure FarmBeats, an aggregation platform available in Azure Marketplace.

Notes:
The Expert Committees on Rationalisation/Closure/Merger of Film Media Units and the committee on Review of Autonomous Bodies under the aegis of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting submitted their report to the Union I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar.
The committees were headed by Bimal Julka with an objective of rationalisation and professionalisation of institutes related to film activities. The committee recommended specific roadmaps for the development of institutes including National Film Development Corporation, Films division, Children’s Film Society of India among others.

Notes:
The National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) recently released the State of India’s Birds report. As per the report, 15 bird species of Kerala have been flagged among ‘species of concern’.
The bird species on the list include Banasura, Ashambu laughingthrushes, White-bellied Sholakili, Broad-tailed grassbird, Nilgiri thrush, Nilgiri pipit and White-rumped vulture among others. The authorities said that the entry of two bird species- Heart-spotted woodpecker and Forest wagtail is more concerning.

Notes:
Bollywood Actor Akshay Kumar is the only Indian to feature on Forbes 2020 list of World’s Highest-Paid Celebrities at rank 52 and earnings of 48.5 million dollars.
The first spot was bagged by American media person and businesswoman Kylie Jenner, famous for her Kylie Cosmetics. She is followed by US based musician Kanye West with an estimated USD170 million earnings. Ace Tennis player Roger Federer is placed at the third place, followed by Football stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

Notes:
India has bagged the hosting rights of the Asian Football Confederation 2022 Women’s Asian Cup for the first time since 1979.
All India Football Federation President Praful Patel announced that the tournament will feature 12 teams, as compared to the previous slot of eight teams. India will qualify to participate in the tournament directly as hosts. This event will also serve as the qualification tournament for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Notes:
India has recently launched the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) campaign on ‘Prevention of Human and Animal Mortality on Highways’.
Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and MSME Nitin Gadkari has launched the campaign through video conference on the occasion of World Environment Day. The Minister also highlighted that about 5 lakh road incidents are witnessed in India every year.

Notes:
Skeletal remains of an animal have been recently unearthed at Manalur near Madurai, under the sixth phase of excavation work at Keeladi site, undertaken by the Tamil Nadu State Department of Archaeology (TNSDA).
The Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Edappadi K Palaniswami had started the 6th phase of excavation work in February at Keeladi, Kondagai, Agaram and Manalur near Madurai. During the excavation, a variety of materials including weaving, animal husbandry and water management were recovered. The materials were found to be belonging to the 5th century of the Tamil culture.