Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
Major technology firm Google has launched a new application named ‘Sodar’, to help people maintain social distancing.
The application uses Augmented reality (AR) for this purpose. It creates a visual boundary using the user’s smartphone camera and show who is breaching that distance, on a real-time basis. Earlier, the UN Technology Innovation Labs released a free mobile social distancing app 1point5 which uses Bluetooth signal.

Notes:
Bobby Joe Morrow, veteran athlete from the United States, recently passed away at the age of 84. The sprinter had won three gold medals in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
Bobby Morrow won the 100 and 200 meters in Melbourne Olympics and was a crucial part of the winning 400 relay team of the US and helped the relay team set a world record. He was honoured as “Sportsman of the Year” by Sports Illustrated. He won the AAU’s James E. Sullivan Award and was also inducted into the National Track and Field Hall of Fame in 1989.

Notes:
World Milk Day is celebrated on June 1, every year across the world. The first World Milk Day was held in the year 2001.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations chose June 1 as the World Milk Day, to highlight the role of milk and to publicise activities connected with milk and the milk industry. This year, the overarching theme is the “20th Anniversary of World Milk Day”. A virtual campaign rally named ‘Enjoy Dairy Rally’ was held from May 29-31.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet has approved further changes to the definition of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Earlier, the Union Minister had proposed that Micro units can have up to Rs 1 crore investments and turnover up to Rs 5 crore while Small units can have up to Rs 10 crore investments and turnover up to Rs 50 crore. The investment limit of a medium unit has been increased from Rs 20 crore to Rs 50 crore and the turn over limit from Rs 100 crore to Rs 250 crore. The Cabinet also approved Rs 20,000-crore fund for stressed entities and equity infusion of Rs 50,000 crore.

Notes:
World Health Organisation has launched a new initiative called COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), along with Costa Rica.
The pool was initially proposed in the month of March by the President of Costa Rica Carlos Alvarado. As of now, thirty countries and several global partners have joined the initiative. The pool seeks to make all vaccines, tests, treatments and other health technologies developed to fight COVID-19, accessible to all.

Notes:
Veteran diplomat Gaitri I. Kumar has been appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom.
She is a 1986 batch Indian Foreign Service officer and is presently serving as the Ambassador of India to the Kingdom of Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union. Gaitri I. Kumar is to replace Ruchi Ghanshyam who just retired. In her 3-decade long career, the diplomat has served in many Indian missions including in Paris, Kathmandu, Lisbon and Geneva.

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:
Indian non-governmental organisation (NGO), Socio-Economic and Educational Development Society (SEEDS) has been conferred with the World No Tobacco Day Award 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO), from the South-East Asia Region.
The organisation is one among the 3 awardees and has been selected for its efforts to ban pan masala, gutkha, e-cigarettes and hookah in Bihar and Jharkhand. On May 31, World No Tobacco Day, the WHO selects individuals and organisations from its 6 regions for their contribution in the field of tobacco control.

Notes:
American private space company SpaceX has recently launched 60 new internet satellites into orbit using Falcon 9 rocket.
Only before some days, billionaire Elon Musk owned SpaceX has sent two NASA astronauts to International Space Station, thereby becoming the first private firm to send astronauts to space on Falcon-9 rocket. This is the 8th batch of satellites and the total number of Starlink constellation of satellites is 482, as of now.

Notes:
Veteran Bureaucrat and 1999-batch IAS officer, Brajendra Navnit has been appointed as the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of India (PRI) to the World Trade Organisation for a period of three years.
He had been the Joint Secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office prior to this appointment and will be posted at the Permanent Mission of India (PMI) to the WTO in Geneva. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet also gave a nod to the appointment of IRTS officer Anwar Hussain Shaik for the post of Counsellor, at the PMI to WTO, Geneva for three years.