Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
The President of the United States Donald Trump has recently announced that US is terminating its relationship with World Health Organization over its handling of the Corona virus.
The President has been blaming WHO and China for the deaths and damages caused by the pandemic across the world. The President also said that the funds provided by the US to WHO will be redirected to other global public health needs. He also issued directions to deny entry to certain Chinese nationals and tightened regulations against Chinese investments in America.

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:
The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Mann Ki Baat address announced the Video Blogging Contest named “My Life – My Yoga” (also called “Jeevan Yoga”).
It is a collaboration of Ministry of AYUSH and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR). The contest is a part of activities related to the 6th International Day of Yoga (IDY) on 21st June 2020. The contest is open to participants from all countries. The first phase will select winners within the country and the second phase will select global winners.

Notes:
Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) was launched by the Agriculture Ministry under National Mission of Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) in 2015. It was launched with an aim to promote organic farming among small and marginal farmers.
Recently, the NITI Aayog organised an online High-level Roundtable, which was attended by several national and international experts and policy makers. It aims to boost agroecological and natural farming practices in India. The Agriculture Minister said that PKVY covered 7 lakh hectares and 8 lakh farmers.

Notes:
Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal has recently launched ‘Delhi Corona’ app for real-time information on availability of hospital beds.
The dedicated application would display the availability of beds at both private and government hospitals in the city, available at any particular time. Moreover, the app will also provide redressal of complaints related to refusal of hospitals in admitting COVID-19 positive patients.

Notes:
The Union Government has recently launched Kisan Credit Card campaign to help dairy farmers.
The Government will provide Kisan Credit Card (KCC) to about 1.5 crore dairy farmers who belong to Milk Unions and Milk producing Companies. The drive seeks to provide KCC to the farmers within the next two months before July 31, under a special drive. The special drive to provide KCC is part of the Prime Minister’s Atma Nirbhar Bharat package.

Notes:
Central American countries El Salvador and Guatemala have recently witnessed a tropical storm Amanda.
The heavy rains from Tropical Storm Amanda caused many people dead and missing. It has caused extreme damages across the two countries. The countries have set up temporary shelters to accommodate thousands of people after their homes were damaged.

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:
Leading Private sector bank of India, Axis Bank has recently partnered with Mastercard India and payment service provider, Worldline India to launch a digital point-of-sale solution named as ‘Soft POS’.
The solution aims to assist offline merchants and local kirana stores in accepting payments using their smartphones, through several digital form factors including Bharat QR, sending payment links to customers etc. It can accept NFC-based payments to boost contactless payments in the country and features like e-Khata for reconciliations.

Notes:
The largest state-owned natural gas processing and distribution company, GAIL (India) and Energy Efficiency Services have signed a MoU for cooperation in development of Trigeneration projects in India.
In Trigeneration or Combined Cooling, Heat and Power (CCHP) projects, natural gas-fired generators are used to produce electricity. Under the MoU, the two companies will jointly explore business opportunities in Trigeneration segment, where 50:50 joint venture between GAIL & EESL will be incorporated.