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:
China recently announced that it will impose a ban on imports of pigs, wild boar and pork related products from India.
After India reported African swine fever (ASF) in Assam last month and nearly 14,000 deaths among pigs and wild boars in Assam, China is set to ban those products. This was released by Chinese state media Global Times amidst the border tensions between the countries.

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:
Russia, that currently holds the BRICS Presidency, hosted the meeting of the Heads of Tax Authorities of the BRICS countries.
Though the meeting was originally scheduled to be held in Moscow, owing to Covid-19 restrictions, it was held through video conferencing. The Finance Secretary of India Ajay Bhushan Pandey represented India at the meeting. Possibilities of exploring areas of cooperation in tax matters and response of tax authorities were discussed.

Notes:
As per the recent order issued by the Department of Telecom (DoT), it has directed all internet service providers (ISPs) to block the computer file-sharing website ‘WeTransfer’, due to security reasons.
All internet service providers (ISPs) are directed to block two download links on the website WeTransfer as well as the entire website. We Transfer is an Internet-based computer file transfer service platform founded at Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

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:
As per the test report of the Animal Husbandry Department of the state of Uttarakhand, the quality of the state’s sheep wool compiled was similar to the Merino sheep wool.
The Merino sheep wool of Australia is famous across the world in the textile industry for its fine texture. India imports nearly 8000 MT of fine wool every year. Uttarakhand received 250 Merino sheep in Tehri Garhwal district under the national livestock scheme last year. With appropriate breeding programmes, Uttarakhand would produce high-quality fine Merino wool.

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:
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:
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.