Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
World No Tobacco Day 2020 is celebrated on May 31 every year, across the world. The main objective of celebrating the day is to protect youth from industry manipulation and to prevent them from tobacco and nicotine use.
This year, the World No Tobacco Day 2020 global campaign will expose the manipulation tactics of tobacco and related industries, educate young people about the intentions of the industries and empower the general public in social platforms to protect youth.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan has announced that Kerala Fibre Optic Network (K-FON) project would be launched by December 2020.
The objective of the Rs 1,500 crore scheme is to provide free internet access to the poor and at affordable rates to others. It is being implemented by Kerala State IT Infrastructure Limited and Kerala State Electricity Board. Using the KSEB posts, optical fibre cables are being laid across the state.

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:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently launched a technology-based platform named as CHAMPIONS, for MSME sector.
‘CHAMPIONS’ stands for Creation and Harmonious Application of Modern Processes for Increasing the Output and National Strength. The platform aims to provide a comprehensive solution including Grievance redressal, Financial access, Permissions among others will be addressed in the platform. It also provides latest communication tools and is enabled by Artificial Intelligence.

Notes:
The Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo recently announced that it has witnessed a new outbreak of Ebola virus disease.
The country located in Central Africa has seen its 11th outbreak since the virus was first discovered in the country in 1976. At present, the disease is occurring in the Equateur province. The World Health Organisation (WHO) also announced about the disease.

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:
Social networking giant Twitter has recently appointed Patrick Pichette, a former chief financial officer at Google as the next chairman of its board.
This is the first time in the history of Twitter that an outsider is presiding over the board. Patrick Pichette served as the lead independent director of Twitter since the end of 2018. He is to replace Omid Kordestani in leading the directors as Chairman. Investors have been urging for appointing outsiders to preside over boards.

Notes:
Indian writer Kritika Pandey has won the regional award for Asia of the prestigious Commonwealth Short Story Prize for this year.
The writer was selected for her work titled ‘The Great Indian Tee and Snakes’. The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best unpublished short fiction, every year. She had also been earlier nominated for the Pushcart Prize. To be eligible for the award, one must be a commonwealth citizen aged above 18 years.

Notes:
Union Minister for Human Resources and MoS Housing & Urban Affairs jointly launched TULIP, an Internship Program with Urban Local Bodies across the country.
The initiative TULIP, which stands for `The Urban Learning Internship Program (TULIP)’, provides internship opportunities to fresh graduates in all Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) and Smart Cities across the country. It was initially announced in the Union Budget 2020-21 under the theme ‘Aspirational India’.

Notes:
The Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar launched the ‘Nagar Van’ or ‘Urban Forests’ programme to increase forest cover in urban areas.
During the virtual celebration of World Environment Day 2020, themed as ‘Nature and Biodiversity’, the programme was launched with 200 corporations and cities across India. The Minister urged the people to actively participate in the programme to increase the tree cover in their areas. This year, the government’s target for tree plantation is 145 crores.