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:
Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) is the largest electronic system-based power trading exchange of India and it is regulated by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission. IEX platform provides physical delivery of electricity and Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs).
IEX has recently launched its Real-Time Electricity Market (RTM) platform. The objective of the platform is to help the DISCOMs plan their power requirements. The trade in electricity is carried out through half-hourly auctions i.e. 48 daily sessions.

Notes:
Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad has launched three major schemes to boost manufacture of electronics in the country.
Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) aims for large-scale electronics manufacturing. Other two schemes namely Scheme for Promotion of Manufacturing of Electronic Components and Semiconductors (SPECS) and Modified Electronics Manufacturing Clusters (EMC 2.0) Scheme were also launched. This will generate manufacturing of electronics components worth Rs 10 lakh crore by 2025.

Notes:
Apex Governing body of men and women’s hockey, Hockey India has recently nominated national women’s team captain Rani Rampal for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.
Rani Rampal is the first Indian to be named as the World Games Athlete of The Year. She played an important role in the FIH Olympic Qualifiers in 2019. Hockey India also nominated other players Vandana Kataria, Monika and Harmanpreet Singh for the Arjuna award.

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:
The Union Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers recently fixed the minimum percentage of local content in public procurement of 55 chemical and pesticide products.
This step is a part of the government’s effort to boost domestic manufacturing and the Make-in-India programme. As per the new norm, the minimum local content has been fixed at 60 per cent for 2020-21, 70 per cent for 2021-23 and 80 per cent during 2023-25. Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) had revised the Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order, 2017 for implementing this norm.

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.

Notes:
India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India conducts a quarterly survey called the Households’ Inflation Expectations Survey.
This edition of the survey is conducted via telephonic interviews across 5,300 households in 18 major cities. The households were asked about general expectations on the economic situation, overall price situation, employment etc. As per the survey, 85.3% households expect inflation to accelerate in the next three months, as compared to 83.3% in March.

Notes:
Veteran bureaucrat Rajeev Topno, a 1996 batch IAS officer who had been serving as the private secretary to the Prime Minister, has been appointed as senior advisor to the Executive Director (ED), World Bank.
As per the Personnel Ministry order issued, five other officers have been appointed to various posts abroad. This includes the appointment of Ravi Kota as Minister (Economic) at the Indian embassy in Washington; Lekhan Thakkar as Counsellor (Economic) at the Indian Embassy in Beijing; H Atheli, as Advisor (Director-level) to the ED of the ADB among others.