Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
The Union Government has launched a national programme for the youth, called “Responsible AI for Youth”. It has been developed by the Ministry of Electronics and IT in collaboration with Intel India, with support from Department of School Education and Literacy (DoSE&L). It aims to equip young students with new generation technology.
A dedicated portal for Artificial Intelligence, which will be a platform for all AI related developments in India, was also launched to mark the first anniversary of the second tenure of the government. It has been jointly developed by the Ministry of Electronics and IT and NASSCOM.

Notes:
As per the recent announcement from the Food and Consumer Affairs Ministry, three more States namely Odisha, Sikkim and Mizoram have recently joined the ‘One Nation-One Ration Card’ scheme.
This addition has taken the total number of states and union territories that have joined the scheme to 20. In the three states, the necessary infrastructure work for joining the scheme including upgradation of electronic Point of Sale (e-PoS) software have been completed.

Notes:
Global credit ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service has currently degraded India’s foreign currency and local currency long-term issuer ratings to Baa3.
The agency had previously rated India’s ratings as Baa2. The reason for the downgrade of ratings was the high challenges to be faced by the policy-making institutions in enacting and implementing policies for sustainable growth in the country. Moody’s had upgraded India’s ratings to Baa2 in November 2017.

Notes:
Famous music composer Wajid Khan recently passed away at the age of 42. He was a part of the popular music duo Sajid-Wajid.
The pair started their musical career in the year 1998 for a Hindi movie starring Salman Khan. Sajid-Wajid scored music for many films of the star including his latest single, ‘Bhai Bhai’. The pair has been popular for their composition of IPL 4 theme song.

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 Cabinet has given its approval for setting up of an “Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS) and Project Development Cells (PDCs) in Ministries/Departments of Government of India.
The establishment of the two cells is expected to attract more investments in India. The Cabinet Secretary would serve as the Chairperson of EGoS, with NITI Aayog CEO and Secretaries of other departments as members. The ‘Project Development Cell’ (PDC) will develop projects in coordination with the Central Government and State Governments and increase FDI inflows.

Notes:
During his first ever virtual bilateral summit with the Australian head, the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi signed a landmark agreement related to defence.
The agreement named ‘Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA)’ will allow the militaries of the two countries to use the bases of each other countries, for the purpose of repair and replenishment of supplies. India has already signed similar agreements with the US, France and Singapore. The countries also decided to re-engage on a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA).

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:
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.

Notes:
As per the recent notification of the Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, all other Ministries and their departments are asked to not initiate any new scheme in the current financial year.
The step has been taken to efficiently use the resources amidst the Cocid-19 crisis in the country. However, this order excludes the proposals announced under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package, the Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan package and any other special package. The schemes that have been approved will remain suspended till March 31, 2021.