Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
Chinese mobile communication cum consumer electronics company OPPO has recently partnered with Indian start-up incubator T-Hub to support start-up ecosystem in India.
Under the partnership, the start-ups specialising in the areas of Artificial Intelligence, 5G, Battery, Camera and Image Processing will be scaled up. The selected start-up firms will receive incubation support and market access from OPPO as well as mentorship from T-Hub.

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:
The World Bank recently warned that 60 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty in 2020, after Covid-19 crisis.
The World Bank President David Malpass released analytical chapters from its flagship Global Economic Prospects report. He urged the countries to implement comprehensive policies to boost long-term growth and to address immediate health emergencies. The estimates are likely to increase further.

Notes:
The Expert Committees on Rationalisation/Closure/Merger of Film Media Units and the committee on Review of Autonomous Bodies under the aegis of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting submitted their report to the Union I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar.
The committees were headed by Bimal Julka with an objective of rationalisation and professionalisation of institutes related to film activities. The committee recommended specific roadmaps for the development of institutes including National Film Development Corporation, Films division, Children’s Film Society of India among others.

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 The Commonwealth Short Story Prize is awarded for the best unpublished short fiction, every year.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:
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:
Seasoned banker and Managing director and CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank, Uday Kotak has recently assumed office as the president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2020-21.
As per the chamber, Uday Kotak takes over from the present Chairman and Managing Director of Kirloskar Systems, Vikram Kirloskar. The MD and CEO of Tata Steel, T V Narendran is now the President designate of CII for 2020-21.

Notes:
India is the sole contender for the Asia Pacific seat in non-permanent category of the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member.
The General Assembly of UNSC is to hold elections for the five non-permanent members of the Security Council on June 17. It has also proposed new secret ballot voting arrangements due to the Covid-19 restrictions. India has been elected as a non-permanent member of UNSC for seven terms starting from 1950-51 till 2011-12.

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:
UN celebrates six separate language days to raise awareness of the history, culture and development of each of its six official languages – English, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and French.
June 6 is celebrated as the UN Russian Language Day, which is also the birthday of the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. The poet is considered as the father of modern Russian literature. Some of his popular literary works include novel titled “Eugene Onegin” and his poem titled “The Bronze Horseman”.