Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
Union External Affairs Minister of India S Jaishankar launched the country’s ‘Panchsheel’ principles for its campaign to secure an elected seat at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
The Panchsheel (Five Principles) includes Samman (respect), Samvad (dialogue), Sahyog (cooperation), Shanti (peace) and Samriddhi (prosperity). The elections are scheduled to be held on June 17, this year. India is the only endorsed candidate of the Asia-Pacific Group. Once selected, this would be the 8th term for India at the UNSC.

Notes:
Article 1 of the Indian constitution reads “India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States…”. Recently a petition was filed at the Supreme Court, which sought to remove the name of ‘India’ from the first article.
The Chief Justice of India Sharad Bobde said that Bharat and India are both names given in the Constitution and that India is already called ‘Bharat’ in the Constitution. However, the court said that the writ petition should be treated as a representation and to be sent to the Centre for final decision.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India has recently released the latest round of the Survey of Professional Forecasters (SPF).
As per the survey, the negative growth in real Gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020-21 would be 1.5% or the real GDP is to contract by 1.5%. The survey also highlighted that India’s growth would bounce back in the next financial year 2021-22 and estimated to grow at 7.2%. Another measure called Real private final consumption expenditure (PFCE) is expected to decline by 0.5%.

Notes:
The World Food Safety Day (WFSD) is celebrated on June 7, 2020. This year is the second edition of the Food Safety Day. The day is celebrated to promote global food safety awareness and to bring together countries, civil society and private firms to take required action.
World Health Organisation (WHO) is collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization leads the member states to celebrate Food Safety Day. This year, the theme of WFSD campaign is “Food safety, everyone’s business”.

Notes:
As per the recent notification of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the foreign exchange reserves raised USD 3.43 billion to an all-time high of USD 493.48 billion.
The reserves announced were recorded in the week ended May 29, 2020. In the previous week, the forex reserves had raised to USD 490.44 billion. The major component of the overall reserves, foreign currency assets increased to USD 455.21 billion; gold reserves at 32.682 billion and India’s reserve position with the IMF at USD 4.16 billion.

Notes:
Former Indian footballer from the state of Kerala, Hamza Koya recently passed away after contracting Covid-19.
The veteran sportsperson had represented Maharashtra at the Santhosh Trophy. He was also a member of the national team in Nehru trophy. Though he was given plasma therapy treatment, he passed away at the age of 61.

Notes:
The Government has allowed filing of NIL GST monthly return in FORM GSTR-3B through SMS. The taxpayers with NIL liability are not required to log on to the GST Portal.
This step is expected to make the tax compliance easy for over 22 lakh registered taxpayers who had to otherwise log into their account and file returns every month. India ranks 115 out of around 190 countries in ease of paying taxes.

Notes:
According to Mercer’s ‘2020 Cost of Living Survey’, Mumbai is the most expensive city of India, for expatriates.
It is also the 60th most expensive city for expatriates globally and it ranks 19th in Asia. In India, Mumbai is followed by New Delhi (101st globally) and Chennai (143rd globally). The global list was topped by Hong Kong, followed by Ashgabat of Turkmenistan. Tokyo and Zurich (Switzerland) are in the third and fourth positions, respectively.

Notes:
Bangladesh has recently launched an online network to facilitate plasma exchange named ‘Shohojodha’.
This enables an exchange between the recovered patients of COVID 19 and those undergoing treatment for Covid-19. However, the plasma therapy for treating Coronavirus patients in Bangladesh is under trial process and is awaiting final approval from the government.

Notes:
The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is the most massive project of Ethiopia at a cost of USD 4.6 billion.
The dam is located on the Blue Nile and its construction began in the year 2011. Recently the Nile basin countries Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan resumed negotiations. Egypt fears that the project will constrict its water supply while Ethiopia desires to become a major power exporter. Sudan has urged the two countries for negotiations.