Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
The Union Government has created the Micro Irrigation Fund with the corpus of Rs. 5000 crore with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
Under the fund, NABARD will provide the amount to states on concessional rate of interest to promote micro-irrigation. Moreover, the annual allotment of Rs. 4000 crore has been made under the ‘Per Drop More Crop’ component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY- PDMC). The scheme focuses on improving water use efficiency through micro Irrigation techniques.

Notes:
The Ministry of Home Affairs has reconstituted a committee to look into the welfare of freedom fighters.
Minister of state for home affairs G Kishan Reddy has been named the Chairman of the committee, which also has nine eminent freedom fighters from across the country as its members. Home Ministry has another division which disburses pension to about 30,000 freedom fighters and their families.

Notes:
Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) is the leading and only National Chamber of Commerce, that was founded in 1925. It is headquartered at Kolkata.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently delivered the inaugural address of the 95th annual plenary session of the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) through video conferencing. During his address, the Prime Minister also praised the chamber for contributing to the development of industries in East India and the North East.

Notes:
The Chief minister of Himachal Pradesh Jai Ram Thakur has recently launched a new scheme called ‘Panchvati Yojna’.
Under the scheme, that is being implemented by the rural development department, parks and gardens would be developed for senior citizens of rural areas in the state. The main aim of the scheme is provide an opportunity to the elder people to spend their leisure time in a clean environment with Ayurvedic and medicinal plants.

Notes:
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman chaired the GST Council recently. As per the announcement, for all those with no tax liabilities, there is no late fee for failing to file returns between July 2017-Jan 2020.
For persons with tax liability, the maximum late fee for non-filing of GSTR-3B returns for the same period is Rs 500. This includes all returns submitted during July 1- September 30, 2020. For tax payers with turnover up to Rs 5 crore, the rate of interest for late furnishing of GST returns for February to April beyond July 6, is reduced from 18% to 9% per annum, till this September end.

Notes:
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) and United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) jointly released a report titled ‘COVID-19 and Child labour: A Time of Crisis, A Time to Act’.
The report highlights that millions of children are in the risk of being pushed into child labour as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. The report also warned that the decrease in child labour by 94 million since 2000 is now at risk. Due to the reduction in family income amid Covid-19 crisis, many more children will get into Child labour.

Notes:
The first population estimation exercise of the Indian gaur carried out in the Nilgiris Forest Division in recent years.
As per the exercise, that was conducted in February, more than an estimated 2,000 Indian gaurs are present in the entire division. However, majority of animals were in the conflict-prone areas close to human habitations. Among the 2000 gaurs, about 794 gaurs were directly sighted over a one-week period.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh has launched a mobile based application named ‘Ghar Ghar Nigrani’.
The app aims to undertake house to house surveillance in the state till eliminating the pandemic. This new initiative is to be implemented by the Health Department of the state with the help of ASHA workers/Community Volunteers. It will ensure early detection and testing of the people for Covid-19, thereby preventing community spread.

Notes:
As per the revised clinical management protocols released by the Union Health Ministry, Anosmia (called as Loss of smell) and Ageusia (called Loss of taste) has been added to the official list of COVID-19 symptoms.
These symptoms are being continuously reported by the coronavirus-infected patients before the beginning of respiratory symptoms. Health Ministry also approved use of Remdesivir to treat Covid-19 in moderate stage of criticality and use of HCQ (hydroxychloroquine) to treat Covid-19 in early stages.

Notes:
As per the recent notification from the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the annual rate of inflation based on monthly Wholesale Price Index (WPI) contracted to 3.21% in the month of May 2020.
It means that the annual rate of inflation is -3.21% in May 2020. The government had suspended the release of wholesale price index (WPI) data in April, due to the nationwide lockdown. Hence the provisional figures of May are compared with final figures of March.