Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Gujarat has recently announced that the Phase-2 of the Saurashtra-Narmada Avataran Irrigation (SAUNI) Yojana will be completed before 15th of August.
The scheme was launched with an aim of providing adequate drinking water to the state and meet the drinking water and irrigation requirements of Saurashtra and Kutch regions from Narmada river. It is also expected to fill 115 water reservoirs of arid Saurashtra and Kutch region. The first phase of SAUNI Yojana was launched in the year 2016.

Notes:
As per the recent statement from the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Custom (CBIC), Customs duty on bamboo imports by agarbatti manufacturers has been hiked from 10 per cent to 25 per cent.
This is expected to encourage use of domestic bamboo by all industries. Earlier, only the large agarbatti manufacturers were able to import bamboo at lower rate. But due to the reduction in import, farmers as well as MSME agarbatti manufacturers would be benefitted. Moreover, uniform rate will help to prevent misuse and rate related disputes.

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 Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has constituted an internal working group to review the guidelines on ownership and corporate structure of private sector banks.
The working group will be headed by PK Mohanty, an Executive Director at RBI. The group will examine the licensing guidelines of banking and regulations on ownership of private sector banks. It will also review the regulations on holding of financial subsidiaries through a non-operative financial holding company.

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 lower house of Nepal parliament, Pratinidhi Sabha passed bill to include India’s territories of Kalapani, Limpiyadhura and Lipulekh in Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand in its new map.
Nepal’s upper house of parliament has also endorsed proposal to update its political map that includes the Indian territories. However, India has claimed that the updated map is not based on historical facts and evidence and that the move is violative of the current understanding to hold talks on outstanding boundary issues.

Notes:
A 500-year-old ancient temple of Lord Vishnu that was submerged in Odisha’s Mahanadi river during 19th century has reappeared after 15 years.
The river is said to have been submerged due to change of course of the river. The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage’s archaeological survey team visited the village in Nayagarh district and said that the top of the Gopinath Dev temple was visible due to the reduction in the water-level of the river.

Notes:
The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) has launched ‘e-Office’ application in over 500 GST and customs offices.
The application has been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC). This will enable the automation of internal processes of handling files that have been handled manually and help improve e-governance. Over 50000 officers and staff will use this application.

Notes:
Ace Indian chess player P. Harikrishna bagged joint second place in the Sharjah World Stars online chess tournament.
Top seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won the online tournament by scoring 7.5 out of 10 points. The second-seeded Indian Grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna finished second while Polish Grandmaster Radoslaw Wojtaszek finished third.

Notes:
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has recently approved an additional $750 million loan to strengthen India’s fight against Covid-19.
This loan would be co-financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The funds will be utilised for boosting the businesses in informal sector, providing social security for the deserving and strengthening the health care systems of India.