Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
The 12th edition of the biennial Environment Performance Index (EPI Index 2020) has been released by the Yale University.
In the index that measured the environmental performance of 180 countries, India secured 168th rank with a score of 27.6 out of 100. Last year, the country scored 30.57 and was placed at 177th rank. Denmark was placed at the first place, followed by Luxembourg and Switzerland. The United States was placed at 24th rank.

Notes:
The Ramon Magsaysay awards, regarded as Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize, have been cancelled this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is only the third time the annual awards were cancelled in the past six decades. Earlier, the awards were cancelled due to a financial crisis in 1970 and a terrible earthquake that hit the Philippines in 1990. The awards are provided by a Manila-based foundation and named after the third president of the Republic of the Philippines after World War II.

Notes:
Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, CBIC has recently launched its flagship faceless assessment programme Turant Customs.
The programme has been launched at Bengaluru and Chennai. With this, the goods imported at Chennai would be assessed by the Customs officers at Bengaluru and vice versa. This is the first phase of the nation-wide rollout of the facility. This step is expected to increase the ease of doing business in the country.

Notes:
Pune-based Defence Institute of Advanced Technology in Pune has developed a nano-technology based disinfectant spray named ‘ANANYA’ to combat Covid-19.
The formulation is effective in disinfecting all types of surfaces, including masks, PPEs, hospital linens, medical instruments. It can also be used to disinfect common places like elevator buttons and door knobs. The material has been developed by synthesising silver nanoparticles and a commercially available drug, Ampicillin. Commercial production is to be commenced soon.

Notes:
The forest department of Uttarakhand has dedicated a biodiversity park in Haldwani to the people of state and country.
The park is named as the ‘Sarv Dharm Vatika’, which spans over 18-acre area with 40 different sections and 479 plant species associated with all religions. It also possesses living fossils and a soil museum, that displays the earth from tropical, subtropical, temperature and alpine zones. It also has Jurassic garden with various living plant families of the Jurassic period.

Notes:
India’s leading digital payments platform PhonePe has partnered with ICICI Lombard to launch the first-of-its kind domestic multi-trip insurance cover.
This comprehensive insurance cover has been exclusively made available for the users of PhonePe. It provides affordable annual insurance cover for unlimited trips. Under this feature, there is no need to insure every trip separately unlike traditional insurance products.

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:
World Day Against Child Labour is celebrated on 12 June, every year. This year, the theme of the World Day against Child Labour 2020 is ‘COVID-19: Protect children from child labour, now more than ever’.
The event focusses on the impact of child labour crisis. Due to the prevalent Covid-19 pandemic, this is conducted as a virtual campaign. It is being organized jointly with the Global March Against Child Labour and the International Partnership for Cooperation on Child Labour in Agriculture (IPCCLA).

Notes:
Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar has recently launched an Internship programme named ‘Sahakar Mitra’.
The scheme seeks to provide paid internship to youth and to ensure availability of loans to young co-operators. Each intern will get financial aid for the 4 months internship period. As a paid intern, the young professionals get practical exposure from the working of National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) and co-operatives.

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.