Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

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:
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:
A strategic unit of Tata Consultancy Services, TCS iON, has partnered with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to provide its training partners access to digital skilling tools.
The access to digital skilling tools is provided using TCS iON Digital Glass Room facility. This partnership aims to strengthen the online content aggregation platform of NSDC, eSkill India.
TCS iON Digital Glass Room is a web-based digital education platform which enables educators to upload their own lessons.

Notes:
Technology Major Amazon banned Police from using its facial recognition software “Rekognition”, for a year, amid the nation-wide protests in the United States.
The use of facial recognition systems has faced criticism for incorrectly identifying people with darker skin. Though law enforcement agencies use facial recognition only to identify suspects, the critics say it can be misused. Earlier, IBM revoked its facial recognition software. Microsoft also joined the companies in banning Police use its recognition software.

Notes:
India’s foreign exchange reserves crossed the half-a-trillion mark for the first time in the week ended June 5.
As per the recent data from the Reserve Bank of India, the forex reserves increased by $8.22 billion the week, which made the overall reserves cross the USD 500 billion mark to reach USD 501.70 billion. A huge rise in the Foreign Current Assets (FCA) is the main reason for the rise in reserves. The reserves stood at USD 493.48 billion in the previous week.

Notes:
US space agency NASA has selected Kathy Lueders as its first female head of human spaceflight mission.
NASA has successfully sent two astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. In its next mission, it aims to land humans on the Moon by 2024. Kathy Lueders, who is currently the Commercial Crew Program Manager, has been named NASA’s next associate administrator of the Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Mission Directorate.

Notes:
Veteran Urdu poet Anand Mohan Zutshi Gulzar Dehlvi recently passed away at the age of 93, in New Delhi.
The poet was earlier infected by Coronavirus and was undergoing treatment. Though he returned home after recovering from Covid-19, he has passed away. He was the editor of ‘Science ki Duniya’, the only science magazine published by the government in Urdu from 1975. He also played an instrumental role in opening Urdu schools across India.

Notes:
The Export-Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) has extended a line of credit (LOC) worth USD 215.68 million to the Malawi government for drinking water supply schemes and other development projects.
With this recent agreement, EXIM bank has extended five LOCs to Malawi, with the total value of LOCs being USD 395.68 million. Under this LOC, the projects covered are supply of irrigation network, cotton processing plant, green belt initiative, construction of water supply system, among others.

Notes:
Technology Giant Microsoft has recently launched a new feature called ‘Teams for Education’, to support online education.
The new feature seeks to engage and prepare students and teachers for new remote learning ecosystem. It also has an expanded audience view of up to 49 participants, custom backgrounds and virtual breakout rooms among others. Students can digitally raise their hands during class meetings in the feature.

Notes:
‘International Day of Family Remittances (IDFR)’ is celebrated on June 16, every year across the world.
This year, the International Day is observed with the theme of “Remittances are a lifeline”. The United Nations that designated the day, also calls upon governments, private sector companies and the civil society, to maximize the impact of remittances through individuals.