Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

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:
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an international agreement between governments. India is also a signatory to CITES. It seeks to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.
The Environment ministry has issued rules for dealing with the import of exotic species and for assessing scale of possession within the country, as per the CITES agreement. Exotic live species are defined as plants and animals that are moved from their original habitat to a new one by human intervention.

Notes:
India’s Permanent Mission to the UN has recently developed a special Yoga Module, to mark International Yoga Day 2020.
The International Yoga Day is celebrated on June 21, every year across the world. To commemorate this year’s Yoga Day, the Permanent Mission of India to the UN has created a special yoga module, ‘Yoga for Health – Yoga at Home’, along with yoga teachers and therapists. The module has yoga exercises, breathing and meditation practices to improve physical and mental health.

Notes:
Information Technology major Infosys has recently launched the ‘Summer of Ideas’ initiative for college students.
The international eight-week ideathon is being powered by the digital learning platform of Infosys called Wingspan. This initiative is expected to bridge the gap formed due to the disruption caused by Covid-19 pandemic, for the students and academic professionals. About 2000 inducted students can showcase their ideas to industry experts.

Notes:
The Union Defence Ministry has recently extended the delivery period for all existing capital acquisition contracts with Indian vendors by four months.
As per the Defence Minster, ‘force majeure shall be applicable for a period of four months i.e. 25th March 2020 to 24th July 2020’. A force majeure refers to unexpected circumstances that prevent someone from fulfilling a contract. This step has been taken because of supply chain crisis caused by COVID-19 pandemic.

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:
One of the world’s largest consumer-focused private equity firms L Catterton will buy a 0.39% stake for Rs 1894.50 crore in Jio Platforms.
Another global investment firm TPG will also buy a 0.93% stake in Jio for Rs 4,546.80 crore in the digital unit of Reliance Industries Limited. Since April 22, Jio Platforms has raised Rs 104,326.95 crore from leading global investors including Facebook, Silver Lake among others.

Notes:
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that a commission to look at racial equality in the UK will be established.
The proposed body would look at all forms of inequality in employment, health outcomes, academics, criminal justice system and all aspects of life. This announcement has been given after protests have been undertaken after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Notes:
Chinese internet company ByteDance has recently announced that it is set to discontinue two of its applications Vigo Video and Vigo Lite.
The applications that allow users to create and share short videos, will be discontinued in India at the end of October 2020. ByteDance also said the users can opt to transfer their videos to TikTok, download or delete all their Vigo data from the app.

Notes:
International Day of Yoga is celebrated every year on June 21, across the world. The first such day was celebrated in the year 2015.
This year, Union AYUSH Ministry is promoting the practice of Yoga with the campaign ‘Yoga at Home, Yoga with Family’, through its various initiatives, as a part of the International Yoga Day Celebration on June 21. This year’s observance will highlight the health-building and stress-relieving aspects of Yoga.