Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
New York state lawmakers have repealed a decades-old law which has kept law enforcement officers’ disciplinary records secret.
After the national uproar over the death of George Floyd, New York passes the historic bill to unveil police discipline records. This is expected to make the Police officer’s records and misconduct public. As per the bill, all state troopers would be provided with body cameras.

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:
A Central Public Sector Enterprise Under Department of Fertilizers, National Fertilizers Limited (NFL) has tied up with Industrial Training Institutes located near to its plants to train youth in several trades.
The partnership is expected to upskill the youth and to enhance their employability in heavy industries. NFL becomes first CPSE to start this initiative in Punjab, by signing an MoU with ITI, Nangal. The students will be trained under Dual System of Training Scheme where they will learn both theoretical skills and on-the-job training in Nangal plant.

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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
Union Ministry of Earth Sciences has recently released a report titled ‘Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region’.
As per the first edition of the report released this year, the average surface air temperatures over India could rise by up to 4.4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, in a worst-case scenario. This estimate is provided as compared to the period between 1976 and 2005. The report also revealed that under an intermediate scenario, the country’s average temperature could rise by up to 2.4°C.