Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
The Baghjan oil well of Oil India Limited located in Tinsukia district of upper Assam has been leaking for more than 14 days.
Recently, the oil well caught massive fire. A team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has reached the place. The Baghjan well is adjacent to the rich biodiversity-filled Dibru-Saikhowa National Park of Assam. The Indian Air Force and the Army are assisting in the firefighting operations.

Notes:
Global ratings agency Fitch Ratings has estimated that India’s economy would bounce back with a steep growth rate of 9.5 per cent in the next fiscal year.
Earlier, Fitch ratings had forecasted that the GDP growth of India would contract at 5 percent in the ongoing fiscal year starting April 2020. It has also highlighted that 9.5 % growth is possible only if the country avoids further deterioration in financial sector health.

Notes:
The Finance Ministry announced that the public sector banks have disbursed Rs 12,200.65 crore till June 9, under the Rs 3-lakh crore Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for the MSME sector.
It also announced that Tamil Nadu has topped in the in the disbursements to MSMEs under ECLGS, with the total disbursement of Rs 1,727 crore, out of the cumulative sanction of Rs 2,637 crore from banks. It was followed by Uttar Pradesh, with disbursement of Rs 1,225 crore.

Notes:
Indian Railways has recently created a new benchmark as it has successfully operated first Double Stack Container Train in electric zone.
The train has been run in high rise Over Head Equipment (OHE) electrified sections, as per the Railway Minister Piyush Goyal. This is the first-of-its-kind initiative and will also promote the mission of Green India. This operation has been commenced from Palanpur and Botad stations in Gujarat.

Notes:
Famous astronaut and oceanographer Kathy Sullivan recently became the first woman and the fifth person in history to descend to the Challenger Deep.
It is regarded as the deepest known point in the world’s oceans and is located in the Mariana Trench, seven miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. With this achievement, she is now the only human who has walked in space and reached the deepest point in the ocean.

Notes:
Facebook owned social media major WhatsApp has launched its ‘WhatsApp Pay’ for the first time in Brazil.
Two years ago, WhatsApp began testing the payments service in India, which enables users to send and receive money. However, the plan could not be materialised due to regulatory issues. WhatsApp has designed the payment system with a special six-digit PIN or fingerprint authorisation to prevent unauthorised transactions.

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.

Notes:
Scientists in UK have claimed that the generic steroid drug dexamethasone has reduced deaths by up to one third in severely ill hospitalised patients, affected by COVID-19.
This result is a part of one of the world’s largest randomised trial of drugs to treat COVID-19 patients, that also showed hydroxychloroquine was not working against the coronavirus. The drug is shown to cut the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators and a fifth for those on oxygen. However, World Health Organisation said that the drug is reserved for severely ill and critical patients.

Notes:
Achyut Kashinath Sinai Usgaonkar, former Goa Minister passed away recently, at the age of 92, due to age-related ailments.
Achyut Usgaonkar was a leader of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), the oldest regional party in Goa. He served as a cabinet Minister from 1977 to 1979. Before that, he also served as the deputy speaker of Goa during the government of Dayanand Bandodkar, the first chief minister of Goa.

Notes:
Technology major Facebook has recently acquired Swedish mapping technology company Mapillary, as per official sources.
Mapillary crowd-sources the images, collects pictures contributed from smart phones and other types of cameras. It then uses computer vision technology to stack them together into a real-time 3-D map. This technology is expected to support Facebook products under development like augmented reality glasses and virtual reality headsets.