Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
Vasant Raiji, India’s oldest first-class cricketer, passed away at his residence in Mumbai, at his 100th year.
Vasant Raiji was a chartered accountant by profession. He was a right-handed batsman and played nine first-class matches for Mumbai and Baroda in the 1940s. He started playing in the Mumbai team under the leadership of Vijay Merchant. He was also a veteran cricket historian.

Notes:
A team of researchers at IIT- Kharagpur has developed a system based on artificial intelligence to track social distancing.
The cyber-physical system monitors social distancing in public places, by detecting the gap between individuals. It plays an alert sound, whenever social distancing norms mandated by the Health Ministry is violated. This is also a low-cost device, which can even be used in remote places.

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:
As per the revised clinical management protocols released by the Union Health Ministry, Anosmia (called as Loss of smell) and Ageusia (called Loss of taste) has been added to the official list of COVID-19 symptoms.
These symptoms are being continuously reported by the coronavirus-infected patients before the beginning of respiratory symptoms. Health Ministry also approved use of Remdesivir to treat Covid-19 in moderate stage of criticality and use of HCQ (hydroxychloroquine) to treat Covid-19 in early stages.

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:
Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment implements the ‘Assistance to Disabled persons for purchasing / fitting of aids / appliances’ (ADIP) scheme through its Public sector enterprise, Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO).
Recently, a virtual ADIP Camp for free distribution of assistive aids and devices at Block level for Divyangjans under the ADIP scheme was organized at Firozpur District in Punjab. This is the first camp being organized by the ALIMCO after opening of lockdown with the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).

Notes:
India has recently joined the Global Partnership for Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) as its founding member, along with USA, UK, EU, Australia among others.
Union minister for Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad announced that this multi-stakeholder international partnership will promote responsible human centric development and use of Artificial Intelligence. India has recently launched the National AI Strategy and also launched its dedicated National AI Portal.

Notes:
“World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought” is celebrated on June 17, every year across the world.
UN General Assembly declared June 17 as the specified World Day, to promote public awareness of the issues of Desertification and Drought. This year, the theme is “Food.Feed.Fibre: Sustainable production and consumption.” The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification leads the observance.

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:
South Korea recently said that North Korea has blown up the inter-Korean liaison office building, that is located north of the Korean border.
This serious incident followed the recent degradation in the relations between the two countries. North Korea has earlier threatened to engage in military action at the border with South Korea. The two countries jointly set up a liaison office at Kaesong in North Korea in 2003. The Kaesong Industrial Complex is a joint industrial zone operated by both North Koreans and South Koreans.