Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet has recently approved Cow-Slaughter Prevention (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 by amending Cow slaughter act, 1955.
The amendments seek to protect cows and prevent crimes related to cow slaughter. The ordinance has also inserted an imprisonment provision of up to 7 years for physical damage to cow and fine up to Rs 3 lakh for cases related to cow slaughter.

Notes:
Multinational professional services network Deloitte is partnering with Google cloud to help Indian firms in leveraging digital technology.
The firms have extended their global alliance to India to enable the Indian enterprises modernize cloud technology adoption. It will also provide solutions in field such as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) and Contact Center AI.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray and Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan launched an Integrated Flood Warning System called ‘IFLOWS-Mumbai’.
The warning system has been jointly developed by the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). It would relay alerts of possible flood-prone areas at 6 to 72 hours in advance. After Chennai, Mumbai is only the second city to get such system.

Notes:
The first population estimation exercise of the Indian gaur carried out in the Nilgiris Forest Division in recent years.
As per the exercise, that was conducted in February, more than an estimated 2,000 Indian gaurs are present in the entire division. However, majority of animals were in the conflict-prone areas close to human habitations. Among the 2000 gaurs, about 794 gaurs were directly sighted over a one-week period.

Notes:
Research institute of Brazil, the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) has announced that the Amazon rainforest witnessed deforestation of 829 sq km in May 2020.
This is the highest monthly level of deforestation observed in the forest since 2015. The institute also announced that deforestation increased by 91 sq km compared to the same period last year. The Prime Minister of Brazil is advocating for farming and mining in protected areas to improve economy.

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:
Leading payments bank of India, Airtel Payments Bank has recently launched a salary account for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME).
Named as the ‘Suraksha Salary’ account, it will enable MSMEs and other organisations to make cashless payments. It also provides Hospicash Insurance and Personal Accidental insurance cover. As of now, it is only available to new customers and will be extended to existing account holders soon.

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:
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.

Notes:
The high-powered panel constituted by SEBI, has released its report to improve inquiry and enforcement processes of the market regulator.
The panel has been chaired by a retired judge of the Supreme Court- Justice Anil R Dave, has released its comprehensive report to SEBI. The report focusses on reducing timeline for passing final orders, improving recovery processes, quantifying alleged gains while levying penalties and interplay between SEBI norms and provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).