Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
One of the developing countries in Asia, Vietnam has recently ratified a landmark free trade agreement with the European Union.
The lawmakers in Vietnam’s National Assembly voted to pass the deal known as ‘EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA)’. This is described as EU’s most ambitious deal with a developing country. Under the deal, EU will lift 85% of its tariffs on Vietnamese goods and cut the other tariffs over 7 years. Vietnam will lift 49% of its import duties on EU exports and shed the others by 10 years.

Notes:
The 18th Bench of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has been recently inaugurated for the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh inaugurated the bench through video conference. The CAT Bench would deal exclusively with service matters of government employees. With this all the departments of the Department of Personnel Training (DoPT) namely Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Central Information Commission (CIC) and Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) are now operational in the UTs.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh Shivraj Singh Chouhan has launched a scheme called “Mukhyamantri Shahri Path Vyavsayi Utthan Yojana”
The ‘Street Vendor Registration Portal’ was also launched by the Chief minister. Rs 300 crore was transferred to urban local bodies for implementing the scheme. Earlier, the state provided Rs 1,555 crore to 22,800 Gram Panchayats for the purpose of revamping the development in the state.

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:
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:
Young Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput was recently found dead at his residence, at the age of 34. Sushant was known for his acclaimed performances in films such as MS Dhoni: The Untold Story, Sonchiriya, Kai Po Che, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! among others.
The policy think-tank of the Indian government, NITI Aayog signed him to promote the Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP) in the year 2018.

Notes:
Railway Protection Force, Pune has launched a robot named ‘Captain Arjun’, to screen passengers while they board trains.
ARJUN stands for Always be Responsible and Just Use to be Nice. It is equipped with a motion sensor, PTZ camera (Pan, Tilt, Zoom Camera) and a Dome Camera. Captain Arjun also does thermal screening and also has a sensor-based sanitizer and mask dispenser. It also has a floor sanitization facility. The robot uses artificial intelligence to track suspicious activity and antisocial activity.

Notes:
A 500-year-old ancient temple of Lord Vishnu that was submerged in Odisha’s Mahanadi river during 19th century has reappeared after 15 years.
The river is said to have been submerged due to change of course of the river. The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage’s archaeological survey team visited the village in Nayagarh district and said that the top of the Gopinath Dev temple was visible due to the reduction in the water-level of the river.

Notes:
Ace Indian chess player P. Harikrishna bagged joint second place in the Sharjah World Stars online chess tournament.
Top seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won the online tournament by scoring 7.5 out of 10 points. The second-seeded Indian Grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna finished second while Polish Grandmaster Radoslaw Wojtaszek finished third.

Notes:
India is ranked 43rd on the annual World Competitiveness Index compiled by the Institute for Management Development (IMD).
It has retained the same 43rd rank obtained in the previous edition. In the 2020 list that ranks 63 nations, Singapore has retained its top spot. It is followed by Denmark and Switzerland. However, the United States moved down from 3rd place to 10th place. While India improved in high-tech exports, foreign currency reserves etc, it degraded in areas like exchange rate stability, real GDP growth.