Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
The World Accreditation Day (WAD) is celebrated on 9th June every year to highlight and promote the role of accreditation in trade & economy.
The theme for World Accreditation Day 2020 is “Accreditation: Improving Food Safety”. It is decided by the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC). Quality Council of India (QCI) organised a Webinar to commemorate the event.

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:
The United States Department of State releases the annual ‘International Religious Freedom Report’, in accordance with the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.
The report submitted to the US Congress, describes the status of religious freedom in every country. It was in news because the report raised concerns over the religious freedom of India. The report also mentioned about the revocation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir and the parliamentary approval of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Notes:
The European Union has recently directed the social media sites Facebook, Google, and Twitter to provide monthly reports on their efforts to curb misinformation on their platform.
The foreign policy head of EU and the Vice President of European Commission announced this direction while addressing the prevalence of misleading news on Covid-19. They also said that the fake news will influence the economy and weaken their health measures.

Notes:
Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) is the leading and only National Chamber of Commerce, that was founded in 1925. It is headquartered at Kolkata.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently delivered the inaugural address of the 95th annual plenary session of the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) through video conferencing. During his address, the Prime Minister also praised the chamber for contributing to the development of industries in East India and the North East.

Notes:
Technology Major Amazon banned Police from using its facial recognition software “Rekognition”, for a year, amid the nation-wide protests in the United States.
The use of facial recognition systems has faced criticism for incorrectly identifying people with darker skin. Though law enforcement agencies use facial recognition only to identify suspects, the critics say it can be misused. Earlier, IBM revoked its facial recognition software. Microsoft also joined the companies in banning Police use its recognition software.

Notes:
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is an international agreement between governments. India is also a signatory to CITES. It seeks to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.
The Environment ministry has issued rules for dealing with the import of exotic species and for assessing scale of possession within the country, as per the CITES agreement. Exotic live species are defined as plants and animals that are moved from their original habitat to a new one by human intervention.

Notes:
Indian-American soil scientist Dr Rattan Lal has won the prestigious World Food Prize. The award is considered to be equivalent to a Nobel Prize in agriculture.
Dr Rattan Lal has been awarded for his contribution in assisting small farmers to improve their soil’s health. This has let the global food supply to increase considerably. He has promoted soil-saving techniques which has benefitted the livelihoods of more than 500 million small farmers.

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.