Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
Union Minister of State for Shipping (IC) and Chemicals & Fertilisers, Mansukh Mandaviya has recently inaugurated India’s one the largest first Virtual Healthcare & Hygiene EXPO 2020.
The Expo has been organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), the leading association of business organisations in India. This is the first ever largest virtual exhibition in India. The Chairman of FICCI, the President of FICCI, Tennis star P V Sindhu were also present during the virtual Expo.

Notes:
The state government of Rajasthan has signed a tripartite agreement with the Power Grid Corporation of India and the Educational Consultants India for establishing of smart classrooms.
The initiative has been taken to promote online education during the COVID-19 lockdown. As many as 100 schools are selected for setting up smart class rooms. The schools situated in remote areas and the recently selected government schools to be converted into English medium schools will be given top priority.

Notes:
Government e-Marketplace (GeM), the online procurement platform for government bodies, has made the sellers mandatory to mention the ‘country of origin’ while registering all new products.
GeM is a special purpose vehicle under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Besides mandating fresh sellers, the GeM also mandates the sellers who had already uploaded their products to update the ‘country of origin’, with a warning that their products shall be removed if they fail to update.

Notes:
The United States President Donald Trump has recently suspended H-1B, H-2B, J, L and other temporary work permits.
The suspension will be effective till December 31, as per the recent announcement from the White House. The President announced that the entry of additional workers through these temporary Visa programs presents a threat to employment opportunities for Americans affected by the economic damages caused by COVID-19 pandemic.

Notes:
Moody’s Investor Service has released the June update of its flagship Global Macro Outlook report. It has estimated that India’s GDP growth would be -3.1% this year.
It had earlier estimated the growth to be 0.2% in April. The report also projected that India’s GDP would grow at 6.9% in the fiscal year 2021-22, as compared to 6.2% estimated in the April update. It has lowered its estimates for all major economies.

Notes:
Technology major Google has announced that it has introduced a new feature called Fact-Checked’ labels for search images, to curb misinformation.
It will identify misleading photos in its specific search tool for images with the label. These fact-checking labels have been already used in its main search results and on video-streaming site YouTube. IT has now extended to images as well.

Notes:
The state government of Haryana and Reliance Jio TV have signed an agreement to telecast education material to school children.
The new agreement is done under the Chief Minister’s Distance Education Programme in order to expand education in rural areas. All four channels of the ‘Edusat’ platform will be available on the Jio platform free of cost, which will benefit around 52 lakh school children in rural areas.

Notes:
The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has recently approved additional investment of USD 121.27 million for the Shwe oil and gas project in Myanmar.
ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), is to invest in the oil and gas project, for development of Block A-1 and A-3 blocks. OVL had acquired a stake in the Shwe Project in 2002 and has invested USD 722 million in the project till March 31, 2019.

Notes:
In the third and final plenary held virtually by the Financial Action Task Force, Pakistan has been placed in its ‘Grey List’.
The country will remain in the Grey list until FATF’s next meeting to be held in October. The recent plenary was held under the Chinese Presidency of Xiangmin Liu. The FATF has 39 members at present including India. It has black listed countries including North Korea and Iran. Those countries would not be able to get financial aid from institutions like World Bank, IMF etc.

Notes:
Former England captain and present Managing Director of women’s cricket England Cricket Board, Clare Connor is set to become the first female president of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in its 233-year history.
The current President of MCC, Sri Lanka’s veteran cricketer Kumar Sangakkara named Clare Connor as the next Chief, during Annual General Meeting. Sangakkara is to step down from the top position next year. Clare Connor was made an Honorary Life Member of MCC in 2009.