Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
The UN Agency for refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has released its Annual report on displacement.
As per the report, nearly 80 million people were forcibly displaced by the end of 2019 globally. The main reason for displacement has been war, violence, persecution and other emergencies. This count is almost double the total figure of the past decade. The report also revealed that an additional 11 million people were newly displaced in 2019 alone.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has set up a Project Development Cell (PDC) to attract more investments into the sector.
It is to be headed by the Joint secretary of MNRE, Amitesh Kumar Sinha, and will help meet the country’s 175 GW target for green energy. The PDC aims to create projects that have all prior approvals for investors to adopt them. DPIIT can also nominate some officials to this body.

Notes:
The US Chamber of Commerce has recently announced that ‘India Ideas Summit 2020’ is scheduled to be held virtually on July 21-22.
The summit is organised by US India Business Council (USIBC). This year is the 45th annual meeting and will focus on geopolitics in the post-COVID world, technology trends and the future of healthcare, among others. Last year, the Summit was organised in Washington. It brings together scholars, diplomats and think tanks for high-level dialogue on key issues related to India.

Notes:
The United Nations designated June 21 as International Day of Yoga by passing a resolution on December 11, 2014, during the 69th session of the General Assembly.
The first International Day of Yoga was celebrated in the year 2015, across the world. This year, the celebration marks the 6th International Yoga Day. The United Nations theme for this year is ‘Yoga for Health – Yoga at Home’.

Notes:
China recently announced that it will join the United Nations (UN) Arms Trade Treaty. China’s top legislative body voted to adopt a decision on joining the treaty.
Under the treaty, the member countries ought to keep records of international transfers of weapons. The members should also prohibit cross-border shipments that could be used in human rights violations. Earlier, the United States had rejected to join in the treaty, which has been designed to control the flow of weapons into conflict zones.

Notes:
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hosted the Russia-India-China (RIC) trilateral foreign ministers’ meeting.
It has been attended by the Union External Affairs Minister of India S Jaishankar and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. This is the first time the foreign Ministers of India and China are virtually meeting through video conference after the recent standoff between their troops at Ladakh. On June 24, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh attends the Victory parade in Russia.

Notes:
The United Nations observes 23 June as International Widows Day since 2011. The theme of ‘International Widows Day’ 2020 is ‘Invisible Women, Invisible Problems’.
The day highlights the necessity to provide them access to Inheritance rights, pension and social protection, decent work and equal pay. UN also urges governments to ensure the rights of widows as per international laws including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Notes:
As per the India Ratings and Research, India’s economy is estimated to contract by 5.3 per cent this fiscal year.
As per Ind-Ra, this is the lowest GDP growth in the Indian history and the sixth instance of economic contraction. It also revealed that though some activities have started now, tourism and hospitality sectors will not allow the economic activity to return to normalcy throughout FY21 due to the disruptions caused by Covid-19 pandemic.

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:
Researchers from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG), Dehradun have traced the paleoclimatic history of the Indus River in Ladakh Himalaya, by using geometric data from overlapping gravels of channel fills.
WIHG is an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology. The researchers have studied the discharge when the river experienced an increase in land elevation, due to the deposition of sediment and incision. Their study has been published in the journal titled Geomorphology.