Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
The United States Senate has named that veteran Indian-American scientist Dr. Sethuraman Panchanathan as the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF).
NSF is a top American body, that promotes fundamental research in non-medical fields of science and engineering. The 58-year old Scientist is the Chief Research and Innovation Officer at Arizona State University, at present. He is to replace France Cordova as the 15th Director of the NSF. He is also the second Indian-American ever to be nominated for the position.

Notes:
The Rajya Sabha consists of not more 238 members representing the States and Union Territories, and 12 members nominated by the President. Each member is elected for a term of six years.
In the recent elections to 19 seats in 10 states, BJP won eight and Congress won four seats. The current strength of Rajya Sabha goes up to 244, of which BJP has 86 members and the National Democratic Alliance NDA’s tally is expected to cross 100. The Congress has 41 members while others have 27.

Notes:
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) of Maharashtra launched ‘Mission Zero’ rapid action plan to combat Covid-19.
Under the action plan, as many as fifty dispensary vans will cover various parts of Mumbai for 2-3 weeks to carry out a preliminary examination of patients. As per the data of the Ministry of Health and Family welfare, Maharashtra stands at the top spot with maximum number of people affected by Covid-19 in the country.

Notes:
The Uttar Pradesh Government has started using rail coaches as isolation units for COVID-19 suspected patients.
COVID coaches are deployed at Mau junction in Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh, in a first in the country. Indian Railways is ready to offer as many as 5,231 isolation coaches to the states and the respective zonal railways have converted the coaches as quarantine facilities. After Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh have also been using rail coaches.

Notes:
The students and researchers of IIT-Bombay has recently developed a homegrown receiver chip – Dhruva.
The chip can be used in smartphones and navigation devices to find locations and routes within the country. It will receive signals from NAVIC group of navigation satellites of India, as well as the US Global Positioning System-based satellites to determine a person’s location precisely.

Notes:
Every year the United Nations Public Service day is observed on June 23 to honour people engaged in public service, around the world.
On 20 December 2002, the United General Assembly designated 23 June as UN Public Service Day. The United Nations also established the UN Public Service Awards (UNPSA) programme in 2003, to recognise the UN Public Service Day and to encourage youngsters to take up their career in public sector.

Notes:
Serbia is the first country in Europe to successfully conduct its national election in Europe during the coronavirus epidemic.
The voting, which had been initially planned for April, was postponed because of the pandemic. However, the turnout appeared lower compared to previous elections due to the fear of coronavirus. The ruling governing conservative party led by President Aleksandar Vucic is set to obtain a landslide victory.

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:
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.