Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
The National Centre of Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) has found that the Arctic Ocean has seen the largest decline in the last 41 years due to global warming.
This has led to localised increase in evaporation, air humidity, cloud cover and rainfall. NCPOR noted that this decline in Arctic Sea ice was -13 per cent in July 2019 while it was -4.7 per cent per decade in the last 40 years. The study also noted that if this trend continues, there would be no ice left in the Arctic sea by 2050.

Notes:
Achyut Kashinath Sinai Usgaonkar, former Goa Minister passed away recently, at the age of 92, due to age-related ailments.
Achyut Usgaonkar was a leader of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), the oldest regional party in Goa. He served as a cabinet Minister from 1977 to 1979. Before that, he also served as the deputy speaker of Goa during the government of Dayanand Bandodkar, the first chief minister of Goa.

Notes:
Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs signed a MoU with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), to engage SIDBI as the Implementation Agency for PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbhar Nidhi (PM SVANidhi).
The scheme aims to provide a working capital loan up to Rs 10000 to street vendors, who have been adversely affected by the Covid-19 lockdown. The loan is repayable in monthly instalments in 1-year tenue. On prompt payment, a subsidy of 7% per annum is also provided.

Notes:
Recently, a team of astronomers at NASA and European Space Agency ESA have discovered a neutron star called ‘Swift J1818.0-1607’.
The neutron star has been estimated to be about 240 years old. It was first discovered in March 2020, when it released a massive burst of X-rays. Neutron stars are the smallest and densest stars. According to NASA, Swift J1818.0-1607 contains twice the mass of our Sun in a volume of more than one trillion times smaller.

Notes:
The manufacturing know-how of a PPE Suit being named ‘NavRakshak’ has been licensed by National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) to 5 five MSMEs.
The manufacturers are expected to mass produce more than 10 million PPEs per year, to meet the demand of quality PPE kits across the country. This know-how has been developed at the Mumbai-based Innovation Cell of the Institute of Naval Medicine. Intellectual property rights are also to be obtained.

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 Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani is the world’s ninth richest billionaire on the Forbes Real-time Billionaires List.
With a net worth of $64.6 billion, he is ahead of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The market capitalisation of Reliance Industries (RIL) crossed the Rs 11-trillion mark recently. The company also announced itself net debt free while it had net debt of Rs 1.61 trillion in March 2020. In the same month, Ambani was ranked 21st on Forbes’ annual billionaire list.

Notes:
According to the data from the US Treasury Department, India has become the 12th largest holder of US government securities at the end of April.
Japan stood at the first position by holding securities worth 157.4 billion dollars. It is followed by China at 1.1 trillion dollars and the UK at 368.5 billion dollars. At the end of April, India had an exposure of 157.4 billion dollars.

Notes:
Jharkhand is set to become the first state to launch an employment guarantee scheme for urban poor on the lines of the Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).
The scheme named ‘Mukhyamantri Shramik Yojna’ will guarantee 100 days of work in a financial year for urban unskilled labourers. Under the scheme, if the person doesn’t get work within 15 days of request, unemployment allowance would be given. An urban employment guarantee council would be formed, headed by the Chief Minister and Urban development minister as the vice president.

Notes:
Under the recently signed agreement, France committed to provide 200 million euros to India, to support the country’s response to tackle COVID-19.
The programme design has been developed by the World Bank in collaboration with the Indian authorities. It seeks to fast track the existing social protection measures of the Indian Government including the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana. The programme will provide assistance to low-income families and protect essential frontline workers.