Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
Former Supreme Court Judge D K Jain has been reappointed as the Ethics Officer and Ombudsman of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
D K Jain was appointed as the first ever Ombudsman and was later appointed as the Ethics Officer in addition. His term had ended on February 29 this year, but his appointment has been renewed for one more year. Due to the Covid pandemic, the Ombudsman will be conducting hearings virtually.

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:
Indian Grandmaster P. Harikrishna is the first Indian to participate in the in the million-dollar Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour that continues with the $150,000 Chessable Masters.
The Chessable Masters is a 12-player tournament which is to be played by the top six players of the world, on the classical ranking list, including Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, China’s Ling Diren and USA’s Fabiano Caruana. The field has been divided into two groups of six players each.

Notes:
Veteran economist and retired IAS officer BPR Vithal Baru passed away recently, at the age of 93, due to age-related ailments.
Vithal Baru had served in several important assignments including Secretary Finance and Planning in the state of Andhra Pradesh from 1972 to 1982 and Member of 10th Finance Commission. He had also been the Chairman of Expenditure Commission, Kerala. He also established the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), Hyderabad.

Notes:
Plantation of Kharif, or summer-sown crops has raised 40% year-on-year, supported by the strong start of the monsoon season.
The increase in planting has been led by oilseeds particularly groundnut, which has been sown in a large area of Gujarat. Total oilseeds area is about eight times more than that of last year. Total area under cultivation has also increased to 13.13 million hectares, from 9.42 million hectares a year ago.

Notes:
The United Nations General Assembly designated June 21 as the ‘International Day of the Celebration of the Solstice’.
It considered that the celebration of solstice represents the unity of the cultural heritage across the world. Solstice is an event that occurs when the path of the sun stands still at a northern or southern limit before reversing direction. There are two solstices that occur annually namely the Summer Solstice around June 21 and Winter Solstice around December 21.

Notes:
The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) and its international members celebrate World Hydrography Day every year on June 21.
The day highlights the importance of hydrography and its relevance in the modern world. This year, the theme of the World Hydrography Day is “Hydrography enabling autonomous technologies”. The autonomous technologies include aerial, surface and underwater survey drones as well as autonomous ships.

Notes:
The Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG) is a regional body comprising nine countries. It is an associate member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
The members of EAG include Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Belarus. Recently, Indian officials attended the virtual 32nd special EAG plenary meeting through video-conferencing, under the aegis of the Financial Action Task Force.

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:
The PM CARES Fund Trust has allocated Rs 2000 crore for supply of 50000 ‘Made-in-India’ ventilators to government-run COVID hospitals in all States and UTs.
Out of the 50,000 ventilators ordered, 30,000 ventilators are being manufactured by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL). The remaining ventilators are being jointly manufactured by other Indian companies including AgVa Healthcare and AMTZ Basic among others. Maharashtra, Delhi and Gujarat received maximum out of 1340 ventilators distributed.