Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
A 500-year-old ancient temple of Lord Vishnu that was submerged in Odisha’s Mahanadi river during 19th century has reappeared after 15 years.
The river is said to have been submerged due to change of course of the river. The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage’s archaeological survey team visited the village in Nayagarh district and said that the top of the Gopinath Dev temple was visible due to the reduction in the water-level of the river.

Notes:
India has recently joined the Global Partnership for Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) as its founding member, along with USA, UK, EU, Australia among others.
Union minister for Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad announced that this multi-stakeholder international partnership will promote responsible human centric development and use of Artificial Intelligence. India has recently launched the National AI Strategy and also launched its dedicated National AI Portal.

Notes:
The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has recently approved an additional $750 million loan to strengthen India’s fight against Covid-19.
This loan would be co-financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). The funds will be utilised for boosting the businesses in informal sector, providing social security for the deserving and strengthening the health care systems of India.

Notes:
Union Ministry of Earth Sciences has recently released a report titled ‘Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region’.
As per the first edition of the report released this year, the average surface air temperatures over India could rise by up to 4.4 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, in a worst-case scenario. This estimate is provided as compared to the period between 1976 and 2005. The report also revealed that under an intermediate scenario, the country’s average temperature could rise by up to 2.4°C.

Notes:
The high-powered panel constituted by SEBI, has released its report to improve inquiry and enforcement processes of the market regulator.
The panel has been chaired by a retired judge of the Supreme Court- Justice Anil R Dave, has released its comprehensive report to SEBI. The report focusses on reducing timeline for passing final orders, improving recovery processes, quantifying alleged gains while levying penalties and interplay between SEBI norms and provisions of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC).

Notes:
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to launch a Rs 50,000 crore employment scheme named ‘Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyan’ from a village of Bihar.
The scheme aims to provide income support to migrant workers who returned to their home states during the coronavirus lockdown. It will primarily focus on six states Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha, where maximum migrant workers have returned. This scheme aims to provide livelihood for 125 days to 25,000 migrant workers of 116 districts.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Corporate affairs (MCA) has proposed to decriminalise some compoundable offences under the Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) Act.
In the draft proposal, the Ministry has listed as many as 20 sections of the LLP Act and sought public comments and stakeholder consultations. It includes change of designated partners, maintaining books of accounts etc. Certain minor, procedural or technical violations which does not involve any harm to public interest are to be decriminalized.

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:
According to the latest report by the economic wing of State Bank of India (SBI), India’s per capita income (PCI) is to decrease by 5.4 per cent in 2020-21.
The main reason for this dip is due to the effect of Covid-19 pandemic. The report also revealed that this decline in PCI is higher than the nominal GDP decline of 3.8 per cent. The states that would witness the maximum hit in PCI would be Delhi, Chandigarh, and Gujarat with 15.4 per cent, 13.9 per cent and 11.6 per cent, respectively.

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.