Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
Vasant Raiji, India’s oldest first-class cricketer, passed away at his residence in Mumbai, at his 100th year.
Vasant Raiji was a chartered accountant by profession. He was a right-handed batsman and played nine first-class matches for Mumbai and Baroda in the 1940s. He started playing in the Mumbai team under the leadership of Vijay Merchant. He was also a veteran cricket historian.

Notes:
A team of researchers at IIT- Kharagpur has developed a system based on artificial intelligence to track social distancing.
The cyber-physical system monitors social distancing in public places, by detecting the gap between individuals. It plays an alert sound, whenever social distancing norms mandated by the Health Ministry is violated. This is also a low-cost device, which can even be used in remote places.

Notes:
Railway Protection Force, Pune has launched a robot named ‘Captain Arjun’, to screen passengers while they board trains.
ARJUN stands for Always be Responsible and Just Use to be Nice. It is equipped with a motion sensor, PTZ camera (Pan, Tilt, Zoom Camera) and a Dome Camera. Captain Arjun also does thermal screening and also has a sensor-based sanitizer and mask dispenser. It also has a floor sanitization facility. The robot uses artificial intelligence to track suspicious activity and antisocial activity.

Notes:
India’s first infectious disease diagnostic lab has been developed with the support of Department of Bio-Technology.
The lab has been developed as a part of the Aatmanirbhar Bharat scheme, in a record time of eight days from the receipt of the Automotive Chassis, from Bharat Benz, a brand of Daimler India Commercial Vehicles. It has Elisa test, rRT-PCR test and Bio chemistry analysers.

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:
“World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought” is celebrated on June 17, every year across the world.
UN General Assembly declared June 17 as the specified World Day, to promote public awareness of the issues of Desertification and Drought. This year, the theme is “Food.Feed.Fibre: Sustainable production and consumption.” The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification leads the observance.

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:
US President Donald Trump signed an act to authorise sanctions against Chinese officials over the mass incarceration of Uighur Muslims and other minorities.
The legislation requires the US administration to determine which Chinese officials are responsible for the arbitrary detention, torture and harassment of the minorities. Then, the U.S would freeze any assets held by the officials in the country and would also ban their entry into the U.S. As per some activists, over one million Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims are being homogenised in China.

Notes:
The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has recently recommended former skipper IM Vijayan for the country’s fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shri.
The 51-year-old legendary player served as the India striker. Since he made his debut in the early 90s, he had scored 40 goals in 79 matches for India. He was also awarded the prestigious Arjuna award in 2003. Six Indian footballers including Bhaichung Bhutia and Sunil Chhetri have earlier won the Padma Shri award.

Notes:
The State Department of Archaeology Team of the Kodumanal excavation has identified 250 cairn-circles at the village in Erode district of Tamil Nadu.
The team has recently found around 10 pots and bowls, instead of the usual 3-4 pots, placed outside three-chambered burial cists. It is expected to be of the head of the community. Pots filled with grains were placed outside the chambers as it was believed that the deceased will get a new life after death. This has revealed about the burial rituals and the belief of afterlife in megalithic culture.