Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
Former Reserve Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel has been appointed as Chairman of the economic think tank, the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP).
Urjit Patel will be the Chairperson of NIPFP for a four-year term from June 22, 2020. He will replace Vijay Laxman Kelkar, who had been the Chairman of the think-tank since 2014. Urjit Patel served as the Deputy Governor of RBI in 2013 and Governor of RBI from 2016 to 2018.

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan, a Rs 50,000 crore dedicated programme to create job opportunities for millions of migrant workers who returned home during the lockdown imposed due to Covid-19.
It was launched from Telihar village of Bihar’s Khagaria district. The scheme is expected to run in mission mode for 125 days across 116 districts in six states namely Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha. Twelve different ministries or departments will be engaged in implementing the programme.

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:
Union Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani launched a special campaign titled ‘Empowering the Greater 50%’.
This campaign is an initiative of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and its division FICCI Ladies Organization (FLO). It seeks to create an ecosystem to support women entrepreneurship and empower as many as 1 lakh women in India over the next three years.

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:
China has recently provided a huge boost in trade with Bangladesh by offering them a tariff exemption for 97 per cent of their exports.
The exemption is to be made effective from July 1. Earlier, the Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Chinese President Xi Jinping had a discussion on upgrading their bilateral relations. With this exemption, as many as 8,256 products of Bangladesh will come under the 97 per cent of products that would be exempted.

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has received a patent for its Liquid Cooling and Heating Garment (LCHG).
The special garment is made up of bio-compatible fabrics and a system for circulating temperature controlling fluid into and out of the garments. This would provide a comfortable temperature to the astronauts wearing it in space. The garments can also be used in other military applications, fire-fighting and in extreme environments in industrial areas.

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:
A bailey bridge located nearly 50 kilo meters from the Sino-India border has recently collapsed, when a truck carrying a JCB machine was crossing.
The bridge is located in the state of Uttarakhand, which collapsed on increasing the weight over its capacity. The 40-feet-long bridge was built in the year 2009. As the bridge collapsed, about 15 border villages of Johar Valley have been cut off. It is estimated to take 15 days to construct a new bridge.

Notes:
The PM CARES Fund Trust has allocated Rs 1000 crore for the welfare of migrant labourers, to all states and UTs.
The distribution of the fund is based on the formula of 50% weightage for the population as per 2011 census, 40% weightage for number of positive COVID-19 cases and 10% for equal distribution among all the States/UTs. This fund will be deployed for arranging accommodation, food, medical treatment and transportation of the migrants.