Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

Notes:
The PM CARES fund has the Prime Minister as its ex-officio Chairperson. It has the Union Ministers of Defence, Home and Finance as its ex-officio trustees. The Prime Minister has the power to nominate three trustees to the Board.
Recently, the trustees of PM CARES fund appointed SARC Associates as the independent auditor of the fund for three years. The Prime Minister’s Office will be its head office and two PMO officials will administer the fund on an honorary basis.

Notes:
The Aquatic Quarantine Facility (AQF), a premier institution of Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture, MPEDA, Ministry of Commerce & Industry (RGCA-MPEDA), has received 3,600 numbers of L. vannamei (White-leg shrimp) brood stock imported by India’s shrimp hatchery operators from Hawaii.
The brood-stock were successfully quarantined for five days and handed over to the hatchery operators with 97.12 per cent survival. This has been achieved for the first time since the inception of the Aquatic Quarantine Facility.

Notes:
Ace Indian chess player P. Harikrishna bagged joint second place in the Sharjah World Stars online chess tournament.
Top seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won the online tournament by scoring 7.5 out of 10 points. The second-seeded Indian Grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna finished second while Polish Grandmaster Radoslaw Wojtaszek finished third.

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:
India has been recently elected as the non-permanent member of UN Security Council for 2021-22, along with Ireland, Mexico and Norway. India’s term is to begin from January 2021.
Each year the General Assembly elects five non-permanent members, out of the 10 total seats, for a two-year term. In the recent election, India won 184 votes out of 192 valid votes cast. Previously, India has been elected as a non-permanent member of the Council for seven terms.

Notes:
The ‘Global Status Report on Preventing Violence Against Children 2020’ was launched by the World Health Organisation, the UNICEF, the UNESCO, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General on Violence against Children and End Violence Partnership.
As per the report, half of the world’s children, about a billion are affected by physical, sexual or psychological violence, suffering injuries and death. Though nearly 88% of the countries have laws to protect minors, only 47% of them strongly enforce the laws.

Notes:
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Guwahati, in association with Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) and a private firm has developed low-cost diagnostic kits for Covid-19.
The Viral Transport Media (VTM) kits have two transport media for collecting swabs. These unique formulation of the transport medium helps in preserving the viability of viruses for up to 72 hours at refrigerated temperatures. The institution has also developed RT-PCR kits, and RNA isolation kits. Large scale production of these kits has commenced for deploying across the state and the country.

Notes:
Leading Indian FinTech company MobiKwik has partnered with e-commerce majors including Flipkart, Snapdeal and Confirmtkt, to promote digital ecosystem in India.
MobiKwik has introduced a new product for its partners called ‘MobiKwik Biller Stack’, using which the users of the e-Commerce platforms can pay utility bills through their application. Payment of all bills including electricity, TV, mobile recharge can be done easily through the feature, from multiple payment options.

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.