Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2020

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 state government of Tripura is launching an initiative named ‘Ektu Khelo, Ektu Padho’, to promote learning process of school students.
The proposed scheme is to be started from June 25, for students up to class 8. As per the state’s guidelines, assignments will be sent to students on mobile phones every morning, and feedback on their performance is to be collected in the afternoon. In the state, as many as five lakh students study in 4,733 government schools.

Notes:
As per the recent data from Vietnam, the 36th ASEAN Summit will be held via video conference on June 26.
Vietnam is the chair of ASEAN in 2020 and its Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc will chair the opening session, plenary session and special sessions on woman empowerment in digital era among other meetings. The 36th ASEAN Summit, which had been scheduled to be held in April, has been postponed to June end due to COVID-19.

Notes:
Invest India was set up as a non-profit venture under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry in 2009.
It focusses on sector-specific investor targeting and develops new partnerships for investments in India. Recently, the Minister of Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal launched the Food Processing Edition of the Exclusive Investment Forum, designed by Invest India.

Notes:
China has successfully launched the last satellite of its BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), onboard a Long March-3B carrier rocket.
This BDS system is claimed to be a competitor to the popular Global Positioning System (GPS) of the United States. The satellite was launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Southwest China. It is the 55th in the family of BeiDou, which means “Big Dipper” in Chinese language.

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.

Notes:
In the third and final plenary held virtually by the Financial Action Task Force, Pakistan has been placed in its ‘Grey List’.
The country will remain in the Grey list until FATF’s next meeting to be held in October. The recent plenary was held under the Chinese Presidency of Xiangmin Liu. The FATF has 39 members at present including India. It has black listed countries including North Korea and Iran. Those countries would not be able to get financial aid from institutions like World Bank, IMF etc.

Notes:
Researchers from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WIHG), Dehradun have traced the paleoclimatic history of the Indus River in Ladakh Himalaya, by using geometric data from overlapping gravels of channel fills.
WIHG is an autonomous institute under the Department of Science and Technology. The researchers have studied the discharge when the river experienced an increase in land elevation, due to the deposition of sediment and incision. Their study has been published in the journal titled Geomorphology.

Notes:
Union Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Minister Nitin Gadkari has launched the Credit Guarantee Scheme for Sub-ordinate Debt, CGSSD.
Under the scheme, a guarantee cover of Rs 20000 crore rupees will be provided to the promoters who are willing take loan from banks to invest in their stressed MSMEs as equity. Promoters will be given credit equal to 15 percent of their stake or 75 lakh rupees whichever is lower.

Notes:
Indian Railways has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with RailTel for installing video surveillance at over 6000 stations, across the country.
RailTel is a public sector undertaking (PSU) operating under the aegis of the Ministry of Railway. The IP-based video surveillance system will be provided at 6,049 railway stations, under specific categories of the Indian Railways. Existing standalone CCTV network would also be integrated with the video surveillance system.