Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar represented India in the recently held eleventh session of Petersberg Climate Dialogue, along with is counterparts from 30 nations. Prior to this, the Minister also participated in an Indo German bilateral meeting through video conference.
This session of the Climate Dialogue is the first virtual Climate Dialogue. The Petersberg Dialogue has been hosted by Germany since 2010 to provide a global forum for informal political discussions on climate negotiations and climate action.

Notes:
The US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its annual report recently, where it has classified India under ‘Countries of particular concern’ (CPC) for increasing assault on religious minorities.
The report has placed India in the concern list along with 13 other nations including nine countries which were placed in December 2019 and 5 countries added now. The recently added countries include Nigeria, Russia, Syria, and Vietnam in addition to India.

Notes:
According to the recent data released by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and its partners, seven million unintended pregnancies would occur in the coming months, as nearly 47 million women in low-income countries who would be unable to use modern contraceptives.
It also warned the number of women facing gender-based violence and other harmful practices would increase by several times. UNFPA is a UN organisation headquartered at New York, United States.

Notes:
World Dance day has been celebrated every year on April 29, to commemorate the birth anniversary of the creator of modern ballet type of dance, Jean-Georges Noverre.
The day was created by the Dance Committee of the International Theatre Institute (ITI), which is the main partner for the performing arts of UNESCO. Every year, ITI selects an outstanding dance personality to write a message for the day. This year the Message author is Gregory Vuyani MAQOMA, a dancer from South Africa.

Notes:
The United States has placed 10 countries including India on the ‘Priority Watch List’ for lack of sufficient improvements to its intellectual property framework.
The US placed 10 countries, including India and China, and alleged that enforcement of the intellectual properties have weakened or remained inadequate in those countries. The US also highlighted that because of the weak IP enforcement, Americans find it difficult to have an equitable market access.

Notes:
Former finance secretary Rajiv Kumar has been recently appointed as the chairperson of the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB), for a period of three years. He replaces Kapil Dev Tripathi who has recently named the Secretary to President Ram Nath Kovind.
PESB is a high-powered body constituted by the Government of India, under Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension, to advise Government on appointments of top management posts in Central Public Sector Enterprises.

Notes:
The Bombay Reorganization Act, which came into effect on May 1, 1960, divided the then Bombay province into two separate states namely Maharashtra and Gujarat, on the basis of language.
People who were speaking Marathi and Konkani became a part of Maharashtra while those speaking Gujarati and Kutchi became a part of Gujarat. Hence May 1 is celebrated as the statehood day of Maharashtra and Gujarat every year.

Notes:
As per the recent survey conducted by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the unemployment rate of India increased 14.8 percentage points, to 23.5% in Apr 2020.
Tamil Nadu recorded the highest unemployment rate in April 2020, among large states at 49.8%, up from 6.3% in March 2020. Jharkhand and Bihar follow Tamil Nadu in higher unemployment rate while the lowest rate was found in Punjab, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana.

Notes:
As per the recent statement of U.N. World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Ozone depletion has hit the highest level, which is the highest level since 2011.
The WMO also highlighted that the hole has now been closed. As per the spokesperson, the ‘springtime phenomenon’ in the northern hemisphere was caused by ozone depleting substances in atmosphere and cold winter in stratosphere. But this phenomenon is not due to the pandemic.

Notes:
National Science and Technology Management Information (NSTMIS), Department of Science and Technology (DST) has conducted a survey on Research and Development Statistics and Indicators 2019-20.
As per the survey, India is placed at the third position in terms of number of scientific publications. The number of researchers per million population has doubled since 2000 and India’s gross expenditure in R&D has tripled between 2008 and 2018, during the year the expenditure stood at Rs 1,13,825 crores.