Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
India’s leading private sector lender Axis Bank recently announced that it would acquire an additional 29 per cent stake in Max Life Insurance, its joint venture with Max Financial Services (MFS).
This acquisition will raise the total stake of Axis bank to 30 per cent. The remaining 70% will be held by Max Financial Services. Prior to this agreement, about 25.5 per cent in the Max Life Insurance was owned by Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance.

Notes:
Nagaland has introduced a scheme to levy COVID-19 cess for diesel, petrol and motor spirit. It has levied a cess of Rs 5 per litre for diesel and Rs 6 for petrol and motor spirit, from the night of April 28.
This decision has been taken with the powers conferred under Nagaland (sales of petroleum and petroleum products including motor spirit and lubricants) Taxation Act, 1967 (as amended). Meghalaya has levied sales tax surcharge at 2 percent on motor spirit including petrol and diesel.

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:
The All India Institute of Ayurveda (AIIA), under Ministry of AYUSH organised a programme called AYURAKSHA, in collaboration with the Police Department of New Delhi.
The programme, which was titled AYURAKSHA “Corona Se Jung- Delhi Police Ke Sang”, was launched with an aim of fighting Covid-19 using Ayurveda immunity boosting measures, as per the advisory issued by the Ministry of AYUSH. Police officials with co morbid conditions like Diabetes, Stress, Hypertension will be identified by AIIA.

Notes:
Iran ranks first in the world, in terms of production of saffron and India is a close competitor. Kashmir saffron has received the Geographical Indication (GI) tag recently. It is cultivated and harvested in the Karewa (highlands) of Jammu and Kashmir.
The unique characteristics of Kashmir saffron are its longer and thicker stigmas, natural deep-red colour and high quantity of crocin, safranal and picrocrocin, among others. It is the only saffron variety in the world that is grown at an altitude of 1,600 m to 1,800 m above mean sea level.

Notes:
Professor at the Electrical Engineering Department, IIT Bombay, Mr. Saurabh Lodha has received the Young Career Award in Nano Science and Technology for the year 2020 instituted by the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
He has been selected for the prestigious award for contributing in development of logic transistor technologies beyond the conventional silicon transistors and development of nano electronic devices based on two-dimensional ‘Van der Waals’ materials. His work has been presented at global device conferences and have been incorporated in semiconductor equipment for advanced transistor technologies.

Notes:
The Think tank of the country NITI Aayog in coloration with Mumbai-based Piramal Foundation has launched a campaign ‘Surakshit Dada-Dadi & Nana-Nani Abhiyan’.
The campaign focusses on ensuring well-being of senior citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is expected to cover as many as 29 lakh senior citizens in 25 aspirational districts named by NITI Aayog. This project is currently piloted in seven states and will create awareness about the health and lifestyle of elder people.

Notes:
‘Long March 5B’ is the flagship launch vehicle of China and it is a variant of the standard Long March 5 rocket, which had its inaugural flight in 2016.
It was seen in news recently, as the rocket launched a prototype crewed spacecraft from the Hainan island. This new-generation spacecraft entered its predetermined orbit 488 seconds after the launch. This success is expected to let China proceed with a mission to send an orbiter and rover to Mars.

Notes:
Rabindranath Tagore, also called as the ‘Gurudev’ wrote the ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ song during the first partition of Bengal, announced by Lord Curzon in 1905. The song later led to the uprising of the freedom movement of the present Bangladesh and became their national anthem.
Tagore is the only known person who had composed national anthems for two countries, including Jana Gana Mana of India. The Sri Lankan national anthem was also inspired from Tagore’s work, as per some historians. His 159th birth anniversary was observed on May 7. National Gallery of Modern Art organised a virtual tour to commemorate the birth anniversary of Tagore.