Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
On recommendation of K. Santhanam committee, the Central Vigilance Commission was set up by the Government in 1964, to exercise general superintendence and control over vigilance administration. Recently, Former Andhra Bank MD & CEO Suresh N. Patel was appointed as a Vigilance commissioner in CVC.
As per the Central Vigilance Commission Act 2003, there shall be a Central Vigilance Commissioner as the Chairperson and not more than two Vigilance Commissioners as Members. The term of office of the Central Vigilance Commissioner and the Vigilance Commissioners would be four years from the date of entering office or till they attain the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.

Notes:
New York based Global rating agency Moody’s Investors Service, also known as Moody’s has recently slashed the GDP growth rate of India to 0.2 per cent in 2020-21, which is the lowest estimate made for the country till date after Covid-19 pandemic.
It has previously decreased the growth rate from the estimate of 5.2% to 2.5%, after the first nation-wide lockdown has been imposed by the Government on March 24. However, it predicts that India would grow at 6.2 per cent in 2021-22.

Notes:
For the year 2020, Russia is the Chair of the BRICS bloc, which has 5 members namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Recently, Russia chaired the BRICS Foreign Ministers meeting on coronavirus, conducted through video conferencing. Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar also participated in the virtual meeting. The representatives discussed on the significance of joint vaccine production and strategic partnerships within the BRICS.

Notes:
According to the recent report titled ‘The Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID 2020)’, released by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), about 5 million people were displaced in India in 2019, which is the highest in the world till date.
IDMC, a part of the Norwegian Refugee Council, also states that the displacements in India is due to increased hazard intensity, high population and social and economic vulnerability. As many as 8 tropical storms hit the country. The centre has also noted a concentrated pattern inside countries, in regard with the displacement.

Notes:
Open Budget Survey, which was conducted by the International Budget Partnership (IBP) has been recently released. It rates the level of budget transparency on a scale of 0-100. New Zealand tops the list with a score 87.
In the list, India has been ranked at 53rd position among 117 nations, in terms of budget transparency and accountability. The survey provided a score of 49 out of 100 for the Union Budget process of India whereas the global average is 45. The survey report argues that the Union Government should publish a Pre-Budget Statement, which can be scrutinised by the legislators and the public.

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 Reserve Bank of India launched a Rs 50,000-crore scheme which enables banks to extend liquidity support to Mutual Funds, called Special Liquidity Facility for Mutual Funds SLF-MF scheme.
This was introduced at the backdrop of the shutting down of six debt funds of Franklin Templeton Mutual Funds. Recently, the RBI extended the benefits of the scheme to all banks, irrespective of whether they avail funding from the Reserve Bank or deploy their own resources.

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:
The Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan recently announced that five more states viz. Bihar, UP, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Daman and Diu have been integrated with the ‘One nation, One ration card’ scheme. Under the scheme, eligible cardholders can avail food grains from any fair-price shop under NFSA.
On January 1, 2020, there were 12 states on the integrated Public Distribution system. With the addition of 5 new states, the total count of states integrated in the scheme becomes 17, as of May 2020.

Notes:
The Ministry of Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER) has recently directed the state government of Arunachal Pradesh to include the Chakma and Hajong communities in the COVID-19 relief programme.
After a Delhi-based rights group sent its complaint to the Prime Minister’s Office about the exclusion of the two communities from the relief programme and the shortage of food faced by them, the Ministry issued an order to the state. The people of the communities were settled in the state by 1960s after they were displaced by a violence in present Bangladesh region.