Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
The Researchers at the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in Kalyani, West Bengal have recently found that the novel coronavirus (O type) that originated from Wuhan, China has mutated into 10 different types.
Among the 10 mutations, one type named ‘A2a’ has nearly replaced all the others to become a dominant mutation across all geographical regions. This study is to be published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research, published by ICMR.

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:
Veteran Indian Foreign Service Officer T. S. Tirumurti has been appointed as the next Ambassador or Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations.
The officer is currently serving as the Secretary (economic relations) in the Ministry of External Affairs. He replaces Sayyad Akbaruddin, who is superannuating this month. Prior to this appointment, Tirumurti has held several prime engagements and positions in India’s external affairs.

Notes:
National Council for Science & Technology Communication (NCSTC) which functions under the Department of Science & Technology (DST) has launched a programme on health and risk communication named ‘Year of Awareness on Science & Health (YASH)’.
The programme aims at promoting response on health and inculcate scientific temper and health consciousness among the general public. The programme also plans to involve academic, research, media and voluntary organizations in developing solutions to equip the society to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.

Notes:
The present Additional Secretary in Prime Minister’s Office and 1988 batch IAS officer, Tarun Bajaj recently assumed charge as the next Economic Affairs Secretary.
He is replacing Atanu Chakraborty who superannuated on April 30. Before having appointed in the Prime Minister’s Office, he served as the Joint Secretary in Economic Affairs Department, in charge of multilateral funding agencies division. He had also served as the Director in Department of Financial Services.

Notes:
A black rice variety of Manipur called Chak-Hao has recently bagged the Geographical Indication (GI) tag.
Chak-Hao is an aromatic glutinous rice variety which has been cultivated in Manipur. It is also used traditional medical practitioners. It also has the longest cooking time due to its fibrous bran layer and higher crude fibre content. The terracotta work of Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradsh a centuries-old traditional art form, also bagged the G.I tag.

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.

Notes:
Indian Navy has launched Operation named ‘Samudra Setu’, which means Sea Bridge in English, with an objective of repatriating Indian citizens who are stranded in other countries.
As a part of Phase-1 under the operation, Indian Naval Ships Jalashwa and Magar have departed to Malè in Maldives for evacuation of Indian citizens. The list of persons who are to be evacuated is prepared by the Indian Mission in Maldives. About a thousand nationals are to be transported back to India following social distancing norms.

Notes:
The state government of Uttar Pradesh has recently launched a mobile application called ‘Ayush Kavach-Covid’, which has been developed the Ministry of AYUSH.
The application was launched with an aim of providing health remedies and measures to boost immunity in the process of fighting Covid-19. The app provides a lot of information authorised by the AYUSH Ministry about the medicinal properties of certain ingredients. It also enables the users to seek advice from experts in the AYUSH field.

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.