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:
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 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:
Veteran author and historian Ronald Vivian Smith also known as RV Smith passed away recently in Delhi, at the age of 82.
RV Smith was known for chronicling Delhi, including its streets and monuments and authored books including ‘Delhi That No One Knows’ and ‘Capital Vignettes’. He has also worked for the Press Trust of India and The Statesman, Delhi. He won various awards in the field of journalism.

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 Union minister of Culture Prahlad Singh Patel released a centenary special edition e-book “Prof. B. B. Lal -India Rediscovered” on the birthday of B.B.Lal, as a tribute for his contribution in the field of archaeology.
Professor B.B Lal, born on May 2, 2961 in Uttar Pradesh, is a renowned archaeologist. On the occasion of his 100th birth year, the e-book has been released by the Ministry of culture in collaboration with Prof B B Lal Centenary Celebration Committee.

Notes:
Under the Rebate of State Levies (ROSL) Scheme, exporters can claim refunds from the Centre for all the levies and duties they pay at the State level. It was extended only to exporters of apparel and made-ups.
It was discontinued last year and replaced with the Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies scheme (RoSCTL). Recently, ₹464.13 crore has been allocated for issue of duty credit scrips (certificates) by the DGFT to exporters who have pending claims under the ROSL scheme.

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.

Notes:
Union Health Minister along with the Union AYUSH Minister launched the clinical research studies on Ayurveda interventions as an add-on to the standard care in tackling COVID 19. This will be a joint initiative of Ministry of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Science & Technology through CSIR.
They also launched the Ayush Sanjivani application developed by the AYUSH Ministry, with an aim of generating data on acceptance and usage of AYUSH recommendations among the public and record their impact in prevention of COVID 19.

Notes:
Recently, the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) designed and produced by the Indian Navy has been certified for mass production and clinical usage.
The PPE has been developed by the team of Innovation Cell, Institute of Naval Medicine, Mumbai and the Naval Dockyard Mumbai. INMAS (Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences) Delhi, an authorised DRDO organization has tested and certified the PPE. The benchmarks of testing are set by the ICMR and the Health Ministry.