Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

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.

Notes:
Monaco-headquartered International Association of Athletics Federations leads the celebration of World Athletics Day in the month of May. The first World Athletics Day was celebrated in 1996.
Every year, the date is decided by IAAF and this year it was celebrated on May 7. IAAF was founded at Stockholm, Sweden in the year 1912. The Athletics Day is celebrated to educate the people about the significance of sports and to encourage athletics as the foundational sport in educational institutions.

Notes:
Amidst the Covid-19 outbreak, ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (ICAR-CIFT), Kochi prepared advisories for the benefit of the fishing fraternity in 10 different regional languages. ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CIFRI), Barrackpore prepared advisories for the stakeholders involved in freshwater fishing.
The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Rome has recommended these advisories by including them as ‘Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries’ under the Asia-Regional initiatives.

Notes:
The Sunderbans delta, which is spread over India and Bangladesh, is the only mangrove forest in the world inhabited by tigers.
According to the latest estimation conducted by the West Bengal Forest Department, the count of tigers has increased by 8 in 2019-20 to 96, from 88 in the previous year. The increase was significant as this is the biggest annual jump ever reported from the Sundarbans, which is a world heritage site and a Ramsar site.

Notes:
The United Nations along with its partner agencies has launched a USD 6.7 billion global appeal to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
The UN also updated a global plan to fight the COVID-19 in fragile and more vulnerable countries. The plan includes nine more vulnerable countries including the Philippines, Togo and Zimbabwe, beyond the 54 countries covered in the original appeal-the COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan.

Notes:
The Union Budget 2020 proposed to reduce the stay period of an individual in India to 120 days, from the previous 182 days. But this reduction is only applicable to persons with less than Rs 15 lakh as Indian income during the Financial year.
Recently, Finance Ministry allowed a relief in determining the residential status during 2019-20, where a person came to India before 22nd March, 2020 and was unable to leave India on or before 31st March 2020, his period of stay in India from 22nd March to 31st March shall not be taken into account. Otherwise they shall have to file tax returns as Indian residents.

Notes:
The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) recently announced a research collaboration with Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Ltd (BBIL) to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.
The virus stains that had been isolated at the National Institute of Virology, Pune (an ICMR institute), have been transferred to the Biotech firm. The ICMR and BBIL will seek approvals to speed-up vaccine development, subsequent animal studies and clinical evaluation of the indigenous vaccine.

Notes:
India’s first and only woman Paralympics silver medallist, Deepa Malik is set to take charge as the President of the Paralympic Committee of India.
She had earlier announced her retirement from active sports. She is the only woman para-athlete to have been given the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. She is also a recipient of the Padma Shri and Arjuna Award. Deepa Malik won her silver medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Paralympics in shot put. She has won 58 national and 23 international medals.

Notes:
New Development Bank (NDB) was established by the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) countries in 2014. Its headquarters is Shangai and is headed by veteran Indian K V Kamath.
BRICS’ New Development Bank was seen in news recently, as it has provided $1 billion loan to India to fight COVID-19. The complete emergency funds have been disbursed by the development institution, to help India in containing the human and economic losses due to Covid-19.

Notes:
The Union Finance Minister announced the details of the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Yojana package launched by the Prime Minister.
One of the features was the global tenders being disallowed in government procurement up to Rs 200 crore. This would reduce unfair foreign competition for MSMEs and support the ‘Make in India’ initiative. She also announced Rs 3 lakh crore Emergency Working Capital Facility for Businesses, including MSMEs.