Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
International Organization for Migration (IOM) is an intergovernmental organization that provides services and advice regarding migration to governments and migrants. It is headquartered at Grand-Saconnex, Switzerland.
Recently, the Director-General of the UN migration agency Antonio Vitorino said in a notification that thousands of migrants have been stranded all over the world and they face an increased risk of COVID-19 infection. The agency also advised the governments to allow health care and screening available to all migrants.

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:
According to the data released by the Registrar General of India in its Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin based on data collected for 2018, the infant mortality rate was found to be 32 per thousand of the population. The national birth rate and death rate stood at 20 and 6.2 respectively.
Madhya Pradesh has worst infant mortality rate in the country with 48 per thousand while Nagaland has the best IMR (4). Bihar continues to top the birth rate list with Andaman and Nicobar Islands at the bottom. Chhattisgarh has the highest death rate, while Delhi has the lowest.

Notes:
The Government of India has recently issued a set of guidelines to be followed for data processing of Aarogya Setu app users.
As per the new rules, the storage of data beyond 180 days is prohibited and users can seek deletion of their data from the government’s records within 30 days of request. The new norms allow collection of only demographic, contact, self-assessment and location data of infected persons and their contacts. Any violation of these directions may lead to penalties under the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

Notes:
The TVS group and the Sundaram Medical Foundation collaborated with IIT-Madras to develop an affordable and automated respiratory assist device called The Sundaram Ventago.
This device has been developed in collaboration with hospitals like Madras Medical College and Kauvery Hospital along with guidance from institutions like MIT-Boston. The device uses automated squeezing of a self-inflating bag or AMBU bag to provide respiratory support to patients.

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:
A 1991 batch Karnataka cadre officer Ms. Vidyavathi has been recently appointed as the new Director General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
According to the order of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, the bureaucrat will be serving in the rank of Additional Secretary to the Government of India. Usha Sharma was the previous DG of ASI, that is headquartered at New Delhi.

Notes:
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a specialised agency of the United States has recently released a report titled ‘Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 (FRA 2020)’. The report examines the status of 236 countries in the period 1990-2020.
The report highlighted that the forest area has declined all across the world in the past three decades. The rate of forest loss in 2015-2020 declined to an estimated 10 million hectares, down from 12 million hectares in 2010-2015. The report also revealed that the world lost 178 mha of forest since 1990, which is the size of Libya.

Notes:
The World Health Organisation recently released its flagship annual report ‘Global Nutrition Report’. The report highlighted that India and 87 other countries are likely to miss the global nutrition targets by 2025.
It also revealed that India has the highest rates of domestic inequalities in malnutrition. India would miss targets for all four nutritional indicators including stunting among under-5 children, anaemia among women of reproductive age, childhood overweight and exclusive breastfeeding. It also said that 37.9% of children under 5 years are stunted and 20.8% are wasted.

Notes:
As a part of the economic stimulus package, the Government has revised the definition of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). The revised guidelines introduced a new criterion called ‘Annual turnover’.
For micro enterprises, the classification covers up to Rs 1 crore in investment and Rs 5 crore in turnover. Earlier, it was investment of 25 lakh in manufacturing and 10 lakh in services. 10 Crore investment and 50 Crore turnover is the criteria for Small enterprises and 20 Crore investment and 100 Crore turnover is the criteria for Medium enterprises.