Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
‘Mukhyamantri Yuba Yogayog Yojana’ is a welfare scheme of the state of Tripura. It was seen in news as the state’s Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb launched an online portal scholarships.gov.in as a part of the scheme.
Under the scheme, the students who are in final year in colleges or Universities can apply through the portal and the state government will provide Rs. 5,000 as a grant for smart phone. More than 14000 students will be benefitted by this scheme.

Notes:
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has recently extended the term of Bollywood star and environmentalist Dia Mirza, as its National Goodwill Ambassador for another two years.
Dia Mirza is also an advocate of United Nations Sustainability Development Goals. She was famous for her #BeatPlasticPollution campaign when she was the UNEP Goodwill ambassador for the first time.

Notes:
United States Special envoy and Special Representative for Afghanistan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad recently visited India as a part of his three-nation tour including Qatar and Pakistan.
This is the first high-level foreign dignitary to travel to New Delhi since Covid-19-related travel restrictions came into effect. He met with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval. While providing details of peace & reconciliation efforts of the U.S. in Afghanistan, he also said that US recognises India’s contribution to Afghanistan.

Notes:
According to the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), using the high-quality imaging of a galaxy called PKS 2014-55, sent by the South African satellite MeerKAT, the ‘X’ galaxies were found to be of a ‘double boomerang’ shape.
The galaxy that is located 800 million light years from Earth, is classified as ‘X-shaped’ because of its appearance from previous blurry images. The study also showed that these structures ultimately turn black due to the pressure of tenuous intergalactic gas.

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:
India International Exchange Limited (India INX) is India’s first international stock exchange located in Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT) city and is a subsidiary of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
Recently the Union Finance Minister launched INR-USD futures and options contracts on the two international exchanges — BSE’s India INX and NSE’s NSE-IFSC, at GIFT city, Gandhinagar. This decision of allowing rupee derivatives will bring the rupee trading to our country, which are presently dominated by exchanges in Dubai and Singapore.

Notes:
The Union Defence Ministry has signed a contract with Mumbai based power company Tata Power for infrastructure modernisation of 37 airfields.
The airfields of the Indian Air Force, Coast Guard and the Navy are to be modernised at a cost of around Rs 1,200 crore. This is the second phase of the Modernisation of Airfield Infrastructure (MAFI) programme while during the first phase the airfields of the Indian Air Force were upgraded. This project would facilitate the operations of aircrafts in poor weather conditions.

Notes:
Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD) was established under Ministry of Home Affairs in 1970, as a think-tank with the objective of modernization of police force.
Recently BPRD released a 40-page manual titled ‘Fake News and Disinformation: How to Spot and Investigate’ to help investigators and police officers to identify fake news aimed at spreading communal hatred among the people.

Notes:
The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the city corporation of Bengaluru has launched ‘Pranavayu programme’ to create awareness about self-examination of respiratory health for the city-dwellers.
The programme aims at educating people with low oxygen level in their blood to check themselves at an early stage. Under the programme, several advertisements are published in media about self-examination.

Notes:
A team of astronomers using the Chile-based La Silla Observatory of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has recently discovered the nearest black hole from Earth.
This triple-structure black hole named as HR 6819, is located just 1000 light-years from Earth. Unlike the other black holes that have been detected till date, HR 6819 does not actively interfere with their surroundings. The team was able to distinguish its existence and measure its mass.