Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has been reappointed for another year as the chairperson of Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee along with the existing 30 members.
The committee was first formulated as a result of Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms in the year 1921. After 1950, the committee became a parliamentary committee which functioned under the control of the Lok Sabha Speaker along with a non-official chairperson. Since 1967, the chairperson of the committee is selected from the opposition party.

Notes:
In a recent move, the Centre hiked the duties on petrol and diesel steeply and raised it to Rs 10 and Rs 13 per litre, respectively. It was also announced that there will be no change in the retail prices as the hike will be absorbed by the Oil Marketing companies.
Among the total hike, the Road and infrastructure cess will go the revenue of the Centre only whereas the special additional excise duty will be passed on to all states through devolution at 42%. This decision has been taken at the backdrop of falling crude oil prices in the global market and lower demand during the lock-down.

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:
Global Information Technology giant Google has recently announced the launch of its mobile application ‘Read Along’ in over 180 countries and in 9 languages.
The application was initially launched in India in the name of ‘Bolo’ along with an in-app reading buddy named Diya. The Read Along app uses Google’s speech recognition technology to develop reading skills of young children along the globe.

Notes:
The government has recently raised its gross market borrowing target for the current financial year to Rs 12 lakh crore.
As per the latest budget estimate, the target was Rs 7.8 lakh crore for the current fiscal year. The increase in the target accounts for more than 50% increase from the estimate. The decision has been taken at the backdrop of the Covid-19 outbreak that has crippled the economy. Lower tax collections and the fiscal stimulus required are the reasons for the increased borrowing.

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 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:
China recently won the inaugural $180,000 FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup, whereas India settled in the fifth place.
On the basis of highest points in the round-robin stage, China was declared the winner as it drew 2-2 against USA, which bagged the second position. China won $48,000, USA $36,000 and others received $24,000 each. Representing India, Humpy won Olga Girya and P. Harikrishna drew with Sergey Karjakin.