Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
Indian Navy has launched Operation named ‘Samudra Setu’, which means Sea Bridge in English, with an objective of repatriating Indian citizens who are stranded in other countries.
As a part of Phase-1 under the operation, Indian Naval Ships Jalashwa and Magar have departed to Malè in Maldives for evacuation of Indian citizens. The list of persons who are to be evacuated is prepared by the Indian Mission in Maldives. About a thousand nationals are to be transported back to India following social distancing norms.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation along with Directorate General of Civil Aviation has launched a portal named GARUD (Government Authorisation for Relief Using Drones).
The portal has been launched with an aim of providing fast-track exemptions to government agencies for drone operations associated with Covid-19 response. However, the Ministry also warned about penal action and cancellation of exemption if the provisions are violated.

Notes:
The state government of Uttar Pradesh has recently launched a mobile application called ‘Ayush Kavach-Covid’, which has been developed the Ministry of AYUSH.
The application was launched with an aim of providing health remedies and measures to boost immunity in the process of fighting Covid-19. The app provides a lot of information authorised by the AYUSH Ministry about the medicinal properties of certain ingredients. It also enables the users to seek advice from experts in the AYUSH field.

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:
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:
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:
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:
Veteran Indian scholar and historian Hari Shankar Vasudevan passed away recently after contracting Covid-19. He had tested positive for novel coronavirus on May 6.
Professor Hari Vasudevan was working as a UGC Emeritus Professor in the Department of History and China Centre of Calcutta University after his superannuation. He was an important personality in the field of Russian and Central Asian history. He also served as the Director of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, institution under Ministry of Culture Govt of India.

Notes:
Due to the outbreak of African swine fever (AFS), more than 13,000 pigs have died in the last few days in nine districts of Assam. The officials have dug a two km long canal inside Agoratoli range to prevent wild boars from going to nearby villages and domestic pigs from entering.
According to a 2019 census, the pig population in the state was 21 lakhs which has become 30 lakhs now. This outbreak has affected the livelihood of hundreds of people involved in the animal husbandry.

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.