Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
As per the recent survey conducted by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the unemployment rate of India increased 14.8 percentage points, to 23.5% in Apr 2020.
Tamil Nadu recorded the highest unemployment rate in April 2020, among large states at 49.8%, up from 6.3% in March 2020. Jharkhand and Bihar follow Tamil Nadu in higher unemployment rate while the lowest rate was found in Punjab, Chhattisgarh, and Telangana.

Notes:
The Election Commission of India (ECI) recently granted permission for holding elections to the Legislative Council (MLCs) in Maharashtra.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray is not a member of either house of the State Legislature and he should be elected to the Council before May 27. The ECI granted permission to hold the elections before the deadline of May 27. The election process for these nine seats was withheld in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Notes:
A black rice variety of Manipur called Chak-Hao has recently bagged the Geographical Indication (GI) tag.
Chak-Hao is an aromatic glutinous rice variety which has been cultivated in Manipur. It is also used traditional medical practitioners. It also has the longest cooking time due to its fibrous bran layer and higher crude fibre content. The terracotta work of Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradsh a centuries-old traditional art form, also bagged the G.I tag.

Notes:
The Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ram Vilas Paswan recently announced that five more states viz. Bihar, UP, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Daman and Diu have been integrated with the ‘One nation, One ration card’ scheme. Under the scheme, eligible cardholders can avail food grains from any fair-price shop under NFSA.
On January 1, 2020, there were 12 states on the integrated Public Distribution system. With the addition of 5 new states, the total count of states integrated in the scheme becomes 17, as of May 2020.

Notes:
The state government of Himachal Pradesh announced that it will launch an initiative called ‘Nigah’, that aims to impart awareness among the family members of people coming to the state from other parts of the country.
The health care workers, ASHA and Anganwadi workers would be deployed in this scheme, to create awareness in maintain social distancing and hygiene during the home quarantine period. The houses of the persons returned would be labelled and members of Panchayati Raj Institutions and Urban Local Bodies are asked to ensure proper implementation of the scheme.

Notes:
Mumbai based think tank, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) has recently released its report on unemployment rates of the country in various parts.
As per the report, unemployment rate of India has risen to 27.11% for the week ended May 3, against 7% in the month of March. The monthly unemployment rate is 23.52% in April. It also highlighted that the unemployment rate was the highest in urban areas and the lowest in hilly areas.

Notes:
As per the recent reports, the Parliament of Iran has passed a bill to allow the Government to change the national currency from Rial to Toman.
Since 2017, the value of Iranian currency fell after heavy U.S. sanctions, which led to huge inflation and resultant street protests across the country. Now under the bill, the Government will slash four zeroes from the from its currency ‘Rial’. This bill should be approved by the clerical body before coming into effect.

Notes:
As per the recent notification of the Reserve Bank of India, the government has appointed Economic Affairs Secretary Tarun Bajaj as a Director on the central board of Reserve Bank of India (RBI), with effect from May 5 until further orders.
Tarun Bajaj is set to replace the position held by Atanu Chakraborty, who superannuated on April 30. Tarun Bajaj is a 1988 batch IAS officer and has held several crucial positions including Additional Secretary in Prime Minister’s Office and Director in the Department of Financial Services.

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:
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.