Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
Iran ranks first in the world, in terms of production of saffron and India is a close competitor. Kashmir saffron has received the Geographical Indication (GI) tag recently. It is cultivated and harvested in the Karewa (highlands) of Jammu and Kashmir.
The unique characteristics of Kashmir saffron are its longer and thicker stigmas, natural deep-red colour and high quantity of crocin, safranal and picrocrocin, among others. It is the only saffron variety in the world that is grown at an altitude of 1,600 m to 1,800 m above mean sea level.

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:
The Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest (SARFAESI) Act, 2002, allow banks and financial institutions to auction properties, when borrowers fail to repay their loans.
Recently as per the judgement of the Supreme Court, the cooperative banks that are involved in the banking activities are considered as a ‘banking company’. Hence the SARFAESI act may be modified to include the procedure of loan recovery by cooperative banks.

Notes:
The State government of Andhra Pradesh has launched a scheme called YSR Matsyakara Bharosa amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Under the scheme, the government will provide a financial assistance of ₹10,000 to each fisherman family. This would help the fishermen community during the lock-down period and during the marine ban period. The monetary relief of fishermen venturing into the sea has also been raised from ₹4,000 to ₹10,000 per head.

Notes:
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has recently approved the abolition of 9,304 posts in the Military Engineering Service. MES is a government Defence infrastructure development agency.
As per the recommendations of the Committee of Experts, headed by Lieutenant General Shekatkar, and the proposal of the Engineer-in-Chief of MES, the posts in the basic and industrial workforce have been scrapped, which will improve the combat capability and trim the defence expenditure.

Notes:
The richest online chess tournament in history held so far was recently organised by the World Chess champion Magnus Carlsen after live tournaments could not be held amidst the Covid-19 crisis.
Named the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, the 16-day contest comprised of a total prize fund of $250,000. Magnus Carlsen won the final match and bagged the winner prize of $70,000 after defeating his American counterpart Hikaru Nakamura 2.5:1.5. Live feeds were offered during the matches with live commentary from chess grandmasters.

Notes:
The World Thalassaemia Day is observed every year across the world on May 8. It is observed with an aim of creating awareness about a blood disorder called Thalassaemia.
Thalassaemia is a genetic blood disorder that affects the production of haemoglobin. Lesser red blood cells and low haemoglobin are the effects of this disorder. This year the theme is “The dawning of a new era for thalassaemia: Time for a global effort to make novel therapies accessible and affordable to patients”.

Notes:
Amidst the Covid-19 outbreak, ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (ICAR-CIFT), Kochi prepared advisories for the benefit of the fishing fraternity in 10 different regional languages. ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CIFRI), Barrackpore prepared advisories for the stakeholders involved in freshwater fishing.
The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), Rome has recommended these advisories by including them as ‘Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries’ under the Asia-Regional initiatives.

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:
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, CSIR through its flagship New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative (NMITLI) programme has approved a project towards development of human monoclonal antibodies (hmAbs).
The antibodies can neutralize the mutated virus SARS-CoV-2 and could be used for fighting future SARS-CoV infections. The team that is going to develop the therapeutic antibodies comprises of academic institutes and industries.