Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
Recently, the Geographical Indication (GI) tag has been provided to Jharkhand’s Sohrai Khovar painting and Telangana’s Telia Rumal handloom cloth.
The painting is a traditional art that is created by tribal women with locally available soils of different colours. It is predominantly done in Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand. Telia Rumal cloth has intricate handmade work with cotton loom, with designs in red, black and white colours. Thanjavur Netti (pith) works that uses Aeschynomene aspera plant and Arumbavur Wood Carving also got G.I tag from Tamil Nadu.

Notes:
As per the recent analysis of World Economic Forum, the CO2 emissions of India have dropped for the first time in over 40 years.
WEF highlighted that the fall in emissions is due to the economic slowdown and growth in the renewable energy sector. Emissions dipped by around 1% in the fiscal year 2019-20. In the month of March, the emissions fell by 15% and it is expected to have fallen 30% in April 2020. As the pandemic has cut the electricity demand, coal consumption also flatlined.

Notes:
According to the latest Transparency Report released by Facebook, government requests for user data increased by 9.5% during the second half of 2019. United States topped the list with 51,121 requests for user data. It is followed by India and UK.
The report also revealed that India topped the list for internet disruption affecting Facebook services during both the first and second half of 2019, accounting for 40 disruptions. Also, the number of user data requests from the Indian government to Facebook increased 28% during the second half of 2019.

Notes:
Ecowrap is the research report of India’s largest lender State Bank of India. Recently, SBI released its latest Ecowrap report.
It has revised the baseline fiscal deficit to 7.9 per cent of the revised GDP in FY21, which is more than double to its previous estimate. The report had earlier estimated the fiscal deficit as 3.5 % of GDP. The reason for the revision is due to the lower revenues and higher expenditure against the backdrop of Covid-19 pandemic.

Notes:
In the second tranche of the economic stimulus package, the Finance Minister proposed that the Government will launch a scheme under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-PMAY.
The scheme aims at providing ease of living at affordable rent for migrant labour/urban poor. It proposes to convert government funded housing in the cities into Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) under PPP mode. The scheme will also incentivize industries and State Government Agencies and Central Government Organizations to develop ARHCs and operate them.

Notes:
Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal participated in the G-20 Virtual Trade and Investment Ministers Meeting through Video-conferencing.
The Minister also said in the meeting that India has provided medical supplies to over 120 countries to fight the coronavirus pandemic, out of which 43 countries received them as a grant. He also highlighted that India has been sharing the medical and public health capacity with them via digital technologies.

Notes:
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh digitally commissioned a ship and two interceptor boats of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) in Goa.
Indigenously built Indian Coast Guard Ship ‘Sachet’ is the first in the series of five offshore patrol vessels, that has been designed and built by Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL). The interceptor boats C-450 and C- 451 are indigenously designed and built by L&T Shipyard, Hazira (Gujarat). The Indian Coast Guard has reached a landmark of 150 ships and boats and 62 aircraft.

Notes:
The Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has approved the launch of ‘Defence Testing Infrastructure Scheme (DTIS)’.
The outlay of the scheme is Rs.400 crore and the scheme would be implemented for a term of five years. The scheme aims to set up six to eight new test facilities in partnership with private industry and boost the domestic defence and aerospace manufacturing. The projects will be granted 75 percent funding from the government and the remaining will be borne by the SPVs.

Notes:
Veteran Bengali author Debesh Roy passed away recently at the age of 84, after he suffered from a massive cardiac arrest.
The author was actively writing articles in several Bengali dailies and had participated in protests against the attack on liberals. He had won several awards during his five-decade long writing career. He was conferred the Sahitya Akademi award for his novel ‘Teesta Parer Brittanto’. His other famous works are ‘Borisaler Jogen Mondal’, ‘Manush Khun Kore Keno’ and ‘Samay Asamayer Brittanto’.

Notes:
Every year, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) celebrates the International Day of Light (IDL) on 16 May, to raise awareness on the role of light-based technologies.
The day marks the anniversary of the first successful operation of the laser in 1960 by physicist and engineer, Theodore Maiman. The UN observed International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies in 2015. After the success, it was proposed to celebrate a specific day and the first IDL was held on May 16, 2018.