Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
Veteran educationist and litterateur Anisuzzaman, who was also the national Professor of Bangladesh, passed away recently at the age of 83.
He was born in Kolkata and later moved to Bangladesh shortly after the partition of India. He had contributed significantly for the Bangla literature. He also played a crucial role in all democratic movements including the Language Movement of 1952 to Liberation War in 1972 etc. He was awarded Padma Bhushan by India in 2014.

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:
As a part of the economic stimulus package, the Union Finance Minister proposed that the Electricity distribution companies (Discoms) in the Union Territories (UTs) would be privatised.
As of now, Delhi is the only Union Territory which has private power Discoms namely Reliance Infrastructure’s BSES and Tata Power Delhi Distribution. Earlier, the draft amendments to the Electricity Act, 2003 were announced, which included the proposal of private participation in electricity distribution.

Notes:
The state government of Chhattisgarh is set to launch its ambitious Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana on May 21, which marks the death anniversary of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The scheme has an aim of boosting the rural economy in the state and to recover them from the slowdown caused due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the scheme, the state will infuse Rs 5100 crore through Direct Benefit Transfer into the accounts of farmers. The farmers would be paid Rs 10,000 per acre for paddy, corn and sugarcane crops.

Notes:
The Government has recently accepted and implemented three important recommendations of Committee of Experts (CoE) under the Chairmanship of Lt General D B Shekatkar (Retd).
The three recommendations are related to border Infrastructure, which focusses on speeding up road construction. Another recommendation was to outsource the road construction projects that were beyond the optimal capacity of BRO. Engineering Procurement Contract (EPC) mode is to be adopted for execution of works costing above Rs 100 crore.

Notes:
The former executive of Walt Disney, who led the successful launch of the Disney streaming service, Kevin Mayer is set to become the chief executive officer of TikTok, the popular micro video sharing platform.
TikTok platform is owned by China-based ByteDance Technology. The appointment of Kevin Mayer will be made effective from June 1. He will also serve in the ByteDance as the Chief Operating Officer. Disney named a company veteran Rebecca Campbell to replace Mayer as head of the division led by him.

Notes:
Three Baltic countries in the northern Europe: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania initiated the re-connection measure named as ‘travel bubble’.
The European Union countries started this to make their economies back to form, after the post-Covid lock downs. They are also less- populated and comparatively less affected by Covid-19. The travel bubble would allow members of the group to renew trade ties with each other and restart travel and tourism sector.

Notes:
As a part of the stimulus package, the Union Minister announced the auction of Coal Bed Methane (CBM) blocks from Coal India and auction of 50 coal blocks immediately for commercial mining.
Coal Bed Methane (CBM) is a form of natural gas extracted from coal beds. Recently, Coal India has appointed its exploration arm, Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDIL) as its principal implementing agency to auction CBM extraction rights for all new mines. The auction will be based on a revenue sharing basis.

Notes:
The first European traveller to reach India via sea route was the Portuguese traveller Vasco Da Gama. He arrived at the city of Calicut (presently Kozhikode) on May 20, 1498.
During his journey, he made halts at Mozambique, Mombasa and Malindi. His voyage opened the first all-water trade route between Europe and Asia. His journey marked the beginning of the global exchange of culture. He also paved way for the Portuguese to establish their colonies in Asia.

Notes:
National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX) is an online multi-commodity exchange, headquartered at Mumbai, India.
NCDEX was recently in news as the exchange announced that it will launch the country’s first agri-futures index, NCDEX AGRIDEX. The exchange said it has already begun the mock trading in agri-index futures contracts. AGRIDEX represents a basket of ten liquid agricultural commodities on the NCDEX and will serve as a benchmark for India’s strong agricultural sector.