Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Maharashtra Uddhav Thackeray and eight other candidates were recently declared to be elected unopposed to the State Legislative Council.
Uddhav Thackeray, who was sworn in as the Chief Minister on November 28 last year, required to become a member of either Houses of the state legislature before May 27, 2020. The eight other candidates also include Council Deputy Chairperson Dr Neelam Gorhe among others. They would be officially sworn-in after the official notification is released.

Notes:
Ministry of Human and Resource Development has developed an e-Governance platform, SAMARTH- Enterprises Resource Planning (ERP).
The platform has been developed under National Mission of Education in Information and Communication Technology Scheme (NMEICT). SAMARTH is an open source automation engine for Universities and Higher Educational Institutions. It has been launched at National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra, to automate the processes of the Institute.

Notes:
The World Trade Organisation (WTO) recently announced that its Director-General of Roberto Azevedo will step down on August 31, 2020 on personal grounds. This is a year before the end of his second term as he has completed 7 years as the WTO chief.
The Geneva-based World Trade Organisation (WTO) was founded in the year 1995 and India is one of the founder members of this body. The main objective of WTO is to frame rules for global exports and imports and regulate international trade by reducing barriers.

Notes:
The nation-wide electronic agriculture trading portal, e-NAM has recently reached milestone of 1000 mandis (markets) across 18 states and three union territories.
e-NAM was launched in 2016, with the objective of connecting the existing mandis on a common online market platform for agricultural produce in the country. With the recent addition of 38 mandis, it has reached the milestone of 1000 mandis, for which May 15 was fixed as the deadline. Amid the lock-down, trade through e-NAM reduces human intervention in the process.

Notes:
In its effort to boost the economy and provide work to migrants returning from other states to home villages, the Central government allocated an additional Rs 40,000 crore to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) for 2020-21.
In the Union Budget 2020-21, the total allocation made for MGNREGS was Rs 61500 Crore. Hence with this additional fund, the total allocation of this scheme for the present year becomes Rs 1.015 trillion. Out of the total fund, Rs 11,500 crore has to be spent on clearing pending dues from the previous year.

Notes:
The World Hypertension Day observed on May 17 across the world every year. This year the World Hypertension League (WHL) has postponed the celebration of World Hypertension Day (WHD) 2020 to October 17, 2020, due to global COVID-19 pandemic.
The theme for World Hypertension Day is “Measure Your Blood Pressure, Control It, Live Longer”. Hypertension, also called as elevated blood pressure, is a serious medical condition that increases the risk of heart attack, stroke, kidney failure and blindness.

Notes:
International Museum Day is celebrated every year across the world on May 18, for the last 40 years. This year the theme of the International Museum Day is ‘Museums for Equality: Diversity and Inclusion’.
The objective of celebration of this day is to raise awareness about the importance of Museums in cultural exchange and mutual cooperation and peace among people. Development of Museums and Cultural Spaces of the Culture Ministry hosted a webinar on ‘Revitalising Museums and Cultural Spaces’ on the International Museum Day.

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:
The Cabinet of Nepal has recently approved their new political map including Lipulekh, Kalapani and Limpiyadhura under its territory.
Nepal’s Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali announced that the official map of Nepal will be released by the Ministry of Land Management soon. The announcement has been made amid a border dispute between India and Nepal. Both the countries claim Kalapani as an integral part of their territory.

Notes:
The Director-General of World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has recently announced that WHO will initiate an independent review on its handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The WHO Chief while speaking at the World Health Assembly, announced about the facilitation of the independent review at the earliest. More than 120 countries including India supported the resolution drafted by the European Union calling for a review.