Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
Recently, about 2 Crore Olive Ridley turtle hatchlings walked into the sea from Odisha’s coast. The turtles settle at the Gahirmatha and Rushikulya rookery in the state and lay eggs every year.
Several lakhs of turtles lay eggs on the coast, in a phenomenon called Arribada. These hatchlings will grow up and said to return to the same place for laying their eggs. The turtles get their name from the colour of its olive-green shell. As per the World Wildlife Fund, they are the most abundant of all sea turtles but they are vulnerable because they nest in only a few places.

Notes:
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) signed a USD 145 million agreement with the Government of India and West Bengal Government for a project.
The project aims to improve the irrigation services and flood management in the Damodar Valley Command Area in West Bengal. The total value of the project is over 413 million dollars and will benefit about 27 lakh farmers from five districts of the state.

Notes:
The Bahraich forest division of Uttar Pradesh released about forty gharials in the Ghaghara river, a major left bank tributary of the Ganges.
The scientific name of Gharials is Gavialis gangeticus and are commonly called as fish-eating crocodiles. The Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) India supports the exercise of collecting the eggs, hatching at the Kukrail centre and releasing them in the river. Gharials are critically endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Species.

Notes:
In the economic stimulus package announced, the Finance Minister said that the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana will be launched for development of marine and inland fisheries.
The scheme was originally proposed during the Union Budget 2020. But the guidelines were announced during the stimulus package. The total outlay of the PMMSY will be Rs. 20000 Crore, out of which Rs 11,000 Cr will be earmarked for activities in Marine, Inland fisheries and Aquaculture and Rs. 9000 Cr for Infrastructure of Fishing Harbours, Cold chain, Markets etc.

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.

Notes:
The Social-media giant Facebook has recently acquired the popular GIF-making and sharing website GIPHY. Facebook is also planning to integrate its GIF library Instagram, its photo-sharing app.
GIPHY, one of the most popular GIF-making and sharing sites on the internet, allows users to create, share and remix GIFs. Several platforms including Apple, Twitter, Pinterest and Reddit use Giphy’s API for providing GIFs.

Notes:
The World Telecommunication and Information Society Day has been celebrated on May 17, every year across the world. This year the theme is “Connect 2030: ICTs for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”
The objective of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) is to raise awareness of the usage of Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT) in bridging the digital divide. May 17 also marks the anniversary of the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention and the creation of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Notes:
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA) is an UN agency which aims to support the relief and development of Palestinian refugees. It is headquartered at Amman, Jordan.
Recently, India has given USD 2 million in aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency amidst the coronavirus crisis. The funds are provided to support the agency’s core programmes and services, especially education and health. India had also increased its annual contribution to the UNRWA from USD 1.25 million in 2016 to USD 5 million in 2019.

Notes:
Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank launched a new mobile application named the ‘National Test Abhyas’.
The application enables the students to take up high-quality mock tests for the upcoming exams that come under the National Testing Agency’s purview including JEE Main and NEET. It has been developed by the National Testing Agency-NTA. The tests can be downloaded without any fee.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet has approved an additional funding of up to Rs 3 lakh crore through the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for the MSME sector.
The Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that are hit hard by the coronavirus crisis will be granted an emergency credit at the rate of 9.25 per cent. 100 per cent guarantee coverage will be provided by National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company (NCGTC) for eligible MSMEs and MUDRA borrowers, in the form of a guaranteed emergency credit line (GECL) facility.