Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

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:
The Union Minister announced ₹90,000 crore one-time liquidity injection for fund-starved DISCOMs. This will be used to pay the central public sector power generation companies, transmission companies, independent power producers and renewable energy generators.
PSUs Power Finance Corporation (PFC) and Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) will infuse the liquidity by raising an amount of about ₹90,000 crore from the market against the receivables of DISCOMs. The state governments are expected to provide a guarantee for the fund.

Notes:
As a part of the economic stimulus package, the Government has revised the definition of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). The revised guidelines introduced a new criterion called ‘Annual turnover’.
For micro enterprises, the classification covers up to Rs 1 crore in investment and Rs 5 crore in turnover. Earlier, it was investment of 25 lakh in manufacturing and 10 lakh in services. 10 Crore investment and 50 Crore turnover is the criteria for Small enterprises and 20 Crore investment and 100 Crore turnover is the criteria for Medium enterprises.

Notes:
A patent was filed by the Defence Ministry in association with the National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) for the low cost personal protective equipment (PPE) developed by the Indian Navy.
The Defence Ministry has successfully patented PPEs, which would fast-track mass production of PPEs. The equipment developed by the Navy is made of a special fabric which provides high quality and high breathability, unlike other PPEs available in the market. A pilot batch of PPEs has already been produced at Naval Dockyard in Mumbai.

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:
World Bank has recently approved USD 1 billion ‘Accelerating India’s COVID-19 Social Protection Response Program’.
The program aims to support India in fighting Covid-19 and providing assistance to the poor and vulnerable people of the country who are affected by the pandemic. Last month, the World Bank had announced a USD 1 billion support for India and hence this step raises its total commitment for India to USD 2 billion, as of now.

Notes:
National Book Trust (NBT) India has published the corona studies series titled “Psycho-Social impact of pandemic & lockdown and how to Cope With”.
Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank recently virtually launched the print and e-editions of the seven titles of the series. The series was prepared by a Study Group, that also has recommended strengthening of ‘Preventive Mental Health component’ of the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP), as a long-term strategy to prepare a post-Corona society.

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 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:
As a part of the economic stimulus package, the Union Finance Minister launched an initiative called ‘Manodarpan’, which aims to provide psychosocial support to students, teachers and families, at the backdrop of the global pandemic, the time when students, teachers and their families need support for their mental well-being.
The initiative is proposed to be launched through a website, a toll-free helpline through a national directory of counsellors. In another step, top 100 universities are allowed to start online courses and online component in conventional Universities and programmes will also be raised from present 20% to 40%.