Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
Betty Wright, the Grammy winner recently passed away in her hometown Miami, Florida, as per her family sources.
The singer’s real name was Bessie Regina Norris and she was born in 1953. She started her singing career in a musical group called the ‘Echoes of Joy’. The biggest hit of her career was the album named “Clean Up Woman”, which was released when she was eighteen. She won her first Grammy Award for her song, “Where is the Love?”, at the age of 23. She continued her song writing and music production for several years.

Notes:
Union Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Ministry has launched CHAMPIONS portal www.champions.gov.in.
It is a control room-cum-management information system aimed at assisting Indian MSMEs and solving their grievances. The ‘CHAMPIONS’ stands for Creation and Harmonious Application of Modern Processes for Increasing the Output and National Strength. It uses advanced technology like AI, Machine Learning and integrated with the Centre’s CPGRAMS grievance portal.

Notes:
The Indian Council of Medical Research, ICMR and National Centre for Disease Control proposed to launch a population-based sero-survey at district level.
This operation is to be done in collaboration with key stakeholders and State Health Departments. It involves testing the blood serum predominantly. All population groups including outpatient attendees, pregnant women and health care workers will be tested.

Notes:
A team of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Stanford alumni have developed a technology named “Airlens Minus Corona”. It has received certification from the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL).
It is an ‘intelligent robot’ machine that can travel to hospitals and other crowded public places and disinfect surfaces with a water-based technology. Unlike the alcohol-based or UV-based method, the technology works on the basis of ‘Water Electro Activation’ technique. Charged or ionised water droplets will kill the virus by destroying its proteins.

Notes:
As per the Lancet report titled ‘India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative’, 68% of the under-five deaths in India are caused due to child and maternal malnutrition.
The report has the first comprehensive estimates of district-level trends of child mortality in India since 2000. It also highlighted that 83% of the neonatal deaths were due to low birth weight and short gestation. Though the child mortality has improved across the country from 2000 to 2017, inequalities among the districts have also raised.

Notes:
The national public health institute of the United States, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has committed $3.6 million to assist India’s response to the COVID19 pandemic.
This initial tranche of funding will help India to strengthen and support the efforts of India to increase laboratory capacity for SARS-COV-2 testing. The CDC India program will also provide technical assistance for India’s response for the ongoing crisis emergency.

Notes:
The FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup was originally scheduled to be held in India from November 2-21 in 2020 and was subsequently postponed due to the pandemic.
Recently, FIFA announced that the World Cup tournament has been rescheduled to February 17-March 7, 2021. It was originally planned to be held across five host cities of India namely – Navi Mumbai, Guwahati, Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Bhubaneswar. The original eligibility criteria of the players will be followed.

Notes:
New Development Bank (NDB) was established by the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) countries in 2014. Its headquarters is Shangai and is headed by veteran Indian K V Kamath.
BRICS’ New Development Bank was seen in news recently, as it has provided $1 billion loan to India to fight COVID-19. The complete emergency funds have been disbursed by the development institution, to help India in containing the human and economic losses due to Covid-19.

Notes:
Recently, Haryana submitted its action plan to the Department of Drinking Water & Sanitation and committed to provide tap water connection to all rural households by December, 2022 under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM). Haryana plans to provide tap connections in 7 lakh households by 2020-21.
The UT of Jammu and Kashmir also has planned to provide tap water connection to all rural households by December, 2022 under JJM. The national target under the scheme is to reach all households by 2024-25.

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.