Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

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:
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 Sports Authority of India (SAI) has formed a six-member committee to prepare a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for resuming the training of sportspersons across several disciplines, after the lock-down would be lifted.
The Secretary of Sports Authority of India (SAI) Rohit Bharadwaj will head the panel. It will also include preventive measures to be observed by all stakeholders, including trainees, coaches and staff. The recommendations will be sent to the Sports Ministry for approval.

Notes:
The state government of Odisha has decided to bring three ordinances for strengthening the agriculture economy of the state.
The decision has been taken in a review meeting on controlling Covid-19 and restarting economic activities, chaired by the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. The state also announced that MGNREGA and Mission Shakti activities would be intensified. Odisha has started agricultural activities and sale of agricultural inputs.

Notes:
The Union Finance Minister announced the details of the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Yojana package launched by the Prime Minister.
One of the features was the global tenders being disallowed in government procurement up to Rs 200 crore. This would reduce unfair foreign competition for MSMEs and support the ‘Make in India’ initiative. She also announced Rs 3 lakh crore Emergency Working Capital Facility for Businesses, including MSMEs.

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:
Uttarakhand government has recently launched a portal named ‘HOPE’ – Helping Out People Everywhere, to assist the workers of the state to find suitable employment.
The portal has started to collect data on the youngsters of the state and migrant workers returned from other states. The workers can upload their skill-sets on the website and based on that, they will be able to find suitable jobs at home-state. The data collected will be used for implementing the Mukhyamantri Swarojgar Yojana, implemented by the state earlier.

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:
About 88 Nobel laureates across the world including the Indian Nobel prize winner Kailash Satyarthi united and called for governments to spend USD 1 trillion for marginalised children, during the lock-down imposed due to Covid-19.
Other notable personalities who signed this agreement were Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Human rights activist Desmond Tutu, among others. The assistance would cancel two years of debt repayments from low-income countries and fund 2 years of the global gap to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Notes:
The state of Madhya Pradesh has recently launched a new initiative, the first in the country named Charan Paduka campaign.
The campaign seeks to assist the migrant labourers who are walking barefoot by providing foot-wears to them. It was started from a Police station at Indore and is being implemented with the help of civilians, across the state. This scheme has been launched amid several accidents of the state involving migrants.