Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

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 video-conference of foreign ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was recently held in the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic. Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar represented India.
SCO has eight member states including namely India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The SCO summit which was scheduled to be held in the month of July, 2020 at the Russian city St. Petersburg is expected to be held as per the schedule.

Notes:
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a specialised agency of the United States has recently released a report titled ‘Global Forest Resources Assessment 2020 (FRA 2020)’. The report examines the status of 236 countries in the period 1990-2020.
The report highlighted that the forest area has declined all across the world in the past three decades. The rate of forest loss in 2015-2020 declined to an estimated 10 million hectares, down from 12 million hectares in 2010-2015. The report also revealed that the world lost 178 mha of forest since 1990, which is the size of Libya.

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:
In the second tranche of the economic stimulus package, the Finance Minister proposed that the Government will launch a scheme under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana-PMAY.
The scheme aims at providing ease of living at affordable rent for migrant labour/urban poor. It proposes to convert government funded housing in the cities into Affordable Rental Housing Complexes (ARHC) under PPP mode. The scheme will also incentivize industries and State Government Agencies and Central Government Organizations to develop ARHCs and operate them.

Notes:
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh digitally commissioned a ship and two interceptor boats of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) in Goa.
Indigenously built Indian Coast Guard Ship ‘Sachet’ is the first in the series of five offshore patrol vessels, that has been designed and built by Goa Shipyard Ltd (GSL). The interceptor boats C-450 and C- 451 are indigenously designed and built by L&T Shipyard, Hazira (Gujarat). The Indian Coast Guard has reached a landmark of 150 ships and boats and 62 aircraft.

Notes:
Operation Greens was introduced in 2018, under the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, with a main aim to enhance value realisation of TOP (Tomatoes, Onion and Potatoes) farmers by strengthening production clusters and FPOs and to connect them with market.
In the recent stimulus package, it was announced that Operation Greens will be extended from Tomatoes, Onion and Potatoes (TOP) to ALL fruits and vegetables (TOTAL), as a pilot project for 6 months. 50% subsidy on transportation from surplus to deficient markets and 50% subsidy on storage, including cold storages will be provided.

Notes:
International Day of Families celebrated by the United Nations on May 15, every year across the world. This year, it is celebrated with a theme of ‘Families in Development: Copenhagen & Beijing + 25’.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of Copenhagen Declaration and Beijing Platform for Action. The day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in the year 1993, to highlight the importance attached with families by the international community.

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 proposed that the Electricity distribution companies (Discoms) in the Union Territories (UTs) would be privatised.
As of now, Delhi is the only Union Territory which has private power Discoms namely Reliance Infrastructure’s BSES and Tata Power Delhi Distribution. Earlier, the draft amendments to the Electricity Act, 2003 were announced, which included the proposal of private participation in electricity distribution.