Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), a statutory organization under the Ministry of MSME is the implementing agency of ‘Prime Minister Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP).
After the Prime Minister announced to support the local products, KVIC announced a set of guidelines to fast-track the implementation of projects under the flagship program PMEGP. The concerned agencies will have to scrutinize the applications and forward it to banks within 26 days. It was also instructed to bring down the time frame to 15 days.

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:
The Commander-in-Chief A&N Command recently commissioned INLCU L57 into the Indian Navy at Port Blair. INLCU L57 is the seventh Landing Craft Utility (LCU) MK-IV class to be inducted into the Indian Navy.
The ship has been indigenously designed and built by Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers (GRSE), Kolkata. The amphibious vessels are based at the Andaman and Nicobar Command and is to be deployed for transporting and deploying tanks and equipment, search and rescue, disaster relief operations.

Notes:
Every year, May 16 is being observed by the Union Health Ministry as ‘National Dengue Day’ across the country.
Dengue is a viral disease, which is transmitted by the infective bite of a specific mosquito called as Aedes Aegypti. It is commonly spread during rainy season and it is highly contagious through mosquito bites. The Ministry recently released a list of measures to be followed in order to prevent the disease.

Notes:
The former executive of Walt Disney, who led the successful launch of the Disney streaming service, Kevin Mayer is set to become the chief executive officer of TikTok, the popular micro video sharing platform.
TikTok platform is owned by China-based ByteDance Technology. The appointment of Kevin Mayer will be made effective from June 1. He will also serve in the ByteDance as the Chief Operating Officer. Disney named a company veteran Rebecca Campbell to replace Mayer as head of the division led by him.

Notes:
The Union Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced the results of garbage-free star rating for the cities.
The top ‘five-star garbage-free’ tag was given to six cities including Chhattisgarh’s Ambikapur, Madhya Pradesh’s Indore, Gujarat’s Rajkot and Surat, Karnataka’s Mysore and Maharashtra’s Navi Mumbai. As many as 141 cities were rated based on their garbage management. 65 cities were given three-star while 70 were given one-star.

Notes:
India recently observed the 46th anniversary of its first nuclear test in Rajasthan’s Pokhran, conducted on May 18.
The peaceful first nuclear was codenamed the ‘Smiling Buddha’, which proclaimed India as a nuclear power. As the test was conducted on the Buddha Poornima of that year, the event was codenamed after Buddha. Indira Gandhi was the Prime of Minister of India during the tests and it was the first confirmed nuclear test by a country that was not a permanent member of the UNSC.

Notes:
The Indian Railways has recently operationalised its first 12,000 hp electric locomotive, between Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Station to Shivpur in Uttar Pradesh.
It has been manufactured French rail transport firm Alstom, at the Madhepura Electric Locomotive Pvt. Ltd. (MELPL), in Bihar. MELPL is a joint venture between the French firm Alstom and the Indian Railways. With this, India became the sixth country in the world to produce indigenous high horsepower locomotive.

Notes:
The first European traveller to reach India via sea route was the Portuguese traveller Vasco Da Gama. He arrived at the city of Calicut (presently Kozhikode) on May 20, 1498.
During his journey, he made halts at Mozambique, Mombasa and Malindi. His voyage opened the first all-water trade route between Europe and Asia. His journey marked the beginning of the global exchange of culture. He also paved way for the Portuguese to establish their colonies in Asia.

Notes:
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan is set to take charge as the chairman of the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board.
Harsh Vardhan would succeed the current chairman of WHO Executive Board, Dr Hiroki Nakatani of Japan. The Executive Board of WHO comprises 34 executives related to the field of health, each representing a member country. The Chairman’s post is held by rotation among the regional groups.