Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

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:
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:
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 National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has developed an online dashboard on the existing NDMA-GIS portal named ‘National Migrant Information System (NMIS)’.
The objective of launching this portal is to capture the information about movement of migrants and to enable them to transit across the states in a better manner. As per the communication from the Home Ministry, the portal equipped with a central repository will help in faster communication between the states.

Notes:
One among the stimulus measures announced by the Finance Minister was promoting the defence Production under its ‘Make in India’ initiative, as the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit was raised from 49% to 74% under the automatic route.
The Minister also announced that the government will notify a list of weapons and platforms that will not be imported and will only be purchased from domestic industries. Every year, this list will be expanded in consultation with the armed forces. It was also proposed to corporatize the Ordnance Factory Board.

Notes:
The Union Finance Minister launched a scheme named ‘PM e Vidya’, as a part of the Stimulus package, in order to promote digital education in the country.
This comprehensive program will include DIKSHA (one nation-one digital platform), through which quality e-content will be provided to all school children; a dedicated educational channel for each class from 1 to 12; Community Radio and CBSE’s Shiksha Vani podcast. It also includes study material for the differently abled developed on Digitally Accessible Information System (DAISY).

Notes:
The President of Afghanistan Ashraf Ghani and his political rival Abdullah Abdullah have recently signed a power-sharing agreement.
This political step has been finalised two months after both the leaders declared themselves the winner of the presidential election held last September. As per the spokesperson, the political deal seeks Ghani to remain the Afghan President and Abdullah to lead the country’s National Reconciliation High Council.

Notes:
The state government of Chhattisgarh is set to launch its ambitious Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana on May 21, which marks the death anniversary of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The scheme has an aim of boosting the rural economy in the state and to recover them from the slowdown caused due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the scheme, the state will infuse Rs 5100 crore through Direct Benefit Transfer into the accounts of farmers. The farmers would be paid Rs 10,000 per acre for paddy, corn and sugarcane crops.

Notes:
The Government has recently accepted and implemented three important recommendations of Committee of Experts (CoE) under the Chairmanship of Lt General D B Shekatkar (Retd).
The three recommendations are related to border Infrastructure, which focusses on speeding up road construction. Another recommendation was to outsource the road construction projects that were beyond the optimal capacity of BRO. Engineering Procurement Contract (EPC) mode is to be adopted for execution of works costing above Rs 100 crore.

Notes:
The International Cricket Council (ICC) cricket committee headed by Anil Kumble has recommended the ban of saliva to shine the ball, amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
Anil Kumble is the present Chairman of the ICC Cricket committee. After discussion through video-conferencing and consulting with the ICC Medical Advisory Committee, the committee has recommended this ban. It also announced that usage of sweat to polish the ball was not prohibited and the hygiene measures in the field need to be improved.