Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

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 Prime Minister of the South African country Lesotho, Thomas Thabane has formally submitted his resignation. The 80-year-old chief has resigned after his coalition government collapsed.
He is the leader of the All Basotho Convention (ABC) party and has been facing pressure to step down from his role, as he and his present wife are suspected of involvement in a murder case. This step will end a long-running political crisis in the country. Finance Minister Moeketsi Majoro is expected to replace Thabane.

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:
The World Bank has recently named economic expert Carmen Reinhart as its new vice president and chief economist.
Carmen, who works as a professor at Harvard University, is also an adviser and contributor to the World Bank debt transparency discussions. She is a member of the IMF external advisory group working on policy challenges, including the coronavirus pandemic and its economic impact. She has published a book titled “This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly” together with economist Kenneth Rogoff.

Notes:
Technology major Google has recently bagged the prestigious Cloud project with the U.S. Department of Defense.
This US Government project is the pilot project of Google with DoD’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU). The project is about building secure cloud management solution to detect and protect against cyber threats worldwide. Earlier, Google had lost the $10 billion Pentagon Cloud project which was won by its counterpart Microsoft.

Notes:
As per the recent data of the Reserve Bank of India, the Bank credit increased 6.52 per cent year-on-year to Rs 102.52 trillion and Bank deposits grew 10.64 per cent to Rs 138.50 trillion in the fortnight ended May 8.
The data also highlighted that Private sector banks made the highest credit expansion and their share in total credit expanded to 35.7 per cent, 32 per cent and 30 per cent in 2019, 2018 and 2017 respectively. The data also revealed that bank credit growth (y-o-y) decelerated for the fourth successive quarter in December 2019.

Notes:
As per the recent announcement from the Union Aviation Ministry, the domestic airfares of India will be fixed by the Ministry for three months, when domestic flights resume after lock-down.
The government will cap minimum and maximum ticket fares based on route and will ensure that ticket prices are affordable for passengers as well as financially viable for airlines. The Ministry has divided the routes into seven bands based on duration of flights. 40 per cent of the seats in any flight will have to be sold at the mid-point of the lower and upper air fare limits prescribed.

Notes:
The Union Government has notified amendments to General Financial Rules (GFR) 2017, to make goods and services valued less than Rs 200 crore are procured from domestic firms.
As announced in the recent economic stimulus package, global procurements will be disallowed up to Rs 200 Crore, which will reduce unfair competition among the domestic suppliers and MSMEs. GFR is amended such that the limit of procurement may be prescribed by the Department of Expenditure from time to time.

Notes:
The United Nations celebrates the International Day for Biological Diversity annually on May 22, across the world, to highlight the importance of biodiversity issues.
This year the theme of the day is “Our solutions are in nature”. The theme covers 3 topics during the week, which includes 18 May to cover the importance of knowledge and science; 19-21 May to raise awareness of the importance of biodiversity; and May 22, the day of the observance, to issue a call to action.