Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

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.

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:
As per the study by the Researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in the US, more than 50 million people in India do not have access to effective handwashing.
This might place them at a higher risk of acquiring and transmitting the novel coronavirus. The study also highlighted that over 2 billion people in low and middle-income countries are without access to soap and clean water. More than 50 per cent of the people in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania also lacked access to effective handwashing.

Notes:
Apple and Google have made the application programming interface (API), developed for contact tracing available to the general public.
The APIs will be made available through publicly available software updates and only public health authorities could use the APIs to build contact tracing apps. As per their announcement, as many as 22 countries have requested and received access to the API so far. They also promised that the API would be destroyed once the pandemic is over and when contact-tracing apps are no longer required.

Notes:
The Governor of Reserve Bank of India delivered his third such address since the nation-wide lockdown.
He announced a cut in the repo rate by 40 basis points to 4% and the reverse repo is also simultaneously reduced by 40 bps to 3.35%. Earlier in the month of April, the repo and reverse repo rates were fixed at 4.4% and 3.75% respectively. The Governor also extended moratorium on all term loans by another 3 months till August 31, 2020.

Notes:
Oil India Limited (OIL) has recently announced that it has received environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), for the extension of drilling and testing of hydrocarbons under the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park of Assam.
While several environmental activists raised fears about the impact of the project in an ecologically sensitive park and biosphere reserve, OIL negated the claims. The drilling and testing of hydrocarbons are to be done at seven locations under the park.

Notes:
According to the recent data of the Reserve Bank of India, the country’s foreign exchange reserves increased by USD 1.73 billion to USD 487.04 billion in the week to May 15. The increase in reserves was due to a rise in foreign currency assets (FCA).
Also, the Special drawing rights (SDR) with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) increased by USD 2 million to USD 1.42 billion. SDRs are held by IMF member countries and they represent a claim to currency for which SDRs may be exchanged.

Notes:
Samsung India has collaborated with social media major Facebook to train its offline retailers for adapting digital technologies and using platforms like Instagram and WhatsApp.
The two firms have already trained more than 800 offline retailers and more training sessions are going to be carried out in future. This will help the Samsung retail partners leverage technology and make them more accessible to their customers for inquiry about smartphones.

Notes:
Indian Hockey legend Balbir Singh Dosanjh also known as Balbir Singh Senior passed away in Punjab at the age of 96. He was the oldest surviving Olympic medallist from India.
Balbir Singh was a part of the 1948 London Olympics gold medal-winning Indian hockey team. He served as the vice-captain of the 1952 gold medal-winning team. During the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, Balbir Singh led the team as the Captain and scored five goals against Afghanistan in India’s opening match. He trained the national team after his retirement.

Notes:
Every year, May 25 has been observed as the World Thyroid Day since 2008, across the world. The European Thyroid Association and American Thyroid Association established World Thyroid Day to promote public awareness of thyroid disease.
Thyroid is the most common endocrine disorder and a rapidly growing problem across the world. Jal Shakti Ministry has said that water plays a crucial role in treating the symptoms of thyroid and helping in weight loss.