Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
Veteran Indian economist Abhas Jha has been appointed by the World Bank as its Practice Manager for Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management for South Asia.
The appointment has been made at a crucial time when the Amphan cyclone has hit West Bengal, Orissa in India and Bangladesh. Abhas Jha will lead and encourage the Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change team of the South Asia region (SAR). The team will deliver recovery solutions to the affected countries.

Notes:
The Indian Air Force is set to operationalize its squadron called the Number-18 – ‘Flying Bullets’ with a fleet of the LCA (Light Combat Aircraft) Tejas.
Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal R K S Bhadauria will launch the squadron at the Sulur base near Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. This is the second Indian Air Force squadron to operate with the modern light fighter aircraft Tejas, which is a fourth-generation supersonic aircraft developed by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

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:
The first unmanned helicopter drone of China, named AR500C was seen in news as the helicopter made its first successful flight recently.
It has been designed to fly in plateau areas and capable of firing and conducting investigation from a high altitude. The unmanned helicopter is expected to be deployed along the country’s borders with India, to safe-guard the southwestern borders in Tibet.

Notes:
The historic first manned space flight of SpaceX for NASA is scheduled to take off for the International Space Station on May 27.
The mission is called Demo-2 and it will launch the two NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley into orbit. The Crew Dragon spacecraft of SpaceX onboard a Falcon 9 rocket is used in this historic launch. Since 2011, NASA has sent all its astronauts through Russia’s Soyuz capsule.

Notes:
Narmada Basin Projects Company Ltd. (NBPCL) is a wholly-owned company of Madhya Pradesh government. Central PSU under Ministry of Power, Power Finance Corporation (PFC) has recently partnered with NBPCL to fund projects worth ₹22,000 crore in Madhya Pradesh.
Hydroelectric projects and power components of 12 major multipurpose projects are to be set up by deploying the funds. Major multipurpose projects, which are to be financed include Basaniya Multipurpose Project, Chinki Boras Multipurpose Project Dudhi Project, among others.

Notes:
India’s Covid-19 contact tracing app ‘Aarogya Setu’ was made an open source application by its think tank NITI Aayog.
After several privacy concerns were raised over the app, it has been open sourced so that researchers can identify any vulnerability in the app to make it more secure. National Informatics Centre (NIC), which had developed the app has announced a bug bounty programme to incentivise those who find flaws in the app.

Notes:
Multinational service network Deloitte recently conducted ‘Global State of the Consumer Tracker’ survey using an online panel, among the people across the world aged above 18.
As per the study, consumers in India are the most worried during these uncertain times and are placed at the top of the Global anxiety index with a score of 33. India was followed by Mexico and Spain. However, the anxiety score of India has gradually declined during the month of May.

Notes:
Leading E-commerce platform Flipkart has signed a MoU with Karnataka State Mango Development and Marketing Corporation, to enable farmers to sell their fresh fruits online.
Under the agreement, India Post would function as the last-mile delivery partner during this season. Mango Board, Farmer Producer Organisations, sellers, growers, and traders can enrol themselves in the Flipkart platform to supply several varieties of mangoes across the state.

Notes:
The foundation stone for setting up a Missile Park ‘Agneeprastha’ was recently laid at INS Kalinga, Visakhapatnam by Commodore Rajesh Debnath, who heads INS Kalinga.
A 2-megawatt solar photovoltaic plant was also commissioned at INS Kalinga by the Vice Admiral of Eastern Naval Command. This is the largest plant in the Eastern Naval Command and has an estimated life of 25 years. This step is in line with the National Solar Mission proposed by the Union Government to achieve 100 GW of solar power by 2022.