Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
Australian tennis legend Ashley Cooper, who won four Grand Slam singles titles in the 1950s, has recently passed away due to illness at the age of 83.
Ashley Cooper won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Grand slam in the year 1958, and achieved the rare feat of winning three Grand Slam championships in a calendar year. He won all four of his Grand Slam crowns by beating his fellow countrymen in the final. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1991.

Notes:
The Union Government publishes the annual Status Paper on Government Debt, that provides a detailed account of the overall debt position of the country.
As per the 9th edition of the paper recently released, Central Government Debt stood at 45.7 per cent of GDP at 2018-19 yearend. It is a marginal decline against the previous year debt of 45.8 per cent. 94.1 per cent of total Central Government debt was domestic debt and Sovereign external debt was 2.7 per cent of GDP at the yearend.

Notes:
Bev Q, a virtual queue management application developed by a Kochi-based start-up Faircode Technologies, has recently been approved by Google after two-level testing. This is to be implemented to manage queues of liquor shops.
The state government of Kerala announced that liquor shops would not be opened until a queue management system is implemented. The staff working at the shops are being trained through online and video tutorials in coordination with the Kerala State Beverages Corporation.

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:
Social Media Giant Twitter recently labelled tweets from the United States President Donald Trump as misleading, by linking the tweets with a fact checking page.
Under the tweets by the President, there was a message displayed by Twitter which read, “Get the facts about mail-in ballots”. Though Twitter clarified that the move was to provide context to the tweets, the President alleged that Twitter is interfering in the 2020 presidential election.

Notes:
National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI), that operates retail payments and settlement systems in India has recently launched an artificial intelligence (AI) based chatbot named ‘PAi’.
The virtual assistant has been launched with an aim to create awareness about its flagship products like FASTag, RuPay, UPI, AePS on a real time basis. Users can send queries about the products and they get verified automated responses. Global RuPay Cardholders can access the chatbot.

Notes:
European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union has recently proposed a 750 billion-euro (USD 826 billion) COVID-19 recovery plan.
The European Commission is expected to borrow the funds from the market and then disburse two-thirds in grants and the remaining fund in loans. This plan will mostly cover to revamp the worst affected European Union nations including Italy and Spain.

Notes:
As per the recent data of the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Singapore was the largest source of FDI in India during 2019-20 with USD 14.67 billion worth investments. It was followed by Mauritius and the Netherlands.
The data also showed that FDI in India grew by 13 per cent to a record high USD 49.97 billion in 2019-20. Maximum foreign inflows were in service sector (USD 7.85 billion), followed by computer software and hardware.

Notes:
The International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers is celebrated on 29 May every year, to pay tribute to the contribution of the peacekeepers.
This year the theme of the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers, 2020 is “Women in Peacekeeping: A Key to Peace”. This year also marks the 20th anniversary of the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. UN honours more than 3,900 UN peacekeepers who have lost their lives during their service, since 1948.

Notes:
Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi has recently passed away at Raipur after suffering from a heart attack, at the age of 74.
When the state was carved out from Madhya Pradesh to be held as a separate state in the year 2000, he was selected to head the state. The veteran leader was an Indian Administrative Officer turned politician. He had also served as the Collector of Raipur during the early years of his career.