Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
The death anniversary of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is observed across the country as ‘Anti-terrorism Day’.
The 28th death anniversary of the former Prime Minster was observed on May 21. On the same day in 1991, he was assassinated at Sriperumbudur, Chennai during an election campaign. Rajiv Gandhi was the youngest ever Prime Minister of India, when he took over as the sixth Prime Minister at the age of 40.

Notes:
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has recently directed universities and colleges to use the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) available on the ‘SWAYAM’ portal of the Ministry of Human Resources and Development, for credit transfer.
UGC has also released a list of 82 undergraduate and 42 postgraduate non-engineering Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) available on the portal. As per the UGC’s recent regulations on credit framework for online learning courses, the students may enrol for the MOOCs and avail credits from July 2020.

Notes:
China is the largest manufacturer of personal protective equipment (PPE) body coveralls, that is considered as a crucial equipment to safeguard against the prevalent COVID-19 pandemic.
As per the announcement of the Ministry of Textiles, India has become the world’s second largest manufacturer of PPE body coveralls within a short time-span of two months. The ministry also said that it ensures that only certified manufacturers are allowed to supply PPEs to governments.

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:
The Bombay High Court recently noted that the right to a decent burial is recognized as a facet of the right to life.
Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic situation, the right to a decent burial cannot be denied to any person, as per the High Court. It dismissed the petitions challenging a circular issued by the Mumbai Corporation that designated 20 cemeteries for disposing of cadavers of persons who died of COVID-19. It also highlighted that there was no scientific study by WHO that Corona virus spreads through cadavers.

Notes:
Veteran Physician and former head of the Department of Medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Dr Jitendra Nath Pande recently passed away at the age of 79.
He and his wife had earlier contracted corona virus and remained in home isolation. He has contributed a lot in the field of pulmonology. He studied in the AIIMS and retired as the HOD of Medicine in the same institute. Even after retirement, he continued to mentor the practicing doctors and surgeons at AIIMS.

Notes:
CSIR-IIIM (Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine), Jammu a premier institute under the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) has partnered with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), to develop a new RT-LAMP based COVID-19 diagnostic kit.
The RT-LAMP (Reverse Transcriptase-Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification) kit is a nucleic acid- based test conducted from nasal/throat swab sample from patients. It is a rapid, affordable and accurate test. The components are easily available and can be completely manufactured in India.

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.