Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
The Finance Ministry recently announced that those companies with a turnover of over ₹50 crore and involved in only B2B (business to business) transactions are exempted from the mandatory requirement of accepting payments only by electronic modes like RuPay cards, BHIM-UPI or UPI-QR.
Section 269SU was inserted in the Finance Act, 2019 to encourage digital transactions in the country, which mandated the businesses with sales/turn over above Rs 50 Crore to accept only e-payments. Since these e-payment has a maximum limit and the B2B businesses receive maximum payments through RTGS or NEFT, the exemption is cancelled.

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:
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:
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.

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:
The state government of Uttar Pradesh has announced that it will form a Migration commission to identify the skills of returning migrant workers and provide employment to them.
The government has also planned to provide insurance and a job security scheme to the returning workers. During the announcement, 23 lakh workers and migrants have returned to the state. The proposed Migration commission will map details of migrants, their skills and will provide training, employment and credit facilities.

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:
Former Deputy Economy Minister of Brazil, Marcos Prado Troyjo has been selected as the new President of the Shanghai-based New Development Bank’s (NDB).
He is to replace the veteran Indian banker KV Kamath as the President of the multilateral financial institution set up by the BRICS countries. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman attended the special board of Governors of NDB meeting through video-conference. Another Indian Anil Kishora was selected as the Vice President of NDB during the conference.

Notes:
The state government of Karnataka recently announced that it would launch a first-of-its kind project called “State Health Register”.
The aim of the project is to maintain the health database of all its citizens in the register. As per the state’s release, a survey of all 6.5 crore people in the state using ASHA team, Primary Health Centre, members from Revenue and Education Departments. It will be implemented in Chikkaballapur district on a pilot basis.

Notes:
Global technology major Facebook has recently launched an experimental short music videos application called ‘Collab’.
The videos created using Collab app can be published on other platforms including Instagram and Facebook Stories. The research team of Facebook, NPE Teams has developed this application. Earlier, the team had developed some other experimental apps including CatchUp and Hobbi.