Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
An Indian Army officer, Major Suman Gawani, has been selected for the prestigious United Nations Military Gender Advocate of the Year Award (2019). This is the first time in history, that an Indian is awarded the mentioned award, that was created in 2016.
The officer has served with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS). She has been selected for her outstanding contribution towards peacekeeping efforts in the UNMISS. Indian major will receive the award during an online ceremony, along with Brazilian Naval Officer Commander Carla Monteiro de Castro Araujo.

Notes:
HIL (India), a Public Sector Undertaking under Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers is to fast track the production and supply of pesticides for farming community.
HIL has signed an agreement with Ministry of Agriculture and Famers Welfare for the supply of Malathion Technical to Rajasthan and Gujarat for Locust Control Programme. It is an insecticide used in agriculture and public health pest control programs. HIL had manufactured and supplied nearly 67 MT of Malathion Technical till last week.

Notes:
Indian American Scientist Rajiv Joshi has been awarded the prestigious Inventor of the Year award by the New York Intellectual Property Law Association. He is an alumnus of IIT Mumbai.
As per the Press Trust of India, he has more than 250 patented inventions in the US and is currently working at IBM Thomson Watson Research Center in New York. He has been selected for the award for his contribution in electronic industry and improving artificial intelligence capabilities.

Notes:
The rating agency Fitch Ratings has made further slashed world GDP forecasts in its latest Global Economic Outlook (GEO).
The biggest estimate cut was for India, where the rating agency forecasts a contract of growth by 5%, which means -5% growth in 2020-21. Earlier, Fitch had estimated India’s growth to be 0.8% for FY21. The global GDP is also estimated to fall by 4.6% in 2020.

Notes:
The Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying Giriraj Singh addressed a conference on the “PMMSY – A scheme to bring about Blue Revolution through sustainable and responsible development of fisheries sector in India”.
The scheme was approved by the Union Cabinet on May 20. It aims to increase fish production to 220 lakh metric tons by 2024-25 from 137.58 lakh metric tons in 2018-19 at an average annual growth rate of 9%. There will be an estimated investment of Rs. 20,050 crores divided by the centre, states and beneficiaries.

Notes:
The Indian Olympic Association has constituted an 11-member committee led by Adille Sumariwala, the President of Athletics Federation of India.
The committee has been constituted to review and monitor annual grant and affiliation fee of its members for the 2020-2021 cycle, in coordination with the finance department. The committee is also required to send a report on all pending issues regarding previous year to IOA President.

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:
Every year, May 28 has been celebrated as the World Menstrual Hygiene Day across the world. It is a global platform initiated by the German non-profit organisation WASH United.
This year, the theme of Menstrual Hygiene Day is ‘Periods in Pandemic’. Several government agencies, individuals, non-profits and media join hands to create awareness about the safe menstruation practices and hygiene management.

Notes:
The United States has recently joined the G7 Artificial Intelligence group, an international panel for setting ethical guidelines for usage of artificial intelligence.
As per the announcement from the White House, this move was to counter China in threatening civil liberties using technologies. The heads of France and Canada proposed this global group to guide the adoption of AI, which was rejected by the US President Donald Trump. Now US is the last nation to join the Global Partnership on AI.

Notes:
India’s leading private air carrier SpiceJet announced that it has received formal approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to conduct drone trials. The dedicated cargo arm of SpiceJet, SpiceXpress was granted permission for conducting experimental Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations.
SpiceXpress is planning to use drones to deliver medical, essential supplies and e-commerce products to the remote places of the country.