Current Affairs Quiz - May, 2020

Notes:
Leading Indian multi-industry company ITC has recently announced that the company is set to make its biggest acquisition. It has entered into an agreement to acquire a 100 per cent stake in the spices manufacturing company Sunrise Foods.
The deal size is estimated to be about Rs 2,000 crore. Kolkata based Sunrise Foods made a turnover of around Rs 600 crore last year and it has an extensive market presence across east India.

Notes:
Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari recently inaugurated the Chamba Tunnel in Uttarakhand through video conference. The tunnel will be operationalised this October.
The tunnel has been constructed by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) under Chardham Pariyojana scheme of Uttarakhand. It is a 12,000-crore project, to facilitate connectivity to Gangotri, Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Badrinath. The 440-metre long tunnel has been created under Chamba town on Rishikesh-Dharasu road.

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:
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:
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:
According to the government-backed news agency of Russia, the country has started developing its first stealth bomber named ‘PAK DA’.
It is estimated the aircraft would be completed next year and it would be able to carry an array of advanced missiles and bombs, including hypersonic weapons. This will compete with the B-2 strategic stealth bomber of the United States. China is also in the process of developing its own stealth bomber, Xian H-20.

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:
Veteran Urdu author and Padma Shri award winner Mujtaba Hussain recently passed away at the age of 83.
He was considered as one of the finest authors in Urdu literature for his humour and satire styles. His best literary works are America Ghaans Kaat Raha Hai, Japan Chalo and an autobiographical satire- Apne Yaad Mein. He returned his Padma Shri award last year, as a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act.

Notes:
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has officially launched the instant Permanent Account Number (PAN) facility which uses Aadhaar number-based e-KYC.
This was announced during the 2020 budget along with an interchangeable Aadhar and PAN feature. The Income tax department launched the beta facility on their e-filing website in February 2020. As this a paperless and real-time facility, the turn-around time taken for allotting the PAN through this facility is only about 10 minutes.

Notes:
The state of Madhya Pradesh has recently launched a new scheme called ‘Rozgar Setu’ scheme, with an aim of providing employment to the skilled workers who have returned to the state.
The state is surveying the skilled workers who were employed at industries in other states and have returned now. The government will contact the owners of industries and factories and contractors associated with infrastructure projects such as road and bridge construction.