Test: June 2020 Weekly Current Affair - 1 - UPSC MCQ

The Union Ministry of Labour and Employment in partnership with TCS iON offers free online career skills training through the National Career Service (NCS) project to enhance the corporate etiquette, interpersonal skills, presentation skills and other softs skills of the job-seekers. NCS in partnership with HireMee, online assessment and hiring service provider, offers creation of video profiles for job-seekers.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) reorganised its advisory committee on service providers and appointed TV Mohandas Pai, Service Chairman of Manipal Global Education as its chairman to support the 12-member panel and provide professional insights on the service providers handled by the IBBI.

Virat Kohli, Indian Cricket Team Captain becomes the only cricketer and the only Indian to feature in the Forbes’ Top 100 highest paid athletes of 2020.Kohli ranked 66 with Forbes Magazine estimated earnings of around 26 million USD (24 million from endorsements and 2 million from salary/winnings). Tennis player Roger Federer Tops the list for the first time with estimated earnings 106.3 million USD. Cristiano Ronaldo stands 2nd with the estimated value of 105 million USD & Lionel Messi dropped to 3rd rank in 2020 with 104 million USD.

On May 29, 2020,A research project undertaken by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, a public technical and research university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu (TN), has helped triple the number of Irrawaddy dolphins in Odisha's Chilika lake, asia's largest natural water reservoir.

Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi during his Mann Ki Baat address to the nation announced the “My Life – My Yoga” (Jeevan Yoga) Video Blogging Contest, as one of the activities related to the observation of the 6th International Day of Yoga (IDY) on June 21st, 2020. The contest being organized by the Ministry of AYUSH and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) is open for participants from all countries.

Private sector lender Yes Bank Limited has acquired a 24.19% stake in Dish TV India Ltd, a company providing Direct to Home (DTH) television service in India, following invocation of 44.53 crore pledged shares due to default in payment of debt by Dish TV and some other companies.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX became the first private company to launch two astronauts in space aboard its Crew Dragon spacecraft. The milestone flight marked the first time that American astronauts have flown from US soil since the NASA’s space shuttle programme ended in 2011. NASA astronauts Robrt Behnken and Douglas Hurley docked the SpaceX with the International Space Station(ISS) on 31st May 2020.

Music Director Wajid Khan, of the popular duo Sajid-Wajid, known for his compositions for Salman Khan’s popular movies such as ‘Wanted’, the ‘Dabangg’ and ‘Ek Tha Tiger’, passed away at the age of 42 in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Wajid Khan was the brother of music director Sajid Khan.

31st May of Every year is celebrated as World No Tobacco Day created by the Member States of the World Health Organization(WHO) in 1987 to educate the public on the effects of tobacco and tobacco related diseases. The theme of World No Tobacco Day 2020 is “Protecting youth from industry manipulation and preventing them from tobacco and nicotine use”.

According to the research published in the journal Historical Biology, fossilized millipede-like Silurian Period creature called Kampecaris obanensis (approximately 450 million years old) is unearthed on the island of Kerrera in the Scottish Inner Hebrides(Scotland), which is likely to be the world’s oldest-known land animal.

The developer team of EPFL & ETH of Switzerland has developed the “SwissCovid”, first of its kind for digital contact tracing app utilizing the Exposure Notification API (Application Programming Interface) of Apple and Google and based on a decentralized approach to track the spread of coronavirus.

Union Cabinet has approved the upward revision of MSME definition and modalities/ road map for laying down effective implementation mechanism under the Atmanirbhar Bharat Package. Following are the revisions:

On the lines of the announcement made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 14 May, 2020 to provide special micro-credit facility to street vendors, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has launched a scheme PM SVANidhi – PM Street Vendor’s AtmaNirbharNidhi under which the street vendors, who had their businesses operational on or before 24 March, 2020 can avail a working capital loan of up to Rs. 10,000 which is repayable in monthly instalments in the tenure of one year.

Rating agency Moody’s expects India’s real Gross Domestic Product(GDP) to contract by 4% in fiscal 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdown measures. India’s foreign-currency and local-currency long-term issuer ratings have been downgraded to Baa3 from Baa2. Meanwhile India’s local-currency senior unsecured rating was also reduced to Baa3 from Baa2, and its short-term local currency rating to Prime(P)-3 from P-2. The outlook remains negative.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi appointed a committee headed by Rajnath Singh to solve the difficulties faced in the implementation of Rs.3 Lakh crore collateral-free loan for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises(MSME) announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on 13th May 2020 as a part of Rs.20 Lakh crore Covid-19 aid to raise the economy.

In accordance with the “Countries Global Ranking of Startup Ecosystem 2020” by global innovation mapping and research company StartupBlink, India ranked at 23rd position, a drop of 6 places from 17th position in 2019. The ranking has been topped by the United States (US), followed by the United Kingdom (UK), and Israel at 2nd and 3rd position.

A 92-page e-booklet called ‘One Year of Modi 2.0 – Towards A Self-Reliant India’ on the key achievements of the Modi government during its second term was released on June 1, 2020, by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B). This marks the first anniversary of the second term of the government.

Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi has launched CHAMPIONS (Creation and Harmonious Application of Modern Processes for Increasing the Output and National Strength) to help the smaller MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) by resolving their grievances and the complaints received on the portal will also be redressed within the prescribed limit.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced on a Rs.1500 crore Kerala Fiber Optic Network(K-FON) project executed by the association of Bharat Electronics Limited(BEL), RailTel Corporation (Public sector companies) and SRIT and LS Cables (Private sector companies) to provide free internet access for the poor by December 2020 and become the first state to declare the internet as a fundamental right of the citizen.

Purvanchal Expressway: India’s longest expressway –in Uttar Pradesh is likely to be completed by the end of the year. The foundation stone of the Purvanchal Expressway project was laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Azamgarh, located in the state of Uttar Pradesh in July 2018.

The COVID-19 (Technology) Access Pool or C-TAP which was mooted by President Carlos Alvarado of Costa Rica has been launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) during an event co-hosted by WHO and Costa Rica on May 29, 2020 at Geneva, Switzerland. This was launched after 35 countries and multiple international partners and institutions have signed for this pool to support it. Countries that have supported C-TAP till May 29, 2020: 35.

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) announced its new office bearers for 2020-2021. Uday Kotak, Managing Director and CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank succeeds Vikram Kirloskar, Chairman and Managing Director of Kirloskar System and vice chairman of Toyota Kirloskar Motor as the new President of CII.

Kritika Pandey, a 29-year-old Indian Writer from Ranchi, was announced as the winner of regional award for Asia in 2020 Commonwealth short story prize for her story “The Great Indian Tee and Snakes” – about love in an age of hatred and prejudice.

The World Health Organization(WHO) has accorded the World No Tobacco Day Award 2020 to Socio-Economic and Educational Development Society (SEEDS), an Indian non-governmental organization(NGO), one among the 3 SouthEast Asian Region awardees, for its efforts to ban pan masala, gutkha, e-cigarettes and hookah in Bihar and Jharkhand.

Expert Committees on Rationalisation/Closure/Merger of Film Media Units, and on Review of Autonomous Bodies under the aegis of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) submitted their report to Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar during a meet in New Delhi. Both committees were headed by Bimal Julka for rationalisation and professionalisation of film institutes.