Daily Current Affairs Quiz – 18 June 2020

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch ‘Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan’ on June 20 to boost livelihood opportunities in rural India. Government of India has decided to launch a massive rural public works scheme ‘Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan’ to empower and provide livelihood opportunities to the returnee migrant workers and rural citizens.

The campaign of 125 days across 116 districts in 6 states (Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Odisha) aims to work in mission mode to help migrant workers. It will involve intensified and focused implementation of 25 different types of works to provide jobs and create infrastructure in the rural regions of the country with a resource envelope of Rs 50,000 crore.

India scored a major diplomatic victory to enter the non-permanent category of the UN Security Council when elections were held for the five non-permanent members on 17th June. India won 184 votes out of 192 valid votes cast.

Previously, India has been elected as a non-permanent member of the Council for the years 1950—1951, 1967—1968, 1972—1973, 1977—1978, 1984—1985, 1991—1992 and 2011—2012.

Ireland, Mexico and Norway were also elected as non-permanent members of the UN Security Council. India’s term will begin from January 2021.

Saudi Arabia’s PIF, one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, will invest Rs 11,367 crore for 2.32 percent of Jio Platforms, a historic eleventh investment in the Reliance Industries (RIL) digital unit in nine weeks.

Now shed 24.7 percent stake in Jio and raised Rs 115,693.95 crore from some of the world’s top technology investors.

Facebook, General Atlantic, Silver Lake (twice), Vista Equity Partners, KKR, Mubadala Investment Company and ADIA, TPG and L Catterton have queued up for investments in Jio.

India’s economy will contract by 4% in financial year 2020 as against a growth of 4% projected in its April outlook, the Asian Development Banks said in its supplement report on 18th June while also slashing the growth forecast for India for 2021 to 5% compared to 6.2% projected in April.

“The Indian economy is expected to contract by 4.0% in fiscal 2020, then grow by 5.0% the following year as economic activity normalizes gradually

Indian intelligence agencies have asked the government to block or advise people to stop use of 52 mobile applications linked to China over concerns that these weren’t safe and ended up extracting a large amount of data outside India, people familiar with the development.

The list of applications sent by the security establishment to the government include video conferencing app Zoom, short-video app TikTok, and other utility and content apps such as UC browser, Xender, SHAREit and Clean-master.

A Sebi panel on 16th June suggested measures to strengthen markets watchdog’s enforcement mechanism and improve the system of recovery of siphoned off money.

The committee headed by former Supreme Court Judge Anil Dave has proposed a method of quantification of profit made by the defaulter and loss caused to investors.

Purpose: The committee has examined the insolvency, recovery and securities laws jurisprudence of India and abroad and suggested suitable changes in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code to ensure that insolvency law is not used as a refuge by defaulters, thereby protecting the interest of investors.

International Picnic Day is observed on June 18, every year. It is a day to encourage people to go outdoors and enjoy a hearty meal in nature, with other people’s company. In the early days, people used to go on a picnic as an escape from their daily lives.

This day is also marked by various charity events and school picnics.

The Asian Paralympic Committee (APC) on 17th June announced that Bahrain will host the fourth edition of the Asian Youth Para Games from December 1 to 10 next year.

An estimated 800 athletes under 20 years of age are expected to compete in nine sports including athletics, badminton, powerlifting, swimming and table tennis.

Lieutenant General (retd) Raj Mohan Vohra, who was a 1971 war hero and a Maha Vir Chakra awardee, has passed away due to COVID-19.

Then a lieutenant colonel, Lt Gen (retd) Vohra commanded the elite Hodson’s Horse in the Shakargarh Sector during the Indo-Pak War of 1971 and was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra for his conspicuous bravery and leadership.

During the Battle of Basantar, the regiment came under heavy fire from the enemy and faced huge resistance, but 27 enemy tanks were destroyed under his able command

Headquarters: New York, New York, United States

Founded: 24 October 1945

 Hon’ble Minister of Coal, Mines & Parliamentary Affairs: Shri Pralhad Joshi.

India is reportedly planning to open its first coal trading exchange on the basis of commodity or energy exchanges. Coal consumers and traders throughout the country welcomed the move but said the exchange should be started only when there are more buyers and sellers.

Reason: The country’s coal import reduced by 20 percent to 18.93 million tonnes (MT) in May 2020. The government is planning to bring the country’s coal imports to zero by 2023-24. All this while, the government had a monopoly on coal mining which is the reason why India imports call despite being the third-largest producer of coal in the world. The government wants to now allow liberalized entries in the coal sector.

Three premier institutes led by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay (Rank 172), followed closely by Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore (Rank 185), and IIT Delhi (Rank 193) have featured in the top 200 QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) World University Rankings.

However, all three—along with 11 others—have dropped in their rankings over the past 12 months. In total, 21 Indian higher education institutions have found their place among the world’s top 1,000.

Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT) USA continues to be at number one spot for the ninth consecutive year. Stanford University, Harvard University, and California Institute of Technology are at 2nd, 3rd, and 4th rank respectively.

The central government digitally launched AarogyaPath on June 12, 2020. It is a web-based solution for the healthcare supply chain portal. It will provide real-time availability of critical healthcare supplies for manufacturers, customers, and suppliers.
As per the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the integrated public platform launched by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) will help customers in tackling a number of issues such as limited access to suppliers, time-consuming processes to identify good quality products, dependence on limited suppliers, etc.

Indian Railways has created a new world benchmark by successfully running first Double-Stack Container Train in high-rise in Over Head Equipment electrified territory on Western Railway.
This tremendous achievement is a first of its kind in the entire world and will also boost the ambitious mission of Green India.
The Operations successfully commenced on 10th June from Palanpur and Botad stations in Gujarat. The Ministry said, Railways has transported more than 178 million tonnes of commodities from 1st April to 10th of June this year.

India joined international and multi-stakeholder initiative Global Partnership for Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) as its founding member on June 15, 2020. By becoming the founding member of the initiative, India has joined the leading nations of the world including the UK, EU, US, Australia among others.

Aims: The global initiative aims to guide responsible development and use of Artificial Intelligence, grounded in human rights, diversity, inclusion, innovation, and economic growth. It will also provide support to the cutting- edge research and applied activities on AI-related priorities.

The other nations that have joined the partnership are France, Canada, Germany, Japan, Italy, Mexico, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, and Singapore.