March Current Affairs 2020 Weekly Test -4

Answer – 5) Pravin Kutumbe
Explanation:
The Insurance Regulation and Development Authority (IRDAI) instituted a 16-member
committee headed by Pravin Kutumbe to strengthen its guidelines on corporate
governance. The committee consists of a head, six members from the insurance
regulator besides members from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Securities and
Exchange Board of India (SEBI) along with other industry participants. The committee
must submit report to IRDAI in three months.

Answer – 5) 144
Explanation:
The United Nations (UN) released the 8th World Happiness Report 2020 to measure the happiness of people of 156 countries where India (3.573) ranks in 144th position & Finland (7.809) tops the 3rd time. This is the 1st time the report ranks cities around the world, where Delhi- India (4.011) is positioned in 180th position which is among 10 least happiest cities, Helsinki-Finland (7.828) tops the report were, Kabul -Afghanistan (3.236) is at the bottom place with 186th position.
Rank table (including top & bottom)

Answer – 4) WonderChicken
Explanation:
Scientists at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom (UK) have discovered a
fossil of the world’s oldest known modern bird skull dating to about 66.8m – 66.7m
years ago- means the birds lived alongside dinosaurs for around a million years before
the latter died out. Scientists dubbed the creature as ‘Wonderchicken’, which is thought
to be a common ancestor of modern chickens and ducks. The findings were published in
the journal Nature.

Answer – 3) “Forests and Biodiversity”
Explanation:
The International Day of Forests (IDF) is observed annually on March 21 to raise awareness of the importance of all types of forests and of trees outside forests. Theme of the year 2020: “Forests and Biodiversity”. The UN (United Nations) General Assembly proclaimed March 21 as the International Day of Forests (IDF) in 2012 and the day has been observed since 2013.

Answer – 4) TRIFED
Explanation:
A 30- day long capacity building program called “Tech for Tribal” has been launched by the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED), which works under Ministry of Tribal Affairs in association with IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Roorkee, IIM Indore, Kalinga Institute of Social Science, Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) and SRIJAN, Jaipur to provide entrepreneurship skills to the tribal people. The Programme is supported by MSME ministry.

Answer – 4) Gujarat
Explanation:
The Gujarat Police is first in the country to be equipped with taser guns as a part of police weapons to ensure safety and security of the public. Earlier, the taser guns were used in agencies such as the UK Metropolitan Police, the Los Angeles Police Department and the New York Police Department.

Answer – 2) Gujarat
Explanation:
Flying car-maker PAL-V (Personal Air Land Vehicle) of the Netherlands will set up a manufacturing plant in Gujarat. A Memorandum of Understandings (MoU) was signed in the presence of Gujarat Chief Minister (CM) Vijay Ramniklal Rupani between state industries Principal Secretary MK Das and Carl Maasbommel, Vice President of PAL-V’s international business development. The Dutch car company sets up the firm for the first time in India and has set a target of commencing production by 2021.

Answer – 3) United Kingdom
Explanation:
The Government of United Kingdom has become the 1st co-chair of the governing council of global climate initiative ‘‘Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI)’ led by India. The initiative was created by the Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi on September 23, 2019 during the UN (United Nations) Climate Summit in New York, US (United States). The secretariat of the Coalition will be in New Delhi.

Answer – 5) Karur Vysya Bank
Explanation:
In a bid to promote digital India initiative of the central Government, Karur Vysya Bank (KVB), a Scheduled Commercial Bank in India, has launched India’s 1st prepaid wallet card ‘Enkasu’ (My cash in Tamil) in Karur, Tamil Nadu (TN) under its Quit cash movement.

Answer – 3) State Bank of India
Explanation:
State Bank of India (SBI), an Indian multinational, public sector bank, became the 1st bank to launch COVID 19 emergency credit line (CECL) to provide funds to businesses affected by the infectious coronavirus.

Answer – 4) Indian Oil Corporation
Explanation:
Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation’s biggest oil firm, began the supply of the world’s cleanest petrol and diesel across the country. All 28,000 petrol stations of IOC’s across the country are dispensing BS-VI (Bharat Stage- VI) ultra-low sulphur grade fuel to reduce the pollution from vehicles in the air.

Answer – 4) Both 1) and 2)
Explanation:
The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters named Hillel Furstenber from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel and Gregory Margulis from Yale University, USA as winners of the Abel Prize 2020. They share the prize & the amount of Norwegian Krone (NOK) 7.5 Million (USD 8.3400).

Answer – 3) V K Paul
Explanation:
The government set up a 21-member high-level technical committee of public health experts to guide the people in preventive & control activities of COVID-19. The committee is headed by NITI Aayog member V K Paul.

Answer – 1) 120
Explanation:
The Heritage Foundation published its 26th annual edition of Economic Freedom Index 2020 to measure the level of economic freedom in 186 countries. India (56.5) ranks in 120th position & Singapore (89.4) tops the index for the 1st time.
Rank Table

Answer – 4) IIT Madras
Explanation:
Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras will organize India’s 1st Global Hyperloop Pod Competition named as ‘Indian Hyperloop Pod Competition’, to increase the awareness & enthusiasm about Hyperloop in India.

Answer – 2) Hydroxychloroquine
Explanation:
The National Task Force for the novel coronavirus constituted by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recommended the use of hydroxychloroquine for healthcare workers or persons staying with and caring for positive COVID-19 patients. This protocol has been approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DGCI), Dr. V. G. Somani.

Answer – 3) 10 Lakh
Explanation:
To boost credit disbursement in the targeted segment like agriculture, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) and housing sector, RBI has extended the priority sector classification for bank loans to Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) for on-lending for Fiscal year 2020-21. As per the revised norms, on-lending by NBFCs for ‘term lending’ component under agriculture will be allowed up to Rs 10 lakh per borrower.

Answer – 2) Mylab
Explanation:
The National Institute of Virology (NIV) has given its nod to Pune (Maharashtra) based Mylab Discovery Solutions Pvt Ltd to make diagnostic test kits (also known as Mylab PathoDetect COVID-19 Qualitative PCR kit) for novel coronavirus (COVID-19). With this, it becomes the 1st Indian company to develop the first made-in-India test kit for the disease in a period of 6- weeks. Germany-based Altona Diagnostics has also received the approval.

Answer – 3) Madhya Pradesh 
Explanation:
Shivraj Singh Chouhan (61) took oath as Chief Minister (CM) of Madhya Pradesh (MP)for the 4th time. He will succeed Kamal Nath who was in power for 15 months.

Answer – 2) It’s Time
Explanation:
World Tuberculosis Day is being observed on March 24 globally to raise awareness of Tuberculosis (TB) disease and the efforts made to eliminate the disease. The date marks the day in 1882 when Dr Robert Koch announced that he had discovered the bacterium that causes TB. World TB Day is one of the 8 official global health campaigns marked by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Theme of the year 2020: ‘It’s Time’.

Answer – 2) Odisha
Explanation:
Odisha Chief Minister (CM) Naveen Patnaik launched “Mo Jeeban (My Life) Programme” and urged people to take a pledge to stay indoors. The programme was launched due to the Coronavirus (COVID- 19) outbreak.

Answer – 3) 15,000 Cr
Explanation:
For quick set, up health infrastructure to deal with the pandemic, Centre has allocated 15,000 crores for the purchase of personal protection equipment for healthcare workers, increasing the number of beds, testing kits, setting up testing laboratories and quarantine centres, and training of professionals to combat the disease.

Answer – 2) 1 Crore
Explanation:
Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC): The existing threshold of default hiked to Rs1 crore from Rs 1 Lakh under section 4 of the IBC 2016 to protect MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises).

Answer – 5) Clara
Explanation:
The US (United States) Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) partnered with CDC Foundation and Microsoft’s Azure healthcare bot service has introduced an AI (Artificial Intelligence) based bot named “Clara” [the coronavirus self-checker]. The bot is currently available in the US on the CDS website.

Answer – 3) Maharashtra
Explanation:
The state of Maharashtra has donated the highest number of organs which resulted beneficial for 449 patients. The state overtook Tamil Nadu and Telangana in the field of organ donation.

Answer – 2) Indore
Explanation:
Indore, Madhya Pradesh the cleanest city in India becomes the 1st city in India to use drones to sanitize the city against COVID-19 scare.

Answer – 3) 1340 Cr
Explanation:
In order to enhance the Capital to Risk weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR)of Regional Rural Banks (RRBs), which are unable to maintain minimum CRAR of 9%, as per the regulatory norms prescribed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved Rs1,340-crore to continue the process for their recapitalization for another one year i.e till 2020-2021 from 2019-20.

Answer – 1) Sunil Chhetri
Explanation:
Indian Football Captain Sunil Chhetri was selected among 28 members for FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) video campaign against Coronavirus. FIFA and WHO (World Health Organization) have teamed up to combat the coronavirus by launching ‘Pass the message to kick out coronavirus’ (awareness campaign) led by world-renowned footballers.

Answer – 3) Photographer
Explanation:
Veteran photographer & Padma Shri (2010) awardee Nemai Ghosh passed away at 86 due to his age-related ailments. He hails from Kolkata.

Answer – 5) Saudi Arabia
Explanation:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi participated in an extraordinary “Virtual Group of 20 (G20) Leaders’ Summit” which was hosted by Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud through video conference. It was held to discuss the challenges created by the COVID-19 and to develop an action plan for global coordinated response against it.

Answer – 2) 1.70 Lakh Crore
Explanation:
On March 26, 2020, Union Finance & Corporate Affairs Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman has publicized the Rs 1.70 Lakh Crore relief package under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY), during the Press Conference in New Delhi. The motive behind this is to aid and support the Poverty-stricken people to fight a battle against Coronavirus.

Answer – 5) 50 Lakh
Explanation:
As per Finance Minister any health professional, who while treating Covid-19 patients, met with some accident would be compensated with an amount of Rs 50 lakh under the scheme. Approximately 22 lakh health workers would be provided insurance cover to fight this pandemic.

Answer – 2) 4%
Explanation:
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released the Seventh Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement, 2019-20 Resolution of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), RBI under which MPC has decided rate changes with immediate effect due to the current and evolving macroeconomic situation impacted by COVID-19.

Answer – 2) 2.5%
Explanation:
Moody’s Global Macro Outlook 2020-21 again slashed India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 2.5% from 5.3% in 2020 due to rising economic cost of COVID-19 & also due to the lockdown in India.

Answer – 5) National Thermal Power Corporation
Explanation:
NTPC (formerly known as National Thermal Power Corporation Limited), India’s largest energy conglomerate, has inked a share purchase agreement (SPAs) worth of Rs 11,500 crore with the central government. Under the deal NTPC acquired the latter’s 74.496 % equity stake in THDC India Ltd (THDCIL) for Rs 7,500 crore & its 100% equity in North-Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (NEEPCO) for Rs 4,000 crore respectively.

Answer – 2) Savita Chhabra
Explanation:
Savita Chhabra, Chairperson of HRIPL (Hygienic Research Institute Private Limited) and an award-winning businesswoman, has authored & launched her first book titled “Legacy Of Learning”.

Answer – 3) Uttar Pradesh
Explanation:
Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minister (CM) Yogi Adityanath has set up “Team-11” consisting of inter-departmental committees with over 2 dozen senior officials to fight the coronavirus spread. Each of the committees will be headed by a senior bureaucrat of the state while the CM will be the head of the Team-11.

Answer – 5) North Macedonia
Explanation:
The Republic of North Macedonia has inducted officially as the 30th and newest member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). This membership comes after North Macedonia’s 2017 deal with Greece under which the former changed its name from Macedonia (a name same as Greek province). After the name change, Greece agreed to drop objections to its NATO and European Union (EU) membership. North Macedonia was granted a protocol on accession to NATO membership in February 2019.

Answer – 5) International Monetary Fund
Explanation:
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has launched a policy tracker to track the policies of the governments to share knowledge about COVID-19 which helps to tackle the crisis.

Answer – 2) 3.74 lakh crore
Explanation:
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) declared an infusion of Rs 3.74 lakh crore into the banking system through three measures viz. targeted long-term repo operation (TLTRO), Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) and marginal standing facility (MSF). The decision has been taken to tackle financial system stress raised due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Answer – 1) State Bank of India
Explanation:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has created of assistance and emergency situation relief fund namely Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund (PM-CARES)where people can contribute and help in the government’s fight against coronavirus.This newly created public charitable trust has PM Narendra Modi as the chairmanand defence minister (Rajnath Singh), home minister (Amit Shah) and the finance minister (Nirmala Sitaraman) as its members. People can visit pmindia.gov.in to make contributions using credit and debit cards, UPI, net banking and RTGS or NEFT. State Bank of India (SBI) is the banking partner of PM-CARES.

Answer – 4) $ 100 million
Explanation:
Multilateral Institution Asian Development Bank (ADB) will invest $100 million into the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) of India Fund of Funds (FoF). With this, the FoF has now received a total of $700 million in commitments.

Answer – 3) Canara Bank
Explanation:
The mega bank consolidation plan is all set to come into force from April 1, 2020.  The branches of merging banks will operate as of the banks in which these have been amalgamated. Also, the customers of merging banks will be treated as customers of the banks in which these banks have been merged with effect from April 1, 2020. As per the scheme, Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India will be merged into Punjab National Bank; Syndicate Bank into Canara Bank; Allahabad Bank into Indian Bank; and Andhra Bank and Corporation Bank into Union Bank of India.

Answer – 5) Both 1) and 3)
Explanation:
The winners of The Hindu Prize 2019 Fiction and Non-Fiction are Mirza Waheed (Tell Her Everything – Fiction) and Santanu Das (India, Empire, and First World War Culture: Writings, Images and Songs – Non-Fiction) respectively. Prize was founded in 2010 to honor writers who have spent the rest of their lives mining the human spirit with their words & ideas.

Answer – 2) IIT Bombay
Explanation:
IIT (Indian Institute of Technology)-Bombay (Department of CSE) developed 2 mobile applications called “Corontine” and “Safe”, that can track violations by people supposed to be in quarantine. The proposals of both apps have been sent to officials in the Ministry of Human Resource and Department, Niti Aayog, the Maharashtra government and the BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation).

Answer – 5) Pune
Explanation:
The Headquarters of National Institute of Virology is located at Pune, Maharashtra.

Answer – 1) New Delhi
Explanation:
The Headquarters of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) located at New Delhi.

Answer – 3) Balram Bhargava
Explanation:
Dr. Balram Bhargava is the present Director of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Answer – 2) 9%
Explanation:
As per RBI, RRBs are required to maintain a minimum Capital to Risk-weighted Assets Ratio (CRAR) of 9 per cent on an ongoing basis. The capital funds for capital adequacy purpose shall consist of both Tier 1 and Tier 2 capital.

Answer – 4) 330 days
Explanation:
IBBI has relaxed the timelines to be followed under the overall 330-day deadline for completion of insolvency resolution processes.

Answer – 3) 136 Crore
Explanation:
As per the ‘World Population Prospects 2019’ report, what is India’s population will be
1.36 Billion (136 crore) by Mid-2019.

Answer – 1) Hyderabad
Explanation:
The headquarters of Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) of India
is in Hyderabad, Telangana.

Answer – 5) United Kingdom
Explanation:
Recently in March 2020, Boris Johnson the PM of United Kingdom tested positive for COVID-19.

Answer – 2) 35 GW
Explanation:
A total 35-gigawatt grid connected solar power capacity has been installed in the country till last month. Giving a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for New and Renewable Energy, R.K. Singh

Answer – 4) Dr. V. G. Somani
Explanation:
Dr. V. G. Somani is currently Drugs Controller of India.

Answer – 5) Madhya Pradesh
Explanation:
Panna National Park is located at Madhya Pradesh.

Answer – 1) Liquidity
Explanation:
Standing Liquidity Facility (SLF)

Answer – Geneva, Switzerland
Explanation:
The HQ of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) located is located at Geneva,
Switzerland.

Answer – Geneva, Switzerland
Explanation:
The HQ of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) located is located at Geneva,
Switzerland.

Answer – 2) Padmaja Chunduru
Explanation:
Padmaja Chunduru is the present MD & CEO of Indian Bank (as on March 31, 2020).