Current Affairs - May 19, 2020 Current Affairs

The government has decided to increase the borrowing limits of states from 3% to 5% of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) for the year 2020-21.

Government has extended the nationwide lockdown till May 31, 2020 with certain relaxations and few restrictions as before in COVID-19 containment zones. The MHA released the Lockdown 4.0 guidelines to be followed across the country by ministries and departments of all states and UTs. The new guidelines permit inter-state movement of passenger vehicles and buses. Moreover, this time, states and UTs need to decide the Red/Orange and Green Zones on their own.

World Hypertension Day (WHD) is observed on 17 May every year. The day aims to promote public awareness of hypertension. It also encourages all the people across the world to prevent and control this silent killer. The theme of 2020 World Hypertension Day is "Measure Your Blood Pressure, Control It, Live Longer." It focuses to create awareness about raising high blood pressure (BP) in all the populations around the world.

For the purpsoe of building its own tech platform, National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI) has made partnerships with DotPe. DotPe is a fintech start-up company. This platform will ensure online payments for digital ordering, bill settlements, and contactless dining. NRAI was Founded in 1982.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally swore in his new government on 17 May for the fifth time. The ceremony of the swearing-in of Israel's new government, the Knesset, was held in accordance with coronavirus social distancing directives. Netanyahu will be in power until 13 November 2021. This ended the 18-month political crisis in the country. Benny Gantz will serve in the specially created role of alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister.

India's space agency Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has directed the startups to develop tools and machines for its maiden human space flight Gaganyaan-1 mission. ISRO focuses to potentially help them build products and solutions that they can exploit commercially. The move is expected to open up opportunities for new types of companies to come up in India.

The day of 18th May is observed as Worlds AIDS Vaccine Day every year across the world. This day is also known as HIV Vaccine Awareness Day. AIDS Vaccine Day points about the efforts of researchers, scientists, health professionals who has given their contribution to find a safe and effective AIDS medicine.

The centre has announced Special Credit Facility worth Rs 5000 crore for all street vendors. There are 50 lakh street vendors, who will be able to avail this special credit facility. An initial working capital worth Rs 10000 will be provided.

Slovenia has become the first country in the whole of Europe to declare an end to its COVID-19 outbreak, the announcement for which was made by the Slovenian government after it saw a dramatic slowdown in new cases.

The Government of India and West Bengal Government have inked two loan agreements with Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank(AIIB) and World Bank (WB) for the "West Bengal Major Irrigation and Flood Management Project" to improve irrigation services and flood management in the Damodar Valley Command Area (DVCA) of West Bengal. The total outlay of the project is $413.8 million.The Government of West Bengal has infused $123.8 million for this project.

International Museum Day is celebarted across the world on every 18 May of the year. This day aims to create awareness about the museum and their role in society. In 1977, The International Council of Museums (ICOM) made an International Museum Day. Also, organisation prefered to suggest a proper theme every year that includes globalisation, bridging cultural gaps and care for the environment.

In order to promote digital education in the country and make e- learning feasible for students and teachers, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman launched the PM-eVidya programme.

Alibaba's Jack Ma has resigned from the Softbank's Board of Directors. The official reason of Ma's resignation has not been revealed yet. Ma's resignation will come into effect on June 25, 2020, on the day of annual shareholder meeting of the Softbank. He served the group for nearly 13 years.

The Ministry of Agriculture announced that the e-NAM reached target 1000 mandis across the nation in 18 states and 3 union territories(UTs) with 38 new mandis integrated with the e-NAM platform of electronic agriculture trading portal. E-NAM launched in 2016 to create a network of Mandis as a common online market platform as 'one nation, one market' for agricultural commodities became a tool for social distancing in the global pandemic lockdown.

In Jharkhand, the State Education Department in collaboration with Doordarshan started online classes and educational programs to provide school education to students of the state through video and thematic lectures.

India is among 62 countries that have moved a proposal at the World Health Assembly to "identify the zoonotic source" of the coronavirus.

US investment firm General Atlantic will be acquiring 1.34% stake in Reliance Jio for around Rs 6600 crore on a fully diluted basis. This is the 4th largest investment in Jio platform in last 30 days following the deals done by Facebook, Silver Lake and Vista Equity Partners. With this, the total investment in Mukesh Ambani's Jio platforms now stands at Rs 67,194.75 crore.

Realtors body National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) has appointed Rajesh Goel as director general (DG) of the association. Earlier, Goel was serving as the chairman and managing director, Hindustan Prefab Ltd.

Facebook had acquired the animated graphics startup GIPHY and would integrate the company in its Instagram visual social network. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the news site Axios said the California-based tech giant was paying $400 million. GIPHY is a platform and search engine for "stickers" and other products using the graphics interchange format or GIFs.

The representative of Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Mr Hossein Kazempour Ardebili has passed away. During his career, he had served as OPEC governor for almost 20 years. Also, he had been serving as Iran's representative to OPEC since 2013.