Current Affairs - May 30, 2020 Current Affairs

GoI stated that in order to succeed against the COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of parallel efforts are being taken. The information was passed by Dr. Vinod Paul, Member NITI Aayog, and Prof. K. Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the GoI. The first attempt is the indigenous efforts. Secondly, the Phyto-pharmaceuticals and extracts from medicinal plants are being tested. In the third method, new drug discovery includes a 'Hackathon' for computational drug discovery is being undertaken.

US House approves sanctions on Chinese officials involved in ill-treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang.

According to the report "Children in monetary poor households and COVID-19: Technical Note" released jointly by the UNICEF & Save the Children, a United Kingdom based non-profit organisation which works for child rights, the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus epidemic may increase the number of children living in poor households in low- and middle-income countries by 86 to reach 672 million by the end of 2020.

Indian Olympic Association President Dr Narinder Dhruv Batra, 63 years old, was appointed as a member of the Olympic Channel Commission. Batra also heads the International Hockey Federation.

Centre has been renamed the Central Institute of Plastics Engineering & Technology , a premier national institution under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, as Central Institute of Petrochemicals Engineering & Technology. The announcement was made by the Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers DV Sadananda Gowda.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has officially launched the facility of instant PAN through Aadhaar based e-KYC on 28 May. The facility is in line with the announcement made in the Union Budget. The new facility is now available for those PAN applicants who possess a valid Aadhaar number and have a mobile number registered with Aadhaar. The electronic PAN is issued to the applicants free of cost.

The notification issued on May 18, 2020, stated that the Governor of Maharashtra Bhagat Singh Koshyari has made certain modifications in Section 6 of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, (also called as Forest Rights Act-FRA) in its application to the Scheduled Areas of the State of Maharashtra, by exercising the powers conferred upon him by Schedule V of the Constitution.

Government has ceased the 7.75% Savings (Taxable) Bonds scheme commonly known as RBI Bonds or GOI bonds for subscription due to the declining interest rates as RBI has lowered the short-term repo rate which is currently at 4%.

The State Cabinet of Kerala appointed Additional Chief Secretary Vishwas Mehta as Chief Secretary of Kerala and will continue to hold the office till February 28, 2021. He will be the successor of Tom Jose, who retires on May 31, 2020.

Deepinder Goyal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of food ordering platform Zomato has virtually- appointed Mohit Gupta, the CEO- of its food delivery business as one of its co-founder.

The Asian Development Bank and the Government of India signed a $177 million loan to upgrade 450 kilometers of state highways and major district roads in Maharashtra.

Vakrangee Limited , a technology company based in Mumbai , has entered into the Corporate Agency partnership with Life Insurance Corporation of India to distribute latter's micro insurance products in unserved and underserved areas through its Nextgen Vakrangee Kendra network spread across India.

The Indian Air Force operationalised its 2nd squadron No. 18 'Flying Bullet' equipped with Light Combat Aircraft Tejas Final Operational Clearance at its Sulur Air Force Station in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. It was operationalised by Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria. This Sqn is designed by the Aircraft Development Agency under the Defence Research and Development Organisation and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bengaluru & is the only Param Vir Chakra Sqn of the IAF.

International Day of UN Peacekeepers is observed on 29 May every year. The day aims to offer a chance to pay tribute to the uniformed and civilian personnel's invaluable contribution to the work of the Organization. The day also aims to honour more than 3,900 peacekeepers who have lost their lives serving under the UN flag since 1948.

The Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar held a high-level meeting with Ministers of State for Agriculture & Farmers' Welfare, Parshottam Rupala, and Shri Kailash Choudhary and Secretary and Sanjay Agarwal to review the Locust Control Operations. The government is focused to deal dealing urgently with the Locustus attack in the country. GoI has procured 15 sprayers, which will start arriving from Britain in the next 15 days. Centre has also decided to procure 45 more sprayers.

Indian Space Research Organisation has received a patent for its method of manufacturing highland lunar soil simulant or moon soil which was prepared to create an artificial moon surface as a part of 2019's Moon landing mission Chandrayaan-2 so that the Vikram lander and Pragyaan rover could be tested. This soil simulant represents the regolith (loose unconsolidated rock and dust that sits atop a layer of bedrock) of lunar highland region. It is made in bulk from anorthosite rocks, a sample similar to regolith identified and picked out from Sittampundi Anorthosite Complex, almost 67 km from Salem, in Tamil Nadu.

Leo Puri, the former Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of UTI Mutual Fund, will take charge as the chairman of JP Morgan, South and Southeast Asia after Kalpana Morparia retirement in 2021. She will stay in the company till Q1 of 2021. Leo Puri will report to Filippo Gori, CEO, Asia-Pacific.

S&P Global Ratings , an American credit rating agency, has projected India's GDP growth for the current fiscal year FY 21 to contract by 5 % from 1.8 % growth projected in April 2020, due to the lockdown imposed for the prevention of the coronavirus pandemic, which severely affected economic activity in the country.

World Menstrual Hygiene Day observed on May 28. Theme of World Menstrual Hygiene Day was 'Periods in Pandemic'.

Ladakh's Director of Animal, Sheep Husbandry and Fisheries Mohammad Raza inaugurated the 1st Solar Lift Irrigation Plant of Kargil with five kilowatt Solar Plant and 3 Horsepower Submersible Pump at Yak Breeding Farm, Bodh Kharboo.