1. UN releases $ 2.5 million to help cyclone-ravaged Vanuatu

• The United Nations (UN) humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock announced and released 2.5 million dollar from its emergency humanitarian fund to help thousands of people in the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu affected by Cyclone Harold and offered support to other hard-hit countries.
• The cyclone made landfall on the largest island in Vanuatu, Espiritu Santo, on April 6, 2020, before hitting the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Tonga, which left more than two dozen people dead, destroyed homes, buildings and crops in four countries. Initial assessments suggest as much as 90 percent of the population in Sanma, the most affected province.
• Vanuatu, with roughly 80 islands stretching about 1,300 kilometers and a population near 3,00,000 was jointly controlled by the United Kingdom (UK) and France as the New Hebrides before it gained independence in 1980.

Foot Notes: About Vanuatu
Capital– Port vila.
President– Tallis Obed Moses.
Prime Minister (PM)–Charlot Salwai
Currency–Vanuatu vatu 

2. HDFC Chairman pushes for restructuring of NPA norms

• HDFC Chairman Deepak Parekh pushed for a one-time restructuring of stressed real estate accounts and relaxation in classification of NPA norms to 180 days from 90 days to help the sector. 
• Unless the stressed accounts are restructured, financial institutions will find it difficult to provide additional liquidity to the sector.
• Most of the developers are in a stressful situation and many of them are NPAs or will become NPAs. 
• Recommendation has already been made to the RBI for the restructuring following which real estate developers can be given additional money.
• Under the RBI norms, an account is classified as a NPA if it is not serviced for 90 days.

Foot Notes: About HDFC
Headquarters: Mumbai, India
Chairman: Deepak Parekh
CEO: Aditya Puri 
Headquarters: Mumbai
Founded: August 1994

3. Birupaksha Mishra took charge as the Executive Director of Union Bank of India

• Birupaksha Mishra has taken over the charge as the executive director of Union Bank of India.
• Prior to this, Mishra was executive director at erstwhile Corporation Bank, which along with Andhra Bank got amalgamated with Union Bank from April 1. 
• Mishra has more than 35 years of experience in various administrative and functional capacities at branches, regional offices and also at the corporate office of Corporation Bank.

Foot notes: About UBI(Union bank of India)
Headquarters: Mumbai, India
CEO: Rajkiran Rai 

4. World's most famous cycling race Tour de France postponed due to Coronavirus pandemic

• The world's most famous cycling race Tour de France has been postponed in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic. 
• The French newspapers reported that the three-week race that was set to start on 27th of June in the Riviera city of Nice has been set for August. 
• This year's event has 21 stages, with the longest of them stretching 218 kilometres (135 miles). 
• The last time the Tour was not held was in 1946, with the nation still emerging from World War-II. It was also stopped during World War-I.

Foot notes: About Tour de France
First winner: Maurice Garin 
Organiser: Amaury Sport Organisation
First edition: 1 July 1903
Director: Christian Prudhomme

5. Former Pakistani cricketer Zafar Sarfraz passes away 

• Former Pakistani first-class cricketer Zafar Sarfraz became the first professional player in the country to die after contracting the novel coronavirus.
• Sarfraz, a middle-order batsman, played 15 first-class games in Peshawar and retired in 1994.
• Pakistan has recorded more than 5,000 coronavirus cases to date and nearly 100 deaths.
• Lack of testing and an underfunded health care sector, however, has raised fears the country is ill-equipped to handle a spike in cases.

6. C-DOT and Telecom Service Providers develop COVID Quarantine Alert System

• The Department of Telecommunication and C-DOT (Centre for Development of Telematics) in coordination with Telecom Service Providers have developed and tested COVID Quarantine Alert System application which automatically triggers an email (Electronic Mail) or SMS (Short Message Service) if any identified corona positive person moves away from their quarantine location.
• Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has encouraged state government agencies to use the COVID Quarantine Alert system.
• A Standard Operating Procedure for location based monitoring of potential cases from the telecom network data has been established and a large number of requests from state agencies are coming in from Andhra Pradesh (AP), Telangana, Haryana and Bihar.
• The system would send triggers to the identified monitoring agencies for any potential violations from the quarantined locations subject to network availability and triangulation limitations.

Foot Notes: About MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology)
Cabinet Minister– Ravi Shankar Prasad.
Minister of State (MoS)– Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre.
Secretary– Ajay Prakash Sawhney.

7. UP to become first state to start pool testing of COVID-19 samples

• As the number of Covid-19 positive patients in Uttar Pradesh increased, the state government decided to start pool testing of the coronavirus samples. 
• The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) gave permission for pool testing to the state in order to help maximise the testing of samples on a daily basis. During pool testing, if 10 samples are mixed and tested for Covid-19 and if they test negative, then it will be an indicator that all samples are negative. 
• But if the test is not negative, then individual testing will be done. This will increase the testing capacity as well as accelerate the process. The health department at the moment is testing around 2000 samples per day in the state.

Foot notes: About Uttar Pardesh
Capital: Lucknow
Governor: Anandiben Patel

8. Four Indian-Americans awarded Guggenheim fellowships 2020

• Indian-Americans have been awarded with Guggenheim fellowships 2020 for their already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.
• The 4 Indian- Americans are: Pradeep Sharma- mechanical engineer at the University of Houston; Kavita Ramanan- professor of Applied Mathematics at Brown University; Dilip Da Cunha- architect, planner and teacher at Harvard University and Columbia University; Mukul Sharma- professor of Earth Sciences at Dartmouth College.
• About 175 such fellowships are awarded each year among 3000 applicants, the size of grant varies and is adjusted to the needs of fellows, by considering their other resources and the purpose and scope of their plans & the average grant in the 2008 Canada and United States competition was approximately USD 43,200.

Foot notes: About Guggenheim fellowships
It is established in 1925 by former United States Senator and Mrs. Simon Guggenheim, in the memory of 17 year old John Simon Guggenheim. It is to honour artists, writers, scholars and scientific researchers, who are chosen based on their previous accomplishments and what foundation officials describe as their “exceptional promise” & has granted more than USD 375 million in fellowships to over 18,000 individuals since its inception.

9. Robots to serve food, medicine to COVID-19 patients in Jharkhand

• ‘COBOT-Robotics’ Robots are serving food and medicine to COVID-19 patients in two hospitals in Jharkhand's West Singhbhum district.
• It is a step to protect doctors and health workers from getting infected with coronavirus.
• Developed by District Deputy Development Commissioner (DDC) Aditya Ranjan, the remote-controlled COBOT-Robotics will provide food and medicine to patients without human intervention.

Foot notes: About Jharkhand
Chief Minister: Hemant Soren
Capital: Ranchi
Governor: Draupadi Murmu

10. Fit India, CBSE  organises 1st-ever live fitness sessions for School students

• Fit India and CBSE will organise first-ever live fitness sessions for school students in the second phase of lockdown. 
• Live sessions will commence from 9:30 in morning and students can get access to these live sessions on Facebook and Instagram handles of Fit India Movement and CBSE. 
• During the programme guidelines of the Ministry of AYUSH to stay healthy will be shared with students. 
• The live sessions will cover all aspects of children’s fitness from daily workouts to yoga, nutrition to emotional well-being.