Current Affairs April 2020 - Persons in NEWS

1 - Englishman Bob Weighton confirmed as the world’s oldest man living at 112

Bob Weighton, from the UK, has been officially confirmed as the oldest person living (male) at 112 Years and 1 day as of 30 March 2020. Bob was born on March 29^th 1908, in Kingston-Upon-Hull, Yorkshire.

Bob Weighton received the record title after Mr. Chitetsu Watanabe (Japan, b. March 5, 1907) passed away on February 23^rd 2020 at 112 years and 355 days. Kane Tanaka is currently the oldest person living (female) and celebrated her 117^th birthday in January.

2 - Spain Princess Maria Teresa became 1^st royal to die from COVID-19

Spanish Princess Maria Teresa of Bourbon-Parma became the first royal to pass away due to COVID-19. The 86-year-old was a cousin of Spain's King Felipe VI. Spain is one of the worst-hit nations due to Corona pandemic.

Princess Maria Teresa worked as a professor at Paris’ Sorbonne as well as a professor of Sociology at Madrid’s Complutense University. She was famously known as “Red Princess” due to her outspoken views and activist work. In 2014, she published a history of the Bourbon-Parma family.

3 - Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey pledged $1 billion to combat COVID-19

Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, has pledged to donate $1 billion to charities working towards combatting the global COVID-19 pandemic. The donation makes it the largest amount pledged by a private individual in the fight against the global coronavirus pandemic. The donation represented approximately 28% of his wealth.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has committed $30m. Amazon's Jeff Bezos has donated $100m to food banks in the US.

4 - Mukesh Ambani tops Jack Ma as Asia’s richest person

Mukesh Ambani has regained the top position as Asia’s richest person ahead of Jack Ma consequent to the $5.7 billion investment in Ambani-led Reliance Jio Platforms by Facebook. Facebook is investing ₹43,574 crore for a 9.99% stake on a fully diluted basis in Jio Platforms.

Ambani's fortune rose about $4.7 billion to $49.2 billion. The jump put Ambani about $3.2 billion ahead of China's Jack Ma. Globally, Ambani sits at the 17^th spot in the list of world’s top 10 richest people ahead of MacKenzie Bezos and Jack Ma.

5 - Shivraj Singh Chouhan sets record by becoming CM without cabinet for longest duration

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has set a record by becoming the longest serving CM without a council of ministers. Chouhan served for 25 days in power as chief minister without a cabinet.

This record was previously held by Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, who had formed his Cabinet after 24 days of assuming power. Governor Lalji Tandon administered the oath of office and secrecy to five Ministers - Narottam Mishra, Tulsi Silavat, Kamal Patel, Govind Singh Rajput and Meena Singh.

6 - PV Sindhu named ambassador for ‘i am badminton’ awareness campaign

Badminton World Federation (BWF) has appointed World Champion shuttler PV Sindhu as one of its ambassadors for ‘i am badminton’, an awareness campaign. Sindhu will be promoting a healthy platform for players where they would “express love and respect for badminton by advocating and committing to clean and honest play”,

Other ambassadors for the BWF campaign include Michelle Li of Canada, Zheng Si Wei and Huang YaQiong of China, England's Jack Shephard, Germany's Valeska Knoblauch, Hong Kong's Chan Ho Yuen and Germany's Marc Zwiebler.

7 - Viswanathan Anand named ambassador for WWF India

Five-time World chess champion Viswanathan Anand is the new Ambassador for World Wide Fund (WWF) India’s Environment Education programme. Anand will support wildlife conservation and work to educate children across India on issues related to the environment.

Environment Education is the oldest programme of WWF-India starting way back in 1976 with the Nature Clubs of India (NCI) initiative. Currently, the environment education programme undertakes five large initiatives that reach out to school children, youth and citizens across the country.