Current Affairs Quiz: February 26, 2020

Notes:
United States has surpassed China to become India’s top trading partner. According to the Commerce Ministry data, the bilateral trade between the US and India stood at nearly 88 billion dollars in 2018-19 fiscal. During the period, India’s trade with China was at 87.1 billion dollars. Similarly, during April-December 2019-20, the bilateral trade between the US and India stood at 68 billion dollars against a nearly 65 billion dollars trade with China in the same period. America is one of the few countries with which India has a trade surplus. On the other hand, India has a huge trade deficit with China. In 2018-19, India has a trade surplus of 16.9 billion dollars with America, while it has a deficit of 53.6 billion dollars with the neighboring country. The data showed that China was India’s top trading partner since 2013-14 till 2017-18.

Notes:
The Asian Wrestling Championships, 2020 was held at the KD Jadhav Indoor Stadium, Indira Gandhi Arena, New Delhi from February 18 to February 23. China was barred from entering into the competition due to the 2019–20 coronavirus outbreak. The top four countries in the series were Japan, Iran, India and Kazakhstan. Japan won 8 Gold and total 16 medals. India won 5 Gold medals while total medal tally was at 20.

Notes:
The two-day International Judicial Conference, 2020 was held at Supreme Court auditorium, New Delhi. The theme of the conference was ‘Judiciary and the Changing World.’

Notes:
PM-KISAN scheme launched on 24th February 2019. The schemes provides income support to all landholding farmers’ families across the country and enable them to meet expenses related to agriculture as well as domestic needs. Under the Scheme, six thousand rupees per year is transferred in installments directly into the bank accounts of the farmers. The scheme initially provided income support to all small and marginal farmers’ families across the country, holding cultivable land up to two hectares. However, its ambit was later expanded to cover all farmer families in the country irrespective of the size of their landholdings.

Notes:
The 15th Finance Commission has established a high level expert group for looking into agricultural exports. The committee is to be headed by ITC Chairman and is to submit its report in 3 months. The Sanjiv Puri Expert Group was set up to look into ways of improving agriculture exports. To encourage exports, the panel is to come up with measurable performance incentives for states, look at import substitution opportunities, increase farm productivity, value addition, waste reduction, improve logistics infrastructure etc.