Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
Ajmal Sultanpuri was a 97-year-old renowned Urdu poet, who passed away recently in his native place Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
The poet was a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by Uttar Pradesh Urdu Academy in March 2016 for his significant contribution to Urdu poetry. He has written several Urdu poems and some of his noted poems include “Kahan Hai Mera Hindustan” and “Agar Main Tera Shahjahan”. He protested against social discrimination in his early age and his poems are based on communal harmony and multiculturalism of India.

Notes:
The IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number is a 15-digit unique serial number of mobile devices. It is allocated by a global industry body GSMA and its authorised organisations. In India, Mobile Standards Alliance of India (MSAI) is the official reporting body of GSMA.
Recently, the Department of Telecom has taken over the process of issuing and allocating the IMEI numbers for mobile phones in India from the private body MSAI. The new ‘Indian Counterfeited Device Restriction (ICDR) system’, which has been developed by the R&D unit of DoT is being tested on pilot basis on the web portal of Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR).

Notes:
Indian hockey star and the Indian women’s team captain Rani Rampal was recently named as the ‘World Games Athlete of the Year’. She also became the first-ever hockey player worldwide to win the award.
The FIH (International Hockey Federation) has recommended her name for the prestigious award. Rani has topped the 20-day-poll conducted by the World Games with the highest number of votes. She was the player of the tournament in the last year’s FIH Series Finals, in which she led the country to win.

Notes:
The Artificial Intelligence (AI) department of the global tech-giant Google has recently developed a new model to protect the endangered species of killer whales.
The whales, which are also known as orcas are seen in very few numbers in the Salish Sea. Google has partnered with Fisheries and Oceans Canada to monitor their condition and alert experts in the event of sickness or accidents caused to the whales. The trained AI model uses underwater audio and labels to listen to the sounds of the whale and to display its location.

Notes:
The state Government of Kerala declared the disease caused by the novel coronavirus as a “state calamity”. This declaration comes at the backdrop of three people of the state being tested positive for coronavirus.
Kerala reported the first infection from the virus in India and the person is being treated in isolation wards. Later two other patients, who are the students of a medical college in Wuhan, China are also diagnosed with the virus infection. The novel coronavirus was first reported in China’s Wuhan city and has spread to nearly 25 other countries.

Notes:
The Banker magazine has named the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das as the Central Banker of the Year- Asia-Pacific 2020. ‘Global Central Banker of the Year’ award was presented to Jorgovanka Tabakovi, National Bank of Serbia.
The award is given to central bankers who have significantly managed to stimulate growth and stabilise the economy of their country. Shaktikanta Das was nominated as he successfully managed various economic crises of the country including the Non-Banking Financial companies (NBFC) crisis and Non-performing assets of Indian banks.

Notes:
Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated the third Defence Attaches conference at New Delhi. He also announced that India is set to have 10 more Defence Attaches in 10 different countries.
This creation of additional 10 defence wings will strengthen the defence diplomacy of the country and help in increasing exports in defence sector. Under the central government scheme of promoting defence exports, funds are allocated for export through Defence attaches to 34 countries.

Notes:
Fitch Ratings recently released its forecast for India’s economic growth for the next financial year. It estimated a growth rate of 5.6 per cent, which is lower than the 6-6.5 per cent growth rate, as projected by the Indian government in its recent Economic survey 2019-20.
The agency also stated that the Union budget recently presented did not alter its view towards the growth prospects of the country. The agency has affirmed the ‘BBB- rating’ to India, last December. The government has missed its fiscal deficit targets for the previous year and the target for the next year is furthermore relaxed to 3.8%.

Notes:
The state government of Karnataka has recently launched a scheme called ‘Janasevaka’ to home-deliver various government services to citizens. The scheme ensures the delivery of ration cards, senior citizen identity and health cards at the door steps of citizens.
The newly launched scheme is a part of the ‘Sakala’ scheme of the state and will cover as many as 53 services of 11 state departments. The scheme was first implemented in Dasarahalli area on a pilot basis and will be extended to other regions. Subsequently, the scheme would be made operational in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru and Hubballi-Dharwad.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet of India recently approved amendments to the Banking Regulation Act, which will bring multi-state cooperative banks under the regulation of the Reserve Bank of India.
This amendment in regulation is expected to prevent malpractices in the co-operative banks and ensure better regulation. The administrative role of the banks will be managed by the cooperative registrars. This decision is taken at the backdrop of the collapse of Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank last year. The banks would also be audited according to the norms stipulated by RBI.