Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

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:
Veteran diplomat Vinay Mohan Kwatra has been recently appointed as India’s next ambassador to Nepal, as per the recent announcement made by the Ministry of External Affairs.
Vinay Kwatra is a 1988 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, who is currently serving as the Ambassador of India to Paris. He has now replaced Manjeev Singh Puri who has attained superannuation from service. Vinay Kwatra has held instrumental positions in several organisations including Permanent Mission of India in Geneva, SAARC Secretariat in Nepal, Embassy of India in Washington among others.

Notes:
Indian ace Basketball player and Captain, P Mathew Satya Babu recently passed away at 79 years in Chennai. He had represented India in the three Asian Basketball Championships conducted in Seoul, Bangkok and Manila from 1967 to 1970. He also served as the captain of the Indian team during the 6th Bangkok Asian Games.
Mathew Satya Babu was a qualified basketball coach and a referee. He had coached the state basketball team of Tamil Nadu and the men and women teams of Indian Railways.

Notes:
The National Statistical Office released revised estimates for economic growth of India for the last three years, on January 31,2020. As per the report, it fixed the actual GDP growth 2018-19 at 6.1%, against its previous estimate of 6.8%, estimated in May 2019.
The National Statistical Office also stated that the main reason for the downward revision in the GDP growth rate is deceleration in farming and mining activities in primary sector and manufacturing activities in secondary sector. It also marked the growth rate in 2017-18 as 7%. Recently, NSO estimated the growth rate in 2019-20 to be 5%.

Notes:
The ‘Anti-leprosy day’ is observed annually on the last Sunday of January, across the world. This year, the day is observed on Janaury 26, 2020, the month’s last Sunday.
The World Health Organisation has adopted a theme of ‘Leprosy isn’t you think’ to create awareness to fight the prejudice and discrimination associated with the disease. In India, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) signed an MoU with the charitable organization- Sasakawa India Leprosy Foundation (S-ILF) to eradicate leprosy in the country.

Notes:
Veteran diplomat Ajay Bisaria was recently appointed as the next Indian High Commissioner to the North American country, Canada. Ajay Bisaria, who is to assume office shortly, is a 1987-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer.
Prior to this assignment, Bisaria was serving as India’s High Commissioner to Pakistan. After the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was withdrawn and the state was re-organised, he was returned to India from Pakistan. He is known for taking several initiatives between Indian and Pakistan including the Kartarpur corridor.

Notes:
The Antonov An-32 of the Indian Air Force recently took-off from the Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport, Leh. The aircraft was powered with a 10% blend of Indian bio-jet fuel.
This is the first time that both engines of the aircraft were powered by the indigenous bio-jet fuel. The bio-fuel is produced from the tree borne oils, grown and acquired from the tribal areas of Chhattisgarh. The aircraft was initially flight tested at Chandigarh Air Base before undertaking the operational flight to Leh.

Notes:
The Serb Tennis star Novak Djokovic clinched his eighth Australian Open title, second in a row, by defeating Dominic Thiem of Austria 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, in the Australian open finals.
This is the 17th Grand Slam trophy of Djokovic, in his entire tennis career, and he is only behind the other two stars Roger Federer (20) and Rafael Nadal (19). The 32-year-old ace tennis player had already won 5 Wimbledon, 3 U.S Open and 1 French Open titles. This is also his fifth trophy from the last seven major Grand slams, he had competed.

Notes:
The Indian Navy has conducted a five-day-long coastal security exercise called ‘Matla Abhiyaan’ at Kolkata, which started on 29 January. The exercise is named after the Matla river, which flows around the Sundarbans.
The exercise aims at interacting with coastal communities to spread awareness on coastal security. During the exercise, the naval personnel interacted with the coastal police stations. The naval team also visited local schools to spread awareness on coastal security. This exercise is expected to help the naval crew in understand the navigational complexities in the Sundarbans.

Notes:
Renowned Hindi poet and novelist Vinod Kumar Shukla was selected for the inaugural edition of the ‘Mathrubhumi Book of the Year’ award for his translated book ‘Blue Is Like Blue’.
One of the finest writers in Hindi, the 83-year-old writer was also a recipient of the prestigious Sahitya Akademi award in 1999. The award is presented to the best fictional work, that was released in the previous year. The stories in his book was translated into English by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra and Sara Rai.