Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
As per the recent order issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of M. Ajit Kumar as the next Chairman of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC).
The announcement has been made just two days ahead of the Union Budget, which is to be presented on 1st February 2020. M. Ajit Kumar is a 1984-batch Indian Revenue Service Officer, who is presently a member of CBIC. Pranab Kumar Das was the previous Chairman of CBIC.

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:
Nagoba Jatara is a tribal festival celebrated by the Mesaram clan of Gond tribes in Keslapur village of Telangana. It is the second biggest tribal festival, which is celebrated for ten days.
The idol of their God Nagoba is worshipped by the people during the festival. Tribal people who belong to the Mesram clan and reside in other states such as Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh also come and offer prayers at the festival. The festival has concluded recently, the rituals of which was spread over a month.

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:
International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) has appointed Indian-American Arvind Krishna as its new Chairman. The 57-year-old leader is currently serving as the head of the ‘Cloud and Cognitive software unit’ of IBM.
He is known for playing an instrumental role in the acquisition of Red Hat by IBM, undertaken last year. He has also led the development of several advanced technologies by IBM including cloud and quantum computing. He replaces the long-time female CEO of IBM, Virginia Rometty, who will continue to serve as the company’s executive Chairman.

Notes:
After nearly four years of the referendum voted by the British people for Brexit, the United Kingdom officially left the European Union, at 11.00 p.m on January 31, 2020.
After Britain left the bloc, the European Union has 27 more countries. The process by which the member state leaves the Union has expired and UK has entered the transition period, which will remain till December 31, 2020. The UK will continue to obey the EU laws and courts during the transition period. A new 50-pence coin was launched recently to mark the occasion.

Notes:
As per the recent announcement of the Chairman of the Railway Board Vinod Kumar Yadav, the third private train of the IRCTC is set to run between Varanasi and Indore.
The train which is to be operated overnight, is expected to have the same rakes as in the Humsafar Express. The train is set to run three days a week between the cities- among them two days will be operated via Lucknow and one day via Allahabad. The first two private trains are operated on two routes namely Delhi-Lucknow and Ahmedabad-Mumbai.

Notes:
Leading Private lender of India, ICICI Bank recently launched a unique self-service delivery facility called ‘iBox’. Using this facility, the customers of the bank can avail various banking services including- collecting their debit card, credit card, cheque from a nearby branch.
The ‘iBox’ terminals are to be placed outside the premises of the branches, which can be accessed even after office hours. The customer will get an SMS about the status of the package through a completely automated process. These products can be collected by the customers at the time of their choice, on all days including holidays.

Notes:
India and Maldives signed 5 agreements for establishing ‘Addu Tourism zone’ in five islands of Addu atoll. An atoll is a ring-shaped chain of islands formed of coral.
The Tourism zone is expected to be set up at a cost of $2.49 million. It aims at generating local employment and boost the eco-tourism opportunities in Addu. The High Commissioner of India Sunjay Sudhir signed the MoUs with the Maldives Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid and Addu City Council. Another MoU to establish a bottled water plant in Hoarafushi was also inked.

Notes:
The Department of Science & Technology (DST), under the Ministry of Science and Technology has launched a scheme called “Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institutes (SATHI)”. It owns high-end analytical testing instruments and reduce the dependency on foreign sources.
DST announced that it has planned to set up five SATHI Centres every year for the next four years. There are already three such institutes in the country at IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi and BHU, at a total cost of Rs.375 Cr. The SATHI Centre will run 24×7 throughout the year and external users from other academic institutes and start-ups will be given more time to use the instruments.