Awards, Honours & Persons in News Current Affairs MCQs

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The government appointed an executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Michael Debaprata Patra as its fourth deputy governor. The Reserve Bank has three deputy governors at present, namely N S Vishwanathan, B P Kanungo and M K Jain.
Former Deputy Governor Viral Acharya resigned from his post in July 2019 citing personal reasons. Michael Patra is appointed for the said post after six months of resignation of Acharya. Patra will serve as the deputy governor of RBI, for three years from the time of his appointment.

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The ‘National Highway Excellence Awards’ was instituted by the Union Ministry of Road, Transport and Highway, in the year 2018. It was then changed to an annual version and the second edition of the awards was presented by the Union Minister Nitin Gadkari in New Delhi recently.
The awards are presented to motivate the companies that perform well in the construction, operation, maintenance, tolling phase and road safety. There are seven categories in the award and 12 winners were selected from several shortlisted applicants.

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The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the proposal of the Department of the Financial Services (DFS) for appointing Challa Sreenivasulu Setty as the Managing Director of the State Bank of India (SBI).
Challa Sreenivasulu Setty, who is currently serving as the Deputy managing director of the country’s largest lender, has been appointed as the MD of the SBI for a period of three years. Last year, an MD of SBI, Anshula Kant was appointed as the MD and Chief Financial Officer of World Bank.

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Retired IAS Officer Yudvir Singh Malik has been recently appointed as the Chairman and Managing director (CMD) of crisis- hit realty firm Unitech. He assumed office on January 21, 2020.
A few days back, the Supreme Court directed the Centre to take total management control of Unitech and appoint a new board of nominee directors. As per the directions, the Centre has replaced the board of the realty firm and asked the new board to come out with a resolution framework within two months. The firm was reported of allegedly using flat-buyer’s money and default the delivery of flats.

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Sixteen eminent personalities were selected for the ‘Padma Bhushan’ award, for their distinguished service of high order. Out of the 141 total Padma awardees selected this year, there were seven Padma Vibhushan, 16 Padma Bhushan and 118 Padma Shri Awardees.
Famous personalities who were selected for the ‘Padma Bhushan’ award includes, top-rated Badminton Player PV Sindhu, Former Chief Minister of Goa- Manohar Parrikar (posthumous), father of modern legal education in India, N R Madhava Menon and businessmen Anand Mahindra and Venu Srinivasan.

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Veteran theatre personality and the daughter of Bollywood star Shashi Kapoor, artist Sanjna Kapoor is to be presented with the French honour, Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters. The award is conferred on her for the outstanding contribution the artist has made to the theatre arts.
The Culture Minister of France, Franck Riester, who is currently on an official visit to India, is expected to confer the prestigious award on Sanjna Kapoor in a proposed ceremony. Sanjana Kapoor acted in several plays and revived the Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai, which was founded by her parents in tribute to Prithviraj Kapoor. She also co-founded an organisation called Junoon, which increases the reach of theatre and the arts.

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The noted astronaut of the US- based National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Christina Koch recently completed the longest-ever single spaceflight by a woman.
Christina Koch landed through a parachute at Kazakhstan, from the Russian Soyuz spacecraft she was onboard. She had created a record by spending 328 days on the International Space Station (ISS) and surpassed the previous record held by the American astronaut Peggy Whitson. In October last year, she performed the first all-female spacewalk along with her fellow astronaut Jessica Meir.

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The Chief economist of World Bank, Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg recently announced her resignation. The economist is expected to step down from her role on March 1 and return to teach at Yale University.
Pinelopi Koujianou assumed charge as the Chief economist at the end of April 2018. World Bank President David Malpass announced that Research Director Aart Kraay would take over as an interim Chief economist.

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Ahmer Khan, the 27-year-old Indian freelance reporter, was selected as the winner of the 2019 Agence France-Presse (AFP) Kate Webb Prize.
The award is named after one of the best correspondents of Agence France-Presse (AFP), an international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. He was selected for the coveted award for his coverage illustrating Kashmir during the month of August, when the special status of the region was repealed.

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Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has been selected as one of the Fortune’s Best Big Companies to Work For in the year 2020. It is also the only Indian firm to feature in the Top 20 list.
Great Place to Work, an international workplace-culture expert conducted the survey from 33,000 employees at the certified organisations across the US.