Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
Indian weight-lifter Pardeep Singh was seen in news recently, as he won the men’s 102kg gold medal in the National weightlifting championships, recently held in Kolkata.
He improved his performance than what he did in the Asian championships in China, last year. Another leading lifter Vikas Thakur won gold medal in the men’s 96kg category. Both the lifters are in the promising list for the upcoming Asian championships in Kazakhstan. Mirabai Chanu and Jeremy Lalrinnunga were named as ‘Best Lifters’ of the championships.

Notes:
The 86-year-old renowned cricket journalist and film historian Raju Bharatan recently passed away. Raju Bharatan had worked with the news magazine-‘Illustrated Weekly of India’ for more than 40 years. He has worked with several famous personalities including Khushwant Singh.
Raju Bharatan was also a columnist in sports magazines. He is the director of “The Victory Story” (1974) the first full-length cricket documentary. The film was based the first victory of the Indian cricket team over England during the tour of 1972. He was also a film historian and he had given voices for several cricket matches in radio.

Notes:
Digital Fortress (Dejfa in Persian) is the name of a cybersecurity project of Iran. This has been frequently in news in recent times as Iran faces frequent DDoS attacks and cyber attacks. On 8th February also, the agency was able to avert a massive DDoS attack.

Notes:
The 13th UN Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS) (COP 13) is scheduled to be hosted by India in 2020, at Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The COP-13 (Conference of Parties) is to be held from February 15-22, 2020.
It was recently announced that the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the summit. The theme of this year’s summit is, ‘Migratory species connect the planet and we welcome them home’.

Notes:
The Ministry of Tribal Affairs launched the ‘Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Yojana’ in 2019, through TRIFED. It aims at creating livelihood for tribal people by using the forest produce. Van Dhan Kendras are set up to add branding and packaging their products.
Recently, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Shri Arjun Munda inaugurated the “Workshop on Van Dhan and Entrepreneurship Development” organized by TRIFED (Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India).

Notes:
The Union Cabinet approved the amendment of the Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Bill, 2020, so that it also covers the litigations pending in debt recovery tribunals (DRTs) across the country. The scheme can be availed in search and seizure procedures, where the recovery is up to ₹5 crore.
Vivad se Vishwas Bill, 2020 is aimed at providing resolution of disputed direct taxes. More than ₹9-lakh crore of direct taxes is pending in litigation in India.

Notes:
‘Apiary on wheels’ means ‘Collection of bees on wheels’. The ‘Apiary on Wheels’ initiative is designed by the Indian statutory body, ‘Khadi and Village Industries Commission’.
The initiative includes effective migration of Bee boxes with live bee colonies/ collection. It is a platform by which 20 Bee boxes can be carried from one place to another without any difficulty. The unique scheme of KVIC was recently inaugurated by the Union Minister of MSME Shri Nitin Gadkari.

Notes:
Hydrographic Survey Ship, INS Jamuna of Indian Navy is set to conduct detailed hydrographic surveys in Sri Lanka for next two months. The ship has arrived in Colombo, Sri Lanka in this regard.
Several shore-based survey activities are also set to be carried out over the deployment period of 2 months. The personnel of Sri Lanka Navy personnel will be provided training during the hydrographic survey. Harbour training programme for the Sri Lankan sailors is also to be organised.

Notes:
Debasish Panda, who is currently serving as the Special secretary in the Department of financial services, Union Finance Ministry has been appointed as the new Finance secretary of the country.
As per the Personnel Ministry order, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of the1987-batch IAS officer as the next Finance secretary, replacing the current Secretary Rajiv Kumar.

Notes:
The captain of Indian men’s team Manpreet Singh was recently named ‘Player of the Year for 2019’, by the International Hockey Federation (FIH).
Manpreet became the first Indian to win the prestigious award since its introduction in 1999. Manpreet Singh successfully led India to victories in FIH Series Finals and FIH Olympic Qualifiers in 2019. He has recently completed 250 international matches for India during the FIH Men’s Hockey Series Finals 2019.