Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
Indian President Ramnath Govind recently conferred the International Gandhi Awards for Leprosy on Dr N.S. Dharmashaktu under the Indian nomination (individual) category. Dr N.S. Dharmashaktu was the former Principal adviser (Public health), Ministry of Health and family welfare.
The Leprosy Mission Trust was presented the award under the institutional category. The President also announced that India has accomplished the level of leprosy elimination which is defined as less than one case per ten thousand population.

Notes:
Veteran Hollywood actor Kirk Douglas has recently passed away at the age of 103. The legendary actor was born in Amsterdam and his original name was Issur Danielovitch Demsky.
He made his Hollywood debut in 1946 with the film “The Strange Love of Martha Ivers” and Kirk Douglas became a leading box-office icon of Hollywood during 1950-60. One of his most popular movies was ‘Spartacus’, which made a universal box-office record. He was the recipient of the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest award given to a US civilian.

Notes:
The city of Kochi, Kerala hosts the 22nd India International Seafood Show, after a gap of 12 years. The three-day seafood show has been inaugurated by the Governor of Kerala, Arif Mohammed Khan on February 7,2020.
The event will provide a platform for collaboration of the exporters and importers of the country’s marine products and seafood industry. The theme of the programme is ‘Blue Revolution: Beyond production to value addition’. Marine Product Export Development Authority (MPEDA) organises the event in association with Seafood Exporters’ Association of India.

Notes:
A private Indian firm has recently unveiled the indigenous air to ground missile ‘Khagantak’, during the ongoing DefExpo 2020. The firm has manufactured the air to ground missile with a strike range of 180 km.
The Managing Director of JSR Dynamics Air Marshal SB Deo announced the missile and said that when released from a height of 12 km, the missile is an air-launch weapon. It can be used as a guide weapon, which also has artificial intelligence (AI) to recognise the targets. Such indigenous missiles are expected to be a boost to the ‘Make in India’ initiative and reduce our dependence on foreign defence manufacturers.

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:
Baltic Dry index tracking freight rates for world’s largest cargo ships recently plunged into negative territory due to coronovirus.

Notes:
The South Korean film Parasite created history at the 2020 Oscars, by being the first film not in the English language to win the coveted award. It won a total of four Oscars, including best picture, best director, best screenplay and best international feature.
This is also the first film to have won both international feature and best picture at the Oscars, in its history. Joaquin Phoenix and Renee Zellweger won the award for best actor and actress respectively.

Notes:
Recently, the Oscar award for best feature-length documentary was presented to ‘American Factory’. It was the first documentary released by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company named ‘Higher Ground’.
The documentary film was released in the Netflix, and it is about an Ohio auto glass factory that is run by a Chinese investor, who employs American and Chinese workers. Many global issues such as the rights of workers, globalization and automation are focussed in the film.

Notes:
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has recently approved the formation of Joint Venture (JV) between Mahindra & Mahindra and Ford Motor and the transfer of automotive business of Ford India to the JV.
The new venture to be formed would acquire the automotive business of Ford India Pvt Ltd (FIPL), which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ford Motor company. The automotive business includes manufacturing plants of Ford India in Chennai and Sanand (Gujarat).

Notes:
The Ministry of health and family welfare recently said in a notification that all medical devices sold in the country would be treated as drugs and would be regulated under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1940, from April 1, 2020.
As of now, only 23 medical devices are being categorised as drugs. Only a few of these including cardiac stents and intrauterine devices have been brought under price control. The decision was taken after discussing with the Drugs Technical Advisory Board (DTAB).