Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
Kaamya Karthikeyan a student from Mumbai, recently became the youngest girl in the world to scale Mt Aconcagua. Mt Aconcagua is the highest peak in South America, located in Argentina. It is the highest peak outside Asia with the height of 6962 metres.
The student of Navy children school has already scaled the some of the highest peaks in Africa, Europe, and Australia in the past.

Notes:
The state government of Haryana has launched an initiative called ‘Reading Mission- Haryana’. The initiative was launched to encourage reading habit among the young students of the state.
The scheme is on the lines of the ‘Reading Mission 2022’, launched by the central government. Under the state’s initiative, monthly book review sessions and mass book reading are to be organised by students in educational institutions.

Notes:
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently announced that the deadly virus outbreak from China will be officially called as “COVID-19”.
The official name was announced to avoid references of particular geographic locations, species of animals or group of people. It has earlier named the virus as “2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease”, temporarily. In the official name, ‘CO’ stands for “corona”, ‘VI’ for “virus” and ‘D’ for “disease”, while ‘19’ denotes the year.

Notes:
Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Edappadi K. Palaniswami recently announced that the Cauvery delta region would be declared as a ‘Protected Special Agriculture Zone’.
This declaration would ensure the food security of the State. The Cauvery delta region in the central districts of Tamil Nadu would be converted into Protected Special Agriculture Zone. Special legislations are to be enacted in this regard.

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:
The Parliament of the Republic of North Macedonia recently ratified the North Atlantic Treaty, an agreement to make their country a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
The country was earlier called Macedonia and was opposed by its neighbour Greece, as the historic place is present in their border. Greece asked the country to rename itself and it agreed to
drop its objections to the country in joining the NATO and the EU.

Notes:
Top Global aerospace company Boeing recently announced that it has asked license from the United States authorities for sanction, to export its F-15EX fighter aircraft to the Indian Air Force. This was announced by the aerospace firm in an aviation magazine.
After this fighter aircraft is inducted, it would be the eighth fighter aircraft deployed in the Indian Air Force. Last year, Indian Air Force issued tender for acquiring 114 medium jets.

Notes:
Veteran bureaucrat Rajiv Bansal was recently appointed as the Chairman and Managing director of Air India. He has been appointed as the head of the national carrier for a second time.
Rajiv Bansal is a 1988-batch IAS officer of the Nagaland cadre and he is currently serving as the additional secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. He will replace the current head of Air India, Ashwani Lohani.

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.

Notes:
According to data from Bloomberg, Bharti Airtel has become the second most valuable mobile operator among emerging markets in Asia. It is only behind China’s operator China Mobile.
Airtel has market capitalisation of around $41 billion, at present. China Mobile is the top mobile operator in Asia with capitalisation of $175 billion. Airtel also has the 11th largest m-cap in the global market, which is dominated by AT&T and Verizon Commu¬nications, followed by China Mobile.