Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation is observed annually on February 6, across the world. Genital Mutilation, or altering the female genitalia for non-medical reasons is prevalent in 30 countries in Africa the Middle East and other parts of the world.
In 2012, the UN General Assembly designated February 6th as the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation and the UN works for the complete eradication of the practice by 2030. United Nations Population Fund, jointly with UNICEF, holds a global programme to eliminate the practice.

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:
India and Nepal recently signed the financial closure of Arun-III, which is the largest hydropower project of Nepal. The 900 MW hydropower project is under construction in Nepal, with an estimated cost of $1.04 million.
The project, which is to be built with the financial assistance from India, is to be completed in 5 years. It is being built by Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) Arun-III Power Development Company (SAPDC), a joint venture of the Government of India and the Government of Himachal Pradesh.

Notes:
Renowned Indian philosopher and educationist Prof. K. Ramakrishna Rao has authored his autobiography, which is titled as ‘A Child of Destiny: an autobiography’. It was released by the Indian Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, in Visakhapatnam.
The Professor, Vice Chancellor of GITAM University, was also the recipient of the prestigious Padma Shri award. He had also been awarded the National Fellowship of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research.

Notes:
The City Police has recently launched ‘Operation Nakail’ in Ghaziabad, to verify the identity of auto-drivers of the city. Under the initiative, a unique four-digit number will be allotted to every auto-rickshaw of the city.
The owner of the vehicle has to paint the number, his name and mobile number on the auto, which would be easy to identify them. After many crimes were reported to be held in auto-rickshaws, this initiative was launched.

Notes:
Indian cueist Aditya Mehta was seen in news recently as he won the National Snooker Championship, held at Pune. He represented the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) and defeated the 22-time-world champion Pankaj Advani 6-2 to win the title. Pankaj recently won the National Billiards Championship.
Vidya Pillai of Karnataka clinched the women’s snooker title, by beating Amee Kamani of Madhya Pradesh.

Notes:
The Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989 was legislated to protect the scheduled communities from harassments and atrocities.
In March 2018, the Supreme court gave a judgement diluting the original act and it even granted anticipatory bail for those booked in the atrocity case. After huge protest, the government amended the original act and passed the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, 2018. This amendment has been upheld by the apex court.

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 Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) under the Union Ministry of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises, releases the annual Public Sector Enterprises Survey, on the performance of Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs).
Recently, the Public Enterprises Survey -2018-19 was tabled in both the Houses of Parliament, which stated that BSNL, Air India and MTNL are the top loss-making PSUs for the third consecutive year. The top three profit-making PSUs include Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Indian Oil Corporation and NTPC.

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.