Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
After several months of protests, Iraq has named Mohammed Tawfiq Allawi as its next Prime Minister. The Iraq President Barham Salih has appointed the former Minister of Communications as the next Prime Minister.
Mohammed Allawi was appointed as the head as the previous Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi resigned in last November, after mass demonstrations against the government. The new Prime Minister is expected to lead the government until early elections. He is set to form the new government in a month’s time.

Notes:
Union Minister of Women & Child Development Smriti Irani recently presented the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana awards to the best performing States, Union Territories and Districts.
Madhya Pradesh bagged the first place in the category of best performance States/ UTs with more than 1 crore population. The state is followed by Andhra Pradesh and Haryana. In the category of states with less than 1 Crore population, Dadra & Nagar Haveli is at the first place, followed by Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh.

Notes:
Veteran Indian actor Waheeda Rehman was recently conferred with the prestigious Kishore Kumar Samman Award for the year 2018. The award was instituted by the Madhya Pradesh government.
Famous director Priyadarshan was conferred with the Kishore Kumar Samman for the year 2019, on the death anniversary of the legendary actor Kishore Kumar, October 13, 2019. As Waheeda Rehman could not receive the award during the ceremony, she was presented the award now, by the Madhya Pradesh culture minister Dr Vijaylaxmi Sadho.

Notes:
The United States recently launched the International Religious Freedom Alliance, which is aimed at protecting and preserving religious freedom across the world.
The U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the formal launch of the alliance. As many as 27 countries have joined the alliance and the prominent countries among them are Australia, Brazil, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Greece. He also announced that the next ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom will be hosted by Poland in Warsaw, in July 2020.

Notes:
Indian Cricket star Virat Kohli retains his top rank in the latest brand valuation study by Duff & Phelps. He is placed at the first spot third year in a row.
The report revealed that Virat Kohli has increased his brand value by 40 per cent to $237.5 million in 2019. The second place was bagged by Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, who pushed the last year’s second rank holder Deepika Padukone to third. The third spot is shared by actor Ranveer Singh. Former Indian captain M.S.Dhoni is placed at 9th place in the list.

Notes:
The first ever India-Africa Defence Ministers’ Conclave was recently held in the city of Lucknow, during the 11th edition of the biennial defence exhibition DefExpo 2020.
The Defence Ministers and Heads of Delegation from African countries and the Defence Minister of India jointly held the first India Africa Defence Ministers’ Conclave. The Conclave adopted the Lucknow Declaration. Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, Chiefs of all the three services were also present in the event. Prior to this, during the third India-Africa Forum Summit (26-30 October 2015), the Delhi Declaration was adopted.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently projected the economic growth of the country to grow by 6 per cent during the next financial year. This is the lower end of the growth projection as announced by the government in the economic survey, which estimated a rate of 6-6.5 per cent. RBI also stated that the Indian economy continues to be weak.
The first half of the year would grow in the range of 5.5-6.0 per cent and the third quarter at 6.2 per cent, as per the RBI. But this projection is higher than the GDP growth projection of 5%, made in the monetary policy statement of December 2019.

Notes:
Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Hockey India jointly announced that High Performance Centres would be established in seven places across the country. The Centres are expected to provide world-class facilities to Junior and Sub-Junior hockey players.
The Centres, which would provide international exposure to players, will be monitored by Hockey India. Four Centres including the National Hockey Academy at Dhyan Chand National Stadium will be functional within three months. This step is taken to promote the game and groom young players for the upcoming Olympic Games.

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:
The country’s first glass floor suspension bridge is to be built across the river Ganga in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand. The state government has recently approved the design of the glass-floor bridge.
This bridge is to be built as an alternative to the iconic Lakshman Jhula which was closed last year, citing safety reasons. The Public Works Department (PWD) is to construct the bridge, which would have a floor with toughened transparent glass, through which the pedestrians can see the surface of the river. The length of the proposed bridge will be 132.3 metres and it will have toughened glass railings on either side.