Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
Anoop Mishra, an Indian Army Major from the College of Military Engineering was known for having developed a bulletproof jacket which protects against sniper bullets. He was seen in news recently as he has now developed a helmet, which is also the world’s first, that can stop an AK-47 bullet round from 10 meters.
Indian Army’s College of Military Engineering in collaboration with a private firm has developed India’s first and world’s cheapest gunshot locator called ‘Parth’, which can locate the bullet from a distance of 400 meters.

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 fifth edition of joint military exercise ‘Ajeya Warrior’ between India and the United Kingdom will be conducted at Salisbury Plains, United Kingdom. The exercise is scheduled from February 13 to 26, 2020.
120 soldiers each from Indian and United Kingdom Army would participate in the exercise. The joint military exercise has been conducted alternatively in United Kingdom and India. The training will be held with emphasis on counter-terror operations in urban and semi-urban areas.

Notes:
Ministry of Coal (MoC) has recently launched a web portal for star rating of coal mines. Under the portal, all operational coal mines across the country will be enabled for self-rating. The mines will be subsequently validated by Coal Controller’s Organization (CCO), the subordinate office of Ministry of Coal.
The mechanism on the portal would award star rating to the mines with certain evaluation parameters under 7 modules.

Notes:
The 33-year-old cricket star of Australia, David Warner won the Allan Border medal of Cricket Australia, for being the Player of the year.
He had been suspended in 2018 for ball-tampering. This is Warner’s third award after he won the coveted award in 2016 and 2017. He was also named the T20 player of the year. Women’s all-rounder Ellyse Perry won the Belinda Clark award.

Notes:
We Think Digital is a global digital literacy program of the technology major Facebook. The program was launched in 2019 with an aim to overcome gender imbalance on the internet space.
Recently, Facebook launched ‘We Think Digital’ program in Uttar Pradesh, in association with National Commission for Women (NCW) and Cyber Peace Foundation. The program aims to provide digital literacy to nearly 1,00,000 women across seven Indian states.

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:
Minister of State for Shipping Mansukh Mandaviya recently announced that the Ministry is developing Industrial Cluster-cum-Logistics Park at Sahibganj, a town in Jharkhand. India’s second riverine Multi Modal terminal was also inaugurated at Sahibganj in September 2019.
A Freight village is also being developed by the Ministry at Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. The establishments being developed at Sahibganj and Varanasi entail a project cost of Rs.200 Crores.

Notes:
India’s first under-water Metro rail service is the Kolkata Metro, where the metro train plies under the river Hooghly of West Bengal. The under-water stretch of the project is nearly 5.8 kilometers. The project is being executed by Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation Limited.
Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal recently flagged off the first phase of the East-West corridor, of the Metro network. Kolkata Metro is also the first metro rail service of India.