Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
“Babenco: Tell Me When I Die” won the ‘Golden Conch Award for Best Documentary Film’ at the Mumbai International Film Festival 2020. It is a Brazilian documentary film, directed by the filmmaker Barbara Paz.
The award was presented at the 16th edition of the film festival, which was graced by the Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. Nagraj Manjule’s “Paavsacha Nibandh” received the Silver Conch award for Best Short Fiction Film. The Silver Conch Award for the Best Animation Film has been shared by the German film “Portrait of Suzanne” and the Indian film “Panangaatu Nari” by Divakar SK.

Notes:
Bhutan is the correct answer. The country follows a ‘high value, low volume’ tourism policy and charges a Sustainable Development Fee from visitors to help finance environmental protection, cultural preservation, and infrastructure development. The current standard SDF is US$100 per person per night for most foreign visitors, while Indian nationals pay a preferential rate of Nu./INR 1,200 per person per night. This fee is a key part of Bhutan’s tourism model.

Notes:
The Prince of Britain, Charles has recently unveiled a new children’s protection fund for India. This fund is a part of the charity founded by him in 2007, the British Asian Trust. The trust was founded to fight poverty in South Asia.
Noted American singer Katy Perry was named as the ambassador of the new fund. The Protection fund will focus on reducing the exploitation of children by 50 per cent in India over 10 years. The Children’s Protection Fund will primarily cover child sexual abuse, child labour and trafficking. School safety nets are also proposed to be aet up through child-friendly village models.

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 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:
India’s leading defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) has recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with RailTel Corporation of India for mutual co-operation in the fields of Cloud Services, IoT, e-Governance and Networks for Defence projects.
BEL also signed an agreement with a Bengaluru-based start-up, Newspace & Research Technologies Limited (NRT), for co-operation in design, testing and supply of Unmanned Systems. The PSU also partnered with Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) to develop and market products for defence and non-defence applications. All the agreements were inked during the ongoing defence exhibition-DefExpo 2020, at Lucknow.

Notes:
Batterygate refers to implementation of performance controls on older models of Apple’s iPhone line in order to preserve system stability on degraded batteries.

Notes:
23rd edition of the two day annual National Conference on e-Governance recently concluded in Mumbai. Its focus was on improving delivery of public services by promoting use of digital platforms. During the event, Blockchain Sandbox – Maharashtra was also launched. Mumbai Declaration on e-Governance was also unanimously adopted on the concluding day.

Notes:
M.J. Akbar’s new book “Gandhi’s Hinduism – The Struggle Against Jinnah’s Islam” chronicles the endgame that led to the partition of the subcontinent in 1947 and the creation of Pakistan.

Notes:
The South African country Botswana has the largest elephant population in the world. Recently, the country was seen in news as it auctioned licenses to hunt elephants, to tackle human-animal conflict.
In the capital city of the country Gaborone, the licenses to hunt 70 elephants were said to be auctioned. The government had lifted the ban on hunting, which was prevalent for five years.