Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently released its statement on developmental and regulatory policies, along with the February 2020 Monetary policy statement.
In the statement, the central bank announced about the launch of Digital Payments Index (DPI), which will assess the digitalisation of payments in the country. The DPI will accurately measure the penetration of digital payment modes among the general public of the country. The index is proposed to be launched from July 2020.

Notes:
The Administrative Council under the chairmanship of Lt Governor G C Murmu recently approved the renaming of the state’s Public Health Engineering, Irrigation and Flood Control Department as the ‘Jal Shakti Department’.
The council also approved the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission and the strategy to achieve 100 per cent coverage of piped water supply across the UT, by December 2021. It was also proposed to set up a Mission Directorate of Jal Jeevan Mission for implementation of the scheme. Seven districts of the UT would be covered for 100 per cent piped water supply by June 2020, in the initial phase.

Notes:
The state government of Madhya Pradesh recently announced that drones would be used in land surveys for mapping the villages. The Revenue department of Madhya Pradesh has signed agreement in this regard with the national mapping agency, Survey of India.
The land survey work is being done manually or with the assistance of satellite images, until now in the state. As many as 55 thousand villages of the state have been selected for mapping. Using the drone technology, the map of the area will be made on a scale of 1:500, for a better resolution. Last year in August, Maharashtra started using drones for mapping its villages.

Notes:
Digital Fortress (Dejfa in Persian) is the name of a cybersecurity project of Iran. This has been frequently in news in recent times as Iran faces frequent DDoS attacks and cyber attacks. On 8th February also, the agency was able to avert a massive DDoS attack.

Notes:
India has 12 major ports viz. Deendayal Port Trust, Paradip Port Trust, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, Mumbai Port Trust, Visakhapatnam Port Trust, Chennai Port Trust, Kolkata Port Trust, New Mangaluru Port Trust, V. O. Chidambaranar Port Trust, Kamarajar Port Limited, Kochi Port Trust, Mormugao Port Trust. Of these, Deendayal (earlier Kandla), JNPT (earlier Nava Sheva), V. O. Chidambaranar (earlier Tuticorin) and Kamarajar (earlier Ennore Port) are named after individuals.

Notes:
Sant Ravidas was a 14th-century saint and founder of the Bhakti movement in North India. He was born at Seer Goverdhanpur near Banaras.

Notes:
Hollywood actor Muhammad Ali is playing Dr. Kalama’s role in the movie. The movie is a co-production of Suvarna Pappu, Managing Director of a Hollywood Production House, Hollywood Director, Jagadeesh Daneti and Hollywood Producer & Director Johnny Martin.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Haryana Manohar Lal has recently launched Mukhyamantri Parivar Samridhi Yojana. Under this scheme, an annual financial assistance of Rs 6000 is to be provided to the families in the State, whose annual income is up to Rs 1.80 lakh and who own land below 5 acres.
This ensures that the premiums for various welfare schemes of the Central Government, pension scheme and crop insurance are paid automatically from the bank accounts of the needy families.

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.

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.