Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
India’s leading woman Tennis player Ankita Raina won the women’s singles title in the $25,000 ITF Thailand Championship. This is her first ITF singles title of the season and 10th of her sport career.
The 27-year-old third-seeded Ankita Raina beat Chloe Paquet of France 6-3, 7-5 in the summit clash, to clinch the title. Ankita had also won the doubles title of the tournament, along with Bibiane Schoofs of the Netherlands. Earlier this year, she had also reached the semi-finals at another $25000 event in Canberra.

Notes:
The annual event called Udyanotsav, during which the Mughal Gardens at Rashtrapati Bhavan will be opened for the general public, was inaugurated by the Indian President Ram Nath Kovind.
The gardens will remain open for the public till March 8, 2020 between 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. The gardens are to be closed only on Mondays for maintenance works. The unique Mughal Gardens of the official residence of the President comprises of several exotic flowers and bulbous flowers like Narcissus, Dahlia, Sparaxis. Visitors can walk-in directly or use the online booking facility to visit the Gardens.

Notes:
Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has recently organised its first awareness programme in Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
APEDA, which comes under the aegis of Union Ministry of Commerce and Industries, organised the programme in association with the Directorate of Industries of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, in the capital city of the islands, Port Blair. The campaign was aimed at examining methods to promote exports of agri products and implementation of the Agri Export Policy in the Islands. The draft state Agri Export action plan, developed by APEDA was also finalized.

Notes:
Minister of State for Labour Santosh Gangwar recently announced that the government is conducting a new Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS). The survey conducted this year comprises of new parameters and bigger sample size.
As per the results of the PLFS survey being conducted by the government, the Unemployment rate in the country in 2017-18 was 6.1 per cent. The labour force participation in the country in the same time period was found to be 36.9 per cent. The Minister also announced that the new survey conducted through the Ministry of Statistics provides more authentic data.

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 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.

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:
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:
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 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.