Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

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:
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:
Thaipoosam is a festival celebrated by the Tamil community on the full moon in the Tamil month of Thai, usually coinciding with Pushya star, known as Poosam in Tamil. It is believed to be Murugan’s birthday by many.

Notes:
Renowned writer and academician Giriraj Kishore passed away recently. The Gandhian writer was 82-years-old. He was also the recipient of the prestigious civilian award ‘Padma Shri’.
The famous literary works of Giriraj Kishore include ‘Pahla Girmitiya’ and ‘Dhaai Ghar’. A recipient of ‘Sahitya Samman’, he was also a former member of the Sahitya Academy working committee.

Notes:
The state government of Haryana has launched an initiative called ‘Reading Mission- Haryana’. The initiative was launched to encourage reading habit among the young students of the state.
The scheme is on the lines of the ‘Reading Mission 2022’, launched by the central government. Under the state’s initiative, monthly book review sessions and mass book reading are to be organised by students in educational institutions.

Notes:
In 2019, the United Nations General Assembly announced 10 February as the World Pulses Day. This was followed by the celebration of the year 2016 as the International Year of Pulses (IYP), across the world, led by the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The day is celebrated to raise awareness about the nutritional values of pulses and ways to tackle malnutrition through pulses.

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:
Jiri Vesely of Czech Republic clinched the Tata Open Maharashtra 2020, held recently in Pune. He won the title after five years of his maiden ATP Tour title in Auckland.
He also become only the eighth player since 2013 to save six match points across two matches in a row, towards winning the ATP Tour crown. The tournament had been previously conducted at Chennai.

Notes:
The Economist Intelligence Unit has lowered its global growth forecast for 2020 to 2.2%, from its earlier estimate of 2.3%. The dip was due to the new risks that have emerged following the virus outbreak in China, which was recently named by the WHO as COVID-19.
The real GDP forecast for China in 2020 was also decreased to 5.4%, from the earlier estimate of 5.9%. The agency has assumed that the spread of the virus will be contained by the end of March.

Notes:
Union Minister of Health and Union Minister of HRD jointly launched the School Health and Wellness Ambassador initiative under Ayushman Bharat scheme. Under the initiative, two teachers in every school will be designated ‘Health and wellness ambassador’ to create awareness about health issues.
The programme will be implemented in 200 districts, initially and will be linked with other government schemes including Fit India movement, Eat Right campaign, Poshan Abhiyaan.