Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
Christina Koch has set the record for the longest stay in space by a woman. The U.S. astronaut landed in Kazakhstan on February 6 after 328 days on the International Space Station (ISS).

Notes:
Indian cueist Aditya Mehta was seen in news recently as he won the National Snooker Championship, held at Pune. He represented the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) and defeated the 22-time-world champion Pankaj Advani 6-2 to win the title. Pankaj recently won the National Billiards Championship.
Vidya Pillai of Karnataka clinched the women’s snooker title, by beating Amee Kamani of Madhya Pradesh.

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:
Renowned space scientist G Narayanan has been named the Chairman of New Space India Ltd (NSIL), Indian Space Research Organisation’s newly formed commercial entity.
Prior to this assignment, G Narayanan was serving as the Deputy director at the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), an ISRO unit in Thiruvananthapuram. New Space India Ltd was set up as a Public Sector Undertaking under ISRO, last year to commercially explore the space market. NSIL is set to manufacture launch vehicles with main focus on Small satellite launch vehicle (SSLV).

Notes:
Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Edappadi K. Palaniswami recently announced that the Cauvery delta region would be declared as a ‘Protected Special Agriculture Zone’.
This declaration would ensure the food security of the State. The Cauvery delta region in the central districts of Tamil Nadu would be converted into Protected Special Agriculture Zone. Special legislations are to be enacted in this regard.

Notes:
Arvind Kejriwal led- Aam Aadmi party won 62 seats out of the total 70 seats in the Delhi assembly elections. Arvind Kejriwal is set to become the Chief Minister of Delhi for the third time. The Bharatiya Janata Party got the remaining 8 seats.
Aam Aadmi party (AAP) MLAs chose Arvind Kejriwal as the leader of the legislature party and he is set to claim to form the next government in Delhi.

Notes:
The Tamil Nadu Minister for Culture, Pandiarajan and the Minister from the French province Center-Val de Loire, Olivier Frezot had a meeting in the state capital Chennai. During the meeting, they announced that Tamil Nadu and the French Province of Center-Val de Loire are set to make Tamil and French fusion music, which is to be performed in both the states.
The two states have already signed an MoU for mutual cooperation in culture studies. The Ministers also reviewed the progress made in the agreement.

Notes:
The captain of Indian men’s team Manpreet Singh was recently named ‘Player of the Year for 2019’, by the International Hockey Federation (FIH).
Manpreet became the first Indian to win the prestigious award since its introduction in 1999. Manpreet Singh successfully led India to victories in FIH Series Finals and FIH Olympic Qualifiers in 2019. He has recently completed 250 international matches for India during the FIH Men’s Hockey Series Finals 2019.

Notes:
To pay tribute to the late external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, the government has renamed ‘Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra’ as Sushma Swaraj Bhawan and the Foreign Service Institute (Delhi) as Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service.
The announcement was made on the eve of her 68th birth anniversary. Sushma Swaraj served as the Union External Minister of India from 2014 to 2019. She passed away during the month of August, last year.

Notes:
Yash Bharti Award is the highest award of the state Government of Uttar Pradesh which was instituted in the year 1994. The state has recently announced that Yash Bharti Award is to be replaced with State Cultural Award.
State Cultural Award will be presented to the great personalities of the state, who contribute to the state in several fields including music, modern and traditional art Ramlila, folk dialects, lake-dance and sculpture. Cash prize is also to be included in the award.