Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
Indian Oil and Gas company, the Indian Oil Corporation recently signed an MoU with Russian energy firm, Rosneft for importing Crude Oil from Russia.
The crude oil purchase agreement was signed during a meeting between Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan and the Chairman and CEO of Rosneft, Igor Sechin. Under the agreement, Russia would export 2 million tonnes of crude oil to India this year. Rosneft bought Essar Oil in 2017, which is now Nayara Energy and holds 49 per cent stake in the firm.

Notes:
The fifth edition of the India-Russia Military Industrial Conference was recently organised in the northern Indian city, Lucknow. The Conference was organised on the sidelines of the biennial Defence exhibition DefExpo 2020.
As many as 14 MoUs related to production of different defence equipment, radar systems, ASW Rocket launchers and 3D modeling were signed between the companies from India and Russia. Among several Indian companies, the prominent ones which signed the agreements were BHEL, Bharat Dynamics Limited and Vista control.

Notes:
International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation is observed annually on February 6, across the world. Genital Mutilation, or altering the female genitalia for non-medical reasons is prevalent in 30 countries in Africa the Middle East and other parts of the world.
In 2012, the UN General Assembly designated February 6th as the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation and the UN works for the complete eradication of the practice by 2030. United Nations Population Fund, jointly with UNICEF, holds a global programme to eliminate the practice.

Notes:
Raad-500 is a short-range ballistic missile recently unveiled by Iran. It can be powered by a “new generation” of engines designed to put satellites into orbit.

Notes:
The 13th UN Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS) (COP 13) is scheduled to be hosted by India in 2020, at Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The COP-13 (Conference of Parties) is to be held from February 15-22, 2020.
It was recently announced that the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the summit. The theme of this year’s summit is, ‘Migratory species connect the planet and we welcome them home’.

Notes:
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently announced that the deadly virus outbreak from China will be officially called as “COVID-19”.
The official name was announced to avoid references of particular geographic locations, species of animals or group of people. It has earlier named the virus as “2019-nCoV acute respiratory disease”, temporarily. In the official name, ‘CO’ stands for “corona”, ‘VI’ for “virus” and ‘D’ for “disease”, while ‘19’ denotes the year.

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:
We Think Digital is a global digital literacy program of the technology major Facebook. The program was launched in 2019 with an aim to overcome gender imbalance on the internet space.
Recently, Facebook launched ‘We Think Digital’ program in Uttar Pradesh, in association with National Commission for Women (NCW) and Cyber Peace Foundation. The program aims to provide digital literacy to nearly 1,00,000 women across seven Indian states.

Notes:
Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi was recently inaugurated as the 28th district of the state of Chhattisgarh, by the state’s Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel.
The new district, which has been carved out of Bilaspur, has three tehsils and three development blocks namely Gaurela, Pendra and Marwahi. The district has 166 Gram panchayats, 222 villages and two nagar panchayats.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet approved the amendment of the Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Bill, 2020, so that it also covers the litigations pending in debt recovery tribunals (DRTs) across the country. The scheme can be availed in search and seizure procedures, where the recovery is up to ₹5 crore.
Vivad se Vishwas Bill, 2020 is aimed at providing resolution of disputed direct taxes. More than ₹9-lakh crore of direct taxes is pending in litigation in India.