Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

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:
Chief national badminton coach Pullela Gopichand has received an honourable mention in the male category of the prestigious 2019 International Olympic Committee’s Coaches Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of the role he played in the development of the game in the country.

Notes:
The Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB) bagged the national award for e-Governance 2019-20 for its Real-Time Pollution-Monitoring System (RTPMS) project, during the 23rd National Conference on e-Governance held in Mumbai.
Under the RPTMS project, an alert is sent to the concerned officials if an industrial unit exceeds the desired pollution levels.

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.

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:
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.

Notes:
The national online platform for public procurement, Government e-Marketplace (GeM) was launched by the Union Commerce Ministry in 2016. It is an open and transparent procurement platform for government departments.
GeM was recently in news as public procurement worth Rs.40,000 crore has taken place through the online portal. In the recent Union budget, it was announced that government is looking to increase the turnover of the GeM portal to Rs.3 lakh crore.

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:
The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) is a global financial institution headquartered in Rome, Italy. It is a specialised agency of the United Nations, to address poverty and hunger.
The 43rd session of the Council of Governors of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) recently held in Rome, on the theme: Investing in sustainable food systems to end hunger by 2030. Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta presided over the opening ceremony.

Notes:
Indian Naval Station (INS) Shivaji is located in Lonavala, Maharashtra, India. It comprises of Naval College of Engineering, which imparts training in engineering discipline to personnel of Indian Navy, Coast Guard and other countries.
President Ram Nath Kovind recently presented ‘President’s Colour’, the highest honour given to a military unit, to INS Shivaji. The honour was bestowed on the occasion of the Platinum Jubilee (75th anniversary) of the unit.