Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
The Prince of Britain, Charles has recently unveiled a new children’s protection fund for India. This fund is a part of the charity founded by him in 2007, the British Asian Trust. The trust was founded to fight poverty in South Asia.
Noted American singer Katy Perry was named as the ambassador of the new fund. The Protection fund will focus on reducing the exploitation of children by 50 per cent in India over 10 years. The Children’s Protection Fund will primarily cover child sexual abuse, child labour and trafficking. School safety nets are also proposed to be aet up through child-friendly village models.

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:
The Sharang Artillery gun would be inducted into the Indian Army on February 7, 2020, as per the recent announcement of the Army Chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane. The 155 mm-Sharang is an upgraded version of the existing 130 mm M-46 field guns.
He also announced that Sig Sauer assault rifles and Spike anti-tank missiles are being issued to the army troops, who are deployed in the forward areas. The Gun Carriage Factory (GCF) in Jabalpur upgraded the Sharang artillery gun along with the ordnance factories and technical teams of Army and DRDO.

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:
Pakistani cricketer Naseem Shah recently became the youngest person to get a hat trick in test cricket. Naseem, aged 16 years and 359 days took three wickets against Bangladesh on February 9, 2020 to set this record.

Notes:
M.J. Akbar’s new book “Gandhi’s Hinduism – The Struggle Against Jinnah’s Islam” chronicles the endgame that led to the partition of the subcontinent in 1947 and the creation of Pakistan.

Notes:
The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) was established in 1972, by an act of Parliament, to act as the nodal agency for the development of Indian seafood industry. It is head-quartered at Kochi.
Recently, MPEDA announced that it is to start the upgradation and modernisation 25 fishing harbours in the country. The project is to be undertaken with the assistance from the Centre
at a proposed outlay of Rs 2500 crore.

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 33rd African Union (AU) summit has commenced recently in Addis Ababa, the capital of the African nation Ethiopia. The summit is being held under the theme ‘Silencing the Guns: Creating conducive conditions for Africa’s development’.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, took over as the African Union chair, from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Heads of countries and government officials from across Africa have assembled in the city for participating in the summit.

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.