Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
“Babenco: Tell Me When I Die” won the ‘Golden Conch Award for Best Documentary Film’ at the Mumbai International Film Festival 2020. It is a Brazilian documentary film, directed by the filmmaker Barbara Paz.
The award was presented at the 16th edition of the film festival, which was graced by the Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. Nagraj Manjule’s “Paavsacha Nibandh” received the Silver Conch award for Best Short Fiction Film. The Silver Conch Award for the Best Animation Film has been shared by the German film “Portrait of Suzanne” and the Indian film “Panangaatu Nari” by Divakar SK.

Notes:
Fitch Ratings recently released its forecast for India’s economic growth for the next financial year. It estimated a growth rate of 5.6 per cent, which is lower than the 6-6.5 per cent growth rate, as projected by the Indian government in its recent Economic survey 2019-20.
The agency also stated that the Union budget recently presented did not alter its view towards the growth prospects of the country. The agency has affirmed the ‘BBB- rating’ to India, last December. The government has missed its fiscal deficit targets for the previous year and the target for the next year is furthermore relaxed to 3.8%.

Notes:
The biennial Defence exhibition of India, ‘DefExpo’ was recently inaugurated at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also attended the inaugural programme.
A live demonstration of naval systems, aerial systems and land systems was performed during the ceremony. The main theme of the DefExpo 2020 is ‘India: The Emerging Defence Manufacturing Hub’ and the focus will be on ‘Digital Transformation of Defence’. The five-day-exhibition is to be attended by delegates and military manufacturers from more than 70 countries. The fifth India-Russia Military Industry Conference is also to be held on the side-lines of the event.

Notes:
The Pink City of India, Jaipur was formally certified as a World Heritage site by the Director General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay. The World Heritage City certificate was presented at a ceremony held at the historic Albert Hall of Jaipur.
It was also announced that UNESCO would collaborate with the Tourism department of Rajasthan Government to promote tourism sector in Western Rajasthan. The walled city of Jaipur was named as a UNESCO World Heritage site in July 2019, at the 43rd Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in the city of Baku, Azerbaijan.

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.

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Batterygate refers to implementation of performance controls on older models of Apple’s iPhone line in order to preserve system stability on degraded batteries.

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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.

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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.

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The Chief Minister of Telangana recently flagged off the stretch of Hyderabad Metro between Hyderabad and its sister city Secunderabad. With this, Hyderabad Metro has become the second largest operational metro rail network in the country, only after the Delhi Metro Rail.
Hyderabad Metro is also the biggest metro project in the world in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, with a total project cost of ₹20,000 crore, constructed by Larsen & Toubro.

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.