Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
Rakhi Halder, the Indian weight-lifter from West Bengal was seen in news recently as she bagged gold medal in 64kg category at the 35th edition of the Senior Women’s National Weightlifting Championships, being held at Kolkata.
Rakhi Halder, who is an Indian Railways employee, had clinched gold in the Commonwealth Championship in June 2019 and the bronze medal at the Qatar International Cup. Earlier, former World champion Mirabai Chanu from Manipur set a new national record in the 49-kg category and won gold medal.

Notes:
The first ever India-Africa Defence Ministers’ Conclave was recently held in the city of Lucknow, during the 11th edition of the biennial defence exhibition DefExpo 2020.
The Defence Ministers and Heads of Delegation from African countries and the Defence Minister of India jointly held the first India Africa Defence Ministers’ Conclave. The Conclave adopted the Lucknow Declaration. Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, Chiefs of all the three services were also present in the event. Prior to this, during the third India-Africa Forum Summit (26-30 October 2015), the Delhi Declaration was adopted.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently projected the economic growth of the country to grow by 6 per cent during the next financial year. This is the lower end of the growth projection as announced by the government in the economic survey, which estimated a rate of 6-6.5 per cent. RBI also stated that the Indian economy continues to be weak.
The first half of the year would grow in the range of 5.5-6.0 per cent and the third quarter at 6.2 per cent, as per the RBI. But this projection is higher than the GDP growth projection of 5%, made in the monetary policy statement of December 2019.

Notes:
The city of Kochi, Kerala hosts the 22nd India International Seafood Show, after a gap of 12 years. The three-day seafood show has been inaugurated by the Governor of Kerala, Arif Mohammed Khan on February 7,2020.
The event will provide a platform for collaboration of the exporters and importers of the country’s marine products and seafood industry. The theme of the programme is ‘Blue Revolution: Beyond production to value addition’. Marine Product Export Development Authority (MPEDA) organises the event in association with Seafood Exporters’ Association of India.

Notes:
The state government of Madhya Pradesh recently announced that drones would be used in land surveys for mapping the villages. The Revenue department of Madhya Pradesh has signed agreement in this regard with the national mapping agency, Survey of India.
The land survey work is being done manually or with the assistance of satellite images, until now in the state. As many as 55 thousand villages of the state have been selected for mapping. Using the drone technology, the map of the area will be made on a scale of 1:500, for a better resolution. Last year in August, Maharashtra started using drones for mapping its villages.

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:
Belum cave system is the largest cave system open to the public on Indian subcontinent extending about 3,229 meters. It is located in Kurnool District of Andhra Pradesh. The recently concluded Belum Caves festival promoted the caves system.

Notes:
Renowned Indian philosopher and educationist Prof. K. Ramakrishna Rao has authored his autobiography, which is titled as ‘A Child of Destiny: an autobiography’. It was released by the Indian Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, in Visakhapatnam.
The Professor, Vice Chancellor of GITAM University, was also the recipient of the prestigious Padma Shri award. He had also been awarded the National Fellowship of the Indian Council of Philosophical Research.

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:
European countries witnessed a devastating storm named ‘Ciara’, which caused huge damage and killed as many as six people. The hurricane-force winds and heavy rains damaged several thousand buildings in the region.
The storm moved on near Germany, after hitting Britain and Ireland. It was called as ‘Ciara’ by the Irish weather service and dubbed as ‘Sabine’ in Germany. Flood warnings are given and flight operations are suspended in the countries.