Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
The Banker magazine has named the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das as the Central Banker of the Year- Asia-Pacific 2020. ‘Global Central Banker of the Year’ award was presented to Jorgovanka Tabakovi, National Bank of Serbia.
The award is given to central bankers who have significantly managed to stimulate growth and stabilise the economy of their country. Shaktikanta Das was nominated as he successfully managed various economic crises of the country including the Non-Banking Financial companies (NBFC) crisis and Non-performing assets of Indian banks.

Notes:
The famous arts festival called ‘Kala Ghoda Arts Festival’ is celebrated annually in the city of Mumbai. The 21st edition of the street festival has recently commenced. This year, the nine-day-long festival has a variety of events in 12 sections, related to arts, music, cinema, literature, theatre and heritage walks.
This year’s edition of KGAF has been organised entirely through crowd-funding using the platform named ‘Ketto’, without the conventional sponsorship. The annual festival has been organised by the Kala Ghoda Association since 1999.

Notes:
The MLA of Sivasagar constituency in the state of Assam, Pranab Kumar Gogoi recently passed away. He had also served as the Speaker of the Assam state assembly.
The noted legislator was born in 1936 and was an advocate by profession. He was a veteran member of the Congress Party and was first elected to the state assembly in 2001. He was known for introducing the definition of the term “Assamese”, during the previous term of Congress government in the state.

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:
Indian President Ramnath Govind recently conferred the International Gandhi Awards for Leprosy on Dr N.S. Dharmashaktu under the Indian nomination (individual) category. Dr N.S. Dharmashaktu was the former Principal adviser (Public health), Ministry of Health and family welfare.
The Leprosy Mission Trust was presented the award under the institutional category. The President also announced that India has accomplished the level of leprosy elimination which is defined as less than one case per ten thousand population.

Notes:
The noted astronaut of the US- based National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Christina Koch recently completed the longest-ever single spaceflight by a woman.
Christina Koch landed through a parachute at Kazakhstan, from the Russian Soyuz spacecraft she was onboard. She had created a record by spending 328 days on the International Space Station (ISS) and surpassed the previous record held by the American astronaut Peggy Whitson. In October last year, she performed the first all-female spacewalk along with her fellow astronaut Jessica Meir.

Notes:
As per the Supreme Court ruling on November 9, 2019, a trust had to be set up for the construction of the Ram Temple within three months of the court order. Hence the Indian Government constituted the trust, which is named as ‘the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teertha Kshetra’.
Former Attorney General of India, Advocate K Parasaran has been named as the head of the trust, which will function at his residence in Delhi. The advocate had earlier represented the litigant ‘Ram Lalla’ in the dispute and earned the verdict in its favour. An independent 15-member team has been named as the members of the trust, which will always have a trustee from the Dalit community, as per the Union Home Ministry.

Notes:
Sports Authority of India (SAI) and Hockey India jointly announced that High Performance Centres would be established in seven places across the country. The Centres are expected to provide world-class facilities to Junior and Sub-Junior hockey players.
The Centres, which would provide international exposure to players, will be monitored by Hockey India. Four Centres including the National Hockey Academy at Dhyan Chand National Stadium will be functional within three months. This step is taken to promote the game and groom young players for the upcoming Olympic Games.

Notes:
High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL) is a laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Head-quartered in Pune, it conducts research in the area of High Energy Materials and Explosive materials.
Recently, the lab has tied up with the Russian state military organisation Rosoboronexport to import new technologies for the development of high energy materials required for missiles, rockets and guns. A technology development contract was signed with the organisation in this regard.

Notes:
Baltic Dry index tracking freight rates for world’s largest cargo ships recently plunged into negative territory due to coronovirus.