Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
Corbett Tiger Reserve is located in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. The Jim Corbett National park is known for its rich flora and fauna, especially Bengal tigers.
Recently, the state cabinet of Uttarakhand approved an area of 377 sq km for the eco-sensitive zone (ESZ), which is proposed for the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR). As per the approval, the maximum area of the ESZ is 7.96 km. The proposal is set to be forwarded to the Central Government.

Notes:
India and Portugal recently signed an MoU to develop a world-class National Maritime Heritage Complex (NMHC) at Lothal in Gujarat. The MoU has been signed in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Portugal President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, during his visit to India.
The complex would showcase rich Indian artefacts and create awareness among the public about the rich heritage of the country. The two countries also signed as many as 14 agreements in several fields including maritime transport and ports.

Notes:
Yash Bharti Award is the highest award of the state Government of Uttar Pradesh which was instituted in the year 1994. The state has recently announced that Yash Bharti Award is to be replaced with State Cultural Award.
State Cultural Award will be presented to the great personalities of the state, who contribute to the state in several fields including music, modern and traditional art Ramlila, folk dialects, lake-dance and sculpture. Cash prize is also to be included in the award.

Notes:
Udayan Mane was recently seen in news, as the Pune-based Golfer recently won the TATA Steel PGTI Players Championship. He defeated his fellow player Veer Ahlawat of Gurugram.
Udayan Mane has also clinched the last two PGTI events including the TATA Steel Tour Championship 2019 and Golconda Masters 2020. He became only the second player to win three consecutive events of the TATA Steel PGTI.

Notes:
The Central Bank of the Russian Federation has given license to the General Insurance Corporation (GIC RE) of India to commence reinsurance business. GIC RE is a state-owned insurance company, and the sole provider of re-insurance in India.
The subsidiary company of the General Insurance Corporation of India, GIC Perestrakhovanie of Moscow has received the license. With this, the reinsurer can start domestic and international reinsurance business in Russia.

Notes:
Renowned Musician and founder of the famous music band Parikrama, Sonam Sherpa recently passed away at the age of 48.
Sonam was the lead guitarist of the celebrated music band. He died of a massive cardiac arrest, while he had arrived in West Bengal for recording music. He founded the Parikrama band in the year 1991 in Delhi along with his fellow musician Subir Malik.

Notes:
When India won the final match of the World cup against Sri Lanka in 2011, which was the last World Cup of Sachin, his fellow team mates lifted the legend and carried him to make a lap of honour. This was named as ‘Laureus best sporting moment in the last 20 years’.
Argentinian footballer Lionel Messi and six-time Formula 1 World champion Lewis Hamilton were named as Joint winners of ‘Laureus World Sportsman of the Year’ Award.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, recently gave its nod for the constitution of a 12-member “Technology Group” to advise ministries, departments and public sector undertakings (PSUs) on technology implementation. The committee will be headed by Dr K Vijay Raghavan, principal scientific advisor to PM Modi.

Notes:
Madhya Pradesh Cabinet has cleared a draft bill to enact Madhya Pradesh Time-Bound Clearance Act. This act will ensure time-bound clearance of industrial licenses for investment projects. It envisages that around 40 clearances and permissions pertaining to almost 10 state departments will have to be delivered within a fixed timeframe.

Notes:
The 22nd edition of the world language database Ethnologue was recently released. As per the list, Hindi is the third most spoken language of the world in 2019. The language is spoken by nearly 615 million speakers.
English is placed at the top of the database with 1132 million speakers while Chinese Mandarin is at the second place with 1,117 million speakers. Bangla has been ranked as the 7th most spoken language of the world.