Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
Auckland in New Zealand has become the world’s first major city to celebrate the start of the 2020.  Australia and New Zealand were followed by Europe, the Middle East and Asia to welcome the year 2020. The firework display in Sydney, Australia was put up despite the ongoing bushfire crisis.  

Notes:
Pariksha Pe Charcha was introduced in 2018. The 2020 contest is going to be the 3^rd edition of this program. The certificates of participation are issued by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development. The student winners get the chance to interact with the Prime Minister and ask questions related to exams.

Notes:
According to the recent data from the Ministry of Forest Environment and Climate Change (MoEFCC), the total number of tiger deaths was under 100 after three years. In the year 2019, 95 tigers were dead in total, among them 84 tigers were actually dead and 11 of them were presumed dead by identifying their body parts. In the previous year 2018, there were 100 deaths of tigers in total and in 2017, the count was 115.

Notes:
The birth anniversary of the social reformer and the first female teacher of India, Savitribai Phule was observed across the country on January 3. The Prime Minister of India and various other leaders paid tributes to her on her birth anniversary. Savitribai Phule along with her husband Jyotirao Phule founded the country’s first girls’ school in Pune in 1848. Born in Maharashtra, Phule worked hard to abolish discrimination against women and suppressed classes of people.

Notes:
Maharashtra Government recently launched ‘Cyber Safe Women’ scheme on the birth anniversary of the social reformer and educationist Savitribhai Phule. Under this initiative, awareness camps will be held across all the districts of the state regarding cyber safety. The Maharashtra Cyber department and Police in all districts will conduct the awareness campaign in more than 100 schools and colleges and educate women on using cyber space safely.

Notes:
The 19-year-old Table Tennis player of India, Manav Thakkar is in news as he reached the top position in the latest International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rankings in Under-21 men’s single category. This coveted rank could be achieved after he won the Under-21 men’s singles title at the ITTF Challenge Plus North American Open last year. Manav is only the fourth Indian to become World No.1 in the ITTF rankings.

Notes:
The World Braille Day is celebrated across the world on the 4th day of January. The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution in November 2018, to announce January 4 as World Braille Day. Following the proclamation, the day has been observed since 2019. According to the  World Health Organization, there are 36 million blind people and 216 million people with moderate to severe visual impairment. Invented by Louis Braille, Braille is a representation of letters and number using six dots, which could be interpreted by the visually impaired.

Notes:
The State Government of Odisha recently launched the e-Gazette portal, to release all gazette publications of the state in digital format. This scheme is launched a s part of the ‘5T initiatives’ of the Odisha Government. After the launch of the portal, the gazette notifications will be published online saving paper and cost of transportation. All the departments of the state will be asked to upload their data in the portal, which will be monitored and verified by digital signatures.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan recently launched the Kerala Real Estate Regulatory Authority ‘K-RERA’ to boost the confidence of customers and make the real estate sector more transparent. Under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, passed in 2016, all state governments were directed to establish the regulating authority for real estate sector, RERA for regulation and dispute redressal in the sector.

Notes:
The Community Policing wing of Kolkata Police conducts training programs named ‘Sukanya’ to teach self-defence to school girls. The third edition of the programme was recently inaugurated in the state of West Bengal. Under the scheme, training programs are to be conducted to the girls of hundred city-based schools and colleges, which come under the jurisdiction of Kolkata Police. West Bengal Women and Child Development and Social Welfare Department is the funding agency of the scheme.