Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
The Indian government, on December 2019, had launched the Central Equipment Identity Register Portal to block and trace mobile phones. It has the database of the International Mobile Equipment Identity number of the blacklisted mobile phones.

Notes:
The Ministry of Labour and Employment is going to launch “Santusht” platform next month to ensure an efficient implementation of the labour laws at the grass root levels. It will also look into the services provided by the retirement fund body, EPFO and health insurance and service provider ESIC for those working in the formal sector.

Notes:
The MANI app, which stands for Mobile Aided Note Identifier Application, was launched by the Reserve Bank of India. It helps the visually challenged people to identify the denomination of the currency. The mobile’s camera scans the currency note and identifies the denomination through audio output.

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The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet recently approved the re-appointment of Umesh Sinha as the Deputy Election Commissioner of India on a contract basis. The appointment is made for one year from January 1, 2020 up to December 31, 2020. Umesh Sinha was a 1986 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officer, who was about to attain his age of superannuation. He has earlier served as the Chief Election Commissioner of Uttar Pradesh.

Notes:
Veteran Theatre artist and Social Activist of Assam, Ratna Ojha passed away at Guwahati. He played an instrumental role in reviving the theatre play movement of the state. He had also actively participated and addressed demonstrations in several social issues of the country including those against Citizenship amendment act. For his great contribution towards the theatre art, he was honoured with the ‘Natasurya Award’ by the Assam Government.

Notes:
The Ministry of External Affairs recently announced that it would set up a new division under its aegis called the New, emerging and strategic technologies (NEST) division’. The proposed NEST would act as the nodal division under the ministry for addressing the issues related to emerging technologies. It will help our country to closely work with foreign partners in the field of 5G and artificial intelligence. Recently all companies including the Chinese major Huawei were allowed to participate in 5G trials.  

Notes:
The ace Indian all-rounder and bowler famous for his swings, Irfan Pathan announced his retirement from all forms of cricket recently. Irfan made his debut in 2003 when he was only 19 years old. In his professional cricket career spanning 16 years, he made several records including the hat-trick wicket in the first over of the test match. Irfan was also a part of the winning team of the 2007 T20 World cup.

Notes:
Mission Indradhanush is a Universal Vaccination Programme launched by the Ministry of Health and Family welfare in 2014. The Intensified Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0 is carried out from December 2019 to March 2020.
Under the Indradhanush scheme, unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children and pregnant women are vaccinated. The target fixed for the scheme is 2020. Recently the Ministry launched IMI 2.0 portal to record the target and real time data of the campaign.

Notes:
According to the recent study published in ‘Astrophysical Journal’, Scientists have discovered thirteen huge black holes in some dwarf galaxies. The galaxies are found to be located several light years from the earth and in half of the galaxies, the black holes are not in the centre of the galaxies.
The high-resolution images of the galaxies with black holes were captured using the Very Large Array (VLA) observatory. It is a radio telescope observatory, which is situated in New Mexico, U.S.A. VLA was set up by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Notes:
The Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently announced that indigenous relay satellite series called the Indian Data Relay Satellite System (IDRSS) will be launched soon .
The IDRSS is a set of relay satellites that will continuously track the Indian satellites and exchange information with them. The first of the two proposed satellites will be launched by the end of 2020, before the unmanned space flight to be conducted preceding the Gaganyaan Mission. Such crucial missions can be continuously monitored by the new relay satellite series.