Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
The famous 11-day Dhanu Jatra, the annual drama-based open-air theatrical performance is conducted in and around the city of Bargarh in Western Odisha. It is based on mythological story of Lord Krishna and his Uncle, King Kansa. In November 2014, it was conferred with the National Festival Status.

Notes:
Government of National Accord and Turkey had recently inked military and maritime agreement. It is feared by many that it may escalate the war in Libya. The conflict was initiated in 2011 when the NATO-backed uprising had toppled and killed the Libyan dictator.

Notes:
Recently, four men from Indian Air Force have been identified for Gaganyaan, India’s first manned mission to space. They will undertake astronauts’ training in Russia. Gaganyaan is a crewed orbital spacecraft intended to send astronauts into space for a minimum of 7 days by 2022 as a part of the Indian Human Spaceflight Programme.

Notes:
Tony Whitten was a British conservationist who documented biodiversity in Asia before he died due to cycling crash. A prize fund was set up in his name after his death. One of the recent winners of this prize named a snail in Indonesia after him. These species live in a limestone habitat and are threatened due to quarrying for the cement industry.

Notes:
General Mukund Naravane has become the Chief of Army Staff. He has succeeded General Bipin Rawat who was recently appointed as the first ever Chief of Defence Staff. General Mukund Narvane was previously the Vice Chief of Army.

Notes:
According to the recently released Government data, Singapore remains the largest source of foreign direct investment (FDI) in India during the first half of the financial year with investments amounting to 8 billion. The second largest source was Mauritius with 6.36 billion worth investments followed by the United States, the Netherlands and Japan. India remains as one of the world’s favourite FDI destinations during this year. FDI limits in coal mining and contract manufacturing were recently relaxed by the Government.

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation has recently confirmed the country’s third mission to the moon, named Chandrayaan-3. The Government has approved the project of Chandrayaan-3 and the estimated cost of the project would be more than Rs.600 Crores as announced by the Chairman of ISRO, K Sivan. As per his statement, the new soft-landing mission project is expected to be launched at the end of this year or during early 2021.

Notes:
The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a ₹102 lakh crore national infrastructure pipeline. The Ministry of Finance had set up a committee headed by Atanu Chakraborty to prepare a road map for the the ₹100 lakh crore ‘National Infrastructure Pipeline’ (NIP) from 2019-20 to 2024-25. In the plan which involves spending in various sectors, the central government and state governments would have an equal share of 39% each and the private sector would have 22% share.

Notes:
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:
The third edition of the ‘Khelo India Youth games’ will be held at Guwahati, Assam from January 10 to 23, 2020. The ceremony to launch the games was held at Guwahati and was attended by the Union Sports Minister and Chief Minister of Assam. The logo, mascot, theme song and the jersey of players were also launched. More than 10000 participants from all over the country are expected to take part in this national event in 20 different sports which includes cycling and lawn bowls for the first time.