Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

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:
The Prime Minister is going to launch the fourth instalment of the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi, centrally sponsored scheme that provides an income support of Rs. 6,000 annually to all the farmer families in three equal installments.

Notes:
Ransthamb is a memorial to the Bhima-Koregaon battle in Maharashtra. It is also known as Jaistambh or victory pillar. It is located in Bhima Koregaon village in Pune. It was visited by many in light of the 202^nd anniversary of the Bhima Koregaon battle that was fought in 1818.

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.

Notes:
University of Agricultural Sciences (UASB), GKVK Campus, Bangalore, Karnataka is hosting 107th Indian Science Congress from January 3 to 7, 2020  with the theme Science & Technology: Rural Development.

Notes:
 D P Tripathi (Devisree Prasad Tripathi) was a senior political leader of Nationalist Congress Party and a former Rajya Sabha MP from Maharashtra. He also served as the General Secretary and chief spokesman of the Nationalist Congress Party. Though he was initially associated with the Congress (INC) party during his early life, he later moved to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). He was also an academic and the author of the journal titled “Think India”.

Notes:
A famous figure among the basketball Community David Stern passed away recently. He served as the Commissioner of National Basketball Association, NBA from 1984 to 2014. He also made a record of being the longest serving Commissioner of a major league. He played a crucial role in broadening the scope of NBA in the international arena and making it popular and successful.  The Women’s National Basketball Association was founded under his leadership.

Notes:
Former Indian Hockey team captain and the team’s defender Sunita Lakra recently announced her retirement from International Hockey citing her knee injuries. In the 2018 Asian Champions Trophy, India bagged the second place under her captaincy. She was also a part of the Indian team that participated in the Rio Olympics, 2016. Though she could not participate in Tokyo Olympics, Sunita will hopefully return to play domestic Hockey after her knee surgery.

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 second tallest statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in the world is recently unveiled at Ahmedabad, Gujarat by the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani. This 50 feet tall bronze statue is the second tallest statue of Patel only after the ‘Statue of Unity’, located in the Narmada district of Gujarat. Ram Vanji Sutar, the famous sculptor and designer who designed the 182 feet tall statue of unity has also designed this statue.