Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
To gain popular support for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, #IndiaSupportCAA campaign was launched on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official app, NaMo. It stated that Act is not taking away anybody’s citizenship but is only giving citizenship to the minorities.

Notes:
The Akhil Bharatiya Gujarati Samaj Sankalan Samiti, with the state’s chief minister as chief patron and the Minister of Non-resident Gujaratis (NRGs) as the president, aims to include Gujaratis living outside the state in the state’s developmental process. The Samiti will meet twice a year – once in Gujarat and next in another state.

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:
Sanjay Gupta, the Chief Editor of the leading Hindi daily, ‘Jagran’ was recently honoured with the ‘Lokmanya Tilak National Journalism Award’. This award was instituted by the Pune based Kesari-Maratha Trust for recognising the contributions made by individuals in the field of journalism. The award will be presented at the event organised to commemorate the Foundation day of ‘Kesari’, the newspaper started by famous freedom fighter Lokmanya Tilak.

Notes:
The World Health Assembly has designated 2020 as ‘the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife’. According to the WHO, the world needs 18 million more health workers to achieve universal health coverage by the year 2030 and approximately 9 million health workers of the world are nurses and midwives. The World Health Assembly, which is the decision making body of the World Health Organization (WHO), holds the assembly at Geneva, Switzerland every year and it determines the policies of WHO.

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:
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.

Notes:
The Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (UPSRTC) launched a helpline for women called ‘Damini’, to improve the safety of women in public road transport. The helpline number subscribed for this scheme is ‘81142-77777’, which will have both calling and Whatsapp service. The helpline will be handled by women officers at the headquarters and zonal offices of UPSRTC, which will be operational from 9 am to 6 pm daily. This scheme is launched as a part of the Central Government initiative of ‘Nirbhaya Scheme’.

Notes:
Academy award winning American actress Renee Zellweger won the ‘Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama’ award in the Golden Globe awards 2020. With this year’s award, Zellweger has been presented with the coveted Golden Globe awards for the fourth time. In the biopic film ‘Judy’, she had played the critically acclaimed role of Judy Garland. She had earlier won the Academy award for best supporting actress for her role in the movie titled ‘Cold Mountain’.

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has proposed to set up its Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) in the Challakere town of Karnataka. It is located on the National Highway connecting Bengaluru and Pune. The 400-acre Training centre will entail a project cost of nearly 2700 Crores. Recently, four Indian astronauts selected for the Gaganyaan mission are sent to an Russian agency for space related training. This indigenous HSFC of ISRO will be have world class infrastructure and training facilities.