Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

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:
The Indian Space Research Organisation is to set up its second launch port in Thoothukodi district of southern Tamilnadu. The Government of Tamilnadu will arrange nearly 2300 acres of land for the construction of the launch centre. The proposed launch port will mainly handle the Small Satellite Launch vehicle (SSLV), which is under development. SSLVs will be used to carry a payload of up to 500 kg and are expected to be deployed in the first half of 2020.

Notes:
The result of Swachh Survekshan League 2020 was recently released by the Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri for the first and second Quarters of this year. Under the category of cities with 10 lakh plus population, Indore topped in both the first and second quarters. The famous city of Madhya Pradesh, Indore was also the topper of the league in the previous year. Bhopal and Surat were ranked second and third in the first quarter respectively and Rajkot and Navi Mumbai in the second quarter.

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:
The 28th edition of the New Delhi World Book Fair 2020 is to be held at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi from January 4 to 12, 2020. To commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the theme of the fair is chosen as, ‘Gandhi: The Writers’ Writer’. Union Human Resources Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal will inaugurate the annual fair, which is organised by the National Book Trust (NBT). The Chief Guest of the inaugural event is Gandhian scholar Girishwar Mishra.  

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 foundation of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Academy was recently laid in Nagpur, Maharashtra by the Union Home Minister Amit Shah. He also inaugurated a campus of the Nagpur based National Fire Service College. The NDRF Academy, once completed will contain state-of-the-art infrastructure to simulate disasters and provide training to the personnel in various rescue operations. The National Disaster Response Force, a dedicated force for disaster response related operations was constituted in the year 2006.

Notes:
The renowned Indian scientist and Director General of Aeronautical Systems, DRDO, Dr.Tessy Thomas was the Chief Guest of the Women Science Congress, held at Bengaluru. It was a part of the ongoing 107th Indian Science Congress. Tessy Thomas was the first woman scientist to head a missile project in India, when she was the Project Director of India’s Agni-IV missile.

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:
India has extended a line of credit (LOC) of $75 million through its Exim Bank to Cuba for financing solar parks. An MoU was signed between the Export- Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) and the nominated agency of Cuban Government, Banco Exterior De Cuba last year. Based on the agreement, the Exim bank extends the finance, which is nearly Rs.500 Crores. With this credit, 75 MW Solar Parks are to be installed in Cuba in the next five years.