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:
In order to promote road safety and reduce vehicular pollution, Rajasthan Transport department is going to observe a “No Vehicle Day” once a month in 2020. The employees of the transport department are to come to their offices as pedestrians, via bicycles or a public transport.

Notes:
The Union Minister for Home Affairs had recently visited Sashastra Seem Bal Headquarters in New Delhi. He reviewed the functioning of the SSB during this visit. The deployment, operational achievements and concerns were reviewed. SSB, one of the Central Armed Police Forces, was known as Special Service Bureau prior to 2001.

Notes:
These terms were mentioned in the news recently to indicate the different the cricket bats used. “The Camel” bat was recently used by Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan. Mangoose, Kaboom and Aluminium are some of the other names used to describe different cricket bats.

Notes:
Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge will launch the environmental prize called the Earthshot. The multi-million pound award will be given to five winners each year for the next 10 years, starting from 2021. Its aim is to provide at least 50 solutions to the world’s greatest problems by 2030.

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:
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:
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:
ArogyaSri Scheme is the flagship scheme of Andhra Pradesh Government is an initiative to provide free medical treatment to the poor. Named as Dr. YSR ArogyaSri scheme, the scheme is available to people with annual income up to Rs. 5 Lakhs. The people will be given cards with QR codes and they can use it for availing treatment above Rs.1000. Under the scheme, several super-speciality hospitals are to be included in the network and various medicines are to be made available in the state government run hospitals.

Notes:
The planet finder satellite of NASA, named the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) recently discovered a new exoplanet in the habitable region of its host star.
The newly found exoplanet, known as ‘TOI 700 d’ has approximately the same size of the Earth. The Space Scientists of NASA also announced that the exoplanet is only 101.5 light years from the earth, making it easy for further observations and research.