Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
Former Indian cricket team captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni was selected as the captain of both the ESPNCricinfo’s ODI and T20 teams of the decade. The present skipper Virat Kohli was selected as the captain of ESPNCricinfo’s Test team of the decade, while he found place in all the three formats. Famous Indian batsman Rohit Sharma was included in the ODI team of the decade, while spinner R Ashwin found place in the test team. Bumrah was the only bowler to be placed in the T20 list.

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:
SPARMVs refer to Self Propelled Accident Relief Medical Vans which are vehicles to provide relief during Railway accidents and disasters. Indian Railways is gradually replacing locomotive hauled Accident Relief Medical Vans (ARMVs) with Self Propelled Accident Relief Medical Vans (SPARMVs) to improve response during disaster. Another kind of vehicles, which Railways proposes to include are high speed Self Propelled Accident Relief Trains (HS-SPARTs) with speed of 160 kmph. Railways will soon procure them.

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 Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan recently launched the Kerala Real Estate Regulatory Authority ‘K-RERA’ to boost the confidence of customers and make the real estate sector more transparent. Under the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, passed in 2016, all state governments were directed to establish the regulating authority for real estate sector, RERA for regulation and dispute redressal in the sector.

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently signed an MoU with National Institute of Technology (NITK), Suratkal located in Karnataka, to set up its regional academic centre for space research at the institution. The academic centre would jointly participate in research and development in emerging space technologies. ISRO would also provide an annual financial support of Rs. 2 Crore to the centre for the research projects.

Notes:
The ‘Antarrashtriya Yoga Diwas Media Samman’ award was instituted in June 2019, to recognise the contribution of media in spreading Yoga. The first edition of the award is to be conferred to 30 media houses, by the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar. The awards will be presented in three categories, namely ‘Best Media Coverage of Yoga in Newspapers’, ‘Best Media Coverage of Yoga in Television’ and ‘Best Media Coverage of Yoga in Radio’.

Notes:
The international sports event for the members of the Common wealth, the Commonwealth Games of 2022 will be conducted in the city of Birmingham, England. England plays host to the event for the third time. The prestigious event is scheduled to take place between July 27 and August 7, 2020.
Recently, Commonwealth Games India (CGI) submitted its proposal to host a Commonwealth shooting event and an archery event in India during 2022. But the federation is yet to announce that if the medals won in the proposed Shooting Championship will be added to the final CWG tally of the countries.

Notes:
India’s Central bank, the Reserve Bank of India recently released various stipulations for the Urban Cooperative Banks (UCB). A UCB shall be placed in the Supervisory Action Framework upon certain conditions announced by the RBI, which include Net NPA exceeding 6% and CRAR ratio falling below 9%. Depending on the financial stress, the lending powers of the UCBs may also be cut short.
The Reserve Bank has made this announcement at the backdrop of the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank scam. The new norms would provide faster resolution to the bad assets of UCBs.

Notes:
The 31st edition of the International Kite Festival was inaugurated in Ahmedabad by the Chief Minister of Gujarat and the Governor of the state. Ahmedabad has been the official host of the festival since 1989.
Several kite makers and enthusiasts all over the world will participate in the festival to display and fly their kite creations. The festival is organised as a part of the ‘Uttarayan’ celebrations of the state of Gujarat. The festival is expected to boost the tourism sector of the state.