Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
The Indian government, on December 2019, had launched the Central Equipment Identity Register Portal to block and trace mobile phones. It has the database of the International Mobile Equipment Identity number of the blacklisted mobile phones.

Notes:
US had recently launched air strikes on the bases of the Iranian-backed Iraqi militia, Kataib Hezbollah in retaliation to the killing of a US civilian contractor in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base. Many in Iraq had taken to the streets against the US in response to the air strikes.

Notes:
The Delhi government’s naming committee had recommended the renaming of Pragati Maidan metro station as Supreme Court metro station. It had also decided to rename the Mubarak Chowk and its flyover after the Kargil War martyr Captain Vikram Batra.

Notes:
The United Nations called the Santiago river as Mexico’s most polluted waterway. According to the 2017 figures, less than a third of the country’s industrial wastewater is treated. Recently, Mexico has signed an expansive trade deal with the US and Canada in which it made an explicit promise to conserve its environment.

Notes:
The US Congress has demanded the Department of energy to investigate the concrete dome full of nuclear wastes due to the threat posed by the rising sea levels in the Marshall Islands. The Runit Dome holds tonnes of radioactive wastes from dozens of US atomic bomb tests that were carried out during the Cold War.

Notes:
Pariksha Pe Charcha was introduced in 2018. The 2020 contest is going to be the 3^rd edition of this program. The certificates of participation are issued by the Ministry of Human Resource and Development. The student winners get the chance to interact with the Prime Minister and ask questions related to exams.

Notes:
The Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a ₹102 lakh crore national infrastructure pipeline. The Ministry of Finance had set up a committee headed by Atanu Chakraborty to prepare a road map for the the ₹100 lakh crore ‘National Infrastructure Pipeline’ (NIP) from 2019-20 to 2024-25. In the plan which involves spending in various sectors, the central government and state governments would have an equal share of 39% each and the private sector would have 22% share.

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 27th edition of National Children’s Science Congress was recently organised in the capital city of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram. The Congress was inaugurated by the Vice President of India, Venkiah Naidu. More than 650 young student scientists from many states and union territories across the country and some students from the Middle East countries participated in the event and exhibited their projects and inventions.

Notes:
The Professor and Head of the Department of ENT and Head-neck surgery of AIIMS, Dr. Suresh Chandra Sharma has been appointed as the first Chairman of National Medical Commission (NMC). The appointment is approved for a tenure of three years or until the age of 70 years. Rakesh Kumar Vats is appointed as the new Secretary of NMC. The Medical Council of India (MCI) was dissolved and the National Medical Commission (NMC) was formed as the replacing body after the Union Cabinet approval, last year.