Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently released a report titled ‘National Strategy for Financial Inclusion’.
The report suggested that along with formal banking outlets, payment banks, small finance banks, cooperative banks and non-banking units like fair price shops should also practice digital banking. The Regulator directed the banks to increase the outlets in all villages and hilly areas by March 2020. The report also suggested to make the Public Credit Registry (PCR) fully functional by 2022.

Notes:
The Paytm Payment Bank recently announced that it has issued three million FASTags so far and has become the largest issuer of FASTags in the country. The Common Service Centre (CSC) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Paytm Payment Bank Ltd (PPBL) for selling FASTags.
The users can recharge the FASTags provided by paytm directly from their paytm wallet without having the necessity of using another wallet or application. FASTag is an electronic toll collection system, which is based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.

Notes:
The Australian Government recently announced that it could place ‘Koala’ in the endangered species category. This announcement is made after the devastating bush fires witnessed by Australia, which killed nearly 25 people and nearly 1.25 billion animals.
Koalas of northern New South Wales and south-east Queensland are being observed by the Scientific committee. Another species called ‘Wallaby’ is also greatly affected. Recently the Government committed an emergency wild life recovery fund worth 50 million Australian Dollars.

Notes:
The first mission of the year of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is the communication satellite GSAT-30. It is scheduled for launch on January 17,2020 aboard the Ariane-5 launch vehicle (VA 251) from French Guiana.
The satellite will provide communication services from Geostationary orbit and is expected to serve as the replacement satellite to INSAT- 4 A with extended coverage. GSAT-30 would be beneficial in several ways including supporting VSAT networks, Cellular connectivity and DTH-Television services.

Notes:
Raisina Dialogue is the flagship multilateral conference on Politics and Economics of the world, held in New Delhi, India. The fifth edition of the conference is being jointly organized by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Observer Research Foundation.
Every year, in this conference, several global leaders in multiple sectors would meet and discuss about the multilateral cooperation and synergy in global political and economic issues. The Indian Prime Minister is to attend the inaugural session of the three-day conference and address the participants on the title, ‘Navigating the Alpha Century’.

Notes:
Union Ministers Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari launched the ‘Integrated Road Accident Database (IRAD)’ during the road safety stakeholders’ meet. IRAD is a central accident database management system, to analyse the causes of road accidents and create solutions to reduce them.
The database was developed by the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) with the project cost of Rs. 258 Crores. This initiative is supported by the World Bank and it is implemented through the National Informatics Centre.

Notes:
The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) and Data Security Council of India (DSCI) have recently launched the Cyber Security Grand Challenge.
It is an initiative to promote innovation and entrepreneurship in the start-up arena of Cyber-Security. Participants will compete in teams at three stages namely Idea, Minimal Viable Product and Final Product Building, to create solutions around six defined areas including Microservices, IoT, Biometrics etc. The award will include a cash prize of Rs.3.2 Crore as the top three teams will be presented with a total cash prize of Rs.2 Crore.

Notes:
The Chairperson of Bennett Coleman & Company Limited (BCCL), Indu Jain was conferred with the prestigious ICSI Lifetime Achievement Award by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India. Indu Jain was presented the award for her significant contribution towards translating corporate governance into reality.
The award ceremony was graced by Union Minister of state for Finance and Forporate affairs Anurag Singh Thakur and former Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra as the guests of honour. The awards are presented every year to recognize the contribution towards promoting good governance.

Notes:
The state government of Bihar under its ‘Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali’ campaign, recently organized a record 18034 km long human chain, which witnessed the participation of more than 5 Crore people.
The Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar participated in the event along with the Deputy Chief Minister and his Cabinet members. The human chain was organized to create awareness among the public on climate change and social ills such as dowry and child-marriage. The human-chain, which is claimed to be the longest in the world is the third of its kind event after the chains formed in Bihar in 2017 and 2018.

Notes:
The capital of Telangana and a major hub of technology industries, Hyderabad was recently adjudged as the ‘World’s most dynamic city’, as per the JLL City Momentum Index, 2020.
The US-based by global real estate services firm Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL), recently released the index by assessing 129 cities around the world. In this seventh edition of the ranking, Hyderabad was placed at the top spot followed by another Indian tech-hub Bengaluru. Southern city Chennai is placed at the fifth place while Delhi is at the sixth place. India leads the 2020 Index with its seven cities being placed in the top 20 ranks.