Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

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 Appointments Committee of the Cabinet recently approved the reappointment of Abhinav Kumar, IPS as the Inspector General (IG) of Border Security Force (BSF) and extended his tenure up to July 2021, following the proposal by the Home affairs ministry. The extension was made by relaxing the tenure policy of Indian Police Service. Border Security Force is the national border defence force and also the largest border defence force in the world.

Notes:
With an objective to improve its tourism sector, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) recently announced multiple-entry tourist visas to people of all countries.
The UAE cabinet recently approved the amendment for tourist visas, which will be valid for five years from the date of issue and can be used for multiple entries into the country. Being the favourite tourist destination of many nationals, the country attracts more than 20 million tourists in a year.

Notes:
Retired Indian Police Service Officer and Former Director General of CRPF, Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar was recently appointed as the advisor to the Lieutenant Governor of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Rajiv Rai retired from the Central Reserve Police Force in December 2019.He will serve as the third advisor to the Lieutenant Governor, Girish Chandra Murmu. The other two advisors are retired IAS officer K K Sharma and retired IPS Officer Farooq Khan.

Notes:
The Central Statistical Office recently released the first advance estimates of the Gross Domestic Product of India for 2019-2020. The CSO forecasted the GDP growth rate of India to be 5 % in the current fiscal year.
The CSO had earlier estimated the GDP growth of the previous fiscal to be 6.8%. The reason for the decrease in the growth rate is cited to the slowdown in manufacturing sector. The Reserve Bank of India also estimated 5% as the GDP growth rate for this fiscal.

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:
The National Traders Convention was recently inaugurated by the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi. The three-day event is organised by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) and it will highlight the issues faced by the traders.
On the second day, The Union Finance Minister participated in the event and addressed the traders. She assured that the Goods and Service Tax (GST) would be further simplified. Recently Government constituted a committee under the Revenue Secretary for rationalising the GST tax structure.

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 Chief Minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani recently announced that a new centre for fostering innovation among the children would be set up in the state of Gujarat. It is named as the Vikram Sarabhai Children Innovation Centre.
The announcement was made during the Children Innovation Festival held at Gandhinagar, Gujarat. This festival was organised by the Gujarat University’s start up council, GUSEC in association with UNICEF. During the event, a letter of intent was also exchanged between the Gujarat University and UNICEF.

Notes:
Niti Aayog and Indian Railways have recently released a discussion paper for running 150 trains on 100 routes by private operators. The plan envisages a total investment of Rs. 22500 crore. The discussion paper titled ‘Private Participation: Passenger Trains’ has identified 100 routes, including Mumbai Central-New Delhi, New Delhi- Patna, Allahabad-Pune and Dadar-Vadodara.