Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
To commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, a ten-day art exhibition was recently inaugurated in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. The exhibition was named as ‘Gandhi @ 150 Art Exhibition’
The Indian High Commission in Bangladesh organised the exhibition in association with the national cultural centre of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. The art products of the Bangladesh artists created during the art camp and photographs of Gandhi were exhibited in the event.

Notes:
India’s country’s largest public sector bank, State Bank of India has announced a ‘residential builder finance with buyer guarantee’ (RBBG) scheme. It aims at giving a push to residential sales and improve homebuyers’ confidence. Under this scheme, SBI will issue a guarantee for completion of select residential projects to customers who have availed home loans from it. The scheme will focus on affordable housing projects priced up to 2.50 crore rupee in 10 cities initially.

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.

Notes:
Arunachal Pradesh has adopted a new logo for its Legislative Assembly (APLA) recently. The new logo reflects the distinct identity and culture of the state. The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly PD Sona had circulated pictures of the new logo among the members of the house.
The new logo consists of the national emblem and the state flower of Arunachal Pradesh, foxtail orchid. The existing logo has been amended to create the blue colour-based logo.

Notes:
The ‘State Energy Efficiency Index 2019’ was developed by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) in association with the Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy. The index was prepared based on efforts and achievements of states towards implementation of energy efficiency.
Haryana, Karnataka and Kerala have topped this year’s index and are placed in the ‘Achievers’ category. On the basis of Total Primary Energy Supply (TPES) required to meet the state’s actual energy demand, Karnataka, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Puducherry topped their groups.

Notes:
The World Future Energy Summit recently began in Abu Dhabi. The summit is the largest future energy and sustainability event of the Middle East Region, which is held annually at the National Exhibition Centre of Abu Dhabi.
The theme for the 2020 edition of the summit is “Rethinking Global Consumption, Production, and Investment”. The event is to be held for four days and several thousand participants and exhibitors from across the world are expected to take part in it. The Climate Innovations Exchange and the Future Sustainability Summit are also organised along with this event.

Notes:
The Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu is to inaugurate the Centre of Excellence for studies in Classical Telugu in Nellore.
Venkaiah Naidu had earlier suggested the Union Government to shift the Centre of Excellence for Studies in Classical Telugu, situated in the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru, to one of the Telugu States. It has now been shifted to Nellore in Andhra Pradesh. The centre performs several activities research on the evolution of the Telugu script, digitisation, and publishing of classical Telugu literature.

Notes:
The Indian Navy recently carried out an extensive study in collaboration with Indian Oil Corporation Limited about the existing international regulations in fuel standards. The study resulted in a revised technical specification, which will ensure a better-quality fuel and a reduced carbon footprint.
The new fuel (High Flash High-Speed Diesel) HFHSD – IN 512, with revised technical specifications was launched recently. The modified fuel will be supplied by the Haldia and Paradip refineries of the IOCL.

Notes:
The State Bank of India and the South-Central Railway recently signed an agreement for doorstep collection of earnings from all the 585 railway stations of the zone.
At present, the earnings of the smaller stations are sent through cash chest available with the Train Guards, the process being very tedious. The agreement will ensure collection of traffic earnings by the bank and it will be remitted to the Government account without any delay.

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.