Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
India has Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties with 42 countries and is signatory to various International Conventions for cooperation in criminal matters. The Home Ministry is the designated central authority for this. The recently revised guidelines have incorporated various legal and technological developments in recent years and aim to make documentation more compliant with international requirements. The revised guidelines provide step-by-step guidance to the investigation agencies for drafting and processing letters rogatory or mutual legal assistance requests and service of summons, notices and other judicial documents. The guidelines have taken into account the concerns raised by various courts for prompt and timely responses in service of documents to person residing abroad. These revised guidelines have provision for service of documents to authorities of foreign country preferably within ten days of receipt of request in respect of offences committed against women and children.

Notes:
Proposed “Global Electricity Grid” was an idea mooted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The grid plans to leverage solar power generated in one geography to feed the electricity demands of other nations. India is reportedly in talks with World Bank as its technical partner to implement the plan.

Notes:
The Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) in New Delhi. The centre involves a project cost of Rs. 416 Crores and it would deal with all cyber crimes comprehensively. Many states and Union territories will also set up their Regional Cyber Crime Coordination Centres.
The Union minister also launched National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, with the URL of www.cybercrime.gov.in. All citizens can report cyber-crimes online through this portal, which will be redressed by the concerned authorities.

Notes:
The 18th edition of the famous Dhaka International Film Festival was recently inaugurated at Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. The festival will be organised from January 11 to 19, 2020 with the theme of ‘Better Film, Better Audience and Better Society’.
During the eight-day-long festival, which is to be held at various venues in Dhaka, more than 200 films from 74 countries are to be screened. A conference on the theme of ‘Women in cinema’ will also be conducted during the film festival.

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 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 International Cricket Council recently announced its team of the year and also presented the annual awards. Indian Cricket team skipper Virat Kohli was named as the Captain of both ICC’s ODI and Test Teams of the year. Apart from Virat, only Mayank Agarwal found place in the ICC Teat team, while the other Indians in the ODI Team were Rohit Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Kuldeep Yadav.
Virat has also won the Spirit of Cricket award, presented by the ICC. Along with Virat, who captains both the teams, Ben Stokes of England and Mitchell Starc of Australia were placed in both the ODI and Test teams of ICC.

Notes:
After the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin announced certain constitutional amendments that would extend his powers beyond Presidency, the entire government of Russia resigned. This also includes the Prime Minister of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev.
Putin made this announcement during his annual state of the nation address. He also proposed Mikhail Mishustin, the head of Russia’s tax service as the next Prime Minister. The leaving Prime Minister Medvedev may take on the position of deputy head of Russia’s Security Council.

Notes:
The Union Territory of Ladakh recently hosted the first ever Food Processing Summit to guide the entrepreneurs and attract investments. The UT administration of Ladakh hosts the summit in association with the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Union Ministry of Food Processing Industries.
Several entrepreneurs from Leh and Kargil regions are participating in the Summit. As Ladakh is capable of exporting processed foods made from unique horticultural products, the entrepreneurs were encouraged to begin their own start-up companies in the food processing sector.

Notes:
The Uttar Pradesh cabinet recently approved implementation of the commissioner system of policing for its two cities, Lucknow and Noida. The system will give magisterial powers to the top police officers.
After the announcement, IPS officers Sujit Pandey and Alok Singh were named as the commissioners of Lucknow and Noida respectively. A woman police officer of the superintendent-rank has been posted in both Lucknow and Noida to deal with the cases of crime against women. The state cabinet also approved to set up two new police stations in Noida.