Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
The 5th edition of the National Ice Hockey Championship, 2020 is being in Leh, Union Territory of Ladakh. The event is organised by the Ice Hockey Association of India (IHAI) today. ‘Under-20 category’ of Boys matches and Girls matches are being conducted. The Ice Hockey tournament is held in Karzoo Ice Hockey Rink in Leh. Various Ice hockey teams including Army,Delhi and Ladakh are participating in the tournament.

Notes:
The ancient ritualistic festival observed by the people of ‘Meiti’ community of Manipur is recently celebrated in the capital city of Tripura, Agartala. Department of Information and Cultural Affairs of the Tripura state Government jointly organised this festival along with the cultural committees of the state. The festival is celebrated for five days, hosting many cultural events that include folk dance, oral literature and music.

Notes:
The 19-year-old Table Tennis player of India, Manav Thakkar is in news as he reached the top position in the latest International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) rankings in Under-21 men’s single category. This coveted rank could be achieved after he won the Under-21 men’s singles title at the ITTF Challenge Plus North American Open last year. Manav is only the fourth Indian to become World No.1 in the ITTF rankings.

Notes:
The World Braille Day is celebrated across the world on the 4th day of January. The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution in November 2018, to announce January 4 as World Braille Day. Following the proclamation, the day has been observed since 2019. According to the  World Health Organization, there are 36 million blind people and 216 million people with moderate to severe visual impairment. Invented by Louis Braille, Braille is a representation of letters and number using six dots, which could be interpreted by the visually impaired.

Notes:
The Raisina Dialogue is an annual joint conference organized since 2016, by the Ministry of External Affairs in association with the leading think-tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF).  The conference hosts various global leaders from all sectors to discuss the challenges faced by the global community. The title of this year’s event is ‘Navigating the Alpha Century’ and will be held from January 14 to 16 in New Delhi. The Australian Prime Minister who was expected to be the key speaker cancelled his participation recently after severe bush fires in his country.

Notes:
Australia recently witnessed severe wild fires that killed nearly 25 people and destroyed several homes across the country. More than hundred bush fires were burning in New South Wales and they could not be controlled. Several million animals are also reported to be killed by the severity of bush fires. Scientists have cited Global warming to be the reason of this early and devastating wild fires.

Notes:
For his commended performance in the movie ‘Joker’, American actor Joaquin Phoenix won the ‘Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama’ award in the Golden Globe awards 2020. The Joker movie was nominated in four categories in the ceremony and won two awards namely Best Actor (Drama) and Best Original Score. Joker is a psychological thriller film which was directed by Todd Philips. The movie was released in October 2019 and created records by collecting revenues in box offices world-wide.

Notes:
The 12th edition of the ‘Naseem-Al-Bahr’ bilateral exercise between the navies of India and Oman is to be held in Goa. The exercise is held once in every two years between Indian Navy and the Royal Navy of Oman since 1993.The previous edition of the exercise was held in December 2017 in Muscat, Oman.
Recently, two naval ships of the Oman Navy arrived in Goa, while the Indian Navy ships Beas and Subhadra will participate in the exercise.

Notes:
The Union Sports Minister recently released the schedule of the 1st edition of ‘Khelo India University Games 2020’. The event is to be conducted in Bhubaneswar from February 21 to March 1, 2020.
Students from various universities across the country will take part in the event in 17 different sports. The logo and the jersey of the players were also released by the Sports Minister along the Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik.

Notes:
According to the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD’s) Statement on Climate of India During 2019 report, the number of cyclones in the Arabian Sea was 400% higher than normal frequency because five out of eight cyclones affected Arabian Sea. These give cyclones were Vayu, Hikka, Kyarr, Maha and Pavan. This after the sea on India’s west coast normally undergoes only one cyclone annually — read a 400% rise. (India normally has five cyclones in total every year.) However, the Bay of Bengal — usually the more cyclone-prone coast of India — was relatively subdued in 2019 with three (Pabuk, Fani, Bulbul) instead of four cyclones that occur there annually on an average.