Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
The Government of Puerto Rico recently declared a state of emergency, after it was hit by a deadly earthquake. The 6.4 magnitude quake was the strongest and the most devastating earthquake, the country has ever had for hundred years.
Puerto Rico is a group of islands located in the Caribbean Sea. It is one of the unincorporated territories of the United States. The capital city and the largest city of the country is San Juan.

Notes:
Veteran Indian artist and painter Akbar Padamsee passed away recently. Akbar is considered as the fore runner of Modern Painting. He was also a Padma Bhushan awardee and a fellow of Lalit Kala Akademi.
Akbar had worked in Paris with another renowned artist S.H.Raza in his art studio ‘Atelier 17’. He had conducted various art exhibitions of his art creations both in India and in other countries. Besides being a painter, he was also a sculptor, photographer and film maker. He settled in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu during the later years of his life.

Notes:
Khurana shared the 1968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Marshall W. Nirenberg and Robert W. Holley for research that showed the order of nucleotides in nucleic acids, which carry the genetic code of the cell and control the cell’s synthesis of proteins. In 1972, he also created the first ever artificial gene.

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:
Union Cabinet has approved to confer the status of “Institution of National Importance” to a cluster of Ayurvedic institutions in Gujarat State’s Ayurved University campus in Jamnagar. This elevation of the status would provide it with the autonomy to upgrade the Ayurveda education standards and frame new courses in Ayurveda as per national and international requirements.
This decision is also expected to boost tertiary care in India and reduce government expenditure on health as Ayurveda is cost-effective. A bill to give effect to this approval will be introduced in the forthcoming Session of Parliament.

Notes:
The International passport ranking ‘Henly Passport Index’ was recently released. It ranks various countries of the world in the order of travel-friendly passports based on the data of International Air Transport Association.
In the recent report, India’s rank is 84, which is two ranks above that of last year. The mobility score of Indian passport is 58, and it means that Indian passport holders can travel to 58 countries without a prior visa. The first rank in the index is bagged by Japan with a score of 191, followed by Singapore.

Notes:
The Election Commission of India has recently renewed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on electoral cooperation with its counterpart of Mauritius. The agreement between the commissions was in existence between April 2013 and April 2018.
The MoU was signed by Chief Election Commissioner of India, Sunil Arora and Electoral Commissioner of Mauritius, Mohammed Irfan Abdool Rahman, at the capital city of Mauritius, Port Louis.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India recently allowed video-based authentication as an alternative method to the e-KYC (Know-your-customer) norms. The video-based KYC authentication was proposed by the Expert Committee on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, headed by the former SEBI Chairman UK Sinha.
The Reserve Bank accepted the recommendations and amended its KYC norms to include Video based Customer Identification Process (V-CIP). The bank also announced that the video verification will be Aadhar-based and the user can display his documents via a video chat.

Notes:
HDFC and its subsidiary HDFC ERGO has got approvals the Competition Commission of India (CCI) , the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) for acquiring a majority stake in Apollo Munich. HDFC acquired 50.80 % stake of Apollo Hospitals Group in Apollo Munich for ₹1485 crore
It was also announced that after the acquisition, Apollo Munich Health Insurance Co Ltd has been renamed as HDFC ERGO Health Insurance Ltd and will operate as a subsidiary of HDFC.

Notes:
The famous Indian entrepreneur and co-founder of Flipkart, Sachin Bansal recently acquired the DHFL General Insurance company. He bought the company from the Wadhawan Group of companies for ₹100 crore.
The acquisition is done through the investment firm named ‘Navi technologies’, which was founded by Sachin Bansal along with his IIT batchmate, after quitting Flipkart. The microfinance arm of Navi Technologies, Chaitanya India Fin Credit Pvt. Ltd (CIFCPL), has recently applied for a universal banking licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).