Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
For the first time in the state, the Kerala State Youth Commission has announced that it would conduct a state-level Adalat for LGBT community. The programme would be held at the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram.
The main objective of the Adalat is to encourage the transgender community to come out with their grievances and to make arrangements for redressal of the issues. The Government of Kerala had introduced a Transgender policy in 2015 and it has a dedicated ‘Transgender Cell’ working under the state’s Social Justice Department.

Notes:
The Father of Green Revolution Dr M S Swaminathan is chosen as the recipient of ‘Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu National Award for Excellence’. This award is instituted by the Muppavarapu Foundation based at Hyderabad. Eminent Agricultural Scientist and plant geneticist, M.S. Swaminathan is awarded for his contributions towards the field of agriculture.
This award was presented during the 10th Anniversary Celebrations of Muppavarapu Foundation in Hyderabad by the Vice President of India, Venkiah Naidu.

Notes:
The Andhra Pradesh Government will receive Rs.711 Crores as loan for expansion of the Zero budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) project from the German Development Bank, KFW. A Memorandum of Understanding was recently signed in this regard at Amaravati.
The climate resilient ZBNF project of the state entails a cost Rs. 1015 Crores, of which Rs. 304 Crores would be contributed by the state Government and remaining 711 Crores is raised by way of loan from the German bank.

Notes:
The 23rd National Youth Festival is to be organised by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in Lucknow from January 12 to 16, 2020, in association with the Uttar Pradesh Government. The festival is celebrated to commemorate the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.
Every year, the birthday of the famous Indian monk from Kolkata, Swami Vivekananda is celebrated as the National Youth day on January 12 and the week commencing from the day as the National Youth week. During the youth festival, several competitions are held for the youth and National Youth awards are also presented.

Notes:
The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently released the first in-depth review of India’s energy policies in collaboration with the Indian think tank NITI Aayog. The report was launched at the Head Quarters of NITI Aayog, New Delhi.
India was made as the association member of the Paris-based global energy organisation, International Energy Agency (IEA) on March 2017 and this is the first review after that. The report highlighted the growth of renewable energy sector in India, which is nearly 23% of the country’s total installed capacity now.

Notes:
The State Government of Uttar Pradesh recently announced that special text-books would be prepared for the children of the state, who have learning disabilities.
The children with intellectual disabilities due to disorders such as Down syndrome, Attention deficit disorder (ADD), Autism and Dyslexia will be enrolled in the primary and secondary schools run by the state. Textbooks for classes 1 to 5 on the subjects of English, Hindi and Mathematics are being designed.

Notes:
The article 19 (1) (a) confers the right to freedom of speech and expression while the sub clause (g) of the article provides the right to practise any profession, or to carry on any occupation, trade or business.
Recently the Supreme Court of India declared that freedom of speech and expression and freedom to carry on a business through Internet also enjoys constitutional protection under the Article 19(1)(a) and 19(1)(g). This landmark judgement came at the backdrop of the five-month restriction on Internet imposed in the Jammu and Kashmir UT.

Notes:
The apex body of India’s pulses and grains industry and trade, India Pulses and Grains Association (IPGA) will organise the 5th edition of the biennial global pulses conference, called ‘The Pulses Conclave 2020’ from February 12 to 14, 2020 at Lonavala, Pune in Maharashtra.The Association is based at Mumbai.
More than a thousand participants across the world are expected to attend the conference. This would help the people from pulses-producing nation to explore business opportunities in the field.

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).

Notes:
The Prime Minister of India recently attended the 150th celebration of the historic Kolkata Port Trust. During the event, he announced that Kolkata Port Trust would be renamed to ‘Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Port’.
The Prime Minister also released a Commemorative Stamp to mark 150 years of the Kolkata port trust. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee was the founder of Bharathiya Jana Sangh, following which the Bharathiya Janata Party was formed.