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:
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:
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:
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:
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:
Vishva Hindi Divas or World Hindi day is celebrated every year on January 10. The day is celebrate to commemorate the First World Hindi Conference, which was held from January 10 to January 12, 1975, at Nagpur.The first Hindi Conference was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. Subsequent conferences were held in various countries including the USA, South Africa, UK, Mauritius.
The first World Hindi day was observed on January 10, 2006. The Day aims to promote Hindi language around the world.

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 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:
Union Minister for Women and Child Development and Textiles, Smriti Irani recently launched a scheme named ‘Yashaswini’ from Goa. It is a women empowerment scheme, which aims at supporting women Self Help Groups (SHGs) with interest free loans up to ₹5 lakh. The scheme will also help them to get guidance from experts.
During the event, the Minister also launched Swasthya Sakhi Project and a mobile breast cancer screening initiative, which will be carried out by Anganwadi workers to screen all women of Goa for breast cancer.

Notes:
In the recently held presidential election of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen was re-elected as the country’s President. With more than 57% of the votes, Tsai won her second presidential term. Her victory in the election has gained significance as she vowed to protect the sovereignty of Taiwan amidst of the threats posed by China.
China has announced that Taiwan must be united with China at any cost and it would use power if necessary. There were several protests across the country against China’s Authoritarian behaviour.