Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

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:
Madhavpur Mela is a weeklong cultural festival of Gujarat to be held at Madhavpur Ghed in Porbandar district in April, 2020, a day after Ram Navami festival. This year, eight states of the Northern Eastern region will participate.

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 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:
Veteran Kannada Scholar and writer Chidananda Murthy, also nick named as Chi Mu passed away recently. He has authored several literary works in Kannada and also earned his Doctorate for his research on a Kannada poet.
He played a very crucial role in securing Classical language status to Kannada and in the campaign to protect ancient monuments in Hampi. As per Murthy’s demand, the Hyderabad Karnataka region was recently renamed as Kalyana Karnataka.

Notes:
The Uttar Pradesh cabinet chaired by its Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath recently approved to build a new zoological garden in Gorakhpur. The zoo is to be named after the famous freedom fighter Shaheed Ashfaqullah Khan, who was sentenced after the Kakori conspiracy, 1925.
The proposed 121-acre zoo is expected to improve the tourism sector of the state and provide employment opportunities. The Government also sanctioned Rs. 234 crores for the construction of the zoo.

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 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:
‘Sahyog-Kaijin’ is an annual joint exercise between the Coast Guards of India and Japan. The 19th edition of the exercise is scheduled to begin in Chennai, India. Recently, the Coast Guard Ship of Japan, ‘Echigo’ arrived in Chennai on a goodwill visit, for participating in the annual joint exercise.
The exercise has been organised between the Indian and the Japanese Coast Guards for 18 years since 2000. Four Indian Coast Guard ships and a vessel from the National Institute of Ocean Technology are participating in the exercise.

Notes:
The International Cricket Council (ICC) recently presented the ICC Annual awards. The biggest award named ‘Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy’ for Player of the Year was bagged by the England All-rounder Ben Stokes.
Indian opener, Rohit Sharma was named the ‘ODI Player of the year’, while the Australian fast bowler Pat Cummins was presented the ‘Test Player of the year award’. The ‘Spirit of Cricket Award’ was presented to Virat Kohli. Another Indian cricketer, Deepak Chahar was given the ‘T20I Performance of the Year’ award.