Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Bihar launched the climate change initiative called ‘Jal- Jiwan- Hariyali’ scheme in the state recently. Under the scheme, various awareness programs about climate change and importance of water conservation are conducted across the state.
The Chief Minister, Nithish Kumar recently launched schemes worth more than Rs.700 Crores in the ‘Jagruta Sammelan’, organised as a part of the ‘Jal-Jiwan-Hariyali’ mission. The state has also planned to organise a human chain movement across the state for spreading awareness on climate change.

Notes:
E-Commerce Giant Amazon recently partnered with the leading retailer, Future Group. By this partnership the Future Group would be allowed to access the online platform of Amazon and Amazon India will be designated as the authorised online store of the Future Retail Ltd (FRL) stores.
This agreement would also deepen the market presence of Amazon in India, while increasing the reach of the Future Group’s products. Big Bazaar is a famous subsidiary of Future Group.

Notes:
Retired Indian Police Service Officer and Former Director General of CRPF, Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar was recently appointed as the advisor to the Lieutenant Governor of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Rajiv Rai retired from the Central Reserve Police Force in December 2019.He will serve as the third advisor to the Lieutenant Governor, Girish Chandra Murmu. The other two advisors are retired IAS officer K K Sharma and retired IPS Officer Farooq Khan.

Notes:
PARIVESH is a web based, role based workflow application which has been developed for online submission and monitoring of the proposals submitted by the proponents for seeking Environment, Forest, Wildlife and CRZ Clearances from Central, State and district level authorities. It automates the entire tracking of proposals which includes online submission of a new proposal, editing/updating the details of proposals and displays status of the proposals at each stage of the workflow.

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:
As a part of the major Udhampur- Srinagar-Baramulla rail link project, which would connect the Kashmir valley with the Indian Railway network, a new railway bridge is to be constructed connecting Bakkal and Kauri. This bridge in the newly formed Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir will be the world’s highest railway bridge. The project is expected to be completed by December 2021.
The proposed bridge will be 1.315 km long and will be built 359 m above the river bed. Presently, the highest railway bridge in the world is the Beipan river Shuibai railway bridge of China.

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:
India’s first indigenous aircraft carrier Vikrant is being manufactured at the Cochin Shipyard Limited (CSL) in Cochin. The manufacturing of the carrier is currently under the third phase and it is expected to be commissioned by early 2021.
The Directorate of Naval Design of the Indian Navy has created the basic design of the indigenous aircraft carrier. The plan was subsequently developed by the Cochin Shipyard Limited. The 40000-tonne aircraft with the MiG-29K aircraft fleet will be fully operational by 2022.

Notes:
The Union Minister for Home Affairs, Amit Shah recently released a book titled ‘Karmayoddha Granth’. The book is based on the life of the present Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During the book releasing event, Amit Shah hailed Modi for successfully transforming the Gujarat BJP organisation and his leadership qualities as the Indian Prime Minister.
Narendra Modi is the 14th and the incumbent Prime Minister of India since 2014. Prior to that he was the Chief Minister of Gujarat since 2001.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Steel is to launch a program called ‘Purvodaya-Accelerated Development of Eastern Region through an Integrated Steel hub’. The Union Minister for Steel and Petroleum & Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan will launch the program.
The Eastern states of India such as Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal and Northern Andhra Pradesh possess a huge share of reserves but lag in development. This proposed Integrated Steel Hub in the Eastern region would lead to an inclusive socio-economic development in the region.