Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
Current Ashwini Lohani heads Air India. It began operations in 1932 with a single-engine, de Havilland Puss Moth monoplane. In 1962, it became the world’s first airline to boast an all-jet fleet. Last October, it also became the world’s first airline to use a Taxibot on an A320 aircraft with passengers onboard. Recently, Group of Ministers (GoM) of the central government have approved the proposal to divest stake in the national carrier. Led by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the GoM met on Tuesday and approved all proposals on debt transfer from Air India to a special purpose vehicle. The Expression of Interest (EoI) and the share purchase agreement would be issued in January 2020.

Notes:
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is celebrated every year to mark the contribution of overseas Indian community in India’s development. It commemorates the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa to India on 9 January 1915. The event is organized by Ministry of External Affairs every year on this day since 2003. 2020 marked 16th Pravasi Bhartiya Diwas.

Notes:
The World Economic Forum, held annually at Davos, is a meeting in which world leaders discuss economic matters. This year’s summit will take place on January 21- 24.

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 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.

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 Global political risk consultancy, Eurasia Group recently released the list of ‘Top Risks 2020’ ranking the biggest geo-political risks of the world. In the list, India under the Modi Government is placed as the 5th biggest risk. Ian Bremmer and Cliff Kupchan of Eurasia name it as ‘India gets Modi-fied’
The group releases the ‘Top Risks’ list every year in the month of January. This year, the top three risks in the list are unstable US domestic politics under President Donald Trump, Separation of US and China in the technology sphere, and unfriendly US-China relations.

Notes:
A two-day workshop and exhibition was recently organised in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir on “Bamboo- A wonder grass”. The workshop focussed on the growth of Bamboo industry in Jammu & Kashmir along the lines of North Eastern Region.
The event was organised by the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region and the Government of Jammu and Kashmir. During the workshop, Planning Advisor of the North Eastern Council shared various recommendations for the growth of bamboo industry. Union Minister Jitendra Singh inaugurated the workshop.

Notes:
Kaspersky Labs, an international cyber-security and anti-virus provider recently made an announcement about a trojan application or a malware named ‘Shopper’. It is said to randomly increase the ratings of some popular e-commerce applications through the social media counts of the victims.
Nearly 14% of the users, who were affected by the malware were Indians while the highest number of people affected were from Russia.

Notes:
Top professional golfer of Australia, Wade Ormsby recently clinched the Hong Kong Open title for the second time in last three years. Another ace golfer and British Open champion Shane Lowry finished the tour in the second place. The tournament was held in Hanling, Hong Kong.
Ormsby is a 39-year-old golfer, who had earlier won the Hong Kong Open title in 2017, which was his maiden European Tour victory. By this victory, Ormsby is only the second wire-to-wire winner of this tour.