Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
Article 30 of the Indian Constitution confers the right on minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. This right is provided to all language and religious minorities.
The Article was recently in news because the Supreme Court of India held that the appointment of teachers in minority educational institutions can be regulated by the Government and it will not violate Article 30. As per the judgement, the institutions cannot have an absolute right on the appointment.

Notes:
The 31st edition of the International Kite Festival was inaugurated in Ahmedabad by the Chief Minister of Gujarat and the Governor of the state. Ahmedabad has been the official host of the festival since 1989.
Several kite makers and enthusiasts all over the world will participate in the festival to display and fly their kite creations. The festival is organised as a part of the ‘Uttarayan’ celebrations of the state of Gujarat. The festival is expected to boost the tourism sector of the state.

Notes:
The World Bank has recently released its ‘January 2020 Global Economic Prospects report’. The GDP growth of India for FY20 is estimated to be 5%. The GDP growth for the year 2021-22 is also lowered to 5.8% in the report.
The credit instability of the weak Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs) is cited to be the reason for the downgrade. Recently the Reserve Bank of India and the Central Statistical Office of the country also lowered the growth rate to 5% for this fiscal year.

Notes:
India’s leading digital payment company, Paytm has recently launched an all-in-one QR code for merchants. Using the QR code the businessmen can accept unlimited payments through Paytm Wallet, Rupay Cards and all UPI-based payment directly into their bank account.
The transactions are processed at zero percent fee using the code. The company also launched ‘Paytm Business Khata’ service. This will help the merchants to maintain ledgers of all transactions of their customers in the digital form.

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 Paytm Payment Bank recently announced that it has issued three million FASTags so far and has become the largest issuer of FASTags in the country. The Common Service Centre (CSC) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Paytm Payment Bank Ltd (PPBL) for selling FASTags.
The users can recharge the FASTags provided by paytm directly from their paytm wallet without having the necessity of using another wallet or application. FASTag is an electronic toll collection system, which is based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.

Notes:
The government appointed an executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Michael Debaprata Patra as its fourth deputy governor. The Reserve Bank has three deputy governors at present, namely N S Vishwanathan, B P Kanungo and M K Jain.
Former Deputy Governor Viral Acharya resigned from his post in July 2019 citing personal reasons. Michael Patra is appointed for the said post after six months of resignation of Acharya. Patra will serve as the deputy governor of RBI, for three years from the time of his appointment.

Notes:
Raisina Dialogue is the flagship multilateral conference on Politics and Economics of the world, held in New Delhi, India. The fifth edition of the conference is being jointly organized by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Observer Research Foundation.
Every year, in this conference, several global leaders in multiple sectors would meet and discuss about the multilateral cooperation and synergy in global political and economic issues. The Indian Prime Minister is to attend the inaugural session of the three-day conference and address the participants on the title, ‘Navigating the Alpha Century’.

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.

Notes:
Tech Major Microsoft has recently announced the launch of its new Edge Chromium browser for both the Mac and Windows platforms.
Though the enterprise users are initially targeted by Microsoft, other Windows and macOS users could also download the browser manually from the official website of Microsoft and install it. It is expected that the Windows 10 users will be provided the browser through a windows update. The Edge has similar features like those in Chrome and also supports Chrome extensions.