Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
The 17-year-old ace shooter of India, Saurabh Chaudhary clinched the men’s gold medal in 10-metre air pistol in the 63rd National shooting Championship, being held at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Saurabh had earlier won the gold medal in Youth Olympics and Asian Games. Sarabjot Singh won the silver medal while Shiva Narwal bagged the bronze medal. Saurabh is also qualified to represent India in the Tokyo Olympics in Shooting (Air pistol category).

Notes:
The Central Statistical Office recently released the first advance estimates of the Gross Domestic Product of India for 2019-2020. The CSO forecasted the GDP growth rate of India to be 5 % in the current fiscal year.
The CSO had earlier estimated the GDP growth of the previous fiscal to be 6.8%. The reason for the decrease in the growth rate is cited to the slowdown in manufacturing sector. The Reserve Bank of India also estimated 5% as the GDP growth rate for this fiscal.

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:
According to the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD’s) Statement on Climate of India During 2019 report, the number of cyclones in the Arabian Sea was 400% higher than normal frequency because five out of eight cyclones affected Arabian Sea. These give cyclones were Vayu, Hikka, Kyarr, Maha and Pavan. This after the sea on India’s west coast normally undergoes only one cyclone annually — read a 400% rise. (India normally has five cyclones in total every year.) However, the Bay of Bengal — usually the more cyclone-prone coast of India — was relatively subdued in 2019 with three (Pabuk, Fani, Bulbul) instead of four cyclones that occur there annually on an average.

Notes:
On January 8, 2020, Union Cabinet has approved promulgation of Mineral Laws (Amendment) Ordinance 2020. The Ordinance will amend Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation ) Act 1957 and Coal Mines (Special Provisions) Act 2015. The Ordinance will ease rules for auctioning of coal mines and to open up to all sectors. Government has also done away with end-use restrictions of the coal mining blocks.

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 Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently released a report titled ‘National Strategy for Financial Inclusion’.
The report suggested that along with formal banking outlets, payment banks, small finance banks, cooperative banks and non-banking units like fair price shops should also practice digital banking. The Regulator directed the banks to increase the outlets in all villages and hilly areas by March 2020. The report also suggested to make the Public Credit Registry (PCR) fully functional by 2022.

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:
Fouaad Mirza was recently qualified to represent India in the Tokyo Olympics, in the equestrian event. The 27-year-old sportsman is the first Indian rider to qualify for the Olympics in equestrian sports. The only other rider was Imtiaz Anees, who was given a wildcard in Sydney Olympics
He is also the first Indian to win an individual medal in Asian Games since 1982, when he won the silver medal in the Team event in Asian Games 2018. The International Federation for Equestrian Sports recently confirmed his participation in the Olympics.

Notes:
After completion of extensive trials on the Shore Based Test Facility, the naval variant of indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) made its first successful landing on the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya. The Light Combat aircraft is developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, DRDO.
INS Vikramaditya was formally inducted into the Indian Navy on June 2014. It is a flagship air-craft carrier of the Indian Navy. Prior to this commission, it served with the Russian Navy.