Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
The State Government of West Bengal has started an environmental-friendly project to save paper. It has also decided to use digital medium for most administrative works. The State Secretariat,Nabanna already follows the method, which will be extended to other districts as well.
The government also proposed to recycle the paper used for administrative purpose, by converting them into writing pads and reusing them. The process is to be continuously monitored by the state secretariat.

Notes:
The Department of Agriculture of the state of Maharashtra has seamlessly integrated the state’s land records with the web portal of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY). It is the first state in the country to perform such linkage.
After the records are linked online, the farmers are required to provide only their Aadhar number, details of bank and the land records, during the process of insuring crops. The process which is implemented during the current rabi season, is expected to improve efficiency and transparency of the system.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani recently announced that a new centre for fostering innovation among the children would be set up in the state of Gujarat. It is named as the Vikram Sarabhai Children Innovation Centre.
The announcement was made during the Children Innovation Festival held at Gandhinagar, Gujarat. This festival was organised by the Gujarat University’s start up council, GUSEC in association with UNICEF. During the event, a letter of intent was also exchanged between the Gujarat University and UNICEF.

Notes:
As per statement of Lok Sabha Speaker, India will mark 75th anniversary of the country in 2022 and in same year parliament session will be held in the new building. The existing Parliament House Building has completed 92 glorious years after it was made functional in 1927.

Notes:
The Election Commission of India has recently renewed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on electoral cooperation with its counterpart of Mauritius. The agreement between the commissions was in existence between April 2013 and April 2018.
The MoU was signed by Chief Election Commissioner of India, Sunil Arora and Electoral Commissioner of Mauritius, Mohammed Irfan Abdool Rahman, at the capital city of Mauritius, Port Louis.

Notes:
The Prime Minister of India recently attended the 150th celebration of the historic Kolkata Port Trust. During the event, he announced that Kolkata Port Trust would be renamed to ‘Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Port’.
The Prime Minister also released a Commemorative Stamp to mark 150 years of the Kolkata port trust. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee was the founder of Bharathiya Jana Sangh, following which the Bharathiya Janata Party was formed.

Notes:
The Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP) has started the ‘TB-free air for every child’ in the state of Kerala. The IAP will train its 2500 paediatricians in the treatment protocol of Tuberculosis and they will maintain a uniform and standardised procedure for the treatment.
The drive will ensure to that all the children of the state will be free of TB, ahead of the target year of 2025. They will also conduct campaigns in schools and explain about malnutrition, ill effects of tobacco usage by adults and cough etiquette.

Notes:
Lohri is a festival celebrated in North India, especially in Punjab ahead of the Makar Sankranti Festival. The festival marks the completion of Winter and the arrival of sunny weather in the region. It is also regarded that the festival commemorates the passing winter solstice.
According to the traditional calendar, this year the festival Lohri falls on January 13. People of North India celebrate the festival by lighting bonfires, with their friends and relatives. It is mainly celebrated in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.
This festival is celebrated as Makara Sankranti (Pedda Pandaga) in Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal (also called Poush sôngkrānti), Karnataka and Telangana, Sukarat in central India, Magh Bihu by Assamese, and Thai Pongal by Tamils. Vishu concides with Vaishakhi.

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.

Notes:
The first mission of the year of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is the communication satellite GSAT-30. It is scheduled for launch on January 17,2020 aboard the Ariane-5 launch vehicle (VA 251) from French Guiana.
The satellite will provide communication services from Geostationary orbit and is expected to serve as the replacement satellite to INSAT- 4 A with extended coverage. GSAT-30 would be beneficial in several ways including supporting VSAT networks, Cellular connectivity and DTH-Television services.