Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
Australia recently witnessed severe wild fires that killed nearly 25 people and destroyed several homes across the country. More than hundred bush fires were burning in New South Wales and they could not be controlled. Several million animals are also reported to be killed by the severity of bush fires. Scientists have cited Global warming to be the reason of this early and devastating wild fires.

Notes:
India’s first rehabilitation centre for freshwater turtles will be inaugurated in the Bhagalpur forest division of Bihar. The centre, which is to be open soon can accommodate 500 turtles at a time. The forest division is near to the river Ganga, which makes it a perfect breeding area for freshwater turtles. The turtles are abducted and hurt by smugglers will be rescued by the team of the rehabilitation centre and will be provided proper treatment.

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:
Khurana shared the 1968 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Marshall W. Nirenberg and Robert W. Holley for research that showed the order of nucleotides in nucleic acids, which carry the genetic code of the cell and control the cell’s synthesis of proteins. In 1972, he also created the first ever artificial gene.

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 Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Y S R Jagan Mohan Reddy recently launched a welfare scheme called ‘Amma vodi’. Under the scheme, financial assistance of Rs.15000 to mothers/ guardians of school going children to educate them.
The Chief Minister released Rs.6318 Crores for the scheme, which is to benefit 82 lakh children of the state. Recently the state government announced that English will be the medium of instruction of government schools for class 1 to class 6.

Notes:
The Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) in New Delhi. The centre involves a project cost of Rs. 416 Crores and it would deal with all cyber crimes comprehensively. Many states and Union territories will also set up their Regional Cyber Crime Coordination Centres.
The Union minister also launched National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal, with the URL of www.cybercrime.gov.in. All citizens can report cyber-crimes online through this portal, which will be redressed by the concerned authorities.

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:
Microsoft has recently announced that it has selected 54 tech start-ups from five states, namely Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Kerala and Telangana. These start-up companies were selected through ‘Emerge-X’ competition.
Among the 54 companies selected, fifteen start-up companies in the order of three from each state will be offered guidance by Microsoft. The start-ups companies selected are also the part of the Tech Major’s initiative to strengthen the start-up ecosystem in states called ‘Highway to a Hundred Unicorns’.

Notes:
‘Asha and the Spirit Bird’ was authored by Jasbinder Bilan, an Indian-born author who is now settled in England. Her debut novel has won the coveted ‘Costa children’s book award’ of the UK.
The book is based on a magical story of a girl at the Himalayas. Costa awards are presented annually across five categories of First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book. Jasbinder and the winners of the other four categories will be considered for the ‘Costa Book of the Year’ award.