Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
The Bangladesh High Court recently ordered the Government to impose a ban on single use plastic in the country’s coastal areas and hotels.
Polythene has been banned in the country since 2002, but the usage of polythene could not be controlled in the country. Hence the court ordered to enforce the ban in a strict manner across the nation within one year from the order.

Notes:
India has Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties with 42 countries and is signatory to various International Conventions for cooperation in criminal matters. The Home Ministry is the designated central authority for this. The recently revised guidelines have incorporated various legal and technological developments in recent years and aim to make documentation more compliant with international requirements. The revised guidelines provide step-by-step guidance to the investigation agencies for drafting and processing letters rogatory or mutual legal assistance requests and service of summons, notices and other judicial documents. The guidelines have taken into account the concerns raised by various courts for prompt and timely responses in service of documents to person residing abroad. These revised guidelines have provision for service of documents to authorities of foreign country preferably within ten days of receipt of request in respect of offences committed against women and children.

Notes:
The International passport ranking ‘Henly Passport Index’ was recently released. It ranks various countries of the world in the order of travel-friendly passports based on the data of International Air Transport Association.
In the recent report, India’s rank is 84, which is two ranks above that of last year. The mobility score of Indian passport is 58, and it means that Indian passport holders can travel to 58 countries without a prior visa. The first rank in the index is bagged by Japan with a score of 191, followed by Singapore.

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:
The World Future Energy Summit recently began in Abu Dhabi. The summit is the largest future energy and sustainability event of the Middle East Region, which is held annually at the National Exhibition Centre of Abu Dhabi.
The theme for the 2020 edition of the summit is “Rethinking Global Consumption, Production, and Investment”. The event is to be held for four days and several thousand participants and exhibitors from across the world are expected to take part in it. The Climate Innovations Exchange and the Future Sustainability Summit are also organised along with this event.

Notes:
Union Minister for Women and Child Development and Textiles, Smriti Irani recently launched a scheme named ‘Yashaswini’ from Goa. It is a women empowerment scheme, which aims at supporting women Self Help Groups (SHGs) with interest free loans up to ₹5 lakh. The scheme will also help them to get guidance from experts.
During the event, the Minister also launched Swasthya Sakhi Project and a mobile breast cancer screening initiative, which will be carried out by Anganwadi workers to screen all women of Goa for breast cancer.

Notes:
During the recent Annual BCCI awards Ceremony, Indian ace cricketer Jasprit Bumrah was selected as the best male International cricketer and he was presented with the renowned ‘Polly Umrigar’ award. He also bagged the Dilip Sardesai award for highest wicket taker. In the 2018-19 season, Bumrah clinched 34 wickets in 6 matches.
Another Indian cricketer, Cheteshwar Pujara was presented with the Dilip Sardesai award for highest run getter while the awards for the best international debut were given to Mayank Agarwal and Shafali Verma in men’s and women’s category respectively.

Notes:
The Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently launched a cyber-crime prevention initiative of the Gujarat Police, called ‘Cyber AASHVAST’ in Gandhinagar. The project was created as a help line for the victims affected by cyber-crimes.
During the launch event, the Minister also launched an e-governance initiative called ‘VISHWAS’ which is an acronym for Video Integration and State Wide Advanced Security. It helps in improving Law and Order and helps in Crime detection and investigation through video analytics.

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.

Notes:
The Road Safety Stakeholders’ Meet was recently organised in New Delhi. During the event, the Defence Minister of India, Rajnath Singh addressed the participants and presented the ‘Best performing state in reducing road accidents’ award to the state of Tamil Nadu.
The Union Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has also announced that World Bank and Asian Development Bank have approved seven thousand crore rupees each, for India, to enhance road safety.