Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has proposed to set up its Human Space Flight Centre (HSFC) in the Challakere town of Karnataka. It is located on the National Highway connecting Bengaluru and Pune. The 400-acre Training centre will entail a project cost of nearly 2700 Crores. Recently, four Indian astronauts selected for the Gaganyaan mission are sent to an Russian agency for space related training. This indigenous HSFC of ISRO will be have world class infrastructure and training facilities.

Notes:
The Community Policing wing of Kolkata Police conducts training programs named ‘Sukanya’ to teach self-defence to school girls. The third edition of the programme was recently inaugurated in the state of West Bengal. Under the scheme, training programs are to be conducted to the girls of hundred city-based schools and colleges, which come under the jurisdiction of Kolkata Police. West Bengal Women and Child Development and Social Welfare Department is the funding agency of the scheme.

Notes:
The subsidiary of National Stock Exchange, NSE Academy recently launched a learning platform named ‘NSE Learning Hub’. This platform is powered by Artificial Intelligence and it is designed to help the Banking and Finance sector in improving the skills of the employees. Union Minister Piyush Goyal launched the platform along with the MD and CEO of National Stock Exchange, Vikram Limaye. The technical experts will use this platform to transfer their financial knowledge to others in the field.

Notes:
The National Traders Convention was recently inaugurated by the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh in New Delhi. The three-day event is organised by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) and it will highlight the issues faced by the traders.
On the second day, The Union Finance Minister participated in the event and addressed the traders. She assured that the Goods and Service Tax (GST) would be further simplified. Recently Government constituted a committee under the Revenue Secretary for rationalising the GST tax structure.

Notes:
Supreme Court recently asked the Centre to consider the deployment of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) to guard the various courts in India — taking over the job of securing the courts from the local police forces.

Notes:
In first week of January, 2020 the government has released the first advance estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2019-20. The economy will grow at 5% this year, a massive downgrade from the 7% projected by the Economic Survey last year and much lower than the 6.8% growth in the previous year.

Notes:
Union Cabinet has approved to confer the status of “Institution of National Importance” to a cluster of Ayurvedic institutions in Gujarat State’s Ayurved University campus in Jamnagar. This elevation of the status would provide it with the autonomy to upgrade the Ayurveda education standards and frame new courses in Ayurveda as per national and international requirements.
This decision is also expected to boost tertiary care in India and reduce government expenditure on health as Ayurveda is cost-effective. A bill to give effect to this approval will be introduced in the forthcoming Session of Parliament.

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:
The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently released the first in-depth review of India’s energy policies in collaboration with the Indian think tank NITI Aayog. The report was launched at the Head Quarters of NITI Aayog, New Delhi.
India was made as the association member of the Paris-based global energy organisation, International Energy Agency (IEA) on March 2017 and this is the first review after that. The report highlighted the growth of renewable energy sector in India, which is nearly 23% of the country’s total installed capacity now.

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.