Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
A leading research agency, HexGn conducted a study of the funding patterns in the start-up ecosystem in the year 2019. The total international funding for technology start-ups decreased by 22% to 293 billion when compared to the funding of 375 billion, last year. However, the start-up funding in India has grown by 18% to $14 billion in 2019. For the first time, two Indian cities namely Delhi NCR and Bengaluru were ranked in the “Global Top 10 Cities for Start-up Funding” list.

Notes:
The movie titled ‘1917’ bagged the ‘Best Motion picture- drama’ in the recently released Golden Globe awards 2020. The movie was released in December 2019 and was co-written and directed by Sam Mendes, who also won the ‘Best Director’ award in the ceremony. The film is based on the World War I in 1917 and two British soldiers in the war. George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman featured in the film in the lead roles.

Notes:
The Ramsar site – designated Bhitarkanika National Park is located in Odisha’s Kendrapara District. It is seen in news recently as the annual census of estuarine crocodiles was conducted in the national park. As per the census, there are 1,757 estuarine or salt water crocodiles in the park, 15 more than the previous year count. The national park is also a mangrove ecosystem and is home to several flora and fauna in addition to crocodiles.

Notes:
Mission Indradhanush is a Universal Vaccination Programme launched by the Ministry of Health and Family welfare in 2014. The Intensified Intensified Mission Indradhanush 2.0 is carried out from December 2019 to March 2020.
Under the Indradhanush scheme, unvaccinated or partially vaccinated children and pregnant women are vaccinated. The target fixed for the scheme is 2020. Recently the Ministry launched IMI 2.0 portal to record the target and real time data of the campaign.

Notes:
Tamil Nadu based leading Public sector bank, Indian Bank recently signed an MoU with the Women Entrepreneurs Welfare Association (WEWA), Tamil Nadu. By this partnership, Indian bank will provide financial assistance and training to the members of the association for starting their business.
The entrepreneurs will also be provided credit facilities with discounted rates. The members of WEWA will be trained in INDSETIs (Indian Bank Self-Employment Training Institutes) of Indian Bank society.

Notes:
The 12th edition of the ‘Naseem-Al-Bahr’ bilateral exercise between the navies of India and Oman is to be held in Goa. The exercise is held once in every two years between Indian Navy and the Royal Navy of Oman since 1993.The previous edition of the exercise was held in December 2017 in Muscat, Oman.
Recently, two naval ships of the Oman Navy arrived in Goa, while the Indian Navy ships Beas and Subhadra will participate in the exercise.

Notes:
Retired Indian Police Service Officer and Former Director General of CRPF, Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar was recently appointed as the advisor to the Lieutenant Governor of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Rajiv Rai retired from the Central Reserve Police Force in December 2019.He will serve as the third advisor to the Lieutenant Governor, Girish Chandra Murmu. The other two advisors are retired IAS officer K K Sharma and retired IPS Officer Farooq Khan.

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:
India’s country’s largest public sector bank, State Bank of India has announced a ‘residential builder finance with buyer guarantee’ (RBBG) scheme. It aims at giving a push to residential sales and improve homebuyers’ confidence. Under this scheme, SBI will issue a guarantee for completion of select residential projects to customers who have availed home loans from it. The scheme will focus on affordable housing projects priced up to 2.50 crore rupee in 10 cities initially.

Notes:
India’s cabinet has recently (January, 2020) approved the mobility pact with France that would allow skilled workers, students and academics from the two countries to live and work in each others’ countries. The agreement was signed between India and France during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to India in 2018. France, however, is yet to ratify the pact, awaiting the French parliament’s consent.