Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
The ace Indian all-rounder and bowler famous for his swings, Irfan Pathan announced his retirement from all forms of cricket recently. Irfan made his debut in 2003 when he was only 19 years old. In his professional cricket career spanning 16 years, he made several records including the hat-trick wicket in the first over of the test match. Irfan was also a part of the winning team of the 2007 T20 World cup.

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:
ArogyaSri Scheme is the flagship scheme of Andhra Pradesh Government is an initiative to provide free medical treatment to the poor. Named as Dr. YSR ArogyaSri scheme, the scheme is available to people with annual income up to Rs. 5 Lakhs. The people will be given cards with QR codes and they can use it for availing treatment above Rs.1000. Under the scheme, several super-speciality hospitals are to be included in the network and various medicines are to be made available in the state government run hospitals.

Notes:
Academy award winning American actress Renee Zellweger won the ‘Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama’ award in the Golden Globe awards 2020. With this year’s award, Zellweger has been presented with the coveted Golden Globe awards for the fourth time. In the biopic film ‘Judy’, she had played the critically acclaimed role of Judy Garland. She had earlier won the Academy award for best supporting actress for her role in the movie titled ‘Cold Mountain’.

Notes:
The 17-year-old ace shooter of India, Saurabh Chaudhary clinched the men’s gold medal in 10-metre air pistol in the 63rd National shooting Championship, being held at Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Saurabh had earlier won the gold medal in Youth Olympics and Asian Games. Sarabjot Singh won the silver medal while Shiva Narwal bagged the bronze medal. Saurabh is also qualified to represent India in the Tokyo Olympics in Shooting (Air pistol category).

Notes:
The third ‘International Symposium on Marine ecosystems- challenges and opportunities’ (MECOS-3) is to be held in Cochin from January 7 to 10, 2020. The summit will be organised by the Marine Biological Association of India at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Cochin. A veteran Marine Fisheries Researcher of Finland, Petri Suuronen will be the Chief Guest. The event will focus on United Nation’s SDG Goal of ‘Life Under water’ and sustainable utilisation of marine wealth.

Notes:
The planet finder satellite of NASA, named the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) recently discovered a new exoplanet in the habitable region of its host star.
The newly found exoplanet, known as ‘TOI 700 d’ has approximately the same size of the Earth. The Space Scientists of NASA also announced that the exoplanet is only 101.5 light years from the earth, making it easy for further observations and research.

Notes:
Automobile Major Hyundai recently unveiled an air electric taxi, developed in collaboration with Uber, in the Consumer Electronics Show 2020.
According to their partnership, Hyundai will develop and deploy vehicles and Uber will provide support service, ground transport connection and customer Interface. Uber is to launch urban commercial flights by 2023 and Hyundai is its first carmaker partner in the project.

Notes:
Indian Grandmaster, P Magesh Chandran who presently lives in the USA, won the prestigious title of the Hastings International Chess Congress. The tournament was held in Hastings, England.
He completed the game with 7.5 points and remained unbeaten in all rounds. The 36-year-old chess player became the Grand master in 2006. With 6 points each, other Indian players Deep Sengupta and Swayam Mishra were placed in the 13th and 14th ranks respectively.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Bihar launched the climate change initiative called ‘Jal- Jiwan- Hariyali’ scheme in the state recently. Under the scheme, various awareness programs about climate change and importance of water conservation are conducted across the state.
The Chief Minister, Nithish Kumar recently launched schemes worth more than Rs.700 Crores in the ‘Jagruta Sammelan’, organised as a part of the ‘Jal-Jiwan-Hariyali’ mission. The state has also planned to organise a human chain movement across the state for spreading awareness on climate change.