Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
The People’s Congress of Tibet recently passed a law that makes ethnic unity in the region mandatory. The regulations, which are meant to strengthen the ethnic unity are expected to come into effect from May 1st, 2020.
The new law stated that it is the common responsibility of the people of all ethnic groups to safeguard reunification of the country and strive hard against separatism. There are more than 40 ethnic minorities in the region, which constitute nearly 95 per cent of the population of Tibet. This decision is expected to improve the socio-economic development of the country.

Notes:
The Deputy Chief of Mission of Russia, Roman Babushkin recently announced that all S-400 air defence missile systems will be delivered to India by the year 2025. He also added that Russia has started the production process of the S-400 missiles, which are to be delivered to India.
S-400 missile is an upgraded version of the S-300 missiles, which were available only to the Russian Defence forces, earlier. The missiles have been deployed in Russian forces since 2007. External Affairs Minister of India, Jai Shankar is set to visit Russia to attend the Russia-Indian-China trilateral meeting, to be held in March 2020.

Notes:
The National Real Estate Development Council recently announced the launch of India’s first e-commerce housing portal called ‘HousingForAll.Com’. The portal was launched by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry (MoHUA), Durga Shanker Mishra.
The e-Commerce portal, with nearly 1,000 listed properties, is to host a 45-day nationwide online home-buying campaign for ready-to-move-in homes. Hardeep Puri, Minister of State (IC), MoHUA announced the initiative of e-commerce housing portal, during the first National RERA Conclave held in Lucknow, in November 2019.

Notes:
Chilika Lake is the largest brackish water lake of India, situated in the state of Odisha. It is also home to the highest single lagoon population of the endangered species called Irrawady dolphins.
The Chilika Development Authority (CDA) recently undertook the Dolphin Census and 146 Irrawady dolphins were directly sighted. The estimated range of population of the dolphins is 133-172. The population of the aquatic mammal species last year was 151. After removal of certain encroachments in the lake, the dolphins are found colonising in the central and southern regions of the lake for the first time.

Notes:
Leading Indian tele-com service provider, Bharti Airtel and Google Cloud announced a partnership recently. Through the partnership, Airtel will be able to offer ‘G-suite’ to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in India.
G-Suite is a set of applications which include Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar and other productivity tools developed by Google. This agreement would help both the companies to tap growth opportunities in Indian market. As of now, Airtel provides tele-com service to nearly 5 lakh small and medium businesses and several thousand large businesses.

Notes:
The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) recently appointed Ashish Garg as its new President for the year 2020. Another member of ICSI, Nagendra D Rao has been elected Vice-President of the Institute. Ashish Garg was elected to the central council of ICSI for the 2015-18 term and has been re-elected for the 2019-22 term.
The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) is a New Delhi based statutory body to promote and regulate the profession of company secretaries in India.

Notes:
Lieutenant General SK Saini has recently been appointed as the new Vice Chief of Army Staff, after the then Army Vice Chief Lt Gen MM Naravane was appointed as the Chief of Army Staff. LG S K Saini is set to take over as the new Vice Chief on January 25.
In his military career spanning 36 years, Saini has held several crucial staff designations and international deputations.He is serving as the Chief of the Southern Command of Indian Army, at present. The appointment was made and announced by the newly constituted Department of Military Affairs headed by Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Bipin Rawat.

Notes:
The Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) will become one of the world’s largest general-purpose observatories, once it is constructed. The proposed site for its location is over the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii islands, which is a sacred place for the island’s locals. Several protests are being witnessed demanding to shift the construction of the observatory to some other place.
India is also a member of the collaboration of the research institutions and governments and has committed 10 % of the project resources. India recently announced that it would like the project to move to an alternate and appropriate place.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) recently cancelled the Certificate of Authorisation (CoA) of Vodafone m-pesa after it voluntarily surrendered its authorisation. RBI authorises the Payment System Operator to set up and operate in India under the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007.
After the closure of Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank Ltd (ABIPBL), with which Vodafone m-pesa was merged, the company decided to apply for voluntary surrender of authorisation. After the cancellation, the company cannot transact business of issuance and operation of Prepaid payment Instruments but the customers or merchants with a valid claim on the company as a PSO, can approach it till September 30, 2022.

Notes:
Lebanon formed a new government recently under Prime Minister Hassan Diab amidst various economic and political crises. The country remained without an effective government, after the former Prime Minister Saad Al Hariri quit from his role in October 2019 under pressure from protests against state corruption and mismanagement.
The President of Lebanon, Michel Aoun nominated Hassan Diab as the new Prime Minister. Hassan Diab is a 60-year-old professor at the American University of Beirut, who heads a new cabinet of 20 members. The members were mostly backed by political parties while the protestors demanded a new government with independent technocrats.