Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
The 51st K-9 Vajra-T Gun manufactured by Larsen and Toubro (L&T) was flagged off by the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at the Larsen and Toubro Armoured Systems Complex at Hazira, Surat. With a weight of 50 tonnes, the gun can fire 47 kg bombs on targets, that are 43 km away. It can also make zero-degree radius turns.
As a part of Make in India initiative of the Government, L&T won the Rs.4500 crore contract from the Union Ministry of Defence to supply 100 units of K-9 Vajra-T self-propelled gun systems to the Indian Army.

Notes:
Apple is scheduled to release one of its first-ever original films ‘The Banker’, which is one of the earliest films for Apple TV plus.
The movie, which was set to be released in December last year was postponed due to some allegations. So, it will be released in theatres and subsequently to its subscribers in the month of March, this year. The movie is based on the real-life story of two African-American businessmen of 1960s, Bernard Garrett Sr. and Joe Morris who helped people to overcome the racial barriers in the field of banking.

Notes:
After a two-year formal maternity break, India’s ace tennis player Sania Mirza clinched the ‘WTA Hobart International doubles title along with her Ukrainian partner Nadiia Kichenok. In the final match which lasted for 1 hour 21 minutes, Sania along with her partner defeated the second seeded Chinese duo Shaui Peng and Shuai Zhang 6-4, 6-4.
This was the first tournament for the 33-year old Sania, after giving birth to her son. This series proved to be a great come-back for the Indian star, while she earned her 42nd WTA doubles title.

Notes:
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) recently released its ‘Global Investment Trend Monitor report’ and listed the countries on the basis of receipts of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
As per the report, the United States was the largest recipient of FDI in 2019 with inflow of investments amounting to $251 billion. The second largest recipient was China at $140 billion in 2019. India was also among the top 10 FDI recipients in 2019, which attracted investments worth $49 billion. This is 16% higher than the previous year FDI inflow of the country. The report also stated that majority of India’s FDI inflow went to its service sector.

Notes:
The Indian food delivery start-up firm Zomato recently announced its acquisition of Uber’s food delivery platform, Uber Eats, in India.
According to the deal, Uber gets a 9.99% ownership in Zomato. After the acquisition, Uber Eats will discontinue its operations in India. It will also re-direct its restaurants, delivery partners, and customers using the Uber Eats apps, to the Zomato platform. This deal will cut the loss-making business of Uber and it will continue to focus on improving its ride-hailing business in India.

Notes:
The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi jointly inaugurated the Integrated Check Post (ICP) at Jogbani-Biratnagar border between India and Nepal, with the Prime Minister of Nepal, K P Sharma Oli.
The Prime Minister inaugurated the ICP through Video conferencing. This second Integrated Check Post, which has been built with the assistance of India, at Jogbani-Biratnagar, facilitates trade and movement of people between the countries. The first ICP was built in the Raxaul-Birgunj border in 2018.

Notes:
Divyansh Singh Panwar is a 17-year-old Indian shooter from Jaipur, Rajasthan. He was seen in news as he recently clinched the gold medal in Meyton Cup, a tournament held in Austria.
Divyansh won the Gold medal in the men’s 10m air rifle event and ace Indian shooter Apurvi Chandela bagged the Gold medal in the 10m air rifle women’s category. Other shooters Deepak Kumar and Anjum Moudgil also bagged a bronze medal each in men’s and women’s 10m air rifle events respectively. The four Indian shooters have already secured their quotas for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.

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:
In the recently released 2019 Democracy Index’s global ranking, India slipped 10 ranks to be placed in 51, this year. The global index is released by the Economist Intelligence Unit. The overall score of India also came down to 6.90 from the earlier score of 7.23. India ranks eighth in the Asia and Australasia region.
The report assesses the state of democracy worldwide in 165 independent states and two territories to prepare the index. According to the report, there are only 22 full democracies, while it places India under “flawed democracies”, which includes countries that hold free and fair elections but have significant weaknesses in democratic aspects.

Notes:
India’s first e-waste clinic, which is jointly set up by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) was recently inaugurated in the city of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
The clinic would process, segregate and dispose the electronic waste from both household and commercial units. The e-waste will be collected door-to-door from the city while it can also be deposited in the clinic. It is being opened in Bhopal as a pilot project and it will be extended to other parts of the country once this turns successful.