Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
The state cabinet of Andhra Pradesh has approved a proposal to create three state capitals namely Amaravati, Visakhapatnam, and Kurnool. The ruling Jagan Mohan Reddy government introduced the bill in the state assembly.
The ‘AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020’ was approved by the cabinet for a decentralised and balanced growth and development of the state. It also provides for creating several zones within the state and establishing zonal planning and development boards. The government is to set up its legislative capital in Amaravati, secretariat and executive capital in Visakhapatnam and judicial capital in Kurnool.

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 9th edition of the International Children’s Film Festival’ is scheduled to be held in Kolkata from January 19 to 26, 2020. The event is being organised by the Shishu Kishore Akademi, which is an institution under the aegis of Information and Cultural Affairs Department, Government of West Bengal.
As an initiative of the state government, the Shishu Kishore Akademi has been organizing the Kolkata International Children’s Film Festival (KICFF), annually since 2011. This year, spread across nine venues across Kolkata, the festival includes screening of about 250 films from 35 countries.

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:
Geneva-based International Labour Organization recently released its flagship report titled ‘World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2020’ (WESO).
As per the report, unemployment is estimated to increase by nearly 2.5 million in 2020. In addition to the 188 million unemployed people around the world, 165 million people don’t have enough paid work and 120 million have either given up job-search or lack access to the labour market. The report assessed that more than 470 million people are affected worldwide.

Notes:
Indian External Affairs Minister Jai Shankar recently inaugurated the first ever convention centre of India in Africa. The Mahatma Gandhi International Convention Centre (MGICC) was inaugurated in the Western-African country Niger with the assistance from India.
The International Convention Centre was jointly inaugurated by President of Niger Mahamadou Issoufou. This is also the first-ever visit by an Indian Foreign Minister to the West African country. India has recently extended $15 million grant to Niger in support of organizing the African Union (AU) summit held in Niger last year.

Notes:
Bharti Airtel recently got approval from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to increase the FDI limit up to 100% of the paid-up capital from the earlier limit of 49%. The company already received permission from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for overseas portfolio investors to invest up to 74% in Bharti Airtel.
This DoT approval will help the tele-com company to source more funds from overseas investors. Singapore Telecommunications Ltd or Singtel, which owns a 35% stake in Bharti Airtel is expected to increase its stake in Bharti Airtel.

Notes:
Carbon Disclosure Project-India (CDP), an environmental non-profit organisation released its annual report of 2018, titled “Corporates #StepUp Climate Action”. As per the report, 25 companies committed to science-based targets in alignment with the Paris Agreement by December 2018. This has earned the 5th rank to India, which is only after the US, Japan, Britain and France in corporate climate action.
The report examines carbon reduction activities of companies and revealed that 58 Indian companies of the 59 firms surveyed between 2018 and 2019, have board-level oversight of climate-related issues.

Notes:
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) recently unveiled the humanoid robot, called Vyom Mitra at the inaugural session of the conference “Human Spaceflight and Exploration — Present Challenges and Future Trends”, held in Bengaluru.
This humanoid with feminine features is to be launched into the space ahead of the first manned space mission of India. The humanoid will simulate the human functions required for space during its test flight. It can perform all crew functions like switch-panel operations, environmental control and life-support system. ISRO has scheduled two trail flights with humanoids in December 2020 and July 2021.

Notes:
India has been ranked at the 80th rank among 180 countries and territories in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), which is prepared by the non-profit organisation Transparency International.
The Corruption Perception Index was recently released during the Annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. It ranks 180 countries and territories across the world, by their perceived levels of corruption prevailing in public sector, according to experts and business people.
Denmark and New Zealand have been placed at the top spot. India was given a score of 41 and was placed at the 80th rank, similar to China, Benin, Ghana and Morocco in the same rank.