Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
The 123rd birth anniversary of the great Indian Leader, also called as Netaji, Subash Chandra Bose was recently celebrated. The day is celebrated as the National Day of Patriotism.
The Government of India has instituted an annual award known as the ‘Subhash Chandra Bose Aapda Prabandhan Puraskar’ in the field of disaster management. The award is presented to recognise the work done by individuals and institutions in India in the disaster management field. The award is announced every year on 23rd January, which is the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

Notes:
The National Tourism Conference was recently hosted in the city of Konark, Odisha. The two-day conference was jointly organized by the state government of Odisha and The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
Union Tourism Minister Prahalad Singh Patel attended the conference and announced that the Ministry of tourism would fund the travel expenditure of the tourists, who visit 15 places in the country in a year. Such tourists have to travel outside their home states and submit the photos on the ministry’s website. A Memorandum of Intent (MoI) was signed between Odisha and Gujarat for cross-promotion of tourist sites.

Notes:
The third Global Potato Conclave recently commenced in Gandhinagar, with the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address through video-conferencing.
Two Global Potato Conferences were organised in 1999 and 2008, one in every 10 years. The conclave for this decade is being organised by the Indian Potato Association (IPA) in association with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Shimla based ICAR-Central Potato Research Institute and International Potato Centre (CIP), Peru. The three-day global event will showcase the achievements in potato research and to set a blueprint for the decade.

Notes:
Union Minister of State Jitendra Singh recently launched the version 3.0 of Bhuvan Panchayat web Portal, which will function with the help of satellite technology developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
The project is aimed at providing geo-spatial services to assist the process of developing Gram Panchayats, undertaken by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. The integrated high-resolution satellite data will provide better visualisation and enable decentralised planning and monitoring of schemes at panchayat levels.

Notes:
The foundation stone for the skill development centre to train tribals of Kevadiya village in Gujarat was laid by the Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, recently. The centre is named Sardar Valabhbhai Patel Centre for Empowerment and Livelihoods. It is a joint initiative of Gujarat government owned Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd and a Telangana-based foundation.
The world’s tallest colossal statue, the 182-metre tall Statue of Unity is located in the Kevadiya village, which is situated in the district of Narmada, Gujarat. As the statue attracts nearly 17000 visitors daily, the local tribal youth will be trained in tourism and hospitality management.

Notes:
The Government of United Kingdom has recently launched a 4 million pound – ‘Innovation Challenge Fund’ in India. The fund focusses on two major tech clusters in two Indian states, which are Artificial intelligence and Big data in Karnataka and Future mobility in Maharashtra.
The initiative, which comes under the UK-India Tech Partnership announced in 2018, is aimed to encourage collaborative research by industry and academia for developing technological solutions for various economic, social and environmental challenges in India. The successful bidders with the required proposals can collaborate with international partners.

Notes:
Gita Sabharwal of India has been recently appointed as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Thailand, with the approval of the host country.
Gita Sabharwal was serving as the Peace-building and Development Adviser representing the United Nations, in Sri Lanka. The UN Resident Coordinators are the representatives of the UN Development system and leaders of the UN country teams. They also support to member countries in achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets.

Notes:
According to the recent announcement by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Telangana has emerged as the best performing state in promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth and decent work for all in the SDG Index 2019. With a score of 82, the state has topped the country, which is followed by Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka which scored 72.
Telangana has also improved in several other SDG categories in 2019, when compared to the previous year, according the recent data in NITI Aayog’s website.

Notes:
The 29-year old sportsperson from Manipur, Bala Devi was seen in news recently as she became the first Indian woman footballer to sign up with a professional football club abroad. The prestigious European club, Rangers Women FC signed the Indian footballer from Manipur for 18 months.
Bala Devi has also been the captain of the national women’s team and the top scorer for the team with 52 goals in 58 games. She also holds the top international goal-scorer rank in the South Asian region. The footballer has also been named AIFF’s Woman Player of the Year in 2015 and 2016.

Notes:
Renowned environmental economist and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Goodwill Ambassador Pavan Sukhdev has been awarded the prestigious Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, for this year.
The award was instituted in 1973 and is otherwise known as the Nobel prize for environment. Pavan Sukhdev shares the prestigious award with another conservation biologist from the United States, Gretchen Daily. Sukhdev is only the third Indian in the last decade to receive this coveted award. His report on ‘The Economics of Environment and Biodiversity’ was the base for the Green Economy movement of UNEP.