Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently chaired the 32nd PRAGATI interaction to discuss the progress of several projects. The interaction was made through PRAGATI – the multi-modal platform for ‘Pro-Active Governance and Timely Implementation’, which involves the participation of Central and state governments.
Prime Minister had launched the Information and communication technology based multi-modal governance platform PRAGATI on March 2015. PRAGATI is an interactive platform chaired by the Prime Minister to review and monitor important projects of the Centre and various State governments.

Notes:
Pakistan recently conducted a training launch of nuclear-capable ballistic missile ‘Ghaznavi’, successfully. The surface-to-surface missile can strike targets up to 290 kilometers.
The Pakistan Army’s media wing announced that the training launch was part of the Field Training Exercise of the Army. The training aimed to rehearse the combat readiness throughout the day. Pakistan earlier test-fired the Ghaznavi missile in the month of August last year and this is its second successful launch. The ballistic missile Ghaznavi is also known as Hatf-3.

Notes:
The Department of Biotechnology, under the Ministry of Science and Technology organized an International Summit on Women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) – “Visualizing the Future: New Skylines” at India Habitat centre, New Delhi.
The Summit was organized to encourage the participation of women in STEM field and for developing their career in the field. Renowned women scientists from different countries, who pursue their career in the STEM field addressed the participants and motivated them to pursue their scientific career.

Notes:
National Voters’ Day is being celebrated across the country on January 25. It was first celebrated on January 25, 2011, to commemorate the foundation day of the Election Commission of India (ECI). Which was established on the same day in 1950.
The National Voters’ day of this year marks the tenth year of celebration and the 70th year of functioning of the Election Commission of India. The theme for the National Voters’ Day, 2020 is ‘Electoral Literacy for Stronger Democracy’. Indian President Ram Nath Kovind will be the Chief Guest of the celebration organised at New Delhi, by the ECI.

Notes:
Recently the World Archery has conditionally lifted the suspension of the Archery Association of India, ahead of Tokyo Olympics 2020. The Archery Association of India had been suspended since August 5th, 2019, following elections in New Delhi on 18th January.
The Indian archery athletes were only allowed to compete under a neutral flag at events that directly affected their qualification chances for the Olympics. After the ban is lifted, Indian archers are allowed to participate in World Archery events. India currently has three men’s and one women’s quota place at Tokyo 2020.

Notes:
Veteran journalist and the chairman of The Hindu Group N Ram, has been selected as the outstanding media-person in a national award instituted by Kerala Media Academy.
The award is said to be instituted for fearless and brilliant journalistic work at a national level. As a part of the academy’s 40th anniversary celebration, it is presented to N Ram for his contribution towards journalism for nearly four decades. The award is to be presented by the Chief Minister of Kerala, Pinarayi Vijayan in the month of March. Recently, ‘The Hindu Tamil’ has won the Election Commission of India’s award for its voter awareness and education campaign in 2019.

Notes:
USA’s second seed Fabiano Caruana clinched the title of the ‘Tata Steel Masters chess tournament’ with a record-winning score of 10 points from 13 rounds. He was assured of the title even before the final round. Only Garry Kasparov (1999) and Magnus Carlsen (2013) have won the tournament by scoring 10 points since 1980.
Current World champion Magnus Carlsen finished second in the tournament. Indian Grand master and five-time Viswanathan Anand settled for the sixth place with 6.5 points from 13 rounds.

Notes:
Kolkata-based Defence PSU- Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers is to deliver the anti-submarine stealth warship, INS Kavaratti to the Indian Navy soon, as per the recent announcement.
Kavaratti is the last of the four Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) stealth corvettes built by the GRSE for the Indian Navy under Project P28, the first three :’Kamorta’, ‘Kadmatt’ and ‘Kiltan’, named after islands in the Lakshadweep archipelago, were delivered from 2014 to 2017. The new Kavaratti warship has 90 per cent indigenous components and is expected to require lower maintenance. With all the trials being completed, the ship is to be delivered by the month end.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik recently launched a Virtual Police station under the state’s flagship 5-T initiative.
The Chief Minister also launched two other innovative projects of the Odisha Police called Road Accident case documents module and Medico Legal opinion system. The Virtual Police Station will enable the citizens directly lodge FIR online without having to visit the police stations. The other two applications will help in downloading the required documents and online medical examination reports of accident victims.

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.