Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
The Prime Minister of Netherlands Mark Rutte was recently seen in news, as he made the country’s first apology for the persecution of Jews during the World War II.
He made this historic apology, first-of-its kind made by any government in this regard, during the country’s annual Holocaust commemoration in Amsterdam, on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. More than 1.1 million Jews out of the 1.4 million who lived in Netherlands were killed in the Auschwitz concentration camp, at the outbreak of World War II.

Notes:
The annual event ‘Bharat Parv, 2020’ is being celebrated from 26th to 31st January, 2020 in New Delhi. The aim of the festival is to encourage Indians to visit different tourism destinations of India and to encourage them with the spirit of ‘Dekho Apna Desh’.
The theme of this year’s festival is set as ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’ and ‘Celebrating 150 Years of Mahatma Gandhi’. The six-day-event which is to held in front of Red Fort at Gyan Path and Red Fort grounds in New Delhi has several attractions including performance by armed forces bands cultural Performances from different regions of the country.

Notes:
President Ram Nath Kovind has approved to confer the Jeevan Raksha Padak Series of Awards, 2019 to 54 persons. This includes Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Padak to 7 persons, Uttam Jeevan Raksha Padak to 8 and Jeevan Raksha Padak to 39 persons. Five awards are to be given posthumously.
Jeevan Raksha Padak awards, a branch of the Ashoka Chakra series of Gallantry awards, were instituted in the year 1961. The award is given for meritorious act of human nature in saving the life of a person in incidents like accidents, electrocution, natural calamities or rescue operation in mines.

Notes:
The state government of Maharashtra launched the ‘ Shiv Bhojan’ scheme, which aims to provide a meal to the poor for Rs 10. The scheme was launched on the occasion of the 71st Republic Day celebrations.
Under the scheme, thalis or lunch plates would be available to the people at designated centres in all districts. Nearly 50 ‘Shiv-Bhojan’ outlets were set up in a pilot basis, which will be extended to other parts of the state. The remaining fund needed for providing food will be given as grant to the district collectorate by the state government.

Notes:
The 86-year-old veteran artist and sculptor Sher Singh Kukkal passed away after age-related illness in New Delhi recently.
Sher Singh Kukkal was a noted artist with a great experience in several branches of fine arts including drawing, painting, sculpture, printing and photography. He also taught arts at the Sainik School Satara. The artist had won several national and international awards including the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation Award and the Senior Fellowship in Visual Art Photography by Union Ministry of Culture during 2008-09.

Notes:
The 155th birth anniversary of the great Indian freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai was observed on January 28 across the country.
He earned the titles of ‘Punjab Kesari’ and ‘Lion of Punjab’ for his ideology of nationalism and freedom. He was part of the nationalist trio of Lal-Bal-Pal, which comprised of Lala Lajpat Rai, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and Bipin Chandra Pal. The trio advocated Swadeshi movement to use Indian made goods across the nation and to boycott imported goods. He was brutally injured during the protest against Simon Commission and died shortly from a heart attack.

Notes:
World-class Indian cueist and 23-time world champion Pankaj Advani has recently clinched his 33rd National title by winning the title at the Senior National Billiards Championship.
In the tournament held at Pune, Pankaj defeated his fellow cueist Sourav Kothari 5-2 in the finals. In the semi-final held earlier, Pankaj dominated with a 5-0 victory over Dhvaj Haria of Gujarat. This is not only the 33rd national title of Pankaj Advani, but this is also his 10th senior title. He will also participate in the national snooker championship, which is scheduled in the same venue from February 3.

Notes:
Top Indian javelin-thrower Neeraj Chopra has recently qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. He was declared qualified, after his stellar throw of 87.86 m at the Athletics Central North East meeting, recently held in South Africa.
Neeraj could not participate in the last year’s international events as he suffered from a knee injury. This is his first competitive event after his injury. His throw at this event is also the second best throw ever of Neeraj, after his record 88.06 m throw at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games.

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:
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.