Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
Six languages in India namely Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia have been given the status of classical language.
Recently, both houses of the Maharashtra legislature unanimously passed resolutions, requesting the Centre to provide ‘Classical language’ status to Marathi. Languages declared as classical have benefits like setting up centres for their study and provide international awards for their scholars.

Notes:
India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) has recently achieved the milestone of two crore customers. IPPB was launched by the Indian Prime Minister on September 1, 2018, with the main objective of financial inclusion.
In September 2019, the payments bank launched the Aadhaar-enabled payment system (AePS) services. And then, it has become the single largest platform in the country to provide interoperable banking services to the customers of any bank.

Notes:
Indian private sector lender IndusInd Bank recently announced that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has approved the appointment of Sumant Kathpalia as the Chief executive.
Sumant Kathpalia is currently serving as the head of Consumer banking business of the bank. He is to replace the incumbent Chief Executive Romesh Sobti and to take charge from 24 March, 2020 for three years.

Notes:
Union Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda recently launched the ‘1000 Springs Initiative’ at a programme in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.
The initiative aims at improving access to safe and adequate water for the tribal communities. It aims to generate livelihood opportunities for the tribal people and provisions for piped water supply for drinking, irrigation and sanitation initiatives. He also launched a Programme for Capacity Building of Scheduled Tribe Representatives in Local Self Governments.

Notes:
The state of Punjab has recently announced during the state budget that it has reduced the retirement age of government employees to 58 years from the current limit of 60 years.
This step is expected to boost jobs in the state. The Finance Minister of the state also announced the state government will provide free education in government schools to all students up to Class 12.

Notes:
The Farmer Produce Organisations (FPO) Scheme was initiated by the Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare. The FPOs help in grouping of small, marginal and landless farmers, and provide access to technology, quality seed, fertilizers and pesticides.
Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched 10,000 Farmers Producer Organisations (FPOs) all over the country from Chitrakoot, Uttar Pradesh.

Notes:
Indian Railways recently launched its first ‘Restaurant on Wheels’ at Asansol Railway station, located in the state of West Bengal.
The restaurant, which is to serve both the passengers and general public, is developed by refurbishing two over aged MEMU coaches. This addition in infrastructure is expected to generate non-fare revenue earnings of approximately Rs 50 lakhs in the next five years.

Notes:
The Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) is an array of radio telescopes, located in Pune. It is operated by the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics, under the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.
Recently, this is one of the four telescopes, through which the biggest explosion seen in the universe since the Big Bang, have recently been discovered. The newly discovered blast released five times more energy than the previous most massive explosion. The other telescopes are from NASA, Europe and Australia.

Notes:
A former deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Muhyiddin Yassin has been recently appointed as the country’s new Prime Minister.
The appointment was announced by Malaysia’s King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah. Muhyiddin recently sworn in as the new Prime Minister. He replaced the previous head of the country Mahathir Mohamad, who resigned from his Prime Minister role last week.

Notes:
Tech Giant Facebook has recently launched its first grand advertising campaign ‘More Together’ in India. India is the biggest market with the largest user base and it is also the first country in the Asia Pacific region, in which the campaign is being launched.
The aim of the campaign is to reveal the potential of the users about how they can perform more things together by using their contacts on the platform. The series of campaigns will be tele-casted in eight languages over the next few weeks.