Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
India’s first commercial Liquified Compressed natural gas (LNG) bus, which was developed by Petronet, was recently launched in the city of Kochi, Kerala.
It is claimed that the bus will be able to travel up to 900 km in a single filling. Petronet also has plans to open 28 LNG dispensing stations in India and four stations in Kerala. LNG is both environment friendly and cost efficient compared to diesel.

Notes:
The President of the central African country Cameroon for the last 37 years- Paul Biya recently won in the Presidential elections held in the country, by obtaining complete majority.
His party -Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (RDPC) won 139 out of 167 declared seats. The Elections were cancelled in 13 other seats, in some regions and are to be held at a later date. He is the longest serving non-royal ruler of the world.

Notes:
Former Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who was also the Finance Minister of India, has presented 10 Union budgets, which is the highest as of 2020. P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee have presented 9 and 8 budgets respectively.
Recently, the 124th birth anniversary of Morarji Desai was observed on February 29, 2020. Several national leaders paid tribute to the former Prime Minister.

Notes:
Recently, the government has approved a six-month extension to the present Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Ajay Tyagi.
The Chairman’s term was ending on February 29, which has now been extended to six months from the date or until further orders. Ajay Tyagi replaced the previous Chairman of the Markets Regulator- U K Sinha in 2017.

Notes:
The Union Minister for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar recently inaugurated the 11th National Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) Conference -2020 in New Delhi.
The first KVK was established in 1974 at Puducherry under the administrative control of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore on a pilot basis. At present there are more than 700 KVKs across the country.

Notes:
Veteran athletics coach and Dronacharya awardee Joginder Singh Saini recently passed away at the age of 90.
He had served as the Chief national athletics coach for several years between 1970 and 1990. He had also been the chief coach of the then Amateur Athletics Federation of India. Saini received the prestigious Dronacharya Award in 1997 for his contribution to Indian athletics.

Notes:
China-based consumer electronics firm and smartphone manufacturer OPPO recently announced its mutual fund platform named ‘KASH’.
The ‘OPPO Kash’ service, which will be pre-installed in all OPPO smartphones, will offer users to invest in mutual funds. The platform will also provide free credit reports, personal loans up to two lakh, business loans up to ₹2 crore and screen insurance.

Notes:
Leading Telecom and consumer electronics company Nokia announced that its board of directors has appointed Pekka Lundmark as the next President and CEO to succeed Rajeev Suri.
Rajeev Suri is to step down from his current role on August 31, 2020 and remain as an advisor to the Nokia board till January 1, 2021. Pekka Lundmark is set to take charge from September 2020 and will be based in Espoo, Finland.

Notes:
Scientists from National Physical Laboratory have discovered a security ink which can prevent fake printing of critical documents such as passports and counterfeiting of currency notes.
National Physical Laboratory functions under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, has recently developed a security ink which glows in red and green colours when illuminated by two different sources.

Notes:
Union Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs is the nodal ministry for implementing the ‘e-Vidhan’ project in all 31 states and Union Territories of the country.
The National e-Vidhan Application (NeVA) creates a massive data depository and aims to bring all the legislatures of the country on a single platform. Recently the assembly of Arunachal Pradesh implemented the e-Vidhan project under which data can be accessed anywhere at any time by the legislators.