Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) released NCAER Land Records and Services Index (N-LRSI 2020) recently.
As per the index, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and Tamil Nadu are the five best-performing states. The index assesses the digitisation of land records and their quality in 33 states and Union Territories (UTs).

Notes:
Veteran historian Dr S Shettar recently passed away in Bengaluru, at the age of 85. He taught history in many universities for more than twenty-five years.
Shettar completed his Ph.D from Cambridge University in England. He had held several important positions including Director of the Institute of Indian Art History at Karnatak University, Dharwad, and Chairman of Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi.

Notes:
Veteran journalist in Gujarati-language and pioneer of the Asian media in the United Kingdom, Ramniklal Solanki recently passed away.
He served as the London correspondent of the Mumbai-based Janmabhoomi Group of newspapers. He was also the founder-editor of the Garavi Gujarat newsweekly and the Asian Media Group. He was awarded the royal honours of the United Kingdom, the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1997 and the highest honour- CBE in 2007.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India is conducting one-year and three-year tenor LTRO to help banks to reduce their lending rates. In the latest bi-monthly policy review, it announced term repurchase agreements (repos) of one-year and three-year tenors for Rs 1 trillion at the policy repo rate.
RBI has conducted three LTRO- Long-term repo operation on February 17, February 24 and March 1. The fourth operation is scheduled on March 9. In the third LTRO of three-year tenor, RBI has received 66 bids amounting to Rs 1.71 trillion.

Notes:
Environmental activist Jadav Payeng, also called the ‘Forest Man’, was named as the winner of the 128th Commonwealth Points of Light Award.
Payeng is a 57-year-old activist, who had transformed a treeless sandbar along the Brahmaputra river into a vast wildlife shelter. The award recognises people across the 53 Commonwealth nations for their exceptional contributions towards the community.

Notes:
Luxembourg, a small European country has abolished fares for public transport systems including trains, trams and buses.
All standard-class journeys on public transport in the country are now available for free of charge. This decision has been taken to tackle road congestion and pollution, and also to support low earners of the country. This will ensure a better quality of public mobility and a cleaner environment.

Notes:
The State government of Tamil Nadu launched the $410 million Tamil Nadu Health System Reform Programme (TNHSRP). The programme aims at upgrading the quality of healthcare and filling gaps in reproductive and child health services.
The total project cost of the TNHSRP programme is $410 million (₹2,857 crore), out of which ₹2,000 crore is to be funded by the World Bank and the remaining amount is to be provided by the State government.

Notes:
Former Indian spinner Sunil Joshi has been named Chairman of the National selection panel by the Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) of BCCI.
The Cricket Advisory Committee has shortlisted a five-member group including former Indian pacer Harvinder Singh, Venkatesh Prasad, Rajesh Chauhan and LS Siva Ramakrishnan. BCCI also announced that the CAC will review the panel’s performance after a year and make suitable recommendations.

Notes:
The Chief Minister of Haryana recently announced during the budge session that the state government is to provide credit guarantee of loans for higher education, so that the students can avail loans without the collateral guarantee required by the banks.
The state has also created a separate Foreign Cooperation Department for the welfare of non-resident Indians and employment.

Notes:
According to the recent QS World Ranking, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai and Delhi are among the top 50 engineering colleges across the globe. IIT Mumbai has been ranked 44 and IIT Delhi has got the 47th rank. There are only two Indian colleges to feature in the top-50 ranking.
As per the QS World Ranking for the subject of arts and humanities, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) of Delhi is at 162nd rank and Delhi University is at 231st rank.