Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
Veteran diplomat Vinay Mohan Kwatra has been recently appointed as India’s next ambassador to Nepal, as per the recent announcement made by the Ministry of External Affairs.
Vinay Kwatra is a 1988 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, who is currently serving as the Ambassador of India to Paris. He has now replaced Manjeev Singh Puri who has attained superannuation from service. Vinay Kwatra has held instrumental positions in several organisations including Permanent Mission of India in Geneva, SAARC Secretariat in Nepal, Embassy of India in Washington among others.

Notes:
Abidali Neemuchwala recently submitted his resignation from the Chief Executive Officer post at the leading Indian Information Technology firm Wipro.
He has served as the CEO and the Group President of the company for four years and Managing Director since July 2019. Abidali has sought resignation citing family commitments. He will continue to serve in the post until a proper successor is appointed by the company’s board of directors. Rishad Premji has recently taken over as the Executive Chairman of Wipro, replacing his father Azim Premji.

Notes:
The Serb Tennis star Novak Djokovic clinched his eighth Australian Open title, second in a row, by defeating Dominic Thiem of Austria 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, in the Australian open finals.
This is the 17th Grand Slam trophy of Djokovic, in his entire tennis career, and he is only behind the other two stars Roger Federer (20) and Rafael Nadal (19). The 32-year-old ace tennis player had already won 5 Wimbledon, 3 U.S Open and 1 French Open titles. This is also his fifth trophy from the last seven major Grand slams, he had competed.

Notes:
As per the recent announcement of the Chairman of the Railway Board Vinod Kumar Yadav, the third private train of the IRCTC is set to run between Varanasi and Indore.
The train which is to be operated overnight, is expected to have the same rakes as in the Humsafar Express. The train is set to run three days a week between the cities- among them two days will be operated via Lucknow and one day via Allahabad. The first two private trains are operated on two routes namely Delhi-Lucknow and Ahmedabad-Mumbai.

Notes:
The Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu recently inaugurated the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) project between the twin cities of Karnataka, Hubbali to Dharwad.
The project cost of Rs 970 crore is jointly funded by the state and central governments and the World Bank. The BRTS established between the cities on a trial basis already serves more than 1 lakh passengers per day. It has now become fully operational and is expected to be a major boost in the state’s public transport.

Notes:
The famous arts festival called ‘Kala Ghoda Arts Festival’ is celebrated annually in the city of Mumbai. The 21st edition of the street festival has recently commenced. This year, the nine-day-long festival has a variety of events in 12 sections, related to arts, music, cinema, literature, theatre and heritage walks.
This year’s edition of KGAF has been organised entirely through crowd-funding using the platform named ‘Ketto’, without the conventional sponsorship. The annual festival has been organised by the Kala Ghoda Association since 1999.

Notes:
“Babenco: Tell Me When I Die” won the ‘Golden Conch Award for Best Documentary Film’ at the Mumbai International Film Festival 2020. It is a Brazilian documentary film, directed by the filmmaker Barbara Paz.
The award was presented at the 16th edition of the film festival, which was graced by the Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari. Nagraj Manjule’s “Paavsacha Nibandh” received the Silver Conch award for Best Short Fiction Film. The Silver Conch Award for the Best Animation Film has been shared by the German film “Portrait of Suzanne” and the Indian film “Panangaatu Nari” by Divakar SK.

Notes:
Leading Indian fin-tech start-up company Paytm has recently launched a point-of-sale (POS) device for smaller merchants. The device would accept payments through cash, Paytm wallet, debit and credit cards and Unified Payments Interface (UPI) apps.
It is an android-based all-in-one device, which will help the smaller merchants, road-side shop-keepers in handling digital money. Good and Services Tax (GST) compliant bills can also be generated through the ‘Paytm for Business’ app. The device was launched jointly by the founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma and co-founder Nandan Nilekani.

Notes:
The state government of Karnataka has recently launched a scheme called ‘Janasevaka’ to home-deliver various government services to citizens. The scheme ensures the delivery of ration cards, senior citizen identity and health cards at the door steps of citizens.
The newly launched scheme is a part of the ‘Sakala’ scheme of the state and will cover as many as 53 services of 11 state departments. The scheme was first implemented in Dasarahalli area on a pilot basis and will be extended to other regions. Subsequently, the scheme would be made operational in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru and Hubballi-Dharwad.

Notes:
Veteran Indian actor Waheeda Rehman was recently conferred with the prestigious Kishore Kumar Samman Award for the year 2018. The award was instituted by the Madhya Pradesh government.
Famous director Priyadarshan was conferred with the Kishore Kumar Samman for the year 2019, on the death anniversary of the legendary actor Kishore Kumar, October 13, 2019. As Waheeda Rehman could not receive the award during the ceremony, she was presented the award now, by the Madhya Pradesh culture minister Dr Vijaylaxmi Sadho.