Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2020

Notes:
As a part of the USD 10 million commitment of Google to media literacy, the tech-major recently announced a $1 million grant for a non-profit news literacy organisation called Internews. The fund has been launched by Google News Initiative (GNI), to counter fake news and misinformation in India by building a strong network of senior reporters and journalists. The initiative aims to conduct workshops and camps in Indian cities to inculcate news literacy and avoid fake online information.

Notes:
Christine Sinclair is a famous footballer of Canada and the captain of Canada National Team. She recently created a record of becoming the world’s all-time international leading goal scorer.
She achieved this feat after her 185th career goal during the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament. She has broken the world record of American Footballer Abby Wambach who had scored 184 goals. This record includes both male and female category. Ali Daei of Iran tops the men’s international scoring list with 109 goals.

Notes:
Veteran diplomat Ajay Bisaria was recently appointed as the next Indian High Commissioner to the North American country, Canada. Ajay Bisaria, who is to assume office shortly, is a 1987-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer.
Prior to this assignment, Bisaria was serving as India’s High Commissioner to Pakistan. After the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was withdrawn and the state was re-organised, he was returned to India from Pakistan. He is known for taking several initiatives between Indian and Pakistan including the Kartarpur corridor.

Notes:
The 21-year-old American tennis star Sofia Kenin won her maiden Grand slam title, as she won the women’s singles title in the Australian Open tournament.
She defeated the other finalist Garbine Muguruza 4-6 6-2 6-2 and became the youngest winner of the tournament, after Maria Sharapova clinched the trophy before 12 years. The mixed doubles title of the event was won by the duo -Barbora Krejcikova of Czech Republic and Croatia’s Nikola Mektic. While Krejcikova retained her mixed doubles crown, Nikola won his maiden trophy.

Notes:
Indian Public sector bank, Bank of Baroda recently signed an MoU with Indian credit rating agency, Care Ratings. The pact aims to assess credit quality of the small and medium enterprises (SME) customers of the bank.
The rating agency is expected to evaluate the credit quality of the existing and potential SME customers of the bank. The creditworthiness of enterprises is provided on an eight-point scale by the ratings agency. This agreement will strengthen the process of loan-evaluation and help the SMEs in obtaining finance faster.

Notes:
Renowned Punjabi writer and novelist Dalip Kaur Tiwana passed away recently, at a hospital in Mohali. The 84-year-old writer had been the recipient of various prestigious awards including the Padma Shri and Sahitya Akademi.
She had the Padma Shri award in 2015, in solidarity with writers protesting against suppression of freedom of expression. The Punjabi University had awarded life fellowship to the writer and provided her a residence in the campus, though she retired.

Notes:
India and Maldives signed 5 agreements for establishing ‘Addu Tourism zone’ in five islands of Addu atoll. An atoll is a ring-shaped chain of islands formed of coral.
The Tourism zone is expected to be set up at a cost of $2.49 million. It aims at generating local employment and boost the eco-tourism opportunities in Addu. The High Commissioner of India Sunjay Sudhir signed the MoUs with the Maldives Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid and Addu City Council. Another MoU to establish a bottled water plant in Hoarafushi was also inked.

Notes:
The state Government of Kerala declared the disease caused by the novel coronavirus as a “state calamity”. This declaration comes at the backdrop of three people of the state being tested positive for coronavirus.
Kerala reported the first infection from the virus in India and the person is being treated in isolation wards. Later two other patients, who are the students of a medical college in Wuhan, China are also diagnosed with the virus infection. The novel coronavirus was first reported in China’s Wuhan city and has spread to nearly 25 other countries.

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:
Agriculture and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) has recently organised its first awareness programme in Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
APEDA, which comes under the aegis of Union Ministry of Commerce and Industries, organised the programme in association with the Directorate of Industries of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, in the capital city of the islands, Port Blair. The campaign was aimed at examining methods to promote exports of agri products and implementation of the Agri Export Policy in the Islands. The draft state Agri Export action plan, developed by APEDA was also finalized.