Current Affairs Quiz - January, 2020

Notes:
Madhavpur Mela is a weeklong cultural festival of Gujarat to be held at Madhavpur Ghed in Porbandar district in April, 2020, a day after Ram Navami festival. This year, eight states of the Northern Eastern region will participate.

Notes:
The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has released a chart of world’s fastest growing cities based on the data provided by the United Nation’s Population Division. Malappuram, a city of Northern Kerala topped the list. Two other cities of Kerala, Kozhikode and Kollam were ranked 4th and 10th respectively.
As per the report, Malappuram has recorded 44% rise in population between 2015 and 2020. In the report, three Kerala cities were in the top 10 list while six Indian cities were placed in the top 30 list.

Notes:
The ruler of Oman and one of the longest serving rulers in the Middle East countries, Sultan Qaboos bin Said al Said recently passed away. He was not keeping well for a long time and was undergoing medical treatment in Belgium last month.
After his demise, the former culture minister of Oman, Haitham bin Tariq was named as the successor of Sultan Qaboos. It is mandatory to name the successor of the vacant throne within three days, as per the constitution of Oman.

Notes:
The Paytm Payment Bank recently announced that it has issued three million FASTags so far and has become the largest issuer of FASTags in the country. The Common Service Centre (CSC) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Paytm Payment Bank Ltd (PPBL) for selling FASTags.
The users can recharge the FASTags provided by paytm directly from their paytm wallet without having the necessity of using another wallet or application. FASTag is an electronic toll collection system, which is based on Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology.

Notes:
The Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently launched a cyber-crime prevention initiative of the Gujarat Police, called ‘Cyber AASHVAST’ in Gandhinagar. The project was created as a help line for the victims affected by cyber-crimes.
During the launch event, the Minister also launched an e-governance initiative called ‘VISHWAS’ which is an acronym for Video Integration and State Wide Advanced Security. It helps in improving Law and Order and helps in Crime detection and investigation through video analytics.

Notes:
The Kempegowda International Airport of Bengaluru is the first Indian airport to be with the capability of recovering disabled aircraft. Recently the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) has partnered with the leading aircraft equipment supplier KUNZ GmbH to manufacture and deploy Disabled Aircraft Recovery Equipment (DARE) for the Bengaluru Airport.
By this partnership, KUNZ GmbH will establish a centre for disabled aircraft recovery training in association with BIAL.

Notes:
The government appointed an executive Director of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Michael Debaprata Patra as its fourth deputy governor. The Reserve Bank has three deputy governors at present, namely N S Vishwanathan, B P Kanungo and M K Jain.
Former Deputy Governor Viral Acharya resigned from his post in July 2019 citing personal reasons. Michael Patra is appointed for the said post after six months of resignation of Acharya. Patra will serve as the deputy governor of RBI, for three years from the time of his appointment.

Notes:
The Road Safety Stakeholders’ Meet was recently organised in New Delhi. During the event, the Defence Minister of India, Rajnath Singh addressed the participants and presented the ‘Best performing state in reducing road accidents’ award to the state of Tamil Nadu.
The Union Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has also announced that World Bank and Asian Development Bank have approved seven thousand crore rupees each, for India, to enhance road safety.

Notes:
The Swiss Bank Julius Baer has recently conducted a study on the 28 cities around the world to rank them as expensive in terms of luxury goods and services. According to the study, the bank tracked a basket of luxury goods and the most expensive city for the selected luxury goods is Hong Kong.
Asia is considered to be the most expensive continent as the 2nd, 3rd and 5th ranks were bagged by Shangai, Tokyo and Singapore respectively.

Notes:
The parent company of Google, Alphabet led by Indian-American Sundar Pichai, touched the milestone of $1 trillion valuation and joined the elite US companies in the list, which includes Apple, Microsoft and Amazon. Apple was the first US company to touch the $1 trillion mark, when it achieved the feat in 2018.
During the month of December last year, the founders of Alphabet Larry Page and Sergey Brin stepped down from their leadership roles and announced the then CEO of Google Sundar Pichai as the CEO of both Google and Alphabet.