Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
Six languages in India namely Tamil, Telugu, Sanskrit, Kannada, Malayalam and Odia have been given the status of classical language.
Recently, both houses of the Maharashtra legislature unanimously passed resolutions, requesting the Centre to provide ‘Classical language’ status to Marathi. Languages declared as classical have benefits like setting up centres for their study and provide international awards for their scholars.

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:
A national-level public health initiative, ‘Right To Protein’ has launched India’s first ‘Protein Day’ on February 27, 2020.
The day is observed to raise awareness about the nutritional benefits of protein. February 27 is celebrated as 1Protein Day by some other countries as well. This year, the theme of the day is selected as ‘Protein Mein Kya Hai?’, to create awareness about the protein consumption.

Notes:
A former deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Muhyiddin Yassin has been recently appointed as the country’s new Prime Minister.
The appointment was announced by Malaysia’s King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah. Muhyiddin recently sworn in as the new Prime Minister. He replaced the previous head of the country Mahathir Mohamad, who resigned from his Prime Minister role last week.

Notes:
‘World Hearing Day’ is observed on 3 March each year, to raise awareness on how to prevent deafness and hearing loss.
Every year, World Health Organisation decides the theme and develops advocacy materials such as posters and presentations. ‘WHO’ organizes an annual World Hearing Day seminar at its headquarters in Geneva. The theme of this year’s day is ‘Don’t let hearing loss limit you’.

Notes:
World Wildlife Day is celebrated every year on March 3, across the world. On 20 December 2013, the United Nations General Assembly decided to proclaim March 3 as World Wildlife Day. The day is observed to celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild fauna and flora.
On the same day, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was adopted in 1973. The theme of World Wildlife Day 2020, “Sustaining all life on Earth”.

Notes:
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of the current Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey as the new Finance Secretary of India.
Ajay Bhushan Pandey replaces current Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar, who got superannuated last month. The senior-most bureaucrat among all secretaries in the Finance Ministry is usually designated as the finance secretary. Debasish Panda was recently appointed as the Secretary, Department of financial services.

Notes:
China has recently taken over as the President of the UN Security Council for the month of March 2020.
The Security Council was established by the UN Agreement to maintain international peace and security. The council has 15 members (5 permanent and 10 non-permanent members for two-year terms). The 15 members assume presidency every month in a rotation basis.

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:
US-based think tank Global Financial Integrity (GFI) recently released a report titled “Trade-related Illicit Financial Flows in 135 Developing Countries: 2008-2017”.
As per the report, five countries with the largest gaps were China ($457.7 billion), followed by Mexico, India, Russia and Poland. India has the third-highest trade-related illicit financial flow escaping the government’s tax net, with $83.5 billion (Rs 6.14 trillion), equivalent to 3.05 per cent of GDP).