Current Affairs, Janaury 2020

31st January, Current Affairs:

• Indian-origin technology executive Arvind Krishna has been elected Chief Executive Officer of American IT giant IBM.
• World Health Organization (WHO) declared global health emergency after death toll in China from the new coronavirus reached 213. About 100 cases have been reported in at least 18 other countries, with no deaths outside China.
• The Budget Session of Parliament starts from today with an address by President Ram Nath Kovind to the joint sitting of two Houses of Parliament.
• The government today revised the country's economic growth for financial year 2018-19 to 6.1 per cent from 6.8 per cent estimated earlier.

30th January, Current Affairs:

• Chandauli district in Uttar Pradesh has topped the list of aspirational districts ranked by the government think tank Niti Aayog in December. Aspirational districts programme, launched in January 2018, aims to transform districts that have shown relatively lesser progress in key social areas and have emerged as pockets of under-development.
• Kerala reports first confirmed coronavirus case in India. A patient in Kerala's Thrissur district has tested positive for novel coronavirus and has been kept in isolation at a hospital.
• Indian women's team captain Rani Rampal became the first-ever hockey player world-wide to win the prestigious 'World Games Athlete of the Year' award.

29th January, Current Affairs:

• Union Cabinet has approved the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020. The bill will amend the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971. The limit of termination of pregnancy has been increased from 20 weeks to 24 weeks.
• Supreme Court ruled that African Cheetah shall be permitted to be introduced in India. The cat is being introduced on experimental basis.
• Union Ministry declared that Ramsar Convention had added 10 more sites from India. Today, there are 37 Ramsar sites in the country. Among the 10 sites, Maharashtra (Nadur Madhameshwar) gets its first Ramsar site.

28th January, Current Affairs:

• Qatar names Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdelaziz Al Thani as the new Prime Minister of the country.
• The death toll from a coronavirus outbreak in China has risen to 106 while nearly 1,300 new cases have been confirmed taking the number of infected persons to over 4000.
• Assam tableau wins first prize at 71st Republic Day parade. Assam's tableau which portrayed the unique craftsmanship and culture of the state has been chosen as the best tableau, followed by Odisha and Uttar Pradesh who were tied for the second position.

27th January, Current Affairs:

• National Basketball Association (NBA) legend Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna died in a helicopter crash in the city of Calabasas, California. He was twice the NBA scoring champion and a two-time Olympic champion.
• The West Bengal government introduced a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act in the state assembly, becoming the fourth state administration to do so since the law was passed in December.
• The Government of India signed the historic agreement with the nine factions of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). According to the agreement, the Bodoland Territorial Area District will hold special rights for the locals.
• The 62nd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

26th January, Current Affairs:

• India celebrated its 71st Republic Day today. President Ram Nath Kovind unfurled the tricolour and took the salute of the parade. President of Brazil Jair Messias Bolsonaro was the Chief Guest at the Parade this year.

25th January, Current Affairs:

• President Ram Nath Kovind address the nation on the eve of the 71st Republic Day.
• Government announced 141 Padma Awards on the eve of 71st Republic Day. The list comprises of 7 Padma Vibhushan, 16 Padma Bhusan and 118 Padma Shri awards. 34 awardees are women and 18 foreigners. 12 persons are awarded posthumously. Former central ministers Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and George Fernandes, have been posthumously awarded Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour. Former Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has been given Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award. Olympic medal winner boxer MC Mary Kom has been given Padma Vibhushan; badminton star PV Sindhu has been conferred Padma Bhushan.
• The 10th National Voters’ Day is being celebrated today. The theme this year is ‘Electoral Literacy for Stronger Democracy'.
• The Rajasthan Assembly today passed a resolution urging Centre to revoke the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Rajasthan is the third state to pass such resolution in its assembly after Kerala and Punjab.
• India and Brazil concluded 15 agreements and a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) including on investment cooperation and facilitation treaty, mutual legal assistance in criminal matters, bioenergy and cyber security.

24th January, Current Affairs:

• The National Girl Child Day is being celebrated across the country today.
• Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro arrived in New Delhi today on a four-day visit to India.

22nd January, Current Affairs:

• President Ram Nath Kovind presented the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar, 2020 at Rashtrapati Bhavan today.
• Maharashtra finished top on the medal tally of 3rd Khelo India youth games in Guwahati. Last year champion state retained its position with 78 gold, 77 silver and 100 bronze.

21st January, Current Affairs:

• The 50th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum starts in Davos, Switzerland today.
• Meghalaya today celebrated the 48th anniversary of statehood day.
• Eminent Sindhi writer Vasdev Mohi will be conferred with 29th Saraswati Samman. He has been selected for this prestigious literary award for his short stories collection- Chequebook.

20th January, Current Affairs:

• BJP Working President J P Nadda was elected unopposed as the National President of Bharatiya Janata Party today.
• The Indian Air Force has inducted its first squadron of Sukhoi-30 MKI aircraft carrying the BrahMos missiles in the South at its Thanjavur base in Tamil Nadu.
• India has been ranked very low at 76th place out of 82 countries on a new Social Mobility Index compiled by the World Economic Forum, while Denmark has topped the charts.
• The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet has cleared the decks for the development of Amaravati, Visakhapatnam and Kurnool as the legislative, executive and judicial capital cities respectively.

18th January, Current Affairs:

• Sania Mirza and her Ukrainian partner Nadiia Kichenok have won the women's doubles title of the WTA International trophy at Hobart in Australia. In the final today, they beat Shaui Peng and Shuai Zhang of China 6-4, 6-4.
• Former India all-rounder Bapu Nadkarni passed away at the age of 86. He played 41 Tests in which he scored 1414 runs and grabbed 88 wickets with 6/43 as his best bowling figures.

17th January, Current Affairs:

• Ukraine Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk tendered his resignation to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy today.
• Wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav became the fastest Indian spinner to claim 100 wickets in One-day Internationals during the ongoing 2nd ODI against Australia in Rajkot.

16th January, Current Affairs:

• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh today dedicated to the nation the 51st K9 Vajra self-propelled Howitzer gun made by L&T at Hazira in Gujarat.
• Captain Tania Shergill became the first woman parade adjutant in Army Day Parade this year to lead an all-men contingent. A parade adjutant is responsible for executing the parade.

15th January, Current Affairs:

• The 72nd Army Day is being celebrated across the country today. It is celebrated every year to commemorate the day when General KM Carriappa took over the command of Army from General Sir FRR Bucher, the last British Commander-in-Chief in 1949 and became the first Commander-in-Chief of Indian Army after Independence.
• India skipper Virat Kohli today named captain of the International Cricket Council's ODI and Test teams of the year.
• Makar Sankranti is being celebrated today with religious fervour and enthusiam in many parts of the country.
• IPS officer Anand Prakash Maheshwari today took over as the new director general of the CRPF.

13th January, Current Affairs:

• The festival of harvest, Lohri is being celebrated today in North India especially in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Jammu and Chandigarh.

12th January, Current Affairs:

• Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi renamed Kolkata Port as Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Port on the occasion of 150th year’s celebrations of the Kolkata Port Trust.
• 23rd National Youth Festival 2020 started with a grand inauguration ceremony in Lucknow today.
• The nation is celebrating birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda today. The birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda is celebrated as National youth Day.
• India bowler Jasprit Bumrah will receive the prestigious Polly Umrigar Award for the best international cricketer (2018-19) at the BCCI Annual Awards to be held in Mumbai. Former India captains Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Anjum Chopra will receive the Col CK Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award and the BCCI Lifetime Achievement Award for Women respectively.

11th January, Current Affairs:

• The naval variant of indigenous Light Combat Aircraft, LCA, made its first successful landing on the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya today. This aircraft is developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, DRDO.
• India beat Sri Lanka by 78 runs in the third and final T20 International to win the the three-match series 2-0.

10th January, Current Affairs:

• Today is World Hindi Day. The day is commemorated every year with the objective to promote use of Hindi language abroad.
• Union Home Minister Amit Shah today inaugurated the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) and also dedicated National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal to the nation today.
• 3rd Khelo India games starts with grand ceremony in Guwahati from today. A total of 6500 athletes are participating in the event which will be on till 22nd of this month.
• The Gujarat Legislative Assembly today passed a resolution congratulating Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for securing the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

9th January, Current Affairs:

• The government on Wednesday approved viability gap funding (VGF) of Rs 5,559 crore for a gas pipeline network proposed to be built in the Northeast. The 1,656-km pipeline will connect Guwahati in Assam to major cities in the region.
• Indian passport, ranked 84th in the world's most powerful passport index 2020. Based on data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Japan continues to top the list of the world's most powerful passport as it fetches visa-free access to 191 countries. Indian visa holder can get visa-free entry to 58 destinations worldwide.

8th January, Current Affairs:

• India skipper Virat Kohli became the fastest to reach 1000 runs in T20I cricket as captain and only the sixth overall to achieve the feat. Kohli is only the second Indian after MS Dhoni (1112 runs from 62 games) to achieve this feat. Virat Kohli achieved the feat in 30th innings as a skipper.
• According to the first advanced estimates of the national income released by National Statistical Office (NSO), the Indian economy is estimated to grow at 5 per cent in 2019-20 as against 6.8 per cent in the previous fiscal.
• A Boeing 737 plane carrying 180 passengers and crew crashed shortly after takeoff from Imam Khomeini Airport in Tehran. Most passengers on board the Ukraine International Airlines flight died.

6th January, Current Affairs:

• The 77th Golden Globe Awards takes place at The Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Best picture went to 1917, while Renée Zellweger won best actress for Judy, and Joaquin Phoenix win best actor for Joker.
• The Election Commission announced the schedule for the Delhi Assembly elections today. Polling for 70-member Delhi Assembly will be held on 8th of February and counting will be undertaken on 11th of next month.

5th January, Current Affairs:

• India’s rank in Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index of World Economic Forum has moved to 34th position from 65th rank in 2013. Foreign Tourist Arrivals also registered a growth of 3.2 percent last year.
• The Women Science Congress inaugurated at the ongoing Indian Science Congress in Bengaluru today.

4th January, Current Affairs:

• New Delhi World Book Fair-2020 began at Pragati Maidan in the national capital today.
• The world Braille Day is being celebrated today. The day is marked remembering the birth anniversary of Louis Braille, the inventor of Braille.

3rd January, Current Affairs:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the 107th edition of Indian Science Congress in Bengaluru.
• The Indian Railways has integrated its helpline numbers into a single number -- 139 for quick grievance redressal and enquiries by passengers during their train journeys.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on dedicated five Young Scientists Laboratories of Defence Research and Development Organisation to the nation. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Young Scientist Laboratories (DYSLs) are located in five cities, which are Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and Hyderabad.
• Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran's elite Quds Force, was killed in a US airstrike in Baghdad International airport.

2nd January, Current Affairs:

• Reserve Bank of India, RBI has launched a mobile app, MANI, Mobile Aided Note Identifier, to help visually challenged people to identify denomination of currency notes.
• In the West African state of Guinea-Bissau, Opposition leader Umaro Sissoco Embalo has won presidential elections.
• Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, TRAI has made amendments to the new regulatory framework for cable and broadcasting services with a view to protect the consumer interests. Under it, cable TV users will be able to access more channels at lower subion price.
• The birth anniversary of the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Gobind Singh ji is being celebrated today.
• The 5th Ice Hockey Association of India (IHAI) National Ice Hockey Championship -2020 has begun in Leh today.

1st January, Current Affairs:

• Broadband internet service has been restored in government-run hospitals and SMS facilities were restored on all mobile phones starting from midnight of 1st January 2020. Internet services, landline and mobile phones were snapped across Jammu and Kashmir on August 4, a day before the Centre's announcement to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and divide it into two union territories.
• ESPNcricinfo named former India skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni as captain of ESPNCricinfo's ODI and Twenty20 teams of the decade, while Virat Kohli was named the leader in Tests.
• ISRO have identified four astronauts for India's upcoming Gaganyaan mission, India's space agency Isro said today. Four Indian Air Force personnel selected for training in Russia for Gaganyaan Mission to be launched in 2022. Gaganyaan is India’s first manned mission to the space. Scheduled to be launched in 2022, Gaganyaan aims to send three astronauts to space and bring them back safely. The Indian Space Research Organisation will also attempt another soft landing on moon around the end of this year or early 2021, but without an orbiter, ISRO chairman K. Sivan announced in Bengaluru on Wednesday. The lander and rover will be soft landing in the south pole of lunar surface. Estimated at 250 crore (minus the launch vehicle) the lander and rover will more or less repeat the experiments that the Chandrayaan-2 modules. Dr. Sivan also announced today that a second satellite launch station will come up in Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu for which 2300 acre land will be acquired.
• Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep Singh Puri announced the results of Swachh Survekshan League 2020, for first and second Quarters. In the 10 lakh plus population category, Indore was adjudged India's cleanest city for the fourth time in a row while Kolkata was the worst performer in the central government's cleanliness survey announced. Madhya Pradesh Capital Bhopal got the second and Surat in Gujarat third spot in first Quarter. In the second quarter, Rajkot in Gujarat was at the 2nd spot while Navi Mumbai at third. In one lakh to 10 lakh population category, Jamshedpur in Jharkhand got the 1st spot in both quarters.
• The Kerala Assembly passed a resolution demanding to scrap of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), making Kerala the first state to oppose CAA legislatively in India.

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