IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS OF JANUARY 14th,2020

IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS OF JANUARY 14th,2020

1.     On January 13, 2019 the Japan Coast Guard Ship ‘Echigo PLH08’ has arrived Chennai on a five-day goodwill visit and it will participate in the 19^th edition of Annual Joint Exercise 

‘Sahyog-Kaijin’ which will be begin on January 16, 2020 with the Indian Coast Guard off in Chennai.

2.      On January 13, 2020 the Union Minister of Home Affairs (MoHA) Shri Amit Shah chaired the 6th meeting of Island Development Agency (IDA) in New Delhi. During the meeting progress made towards “Holistic development of islands” were reviewed. It is also for the first time in India, under the IDA’s guidance an initiative of sustainable development has been undertaken with scientific assessments.

3.      On January 13, 2020 the secretary general of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Vladimir Norov who is on a 4-day visit to India to attend the Raisina dialogue 2020 in new Delhi from January16-16,2020, has announced that India has been selected to host the SCO’s annual meeting of council of heads of government for the 1st time.
Raisina dialogue host: The dialogue which addresses the issues faced by global community is hosted by Observer Research Foundation(ORF) in collaboration with Ministry of External Affairs(MEA). The Statue of Unity in Gujarat,India has been included in the SCO’s “8 wonders of SCO” list.

4.     On January 13, 2020 Indian Railways signs Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with  RailTel, a miniratna Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) under the Ministry of Railways for Phase 2 project of e-office execution. Under this project, RailTel will register 39,000 users over 34 divisions on National Informatics Centre (NIC) e-office platform by June 30, 2020.

5.     On January 13, 2020 the centre has decided to set up an 11-member panel that will look into the issues related to revision of royalty rates for minerals (other than coal, lignite, sand for stowing and minor minerals). The panel will be headed by additional secretary of the mines ministry Dr. K. Rajeswara Rao. Mines secretaries from states of Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Odisha will be the members of the panel.

6.     On January 12, 2020, the United Nations(UN) inter agency group for child mortality has produced a report titled “Levels and Trends in Child Mortality”. As per this report India is among 5 countries where in 2018, the mortality of girls under the age of 5 exceeds that of the boys. Half of all under-5 deaths in 2018 occurred in the following five countries: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo(DRC) and Ethiopia.

7.      On January 13, 2020, Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways and MSMEs(Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises)  Shri Nitin Gadkari & Defence Minister Shri Rajnath Singh have jointly launched an IT (Information Technology) tool “Integrated Road Accident Database (IRAD)” developed by the Indian Institute of Technology–Madras (IIT-M) that will help in proper monitoring and accurate analysis of road accidents.
It was launched during ‘Road Safety Stakeholders’ Meet held in New Delhi.

8.      On January 13, 2020, According to the Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) / Retail inflation figures, released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Retail inflation rose to a 5-year high of 7.35% in December 2019. Earlier, in July 2014, the retail inflation had reached 7.39 %.

9.      On January 13, 2020 Switzerland based International Centre for Sports Studies (CIES) Football Observatory has released a list of the most valuable football players in the world. Paris Saint-Germain striker Kylian Mbappe topped the list with  €265 million.
Messi has managed 16 goals and 9 assists in all competitions in the season.

10.  On 13^th January 2020, It was announced Captain Tania Shergill, an officer with Army’s Corps of Signals, will be the first woman parade adjutant for the Republic Day (26th January) parade of 2020. A parade adjutant is responsible for the parade.

11.  On January 12, 2020 Yoga Champion Ishwar Sharma,10 years old schoolboy (UK resident) originally from Mysore under 11-yoga champion from the UK has been honoured with the Global Child Prodigy Award 2020 for achievements in spiritual discipline yoga.
Global Prodigy Award honours child prodigies from across 45 countries under 30 different categories such as palaeontology, choreography, biking, fitness and martial arts etc.

12.  On january 12, 2020 the Drinking Water and Sanitation (DDWS) under Ministry of Jal Shakti, organised the ODF (Open Defecation Free) sustainability workshop in New Delhi.  The workshop had a special session by Bollywood actor Aamir Khan (founder of Paani foundation) who distributed awards to the best performing districts on key swachhata parameters.

13.  On January 13,2020 Senior Indian Police Service (IPS) Officer A P Maheshwari appointed as Director General (DG) of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. He took the charge from Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) DG Surjeet Singh Deswal who was given an additional charge as the head of CRPF after the retirement of DG Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar on December 31, 2019.

14. On 14^th January, 2020, Michael Debabrata Patra has been appointed as Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). After the resignation of Viral V Acharya the post was lying vacant from July 2019. He will be the fourth Deputy Governor of the RBI appointed for a period of three year.

15.  On January 13,2020 Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has developed a special class diesel (HFHSD- IN 512) High Flash High Speed Diesel conforming to NATO grade for use in ships and vessels of Indian Army and results reduced carbon footprint.

16. On January 11, 2020, Wolf Cukier, a 17-year-old boy from New York (United States), has discovered a planet named “TOI 1338b” that is 1,300 light years away & about 6.9 times larger than Earth, on the 3^rd  day of his internship at NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration).
He used NASA’s alien-hunting space telescope TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) for his record breaking discovery.

17.  In December 2019, Scientists of the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, Maharashtra have detected the 1^st case of H9N2 virus ,a rare subtype of influenza virus A, in a 17-month-old boy in Maharashtra.
The discovery has been published in the journal ‘Emerging Infectious Diseases’ of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

18.  In 2019 according to International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF), India is the top Shooting Nation in the World with 21 gold, 6 silver, and 3 bronze. India secured first position in all the Rifle-pistol World Cups and Finals in the year.

19.  On January 13,2020 Manmohan Mohapatra Odisha’s legendary filmmaker and director passed away at the age of 69 in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha. Mohapatra is considered as the ‘Father of New Wave Odia Cinema’ and consecutively won eight national awards for ‘Best Feature Odia film’.

20.  On  January 13, 2020 Philosopher and Britain’s most prominent conservative thinker Roger Vernon Scruton passed away after battling with cancer. He was 75.

21.  On January 14,2020 Armed Forces Veteran’s Day is observed every year on 14th January as a mark of respect and recognition of the services rendered by Field Marshal Cariappa OBE (Order of the British Empire),the first Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Armed Forces who retired on 14 Jan 1953.
The Armed Forces Veteran Day is observed since 2017.

22.  On January 14,2020 In Tamil Nadu, Fresh investment proposals worth Rs 6608 crore rupees have been approved. They have been cleared by the higher-level committee on industrial guidance and single window system, led by the state chief-minister Edappadi K Palaniswamy.