Daily Current Affairs and GK | 14 February 2020

1. Manpreet Singh: Player of the Year 2019

• The International Hockey Federation has been named Manpreet Singh, the captain of the Indian men’s hockey team, as the Player of the Year for 2019.
• He has become the first Indian to be named as the Player of the Year since the introduction of these awards in 1999.
• Manpreet Singh won this award by beating Belgium’s Arthur van Dorren and Argentina’s Lucas Villa.

2. Rajiv Bansal appointed as Chairman and MD of Air India

• Rajiv Bansal, the 1988 batch IAS officer of Nagaland cadre, has been appointed as the Chairman and Managing Director of Air India.
• Other appointments are:
  • Debashis Panda- Secretary- Department of Financial Services
  • Rajkumar- Secretary- Defence Production
  • Usha Sharma- Secretary- Youth Affairs
  • Pawan Kumar Agarwal- Secretary- Consumer Affairs
  • Rajiv Ranjan- Secretary- Department of Fisheries
  • Saraswati Prasad- Secretary- National Commission for Scheduled Tribes

3. Pravasi Bhartiya Kendra to be renamed as Sushma Swaraj Bhawan

• The government will rename Pravasi Bhartiya Kendra and Foreign Service Institute in New Delhi as Sushma Swaraj Bhawan and Sushma Swaraj Institute of Foreign Service.
• Sushma Swaraj was the former External Affairs Minister and was elected to Lok Sabha four times and to Rajya Sabha three times.
• She had also served as the CM of Delhi for a short period in 1998.
• Recently, she was given Padma Vibhushan for the year 2020 posthumously.

4. Alok Sharma to lead UN climate summit

• Alok Sharma will be the new UK Minister in charge of the UN Climate Summit COP 26.
• Indian-origin Alok was promoted to the post of Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy.
• COP 26 will be held in November 2020 in Glasgow, Scotland.
• COP 25 was held in December 2019 in Madrid, Spain.

5. Boxer Amit Panghal was given the top ranking in the Olympic qualifiers

• Indian Boxer Amit Panghal has been given the top ranking in the 52 kg weight category for Olympic qualifiers.
• The Boxing Taskforce of the International Olympic Committee released the list.
• With this, Panghal has become the first Indian boxer to achieve the top world ranking in this category in the last decade.
• This ranking takes into account the performance of the players in the Continental Championship and Games in 2019 and the last two World Championships.

6. Chandrakant Dada Patil was appointed President of BJP's Maharashtra unit

• Recently, Chandrakant Dada Patil has been appointed as the President of Maharashtra unit of BJP.
• Simultaneously, Mangal Prabhat Lodha has been appointed the Mumbai chief of the BJP.
• The appointments have been approved by BJP President JP Nadda.

7. Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh launched the 'Anganphou Hunba' (Early Paddy Crop) program in Imphal

• Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh launched the 'Anganphou Hunba' (Early Paddy Crop) program at Arpit Mey Leikai in Imphal East.
• It is the festival of sowing first paddy crop of the year.
• On the occasion, he said that his government has proposed a project of Rs 260 crore to provide irrigation facilities by pumping ground water to the Centre.
• The government has planned to provide sufficient arable land and water for irrigation to a large number of farmers by the Department of Minor Irrigation.

8. Formation of a five-member group on defence and internal security

• A five-member group on defence and internal security has been formed by the 15^th Finance Commission.
• Home Secretary and Secretary of Defence will be members of the panel and the panel will be headed by the chairman of 15^th Finance Commission, N K Singh.
• The panel is formed to check whether a separate mechanism should be put in place to finance defence and internal security, and operationalization of such mechanism.
• Finance Commission is a constitutional body that is mentioned under Article 280 of the Indian Constitution.

9. Inauguration of the first phase of East-West Metro Corridor in Kolkata

• Railway Minister Piyush Goyal inaugurated the first phase of East-West Metro Corridor connecting Salt Lake Stadium and Sector Five in Kolkata.
• Mr. Goyal along with Union Minister Babul Supriyo flagged off this long awaited 4.88 km long section.
• Services on this line have been started duly.
• The second phase of this corridor phase will be completed in two years.

Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs)

1. Who among the following has been named the Player of the year 2019 by IHF?

A. Manpreet Singh

B. Arthur van Dorren

C. Lucas Villa

D. Faizal Saari

2. Who has been appointed as the Chairman and MD of Air India?

A. Rajkumar

B. Usha Sharma

C. Rajesh Verma

D. Rajiv Bansal

3. The government has decided to rename the Pravasi Bhartiya Kendra in New Delhi on the name of which famous personality?

A. Atal Bihari Vajpayee

B. Sushma Swaraj

C. Arun Jaitley

D. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee

4. UN Climate Summit COP 26 will be held in-

A. Amsterdam

B. Glasgow

C. Madrid

D. New Delhi

5. Recently which Indian boxer has been ranked no 1 by IOC’s Boxing Task Force?

A. Shiva Thapa

B. Vikas Krishan Yadav

C. Amit Panghal

D. Vijender Singh

6. Who has been as the BJP’s Maharashtra Unit President?

A. Chandrakant Dada Patil

B. Mangal Prabhat Lodha

C. Shwait Malik

D. Ashwani Sharma

7. A programme named ‘Anganphou Hunba’, which means sowing of first crop paddy, has been launched in which of the following states?

A. Assam

B. Manipur

C. Tripura

D. Mizoram

8. Recently 15^th Finance Commission has constituted a five-member panel on

A. Defence and Internal Security

B. Governance

C. Cultural Heritage Preservation

D. None of the above

9. Recently Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has inaugurated the first phase of East-West Metro in ____________.

A. Bengaluru

B. Pune

C. Kolkata

D. Chandigarh

Solution:

1. A

2. D

3. B

4. B

5. C

6. A

7. B

8. A

9. C