Current Affairs - January 18, 2020 Current Affairs

Amazon.com Inc chief Jeff Bezos on January 15 announced USD 1 billion (over Rs 7,000 crore) investment in India to help bring small and medium businesses online and committed to exporting USD 10 billion worth of India-made goods by 2025.

A noted chemist Bipul Behari Saha has been elected as a bureau member of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). He will serve for a period of 2020-23. Currently, he is serving as the Director-R&D, L.R. Research Laboratories Pvt Ltd, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NACL Industries Limited, Hyderabad.

China's first and oldest female tractor driver Liang Jun, whose image features on Renminbi currency notes, dies at 91.

Sindhi writer Vasdev Mohi has conferred with 29th SaraswatiSamman for his short stories collection 'Chequebook'. The short stories collection talks about the agonies and sufferings of marginalized sections of the society.

World Bank signed an $88 million loan agreement with the Government of India and the Government of Assam on 16 January 2020. The loan is to help modernize Assam's passenger ferry sector that runs on its rivers including the Brahmaputra and implement Inland Water Transport Project.

The first Session of India-Norway Dialogue on Trade & Investment (DTI) was held in New Delhi on 15-16 January 2020. The session was co-chaired by Joint Secretary, Department of Commerce, Nidhi Mani Tripathi, and Director General, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, Mr. ErlingRimestad.

Non-Fiction Award at Crossword Book Awards 2020- GAUR GOPAL DAS for 'Life's Amazing Secrets'

England allrounder Ben Stokes has won the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the ICC player of the year after playing starring roles in the side's maiden 50-over World Cup triumph and one-wicket win in the Leeds Test during the Ashes in 2019.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh flagged off 51st K9 VAJRA-T Gun from Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Armoured System Complex at Hazira, Gujarat on 16 January 2020. The participation of the private sector in defence manufacturing is toward fulfilling the government's commitment to make India an arms manufacturing hub and net defence exporter.

Annual bull taming event 'Jallikattu' began on January 16 in Madurai, Tamil Nadu on the occasion of Pongal.

The principal ministers of the Russian government, from Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on down, resigned on January 15 in a move designed to ease a constitutional overhaul recently proposed by President Vladimir Putin. The president accepted Medvedev's resignation and said he would appoint his longtime loyalist to the Russian Security Council.

The fifth edition of Science Film Festival of India (SCI-FFI) 2020 kick-off in Panaji, Goa on 15 January 2020. The four-day-long festival was inaugurated by Chief Minister, Dr. Paramod Sawant and will end on 18 January.

The Indian Army conducted the airborne Exercise Winged Raider in the North-Eastern theatre on 10 January 2020. It is the Army's biggest airborne exercise. It comprises of more than 500 special forces troops.

According to a report recently published in a science journal, these three species of tiny frogs were discovered by scientists of Zoological Survey of India in Arunachal Pradesh. The new species discovered from Talle Valley Wildlife Sanctuary have been named as 'Liuranahimalayana', 'Liuranaindica' and 'Liuranaminuta'.

A multi-venue mega-science exhibition 'Vigyan Samagam' has been scheduled to be held in New Delhi from 21 January to 20 March 2020 at the National Science Centre (NSC), New Delhi. The first-of-its-kind exhibition is being hosted in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, and Delhi from May 2019 to March 2020.

Children's Books Award - SUDHA MURTY for 'The Upside-Down King'

An International Conclave on Globalising Indian Thought from 16-18 January 2020. It is organized by the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIM Kozhikode), Kerala. It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi through video conferencing.

Annual Global Risks Report of Geneva-based WEF identifies 5 global risks: extreme weather events, human-made environmental disasters, major biodiversity loss, natural disasters, and failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Scientists discovered a new species of bone-eating worm during a study to investigate the deep ocean's ecosystem. The bone-eating worm is yet to be named. It is the first of its kind found in the Gulf of Mexico.