Current Affairs - February 13, 2020 Current Affairs

"Toy Story 4" has won the Academy Award for best animated feature for Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen and Jonas Rivera - a decade after "Toy Story 3" took the prize. It's the 10th Pixar title to take an Oscar since the category was created in 2001.

Brad Pitt has won the best supporting actor Oscar for his role as Cliff Booth in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood at the 92nd Academy Awards. Pitt saw off strong competition from Al Pacino and Joe Pesci for The Irishman, Tom Hanks for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Anthony Hopkins for The Two Popes.

Irked over repeated failures of the states to file their replies, the Supreme Court came down heavily and imposed cost of Rs five lakh on them for not complying with its directions to file their affidavits on a PIL seeking setting up of community kitchens across the country. A bench of Justice N V Ramana, Ajay Rastogi and V Ramasubramanian, during hearing in the morning, said if the Union of India and the states file their affidavit in the next 24 hours then they will have to pay only Rs one-lakh fine, whereas those who still fail to submit it by then will have to pay Rs 5-lakh fine.

South Korean film-maker Bong Joon-ho has become the second director of a foreign-language film to win the best director Oscar at the 92nd Academy Awards. Bong follows Alfonso Cuaron(who won for Roma in 2018) as a foreign-language winner with Parasite, seeing off competition from the likes of Quentin Tarantino (for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), Todd Phillips for Joker and the pre-ceremony favourite Sam Mendes (for 1917).

BSNL, Air India and MTNL highest loss-making PSUs in FY19: Survey. ONGC, Indian Oil Corporation and NTPC were the top three profitable PSUs in 2018-19, whereas BSNL, Air India and MTNL incurred highest losses for a third consecutive year, according to a survey tabled in Parliament.

On February 13, 2020, Union Minister Amit Shah will launch the BIMSTEC Conference on Combating Drug Trafficking in New Delhi. The event will be organized bythe Narcotics Control Bureau. The Conference will be attended by other BIMSTEC partners Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, Thailand and Sri Lanka.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel inaugurated Gaurela-Pendra-Marwahi as the 28th district of the state.The new district, carved out of Bilaspur, has three tehsils and three development blocks namely Gaurela, Pendra and Marwahi. It comprises 166-gram panchayats, 222 villages and two nagar panchayats, with an area of 1,68,225 hectares.

13th Conference of Parties (COP) of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) to be held at Gandhinagar in Gujaraton February 17-22.

To inculcate reading habit among students, the 'Reading Mission- Haryana' has been initiated by the Haryana government. As reading helps in developing social values of egalitarianism, tolerance, and justice, the 'Reading Mission- Haryana' has been started in the state.

South Korean film Parasite has been named best picture at this year's Oscars, becoming the first non-English language film to take the top prize. Renee Zellweger won best actress for playing Judy Garland in Judy.

Laura Dern won best supporting actress at the 92nd Academy Awards for her role in Noah Baumbach's "Marriage Story." It's the first Oscar win for Dern, and also the first time an actor has won an Oscar for a role in a movie distributed by a streaming service - Netflix.

Joker star Joaquin Phoenix has won the best actor Oscar at the 92nd Academy Awards, for his performance as Batman's nemesis. Phoenix was the overwhelming favourite, seeing off competition from the likes of Marriage Story's Adam Driver and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood's Leonardo DiCaprio.

National Security Advisor (NSA) of Israel Meir Ben Shabbat called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Earlier, as many as Nine Israeli Defense companies had presented their tech solutions at the Defence Expo pavilion held in Lucknow.

PURE EV, the startup that has raised funding at a valuation of USD 35 Million and incubated by IIT Hyderabad, launched its High-Speed Electric Scooter 'EPluto 7G'. The vehicle has a range of 116 km per full charge (in ICAT range test) and comes with a Patented Battery Technology.

Roger Deakins has won Oscar in Best Cinematography category for 1917. 1917, which is based on World War I has so far won three Oscars, in the Best cinematography, Best sound mixing and Best Visual Effects category.

Renee Zellweger was crowned best actress at the Oscars for her portrait of Hollywood legend Judy Garland in "Judy," a biographical drama exploring the singer's personal and professional turmoil at the end of her life.

After more than a decade of holding the Academy Award ceremonies towards the end of February, the 92nd Academy Awards took place earlier in the month, on February 9, 2020. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 24 categories.

Storm Ciara wreaks havoc across northwestern Europe. Cars struggled to move after a water main pipe burst, causing a road to be buried under feet of water in Peterborough, United Kingdom. The name Ciara was given to the storm by the UK Met Office.

Troops of India and United Kingdom will conduct their fifth edition of joint military exercise 'Ajeya Warrior-2020' at Salisbury Plains in United Kingdom from February 13-26.