Daily Current Affairs, 03rd February 2020

1) Union Government sets up task force to restrict Novel Coronavirus

•The Union Government has set up a task force which has a target to restrict the Novel Coronavirus in India. The task force consists of Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy and Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri. The task has a prime aim of stopping the Novel Coronavirus outspread in India.

What is Coronavirus?

•The coronavirus belongs to a family of viruses that can cause a range of illnesses in humans. These illnesses includes common cold and more life-threatening severe forms like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). The corona virus has been named after its shape which takes the pattern of a crown with protrusions around it.

2) Bangladesh’s PM Sheikh Hasina inaugurates “Ekushey Book Fair”

•Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has inaugurated the Ekushey Book fair. The Ekushey Book fair has been organised at Bangla Academy premises in Dhaka. The book fair is annually celebrated to commemorate the martyrs of the language movement which helped in establishing Bangla as the official language of the then East Pakistan. The book fair aims to publicize the art, culture and literature of Bangladesh across the globe.

3) Madhya Pradesh wins award for implementation of PMMVY

•Union Minister of Women and Child Development Smriti Irani presented the award to Madhya Pradesh Minister for Women and Child Development Imarti Devi and Principal Secretary Anupam Rajan for the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana in the state of Madhya Pradesh. The state has bagged the first position for the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana. In Madhya Pradesh, more than 14,55,000 beneficiaries have subscribed to the Pradhan Mantri Matra Vandana Yojana.

•Among the districts, Indore was ranked at first place for better performance of the scheme.

4) Sri Lanka tops in Breast Feeding support Policies and Programs

•Sri Lanka has topped a new survey conducted by the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative (WBTi). The survey was conducted on “Breast Feeding support Policies and Programs”. The island country has been placed on top of the chart among 97 countries globally. Sri Lanka has received the green color code after scoring 91 points out of 100. With the green color code, Sri Lanka has become the first country to achieve the “Green” nation status in supporting breastfeeding women. As per records of 2019, Sri Lanka has scored green code in 7 out of 10 indicators, blue code in 2 indicators and yellow code in one indicator.

5) Serbia’s Novak Djokovic Wins Australian Open 2020

•Novak Djokovic from Serbia inched closer to Spain’s Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer from Switzerland on the list of male tennis players with most Grand Slam titles after capturing a record-extending 8th title at Australian Open.

•Novak Djokovic has become only the 3rd man to win at least 8 titles. Novak Djokovic beat Austrian Dominic Thiem in five sets to successfully defend his Australian Open men’s singles title in Melbourne, Australia.

•Novak has also become 1st tennis player in the Open Era of men’s singles tennis to win a Grand Slam in 3 different decades. Ken Rosewall from Australia won Grand Slam titles in 3 different decades between the 1950s and 1970s but not all of them came in the Open Era. Novak Djokovic is now only 2 behind Rafael Nadal (19) and 3 behind Roger Federer (20) on the elite list which is being dominated by the Big Three since the start of the new millennium.