Daily current affairs for 22nd & 23rd Feb 2018 ( English)
1. The
Union Minister of State for Power and New and Renewable Energy, RK Singh
have announced a special package of Rs 925 crore for strengthening the
power transmission and distribution system in Arunachal Pradesh. The
fund would be used for re-conductoring of old 11 KV lines and conversion of
selected long LT distribution lines with 11 KV High Voltage Distribution System. He
directed the officials to expedite the work to electrify every village in the
state by May 1, 2018.
2. The
Gandhi Nagar railway station of Jaipur, Rajasthan became the country’s first
major non-suburban railway station to be fully-managed by women. It is
the second station in the country to be managed solely by women – the first
being Matunga in Mumbai.
3. India
has contributed USD 1 million aid to Tonga for rehabilitation efforts
after island was hit by Tropical Cyclone Gita which had caused massive
destruction across the pacific ocean archipelago. US’s National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had reported it Category 4
cyclone and was the worst on record to hit Tonga. Cyclone Gita had
destroyed nation’s parliament and affected about 70% island’s population.
Tongatapu, where country’s capital NukuEalofa is situated was among the worst
hit areas. India will provide USD 500000 for immediate relief
assistance and remaining USD 500000 from the India-UN Development Partnership
Fund (UNDP) for the rehabilitation efforts.
4. 8th edition
of Indo-Seychelles joint counter insurgency/counter terrorism exercise, named
‘Lamitye’ began on February 24, 2018 in Seychelles. ’Lamiye’ means
friendship in Creole (local dialect). It is conducted biennially with
an aim of enhancing cooperation and interoperability between Indian
Army and Seychelles People’s Defence Forces.
5. Prime
Minister Narendra Modi delivered the keynote address at the 4th
Global Business Summit in New Delhi with the theme ‘New
Economy, New Rules’. Global Business Summit is a flagship initiative
of the Times Group. This year’s Summit was presented by Yes Bank and
Economic Times. During the address, PM Modi outlined that Indian
government is taking stringent action against financial irregularities and will
not accept unlawful acquisition of public money The first edition was held in
January 2015.
6. 7th edition
of Youth Festival began at Central Park, New Delhi with the theme ‘Let Love
Live’. This year’s Youth Festival celebrates the freedom to love. It
will be conducted till 27th February 2018. The festival
features dance, music and special acts conveying a message of love and harmony.
It was organised by Sahitya Kala Parishad and the Department of Art, Culture
and Languages, Delhi Government.
7. A
NITI Aayog official has announced that, Nandan Nilekani will assist
the government in developing IT infrastructure for National Health Protection
Scheme (NHPS). It aims to offer medical cover for up to Rs 5 lakh
to more than 10 crore poor families. This will cover up to 40 % of
India’s population. In 2018-2019 union budget, an initial corpus of Rs 2,000
crore has been allocated for NHPS. The premium on insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh
under NHPS has been decided at Rs 900-1,000 per family annually. The Central
government will contribute 60 % fund, and the remaining will be provided by the
corresponding states.
8. 15th edition
of Vodafone Odeon Theatre Festival started off in Kolkata, West Bengal. This
festival is conducted to provide a platform for theatre artists to display
their talent. Leading dramatists from all over India are taking part in this
theatre festival.
10. ‘Aadi Mahotsava’, a
tribal festival organized by Assam, began at Gandhi Mandir Indoor stadium, in
Guwahati, Assam. It is conducted by the Tribal Cooperative Marketing
Development Federation of India jointly with the Ministry of Tribal
Affairs.
11. 44th
Khajuraho dance festival started off in Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh.
This festival is organised by the culture department of the Madhya
Pradesh government. It will fetaure classical dances like Kathak, Odissi,
Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi, Kathakali and Mohiniattam.
12. Central
Government has cancelled plan to produce 114 Single-engine Fighters with
foreign collaboration under the “Make in India” framework in wake of
political conflict between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress
over 36 French-manufactured Rafale fighter jets.
13. The
first meeting of Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Medicinal and Aromatic
Plants (MAPs) for North East Region (NER) co-chaired by Secretaries of Ministry
of Development of North-East Region (MDoNER) and AYUSH is scheduled to be held
in March 2018. IMC will suggest actionable measures for enhancing the
livelihood and economic transformation based on cultivation and sustainable
management of MAPs resource in North East Region. MDoNER will be coordinator
for IMC of MAPs.
14. With
the launch of ‘Nivesh Mitra’, Uttar Pradesh (UP) has become the first
state in India where business and investment projects can now be cleared
digitally, without any human interface. ‘Nivesh Mitra’, a digital
platform which will serve as a single-window clearance system. UP
State Government has brought 20 departments under the ambit of ‘Nivesh Mitra’
and application for 70 clearances can be made through this platform. It replaces Udyog
Bandhu. Under Udyog Bandhu processes were eased significantly but one
would still need to go through at least one government officer.
15. Haryana Chief
Minister Manohar Lal Khattar launched ‘Parivartan’, a scheme
designed to address 10 issues in 46 developmental blocks of the state. 10 issues to be
addresses under ‘Partivartan’ Scheme are facilitation of financing,
improving health services, making agriculture profitable and sustainable,
implementing Swachh Bharat, engaging the youth,
decongesting market areas, checking air pollution, effective
policing, ensuring availability of identity-related services and ensuring road
order and conduct. 46 top officials of the state, including those
from the IAS, IFS and IPS cadres, have been allotted one block each, wherein
they will undertake work related to the above stated 10 issues.
16. Telangana
State Government signed an MOU with Taoyuan City of Taiwan for better
technology partnership in the state during World Congress on Information
Technology (WCIT) 2018, in Hyderabad. As per the terms of the MoU, Taoyuan
City and Telangana Sate Government will engage in an economic exchange of
technology companies.
17. The
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh announced that, the Central
Government has sanctioned a special package to strengthen security in 3 eastern
districts of Arunachal Pradesh: Tirap, Changlang and Longding
. It is to handle the prevailing insurgency problem in
Arunachal Pradesh. He ensured that funds from the government will be dispensed
at the earliest for the construction of 20 police stations in the three
districts. He also ensured that a forensic science laboratory will be
sanctioned for Arunachal Pradesh.
18. Prime
Minister Narendra Modi announced that a defence industrial
production corridor worth Rs 200 billion will be established in Bundelkhand
during the ‘Investors Meet’ at the Indira Gandhi Pratishthan in Lucknow. This
corridor will connect Agra, Aligarh, Lucknow, Kanpur, Jhansi and
Chitrakoot. The first out of the two defence industrial production
corridors is built between Chennai and Bengaluru. It will link Kattupalli port,
Chennai, Tiruchirapalli, Coimbatore and Hosur. He said that, this project will
bring an investment of Rs 200 billion. It will generate employment
opportunities for 2,50,000 people
19. NER’s first
regional Centre for Agriculture with Israeli collaboration to be inaugurated in
Mizoram on March 7, 2018.
20. Power loom
Development & Export Promotion Council (PDEXCIL) with the support of Union
Ministry of Textiles & Ministry of Commerce & Industry have organized a three –day India
International Textiles Expo (IITExpo) in Colombo, Sri Lanka from
21st to 23rd February, 2018. At the Expo, 45
exhibitors from various textile clusters of India displayed variety of fabrics,
home textiles and traditional items suitable for apparel, industrial and
general consumers.
21. UN Secretary
General, Antonio Guterres, has demanded an immediate end to fighting in the
Eastern Ghouta in Syria. Guterres described the rebel-held region, as a hell on
earth while speaking at the UN Security Council on February 21. The Eastern
Ghouta has been under fierce bombardment from government forces backed by
Russian airpower in recent days. The region is the last major rebel-held
area near the Syrian capital Damascus. The Syrian military says it is
trying to liberate the area from what it terms as terrorists but it has also
been accused of targeting civilians.
22. An MoU was signed
between Mahindra Aerospace and Canada’s Viking Air to form a strategic
alliance for making smaller aircraft to support regional air connectivity in India
during the ongoing India visit of Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, to
India. Both
the companies will work together to boost market penetration in identified
territories and provide multiple options to prospective customers based on
specific operational requirements.
23. Admiral Sunil
Lanba, the Chief of the Naval Staff inaugurated country’s first-of-its-kind
Medium-Voltage (MV) training lab at INS Valsura, Gujarat, for the Indian Navy
commissioned by Siemens India. This lab will be utilized for first stage training of naval
personnel on Medium Voltage Power Generation, Protection & Distribution and
MV Drives & Motors. This lab consists of equipment manufactured in India
and is in line with the Make in India initiative. This MV lab facilitates Indian
Navy officials to train, manage and operate modern equipment of Indian Navy
without going to the field.
24. India’s first
locally developed 4G/LTE( Long Term Evolution) telecom system was
launched by the Union Telecom minister Manoj Sinha. This system has
been designed and developed by India’s
leading telecom equipment manufacturer VNL Ltd. by taking into
consideration, the requirement for high speed connectivity, particularly in
rural areas of India. LTE is a standard for high-speed wireless communication
for mobile devices and data terminals.
25. Country’s first
super critical carbon dioxide (S-CO2) Brayton Test Loop facility have
indigenously developed by scientists from Indian Institute of Science (IISc),
Bengaluru. It is first test loop technology coupled with solar heat
source in world that will generate clean energy from power plants, including
solar thermal. This facility uses supercritical CO2 (SCO2) instead of steam to
generate more power. Supercritical refers to state of CO2 above its critical
temperature of 31 C and critical pressure of 73 atmospheres, which makes it
twice as dense as steam.
26. Dhanush ballistic
missile was successfully test-fired from naval ship off Odisha near Paradip in
the Bay of Bengal. Dhanush missile is also known as Prithvi-III. It is
naval variant of indigenously-developed Prithvi-II missile.It is
nuclear-capable surface-to-surface missile of short range capable of carrying
nuclear as well as conventional warheads. It has length of 8.53 meters and 0.9
metre wide is capable of carrying a payload of 500 kg and is capable of hitting
both land and sea-based targets. It can be used for both ship-to-ship and
ship-to-surface strikes. It has declared strike range of 350 km. The Dhanush/Prithvi-III
is part of five missile platforms that have been indigenously developed by
DRDO. The other families of missiles developed under IGMPD(Integrated Guided
Missile Development Programme are Agni, Trishul, Akash and Nag..
27. A new shark species
named “Atlantic sixgill shark” was discovered in the Atlantic Ocean. This new species is
named Hexanchus vitulus.
28. Venezuela become
first sovereign country to officially launch its own cryptocurrency called Petro backed by
oil, gas, gold and diamond reserves. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro
claimed that the pre-mined cryptocurrency Petro has raised USD 735 million on
the first day of its pre-sale.
29. The Employees’
Provident Fund Organisation, EPFO has declared 8.55 per cent interest
rate for 2017-18 for its about 5 crore members during the meeting of Central
Board of Trustees of EPFO in New Delhi. For 2016-17, the rate was 8.65
per cent and in 2015-16 the rate was 8.8 per cent.
30. In order to promote
cross border flow of investments and technology, the revised DTAA
provides for reduction in withholding tax rates from 15% to 10% on
dividends, from 15% to 10% on interest, from 20% to 10% on royalties and from
17.5% to 10% on fees for management, professional and technical
services was signed between India and Kenya.
31. Aditya Birla Idea
Payments Bank Limited commenced operations as a payments bank with effect from
February 22, 2018.It is a 51:49 joint venture (JV) between Aditya Birla
Nuvo Ltd. (ABNL) and telecom operator Idea Cellular. In November 2016,
Airtel Payments Bank Ltd became the first entity to start operations as
Payments Bank. Paytm and Fino Payments Bank are the other two entities that
have already launched their operations. India Post Payments Bank is expected to
start nationwide operations from April 2018.
32. One 97
communications, the parent company of Paytm, createdPaytm Life Insurance
Corporation Ltd. and Paytm General Insurance Corporation Ltd with share
capital Rs 1000000 each. It is important to note that Insurance
Regulatory Development Authority of India had granted a corporate agency
license to One 97 Communications in September 2017.
33. The Union Finance
Ministry announced that the first sale of electoral bonds will start from
March 1, 2018 for a period of 10 days at select branches of State Bank of India
(SBI). The
bonds will be available in multiples of Rs.1000, Rs. 10000, Rs. 10 lakh,
Rs. 1 crore. These bonds would be valid for 15 days from the
date of issue. The bonds will not carry his/her/entity’s name. Thus
it will be a bearer instrument. Besides, it will be an interest-free
banking instrument.
34. Reserve Bank of
India (RBI) has constituted an expert committee under the chairmanship of YH
Malegam to look into a range of issues relating to classification of bad loans, rising incidents
of frauds and effectiveness of audits. Besides, the committee will examine the role and effectiveness
of various types of audits conducted in banks in mitigating such divergence and
frauds.
35. Odisha State
Cabinet approved long-term bauxite linkage policy that would help Vedanta’s
Lanjigarh alumina refinery to source bauxite from
government-owned Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC).
36. Justin Forsyth
resigned as Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF on February 22, 2018 following
accusations of inappropriate behaviour towards female staff while serving as
the Chief Executive of Save the Children.
37. M. Subbarayudu(IFS
officer of 1994 batch) was appointed the next Ambassador of India to
Plurinational State of Bolivia. He is currently the
Ambassador of India to Lima.
38. Flying Officer
Avani Chaturvedi became the first Indian woman by flying a MiG-21
“Bison” fighter aircraft solo.. She took off the MiG-21 “Bison” from
the Jamnagar base of Indian Air Force (IAF). She already has the credit of
being one of the first three women to undergo fighter pilot training in
the Indian Air Force. The other two women are Bhawana Kanth and Mohana
Singh.
39. India was ranked
81st among 180 countries in Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 2017 released by
NGO Transparency International. India has dropped by two ranks from 79th slot in CPI 2016. It
scored 40 on the scale. New Zealand and Denmark were ranked as cleanest
countries in 2017 CPI list as in 2016, with scores of 89 and 88, respectively.
Syria, South Sudan and Somalia were ranked as most corrupt countries with
scores of 14, 12 and 9, respectively. CPI ranks countries on a scale of zero
(highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean) based on their perceived levels of
corruption in the public sector. Countries with poorest protection for press
and (NGOs were placed at the lowest ranks on the index.
40. India's Twenty20
women's cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur is set to join Punjab police as a
Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) on March 1, 2018 after Indian
Railways relieved Harmanpreet following her request to join Punjab police.
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh had offered the DSP post to Harmanpreet
in July 2017, following her scintillating performance in the Women's World Cup
2017. She had resigned from the Railways last year. Her medical test for the
post of DSP had already been completed but she could not join as Indian Railway
did not relieve her.
41. Norway's Marit
Bjoergen became the most successful athlete in Winter Olympics history by
clinching the bronze medal in cross country skiing's women's team sprint free. Bjoergen's
bronze with Maiken Caspersen Falla took her total tally to 14 Olympic medals,
surpassing fellow Norwegian Ole Einar Bjoerndalen who has 13 in biathlon. The
37-year-old Bjoergen is also the second most successful woman at both Summer
and Winter Games, trailing behind only Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina who has won
18 medals. Kikkan Randall and Jessica Diggins won the gold and the first
Olympic cross country title for the United States.
42. Canada’s own first
franchise-based Twenty20 league “Global T20 Canada”, was announced in New Delhi. It
will begin functioning from July 2018 at three venues in Toronto.Global T20
Canada League is conceptualised, designed, developed and managed by
Mercuri Group with Cricket Canada. Cricket Canada is the official
governing body for cricket in Canada. Cricket Canada has become the first
Associate member of the ICC to start a Twenty20 franchise league in the North
America market.
43. India bag gold
medal at 5th Commonwealth Nations Bridge Championship held in Gold Coast, Australia, between
14 and 18 February 2018. The Indian “A” team defeated the Australian
team with a score of 103-65. The Indian “A” team was headed by Kiran
Nadar. The team members were Keyzad Anklesari, B. Satyanarayana, Rajeshwar
Tewari, Jaggy Shivdasani and Sunit Chokshi.
44. Nanette
Fabray, an award-winning actress, passed away due to natural
causes, at her residence in Palos Verdes, California, US on 22nd
Feb 2018. She had won three Emmy awards. She had also received the SAG
Life Achievement Award in 1987. She had overcome hearing loss and later became
an advocate for the rights of the deaf. She was awarded with the President’s
Distinguished Service Award and the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award for
the same.
45. Suresh Seth, senior
Congress leader and former Indore Mayor, died after suffering
from age-related health issues, at a hospital in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
46. M S
Anantharaman, a popular violinist, passed away due to age-related
ailments, at his residence in Mylapore, Chennai.
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