Current Affairs February 09&10, 2019
In this post, GKToday presents Current Affairs of February 09&10, 2019 in Short Notes form for preparation of IBPS, Banking, CLAT, SSC, Railway, UPSC, IAS/PCS, UPPSC, BPSC, MPPSC, RPSC, TNPSC, MPSC, KPSC and all other competitive examinations of India.
1. On 7th February, Vidharbha lifted the Ranji Trophy for the second time in a row, after defeating Saurashtra by 78 runs in the final match of the 2018–19 season held at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur. With this, Vidarbha has become only the 6th team in the tournament's long history to have defended the title.
2. The 9th Senior Women's Hockey National Championship 2019 has started in Hisar, Haryana from February 8. Top India stars will turn up for their respective state units and employers for the tournament. RSPB will begin their campaign against Hockey Rajasthan in the Pool A opening match. Twenty teams will participate in the 11-day domestic extravaganza. Teams that take the top two spots in Pools A, B, C and D in the round-robin stage will qualify for the quarterfinals to be played on February 15. The semifinal and final will be played on February 17 and February 18, respectively.
3. On 6th February 2019, Opener Smriti Mandhana hammered the fastest fifty for India in the first T20I against New Zealand in Wellington in just 24 deliveries. She broke her own record of fastest T20I fifty for India in women's cricket, which she had achieved against England in Mumbai in 2018. Though, Smriti Mandhana's 58 and Jemimah Rodrigues' 39 went in vain as the Indian eves were bundled out for 136 in 19.1 overs. New Zealand Women defeated India by 23 runs in the first T20I. The overall record for the fastest fifty in women’s T20Is belongs to Sophie Devine of New Zealand who hit a half-century in 18 balls against India during a T20 International back in 2015.
4. The Robert Bosch Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (RBC-DSAI) has recently inaugurated at the IIT Madras with an objective of advance scientific innovation for societal benefit. The RBC-DSAI will undertake foundational research in many areas of AI and Data Science viz. deep learning, reinforcement learning, network analytics, interpretable machine learning, and domain aware AI. The centre is opened by Germany-based Bosch in collaboration with IIT-Madras. Bosch will invest around Rs 20 crore (2.5 million euros) over five years in the centre.
5. The Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) of the US Chambers of Commerce has recently released its International IP Index for Year 2019. In it, India has moved up 8 places to rank 36th among 50 economies in the 2019 Index.The improvement reflects important reforms implemented by Indian policymakers towards building and sustaining an innovation ecosystem for domestic entrepreneurs and foreign investors alike. The report also focuses on thorny issues. According to the report, the key problems in India include barriers to licensing and technology transfer, strict registration requirements, limited framework for the protection of bio-pharmaceutical IP rights, patentability requirements outside international standards, lengthy pre-grant opposition proceedings and previously used compulsory licensing for commercial and non-emergency situations. The index ranks countries based on 45 indicators covering patent, trademark, copyright and trade secrets protection.
6. The 2nd edition of India Heritage Walk Festival (IHWF-2019) is a one-of-its-kind month-long festival covering 37 cities has started from February 2. It is organized by Sahapedia in partnership with UNESCO. The fest is also supported by the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC). This festival offers the opportunity to discover the hidden gems linked to history. The primary objective of the festival is to widen access to various aspects of India's tangible and intangible heritage. Through 87 heritage walks and over 100 outreach events, the event will explore the cultural fabric of India, focusing on museums, historically significant monuments and markets, natural landscapes, areas known for rich cuisine, and locations that are rooted in women-oriented narratives. For this edition, Sahapedia has collaborated with about 40 local-level partners to conduct its pan-India heritage walk festival. They include the Kerala History Museum, The Kochi Heritage Project, INTACH Srinagar Chapter, Art Deco Mumbai, Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation and Oxford Bookstore.
7. The 2nd edition of the Asia LPG Summit 2019 was held in New Delhi with theme ‘LPG – Energy for Life’. The summit was organized by the World LPG Association (WLPGA) in association with major Indian public-sector oil companies (OMCs) Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum, and Bharat Petroleum. In it, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan stated that India has become the world's second largest importer of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as its government pushes cleaner alternatives to traditional cooking fuels such as firewood and cow dung. The imports of LPG grew 12.5% over the past five years to 12 million metric tons (13 million tons) in 2018-19. Hence, in terms of LPG import, India has surpassed Japan to acquire 2nd spot. China is at first spot. India imports LPG mainly from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait and Iran. The summit offered a unique opportunity to the global LPG industry to interact with development agencies, NGOs and non-profit organizations who have facilitated last-mile access to LPG for the beneficiaries.
8. The Dard Aryan Tribe of Jammu and Kashmir's Ladakh region known for its liberal customs and ornate costumes is struggling to keep its vibrant cultural legacy alive. Recently, at the 2019 Dard Aryan Festival (Aryan Utsav) in New Delhi, the delegation of the Dard Aryans has requested the Central government to make serious interventions. The rich heritage of the Dard Aryans — believed to be the original descendants of ‘pure Aryan race’ — is under threat due to rapid modernisation, migration and religious conversion. The Dard Aryans inhabit Dha, Hanu, Beema, Darchik and Garkone villages in Leh and Kargil districts. The villages are together called the Aryan valley. The people of this region have unique physical features, social life, ethnic culture and language. Many researchers believe that the ‘Aryans of Ladakh’ or the ‘Brokpas’ were a part of Alexander’s army and had come to the region over 2,000 years ago. The word ‘Dard’ is derived from a Sanskrit word, ‘Daradas’, which refers to people who live on hillsides.
9. The Union Cabinet has recently approved the establishment of Circuit Bench of Calcutta High Court at Jalpaiguri. Te proposed bench will have jurisdiction over four districts namely Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar. The decision comes in the backdrop of the decision of the Calcutta High Court Full Court Meeting in 1988. The Union cabinet had also approved the move in June 2006. A circuit bench is for territories which are far flung, but do not have too many matters to justify a full-fledged permanent bench. The Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India. It has jurisdiction over the state of West Bengal and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The High Court building's design is based on the Cloth Hall, Ypres, in Belgium.
10. INS Trikand (F51), a Talwar-class frigate of the Indian Navy, participated in the 8th edition of multinational maritime exercise ‘Cutlass Express 2019’. INS Trikand is commanded by Captain Srinivas Maddula and is equipped with a versatile range of sensors and weapons enabling her to address threats in all the three dimensions – air, surface and sub-surface. The exercise was held near Djibouti, Mozambique and the Seychelles from 27 Jan to 06 Feb 19. The aim of the exercise was to improve law enforcement capacity, promote regional security and progress inter-operability between the armed forces of the participating nations for the purpose of interdicting illegal maritime activity in the Western Indian Ocean. The 15 participating nations in this iteration of Cutlass Express are Canada, Comoros, Djibouti, France, India, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Portugal, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania, The Netherlands and the United States.
