Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2019

Notes:
Former Indian umpire Dara Dotiwalla (85), who officiated in the famous tied Test match in Chennai between India and Australia in 1986, has passed away in Mumbai on January 30, 2019. Born on 30th October 1933, Dotiwalla had officiated in six Test matches from 1982 to 1987, including the tied Test between India and Australia at the M A Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. He had also officiated in eight One Day Internationals (ODIs) from 1982 to 1988. He is best remembered for officiating the Chennai Tied Test of 1986 along with V Vikramraju. The match is the only the second tied Test in cricket history, and ended with Vikramraju controversially adjudging India’s No. 11 Maninder Singh lbw to Greg Matthews. Dotiwalla’s first ODI as an umpire was the fixture between India and Sri Lanka in Bengaluru in 1982, while his last one was India versus New Zealand in 1988 in Cuttack. The Delhi Test between India and West Indies in 1987 was his last assignment as a Test umpire.

Notes:
Germany, France and the UK have officially set up a payment channel with Iran called INSTEX, to help continue trade and circumvent US sanctions. The long-awaited special payment system will help save the Iran nuclear deal by allowing Tehran to keep trading with EU companies despite Washington re-imposing sanctions after US President Donald Trump abruptly quit the accord in 2018. The three countries have launched the device at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Bucharest, Romania. The new institution ‘INSTEX’ is a project of the three governments and will receive the formal endorsement of all 28 EU members. The Instrument In Support Of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) is registered in France and will be headed by German banker Per Fischer, a former Commerzbank director.

Notes:
Indian captain Mithali Raj has scripted history by becoming the first female cricketer to play 200 ODIs when she played 3rd and final ODI against New Zealand on February 1. Though, she could not make a big impact in her 200th game, scoring nine off 28 balls as India were bowled out for 149 in the third and final ODI against New Zealand at Hamilton. Mithali is also the highest run-getter in ODIs with 6622 runs at an average of 51.33, including seven hundreds. She also holds the record for having captained the India Women team 123 times with England’s Charlotte Edwards again second on this list having captained the Three Lions for 117 matches. Mithali made her ODI debut way back in 1999 and has featured in 200 games out of the 263 ODIs India have played. She has also played 10 Tests and 85 T20.

Notes:
Vani Kapoor has become the first Indian golfer to earn a card for the Australian Ladies PGA Tour (LPGA) after coming through its first-ever Qualifying Tournament at the Ballarat Golf Club. Vani shot rounds of 71, 78 and 69 to finish at two-over 218 and was tied-12th with three others. Vani has also qualified for Vic Open, co-sanctioned by the Australian LPGA and the US LPGA.

Notes:
As per the National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO’s) periodic labor force survey (PLFS), India’s unemployment rate hit a 45 year high of 6.1% in 2017-18. The latest data on unemployment in India is the first comprehensive survey on employment conducted by a government agency after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced demonetisation move in November 2016. The report, which is yet to come in public domain, stated that this level of unemployment was last seen in 1972-73. According to the survey, the rate of unemployment among rural males in the age group of 15-29 years was at 17.4%, more than three times the 2011-12 rate of 5%. A similar trend was seen in females in the same age group, where the rate jumped from 4.8% in 2011-12 to 13.6% in 2017-18. The rate of joblessness for urban youths was a whopping 18.7% for males and 27.2% for females.

Notes:
Punjab has recently declared the endangered Indus river dolphin as the state’s aquatic animal. The decision was recently taken at a meeting of the state board for wildlife chaired by chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh. Indus Dolphin is an endangered freshwater aquatic mammal found only in Indian and Pakistan in the Beas river. These are brown/grey in colour, but blind and live for at least for 30 years. The Chief Minister also gave approval to declare Kanjli Wetland and holy Kali Bein River as a wildlife conservation reserve to mark the historic 550th Parkash Purb of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji. The sacred Kali Bein River was associated with the life of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, who got enlightenment while taking a dip in the holy river.

Notes:
In Keonjhar district, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has launched the new ‘KALIA Chhatravritti Yojana’ to facilitate the children of the farmers, who are the beneficiaries of the Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) scheme. Under this scholarship scheme, the beneficiaries will be provided scholarships for pursuing higher education in professional courses free of cost. Children of farmers who have taken admission at Government Professional colleges on merit basis will be eligible for the scholarship scheme. The state government has also launched drinking water projects worth Rs 1,050 crore to supply safe drinking water in the district. Patnaik also launched Mission Shakti Conclave dedicated the development projects worth Rs 45 crore.

Notes:
Kerala has become the first State to set up a Price Monitoring and Research Unit (PMRU) to track violation of prices of essential drugs and medical devices under the Drugs Price Control Order (DPCO). The move comes more than 5 years after the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) proposed such a system for the States and the Union Territories. The new watchdog will offer technical help to the State Drug Controllers and the NPPA to monitor notified prices of medicines, detect violation of the provisions of the DPCO, look at price compliance, collect test samples of medicines, and collect and compile market-based data of scheduled as well as non-scheduled formulations.

Notes:
India’s latest communication satellite GSAT-31 was successfully launched by European launch services provider- Arianespace’s rocket from Kourou Launch Base in French Guiana on February 6, 2019. The Ariane-5 vehicle (Flight VA247) also carried Saudi Geostationary Satellite 1/Hellas Sat 4 along with GSAT-31. After a 42-min flight, GSAT-31 separated from the Ariane-5 in an elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) with a perigee (nearest point to Earth) of 250 km and an apogee (farthest point to Earth) of 35,850 km, inclined at an angle of 3.0 degree to the equator. After separation from Ariane-5, the two solar arrays of GSAT-31 were automatically deployed in quick succession and ISRO’s Master Control Facility at Hassan in Karnataka took over the command and control of GSAT-31 and found its health parameters normal. The GSAT-31 is a high power communication satellite with Ku-band and will provide communication services to Indian mainland and islands. It has an operational life of over 15 years & will offer seamless services by replacing the ageing INSAT-4CR satellite. GSAT-31 is India’s 40th communication satellite.

Notes:
The National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC) has been selected as winner under the Miniratna Category by Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). This has been done as part of endeavor by Ministry of MSME to felicitate select Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) to recognize their exemplary work towards promotion of SC/ST entrepreneurs. As per data uploaded on Sambandh Portal , the performance parameters for the felicitation were procurement from SC/ST entrepreneurs, number of vendor development programmes for SC/ST and number of SC/ST entrepreneurs benefitting. The NFDC, incorporated in the year 1975, was formed by the Government of India (GoI) with the primary objective of planning and promoting an organised, efficient and integrated development of the Indian film industry.