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:
On 1st February, a music and dance festival ‘Sopan 2019’ has started at Central Park in New Delhi to encourage young and upcoming artistes to take up traditional art forms. The fest is organised by Sahitya Kala Parishad and the Delhi government in association with New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC). It is an attempts to take forward the traditional Indian art forms. This 6-day long festival is an opportunity for upcoming talents from vocals and instruments to dance forms to set an audience base for themselves. Young artistes such as Odissi dancers Madhur Gupta and Premananda Sahoo, vocalist Shivam Bhardwaj, percussionists Aamir Hussan and Amaan Jamil, and Kathak dancers Mrinalini among others will perform during the musical extravaganza.

Notes:
Rishi Kumar Shukla, a 1983-batch IPS officer of Madhya Pradesh Cadre, has been appointed the new Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He will serve in the post for a period of two years. The High-Level Committee chaired by Prime Minister approved the appointment of Mr Shukla to the post. He succeeded M. Nageshwara Rao, who was working as Interim Chief of the Agency. The post of CBI Chief has been lying vacant since 10th of January 2019 after the exit of Alok Kumar Verma following accusations of corruption against him by former CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana who is also allegedly accused of corruption charges. Prior to being appointed as the director of the CBI, Mr. Shukla has served as Madhya Pradesh DGP in 2016 and was presently the chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Police Housing Corporation (PHC) in Bhopal.

Notes:
Sana Mir, the former Pakistan captain, has become the first Asian woman cricketer to play hundred T20 Internationals (T20Is). She achieved the feat when she took the field against West Indies during the third T20I in Karachi on February 3, 2019. Overall, Mir is the only sixth woman from around the world to play 100 T20Is. Daendra Dottin of West Indies tops the list with a total of 109 T20Is to her name. In the Asian list, Sana is followed by fellow Pakistan cricketer Bismah Maroo (94 T20Is) and India’s Harmanpreet Kaur on third position (93 T20Is).

Notes:
In Tamil Nadu, the 37th edition of the ICT Academy Bridge 2019 conference was held in Chennai with theme “Fostering India for Industry 4.0″. The event brought together industry experts, academic leaders and government policy-makers to address the challenges faced by India Inc. in the era of Fourth Industrial Revolution & therefore creating a correlated education ecosystem and formulating a strategic regulatory framework. It is the largest Industry-Institute Interaction Event of Asia and is organized by ICT Academy. The city witnessed more than 1,000 participants from government, industry and academia.

Notes:
Ladu Kishore Swain (71), the senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader, has passed away in Bhubaneswar on 5 February 2019. He was elected to the 16th Lok Sabha in May 2014 from Aska constituency of Odisha.

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.

Notes:
The six-member Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, announced the sixth bi-monthly monetary policy statement for 2018-19. In it, the RBI has cut the key policy rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) by 25 basis points to 6.25% from 6.5% with immediate effect. Consequently, the reverse repo rate stands adjusted to 6.0%, and the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate to 6.5%. The MPC also decided to change the monetary policy stance from calibrated tightening to neutral. These decisions are in consonance with the objective of achieving the medium-term target for consumer price index (CPI) inflation of 4 per cent within a band of +/- 2 per cent, while supporting growth. The bank also projected an economic growth rate of 7.4% for FY20, up from 7.2% estimated for the current fiscal by Central Statistics Office (CSO). This is the first policy review, post the appointment of RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das and also the first post the interim budget. The next meeting of the MPC is scheduled from April 2 to 4, 2019.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
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.