Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2019

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:
On 4th February, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways launched the 30th National Road Safety Week (NRSW-2019) in New Delhi to raise public awareness about traffic rules and ultimately to reduce casualties due to road accidents. The 2019 theme is “Sadak Suraksha-Jeevan Raksha”. In an event at Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti in Rajghat, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari also flagged off a motor car rally to commemorate the 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The motor rally will cover around 7250 km and will travel through those places in India, Bangladesh and Myanmar which are historically associated with Gandhiji. The conclusion of the rally will take place at Yangon in Myanmar on the 24th February 2019.

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:
In a huge relief to a number of students who fail to qualify to enter into prestigious institutions like IITs due to negative marking, the Madras High Court ruled against negative marking in competitive examinations saying they are bad in law. The Court stated that the practice of awarding negative marks will eradicate intelligent guessing in competitive exams. The judgment was passed while disposing of a writ petition filed in 2013 by an IIT JEE aspirant S. Nelson Prabhakar (a Scheduled Caste student), who failed to clear the Mains due to negative marking.

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:
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.

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 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.

Notes:
On 8th of February 2019, the Red Cross called for a total ban on nuclear weapons & also gave warning of the growing risk that such arms could again be used with devastating effect. For this burning issue, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) launched a global campaign to raise awareness about the rising nuclear threat facing the world. The notonukes.org campaign comes after the United States and Russia announced to abandon the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF)Treaty. The campaign aims to encourage people to lobby their governments to sign and ratify the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which has so far been signed by 70 nations and ratified by 21.

Notes:
Oscar-nominated British actor Albert Finney (82) has passed away in London on 7th of February 2019. He was a five-time Oscar nominee who began his career at the Royal Shakespeare Company before making his mark in film. He is known for his roles in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (also 1960), Tom Jones (1963), Two for the Road (1967), Scrooge (1970), Annie (1982), The Dresser (1983), Miller’s Crossing (1990), etc.