Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2019

Notes:
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.

Notes:
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.

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.

Notes:
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.

Notes:
Weightlifter Jeremy Lalrinnunga from Mizoram has recently clinched silver in men’s 67kg category & fetched India’s second medal in the EGAT’s Cup International Weightlifting Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Lalrinnunga lifted 131kg in the snatch and 157kg in clean and jerk for a total of 288 kg. Earlier, in the on-going event, world champion Saikhom Mirabai Chanu had won a gold in the women’s 48-kilogram category with a total lift of 192 kilograms.

Notes:
The book titled “Let’s Talk On Air: Conversations with Radio Presenters” has been authored by Rakesh Anand Bakshi, which serves as a comprehensive guide on radio-presenting in India. The new book celebrates the lives of 14 popular radio presenters in India – from the legendary Ameen Sayani to present-day RJs who have been entertaining us via the airwaves. Besides Sayani, among those RJs featured in the book are Yunus Khan, Rohini, Mamta Singh, Sayema, Hrishikay Kannan, Anuraag ‘picture’ Pandey and Anmol. This book can help shed light on intricacies of radio as a medium and the RJs behind the microphones, connect fans to their favourite RJs and, eventually attract more talent to be part of the industry. The book, published by Penguin Random House, will be launched on World Radio Day (WRD-2019) on February 13 in Mumbai.

Notes:
The 13th Conference of Parties (COP) of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS 13) will be held at 15th to 22nd February 2020 at Gandhinagar in Gujarat. Recently, the Government of India (GoI) has announced that the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) will be its mascot for CMS COP-13. It is an environmental treaty under the aegis of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Representatives from 129 Parties and eminent conservationists and international NGOs working in the field of wildlife conservation are expected to attend the COP. India has been a Party to the CMS since 1983. The Conference of Parties (COP) is the decision-making organ of this convention. CMS, also known as the Bonn Convention, recognizes that States must be the protectors of migratory species that live within or pass through their national jurisdictions and aims to conserve terrestrial, marine, and avian migratory species throughout their ranges.

Notes:
The Union Cabinet has recently approved establishment of a unified authority for regulating all financial services in International Financial Services Centres (IFSCs) in India through IFSCs Authority Bill of 2019. The establishment of a unified financial regulator for IFSCs will result in providing world-class regulatory environment to market participants from an ease of doing business perspective. This will provide a stimulus for further development of IFSCs in India. Currently, the banking, capital markets and insurance sectors in IFSC are regulated by multiple regulators — the RBI, SEBI and IRDAI, respectively. An IFSC caters to customers outside the jurisdiction of the domestic economy. Such centres deal with flows of finance, financial products and services across borders. It provides business and regulatory environment that is comparable to other leading international financial centres in the world like London and Singapore. IFSC provides Indian companies easier access to global financial markets. The first IFSC in India was set up at GIFT City in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India has exercised its powers conferred under Section 47A of the Banking Regulation Act of 1949 & imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore on the State Bank of India (SBI) for not monitoring the end use of funds in respect of one of its borrowers. However, SBI did not share details of the borrower and the loan amount given to the borrower.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has recently raised the limit for collateral-free agriculture loans to Rs 1.6 lakh from Rs. 1 lakh to enhance coverage of small and marginal farmers in the formal credit system. Currently, the banks are mandated to extend collateral-free agricultural loans up to Rs. 1 lakh. This limit was fixed in the year 2010. The RBI also proposed to set up an internal working group to review various issues plaguing farm credit, such as regional disparity, extent of coverage and limited capital formation from such credit. As per interim Budget of 2019, the Government of India (GoI) will also launch the ‘Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) programme to provide assured income support to small and marginal farmers. Under this, vulnerable landholding farmer-families, having cultivable land up to two hectares, will be provided direct income support at the rate of Rs. 6,000 per year. This income support will be transferred directly into the bank accounts of beneficiary farmers in three equal instalments of Rs. 2,000 each. The programme will be funded by the Government of India (GoI).