Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2019

Notes:
Lance Naik Nazir Ahmad Wani has been posthumously awarded ‘Ashok Chakra’, India’s highest peace time gallantry award for his role in a counter-insurgency operation in Kashmir in 2018. The award was presented by President Ram Nath Kovind to his wife Mrs. Mahajabeen at the 2019 Republic Day parade. Wani is the first Kashmiri to be conferred the Ashoka Chakra. He was also awarded Sena Medal for gallantry twice in 2007 and 2018 for his acts of valour. Wani was once a terrorist but had later turned in and joined the Army’s 162 Infantry Battalion (Territorial Army) in Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry in 2004. A resident of Cheki Ashmuji of Kulgam district in J&K, he lost his life in a counter-terror operation ‘Operation Batagund’ against six terrorists in Hirapur village near Batgund in Shopian on 25th November 2018. Ashoka Chakra is the highest peacetime military decoration for valour, courageous action or self-sacrifice away from the battlefield.

Notes:
Sushil Chandra, an IRS-IT officer of the 1980 batch, has assumed charge as the new Election Commissioner (EC) of India on 15th of February 2019. Prior to joining ECI, he was the Chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).With his appointment, the Commission now has Sunil Arora as the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and Ashok Lavasa and Mr Chandra as the two commissioners. The Commission is expected to announce the date and the schedule for the Lok Sabha polls by the end of this month.

Notes:
On 13th Feb, Minister of State (IC) for AYUSH, Shripad Yesso Naik launched the e-AUSHADHI portal for online licensing of Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homoeopathy drugs and related matters at New Delhi. The portal is aimed at increasing transparency, and improving information management, data usability and accountability. The acronym for new e-portal is ‘Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy Automated Drug Help Initiative’. The timelines would be fixed for processing of applications through the portal with text message and e-mail status updates at each step of the process. This portal will not only aid the licensing authority , manufactures and consumers, as it will provide real time information of the licensed manufactures and their products, cancelled and spurious drugs, contact details of the concerned authority for specific grievances.

Notes:
Professor Faizel Ismail, an Indian-origin global negotiator, has been appointed as the director of a renowned academic institution in South Africa. He will take charge as the director of the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance from Professor Alan Hirsch in July 2019. Ismail is known for his role in negotiating major agreements for South Africa, including with the Southern African Customs Union as well as the Trade and Development Agreement with the European Union. He chaired the International Trade and Administration Commission from 2015 to 2018, and was reappointed for a five-year term till 2023. Ismail, a professor at the UCT’s School of Economics, has in the past served as an ambassador to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and a senior advisor to the Minister of Trade and Industry.

Notes:
The researchers from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) have developed the first ant-like walking robot ‘AntBot’ that can explore its environment and find its way home without Global Positioning System (GPS). The scientists took inspiration from desert ants, which are extraordinary solitary navigators, to design the AntBot. Ants use polarised light and ultraviolet radiation to locate themselves in space. Cataglyphis desert ants in particular can cover several hundreds of metres in direct sunlight in the desert to find food, then return in a straight line to the nest, without getting lost. AntBot copies the desert ants’ exceptional navigation capacities, allowing it to explore without using GPS. The six-legged robot has an optical compass that uses polarised light to determine its direction, and an optical movement sensor directed to the sun to measure covered distance.

Notes:
Asia’s largest early childhood conference – “Early Ed Asia 2019” was held in Jaipur, Rajasthan with motto ‘Our Children. Our Future’. The aim of the conference was to provide a platform for learning, networking and sharing the best practices of early childhood education in Asia. It was organized by the Early Childhood Association, India and ScooNews. The conference brought together the brightest minds in Early Childhood Education to discuss the latest trends in teaching and research to provide a stronger foundation to our children. Over 600 eminent early childhood educators, policy makers, researchers and other stakeholders from India and foreign countries attended the conference. Special delegations of educators from Asia, Europe and the US also attended the conference. It is the first time that a conference of this magnitude is organised around early childhood education in India.

Notes:
In badminton, Sourabh Verma has won the Men’s Singles event at the Yonex-Sunrise 83rd Senior National Badminton Championships 2019 in Guwahati. In the final, he defeated Lakshya Sen in straight games of 21-18, 21-13. This is Verma’s 3rd nationals title. Earlier, the second seeded makeshift pair of Pranaav Jerry Chopra and Chirag Shetty clinched the men’s doubles title after beating top seeds Arjun M R and Shlok Ramchandran 21-13 22-20 in 33 minutes.

Notes:
The Union Environment Minister, Dr Harsha Vardhan has recently inaugurated the North Karnataka Agromet Forecasting and Research Centre (NKAFC) at the Farmers’ Knowledge Centre on University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) in Dharwad . It is the first of its kind in India to boost agricultural activities across the country by taking modern technology to farmers. The main purpose of the centre is to give accurate reports on the weather which would enable the farmers to protect the crops and get a good yield. The centre will also forecast on lightning which causes large-scale destruction of livestock and to farmers. About 25 lakhfarmers in the region would be kept updated with information via various platforms like WhatsApp, SMS, social networking sites and community radio stations. The centre has been established by the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences and the India Metrological Department (IMD), in association with UAS.

Notes:
The International Labour Organization (ILO) has recently released World Employment and Social Outlook Trends (WESO) 2019 report. As per the report, unemployment rates will fall to 4.9% in 2019 and remains steady in 2020. The new data gathered for the report show that a majority of the 3.3 billion people employed globally in 2018 worked keeping their economic security at risk in informal employment. The quantity of jobless in serious terms is approximated to rise from 172 million to 174 million in that time as the labour market place expands. The report offers worries about the woman workforce participation fee. The considerably lessen labour pressure participation of girls at 48%, as opposed with 75% for adult men signifies that around 3 in 5 of the 3.5 billion persons in the worldwide labour pressure were being guys. The world wide unemployment among younger folks (between 15-24) stood at 11.8%, which is much higher than it is among other age brackets.

Notes:
Sunil Chhetri, the all-time leading scorer for India in international football, has been conferred the first-ever ‘Football Ratna’ by Football Delhi, the State Association governing the sport in Delhi. Chhetri was recently named as the 6th Indian Footballer in the elite Padma Shri list of 2019. Popularly known as Captain Fantastic, he scored 2nd highest number of goals in international matches among active players after Cristiano Ronaldo. He has also been named AIFF Player of the Year five times in 2007, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2017.