Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2019

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.

Notes:
On 19th Feb, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the first ever diesel to electric converted locomotive twin engine of ten thousand Horse Power at DLW Varanasi. It’s a complete ‘Make in India’ initiative & the conversion is an Indian R& D innovation for the entire world. The Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) has converted two WDG3A diesel locos into a Twin Electric WAGC3 loco of 10,000 HP. The converted locos will result in less green house gas emissions and better efficient locomotives for the Indian Railways. The feat was achieved in record time with the help of engineers from Research Designs and Standards Organisation (RDSO), Chittaranjan Locomotive Works(CLW), and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL). According to railway authorities, the conversion of diesel locomotive into electric engine not only created a history but also proved to be cost effective, as it needed half of the rehabilitation cost of old locos. Besides, it would be environment-friendly with enhanced traction power to double the average speed of goods train.

Notes:
Gymnast Simone Biles and tennis player Novak Djokovic won the top prizes at the 2019 Laureus World Sports Awards in Monaco. Djokovic won the Sportsman of the Year award after claiming victory at both the US Open and Wimbledon. While, Biles was named Sportswoman of the Year after winning four gold medals, one silver and one bronze at the 2018 World Championships. Golfer Tiger Woods won the Comeback award, while tennis player Naomi Osaka won Breakthrough of the Year. The other winners of the night were Chloe Kim (Action Sportsperson), Eliud Kipchoge, Arsene Wenger (Lifetime Achievement), Lindsey Vonn (Spirit for Sports), Jharkhand-based NGO Yuwa (Sport for Good) and Xia Boyu (Sporting Moment), the man who climbed Mount Everest, 44 years after he lost both his lower legs due to frostbite on his first attempt.

Notes:
The Madhya Pradesh government has decided to host the 79th session of Indian History Congress (IHC) at Barkatullah University in Bhopal from February 26 to 28, 2019. The 79th session was earlier supposed to be held at the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) from December 28 but was cancelled due to financial reasons. Over 1,000 delegates including prominent historians are expected to participate in the IHC. This will be 2nd time Madhya Pradesh will host IHC after it was held earlier in 2011. IHC is the largest professional and academic body of Indian historians with over 10,000 members. It was established in 1935 and its first session was held at Bharat Itihas Sanshodhak Mandal, Pune. Its primary objective is to promote and encourage scientific study of Indian history.

Notes:
The Spain government has recently conferred Union External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj with a prestigious award ‘Grand Cross of Order of Civil Merit’. The award was conferred in recognition of India’s support in evacuating 71 Spanish nationals through Operation Maitri from Nepal in April 2015 during the disastrous earthquake, which killed nearly 9,000 people and injured as many as 22,000 people.

Notes:
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has recently launched KALIA Chhatra Brutti Scholarship at the Secretariat for the children of the KALIA Scheme beneficiaries, who are studying and aspiring for technical and professional education. The state government is implementing the KALIA (Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation) scheme for the benefit of the farmers. Under the scheme, named after Lord Jagannath, the government would provide financial assistance of Rs. 10,000 per family to small and marginal farmers as assistance for cultivation. Each family will get Rs 5,000 separately in the kharif and rabi seasons, for five cropping seasons between 2018-19 and 2021-22. The scheme is not linked to the amount of land owned. Besides, landless households would be provided Rs 12,500 to take up activities like goat rearing units, mini layer units, duckery units, fishery kits for fishermen and women, mushroom cultivation and beekeeping.

Notes:
An international team of more than 200 astronomers from 18 countries has published the first phase of a major new radio sky survey at unprecedented sensitivity using the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. The survey discovered 3,00,000 hidden galaxies using radio astronomy in a tiny corner of the northern hemisphere at low radio frequency. It is believed that these findings will help shed new light on some of the Universe’s deepest secrets. This includes the physics of black holes as well as research into how galaxy clusters evolve. The LOFAR telescope is operated by ASTRON in The Netherlands and is considered to be the world’s leading telescope of its type. It is made up of a network of radio antenna across seven countries, forming the equivalent of a 1,300-km diameter satellite dish. It is capable of detecting light source beyond the power of optical instruments. Radio astronomy allows scientists to detect radiation produced when massive celestial objects interact.

Notes:
The Supreme Court has appointed former apex court judge Justice DK Jain as the first court-appointed ombudsman for the BCCI under the terms of newly approved constitution of the cricket board. The role of the ombudsman would be to resolve the disputes relating to the players within the state cricket associations as also financial issues. The ombudsman will have to hold hearings at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) headquarters in Mumbai. It must be noted that Article 40, chapter nine of the BCCI constitution deals with the issue of appointment of ombudsman for the purpose of providing an independent dispute resolution mechanism. The types of disputes that come under the ambit of ombudsman pertain to members, associations and IPL franchisee.

Notes:
At Aero India show 2019, Navratna Defence PSU Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) has launched its new product “Atmospheric Water Generator (AWG)” to meet the ever-increasing need for drinking water worldwide. The AWG employs a novel technology to extract water from the humidity present in the atmosphere and purify it. It uses heat exchange for condensing the atmospheric moisture to produce pure, safe and clean potable water. The AWG comes with a Mineralisation Unit, which is used to add minerals which are required to make the water potable. The AWG is configurable in static and mobile (vehicular) versions and is available in 30 litres/day, 100 litres/day, 500 litres/day and 1,000 litres/day capacities. The Atmospheric Water Generator can be used to provide drinking water in community centres and public places like health care centres, schools, colleges, offices, railway stations, bus stands, airports, sea ports, off-shore oil rigs, military establishments, remote field areas and remote establishments and residential complexes. It is manufactured by BEL in collaboration with CSIR-IICT and MAITHRI, a start-up company based in Hyderabad.

Notes:
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has been elected third time unopposed as the President of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). The elections of the office bearers and executive committee members of WFI for the next four-year term (2019-2023) were held at the Constitution Club of India (CCI). Along with Brij Bhushan, I.D. Nanavati has been elected as the Senior Vice President, V.N. Prasood as the Secretary General and Satyapal Singh Deshwal as the Treasurer. Singh, who is also a Member of Parliament (MP) from the Kaiserganj constituency of Uttar Pradesh, was the chef-de-mission of the Indian contingent for the Asian Games 2018 held in Jakarta and Palembang.