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 February 16, the Himachal Pradesh Assembly passed a Bill to make Sanskrit as the second official language of the state. The Himachal Pradesh Official Language Bill, 2019 (Amendment) was introduced by Irrigation and Public Health Minister Mahender Singh Thakur in the ongoing budget session. The bill was passed without any discussion. The first official language of Himachal is Hindi. The state’s name was coined from the Sanskrit—Him means ‘snow’ and achal means ‘land’ or ‘abode’—by Acharya Diwakar Datt Sharma, one of the state’s eminent Sanskrit scholars. According to a survey of CMS – India Corruption Study 2017, Himachal Pradesh is India’s least corrupt state.

Notes:
India’s second-largest IT services firm, Infosys has launched a digital platform ‘InfyTQ’ to offer learning and engagement experiences to engineering students in the country. InfyTQ is a free platform open to all engineering students in their 3rd and 4th years across India. The platform encourages holistic development by imparting technical as well as professional skills, helping them become industry-ready. InfyTQ, available on both mobile and desktop, includes content, courses, and news as well as online assessments and certification. Through app, students will benefit from the always-on, anytime, anywhere learning, catered through a continuous transfer of digital skills and expertise from the Infosys innovation ecosystem. In addition, the platform also offers courses on professional skills to help students navigate the art of effective contextual response, inter-personal relationships, communication and e-mail, and etiquette, among others.

Notes:
The Andhra Pradesh government has signed a 30 year concession agreement with the UAE-based company “National Central Cooling Company PJSC (DFM: Tabreed)” to offer District Cooling solutions to the greenfield city of Amaravati. The agreement is for a contracted cooling capacity of 20,000 refrigeration tons (RTs) that will build, own, operate and transfer India’s first district cooling system in Amaravati, the new capital of Andhra Pradesh. The cooling services will start from early 2021. Tabreed’s district cooling system is a part of Andhra Pradesh’s vision for Amaravati to create jobs and homes along with a world-class infrastructure and efficient resource management. Compared to other cooling systems, district cooling uses only 50% of the primary energy consumption for cooling urban buildings, thereby reducing CO2 emissions. It also helps in improving the air quality and reducing general noise levels when compared to other traditional air conditioning systems. This will be Tabreed’s first plant outside its Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) market.

Notes:
Abdul Aziz Muhamat, a Sudanese refugee detained on Manus Island, has won the prestigious 2019 Martin Ennals human rights prize for exposing the very cruel refugee policy of the Australian government. Recognized as a true leader, human rights and humanitarian advocate, Muhamat has tirelessly cared for fellow refugees, and eloquently drawn the world’s attention to their plight. It is the first time that the major prize has been awarded to an individual focused on refugee issues and who has been a victim of human rights violations by a Western democracy. Muhamat was stuck in an Australia’s notorious offshore detention centre on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea for over 5 years after his boat was intercepted by Australian authorities in 2013. Mr Muhamat has been permitted to leave the island since being granted a Swiss visa, but hopes to return to Manus to continue his advocacy work. The annual Martin Ennals Awards are named after a Nobel Peace Prize-winning British human rights activist.

Notes:
K Dhanya Sanal, a spokesperson for the defence ministry in Thiruvananthapuram, has created history by becoming the first woman to climb the peak of 1,868-metre-high Agasthyarkoodam in January 2019 after the High court removed traditional restrictions on women from scaling the peak. Agasthyarkoodam is a part of the Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve which lies on the border between the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Kani tribe that lives on the foothills opposes women attempting the trek. The mountain range is considered the holy abode of celibate sage Agastya Muni. The tribe has protested against letting women climb the peak, but has not stopped anyone. Over 100 of them sang folk songs as a mark of protest.

Notes:
The Gujarat government has formed a special board for the transgender community to provide social security to the community. As a state-run agency, the ‘Transgender Welfare Board (TWB)’ will have powers to introduce special schemes for the community. It will work for uplift and development of the transgender community. The new board will have the state social justice and empowerment minister as its chairman. It will have 16 other members, including two transgender-women representatives, two male transgenders, two from the eunuch community and two representatives of NGOs. The rest of the members will be government officials. The Supreme Court has recognized transgenders as a third gender in 2014 on a petition filed by the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) and had directed all states to form a TWB. The judgment also ruled that ‘third gender’ be included in the Other Backward Classes’ (OBCs) list, hence allowed them to avail education and employment reservation in accordance to this status.

Notes:
Prof. Namvar Singh (92), renowned Hindi literary critic and author, has passed away in New Delhi on Feb 19. Born on 28th July 1926 in a village in Varanasi, Singh was the first chairman of JNU’s Centre of Indian Languages. He had authored over a dozen books including ‘Chhayavad’ and ‘Dusri Parampara Ki Khoj’ among others. He received Sahitya Academy Award for literary criticism in 1971 for ‘Kavita Ke Naye Pratiman’. He had unsuccessfully contested Lok Sabha election as a candidate of Communist Party of India in 1957 from Chandauli in Uttar Pradesh.

Notes:
The 7th National Photography Awards 2019 were presented by Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting Col. Rajyavardhan Rathore at a function held at the National Media Centre on 19th Feb. In it, ace photographer Ashok Dilwali has been bestowed with the Life Time Achievement Award, who is known for his work on the Himalayas. A total of 13 awards carrying cash prizes were presented to the winners in professional and amateur categories. Shanth Kumar won the ‘Professional Photographer of the Year’ award, while Gurdeep Dhiman won award for ‘Amateur Photographer of the Year’. The theme for the Professional category was “Women-led Development” and theme for Amateur category was “Fairs and Festivals of India”.

Notes:
The Kerala State Police claimed to have created history by becoming one of the world’s first and the very first police force in India to induct humanoid robots called ‘KP-Bot’. KP-Bot is designed to provide round-the-clock service, involving public interface and front office administration and overcome human limitations to avoid, to the extent possible, human error. However, it does not replace any human resources. Rather, it would act as the first contact point and a data collection tool to help improve the overall quality of service and performance levels.