Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2019

Notes:
In Nepal, a month-long ‘Festival of India’ has started in Kathmandu to familiarize the new generation of the country about the similarities between the two countries. The festival, organised by the Indian Embassy and Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre, is being held in Kathmandu and other major cities of Nepal from February 19th to March 21st.

Notes:
The 3rd edition of “Words in the Garden” festival 2019 is scheduled to be held on February 22 in New Delhi and will pay tribute to Mahatma Gandhi with the theme — ‘Bapu ki Dilli’. The 3-day festival will celebrate the creativity, imagination and ideas that Delhi generates, sustains and embodies. Commemorating 150 years of Gandhi’s birth anniversary, the event will feature plays, recitals, readings, discussions honoring the life and ideology of Bapu. Highlights include M K Raina’s play “Stay Yet A While”, poems, recitals, acts and music by Gandhi Ambedkar Circle of St Stephen’s College, storytelling by Mahmood Farooqui on Gandhi’s final journey and Madhup Mudgal’s “Ashram Bhajanavali”. The fest is free and open to all, and will see participation by stalwarts from the fields of literature, art, and social sciences among others. The fest is the brain child of renowned Hindi writer Ashok Vajpeyi.

Notes:
Mohd Mushtaque Ahmad from India has been elected as the new Vice-President of the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) for a four-year term at the AHF Congress in Gifu, Japan. Beside him, Ms. Asima Ali has been elected unopposed as one of the executive board members of the AHF. Mushtaque Ahmad is currently serving as the President of Hockey India, while Ali of Hockey Jammu & Kashmir is the Vice-President of the national federation. The AHF Executive Board manages the affairs of the continental federation, implements the decisions of the AHF Congress, supervises over the AHF CEO and professional staff, as well as appoints the AHF Committees.

Notes:
In New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the 5th edition of the Economic Times (ET) Global Business Summit 2019 on Feb 23 to offer insights into the direction of future policy. The two-day summit hosted business leaders and technology entrepreneurs from some of the most talked about and disruptive companies across the globe including Nathan Blecharczyk, co-founder of AirBnB, Martin Eberhard co-founder of Tesla, Sebastian Thrun CEO of KittyHawk and many more. The summit is a flagship initiative of the Times Group that envisions to bring together visionaries, thought leaders, heads of state, policy makers, academicians and corporate heads cohesively driving a singular agenda for Scripting Economic Change, by connecting the building blocks of Economics for India and the Globe.

Notes:
IIT-Madras has entered into an agreement with Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI) to address public health issues and predict adverse pregnancy outcomes using technology. The aim of the pact is to bring physician-scientists, biologists, engineers and data scientists together to solve public health problems related to maternal and child health. The objective is to apply advanced analytical approach for prediction of adverse pregnancy outcomes, evaluate maternal and childhood consequences of exposure to environmental pollutants, among others. The THSTI is an autonomous institute of Department of Biotechnology (DBT). DBT is a department under Ministry of Science and Technnology.

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.

Notes:
On 25th February, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has officially launched PM-KISAN (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana) scheme from Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh. The scheme was announced in the interim Budget 2019-20 on1st February 2019. It is a Central Sector scheme with 100% funding from Government of India. Under the Scheme, Rs 6,000 will be given per year to small and marginal farmer families having combined land holding/ownership of upto 2 hectares. The amount will be given in three installments of Rs.2000 each. The amount will be transferred directly to the bank account of beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfer. DBT will ensure transparency in the entire process and will save time for the farmers. The Scheme was introduced to augment the income of the Small and Marginal Farmers (SMFs). It is estimated to benefit more than 12 crore small and marginal farmers. The aim of the scheme is to supplement the financial needs of the SMFs in procuring various inputs to ensure proper crop health and appropriate yields, commensurate with the anticipated farm income at the end of the each crop cycle. This would also protect them from falling in the clutches of moneylenders for meeting such expenses and ensure their continuance in the farming activities.

Notes:
The first-ever Skill Saathi Youth Conclave has inaugurated by Union Skill Development Minister Dharmendra Pradhan at Rail Auditorium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The program aims to create a mass movement around skill development in the state and inspire youth to make the most of various skill development opportunities in the country. The conclave was aired live across 427 locations in Odisha, where more than 2 lakh candidates were mobilized for career counseling under Skill Saathi initiative. The initiative provides information on vocational training programs under Skill India mission, conduct psychometric test and provide face-to-face counselling interventions to guide aspirants to make the right choice of based on their interest and aptitude.

Notes:
Zimbabwe has recently introduced its new currency, dubbed as Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) dollar, after the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) announced measures to try and resolve a chronic monetary crisis. The new currency replaces electronic bank savings called digital dollars and the bond notes, and was named after the RTGS system that banks use to transfer money between each other. The currency was launched at an initial rate of 2.5 RTGS dollars per US dollar. The RTGS dollar is supposed to bring together bond notes and debit card and mobile money payments to make sure that they are all worth the same.

Notes:
The Afghanistan cricket team has created history by posting the highest-ever T20 international score at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Dehradun, Uttarakhand on 23rd Feb 2019. They posted 278 runs from their 20 overs in the second T20I against Ireland.. Here, Afghan batsman Hazratullah Zazai scored the 2nd highest individual score (162 runs off 62 balls) in T20Is, behind Australian cricketer Aaron Finch’s 172. His innings also included a record 16 sixes and his first-wicket partnership with Usman Ghani was also a record for any wicket in a T20I, with 236 runs scored. With this feat, Afghanistan broke Australia’s record score of 263/3 which they achieved back in 2016 against Sri Lanka.