Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2017

Notes:
India will host 2017 FIBA Women’s Asia Cup basketball tournament at Bengaluru, Karnataka from July 23 to 29. This tournament will be the qualifying tournament for FIBA Asia at the 2018 FIBA World Championship for Women in Spain. Beside this, India will also host the 2017 FIBA U-16 Women’s Asian Championship, which will be held from October 22 to 28 in Hyderabad. In both the tournaments, 14 teams will compete, with 8 teams in Division A and six in lower Division B. India is in Division B in both the Senior and U-16 events.

Notes:
The Jharkhand government will give 2% reservation to sportsperson in government job and nutritious food to them. Apart from this, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das has stated that Kamal Clubs would be set up to promote football, and for this the government would give kits to players and competitions would be held at block, district and state levels and women teams will also be set up for this purpose.

Notes:
The 2017 Mobile World Congress (MWC) will be held in Barcelona, Spain from February 27 to March 2, which will be organised by the Global System Mobile Association (GSMA). The MWC is the world’s largest gathering for the mobile industry. In it, the Indian researchers from IIT Hyderabad will showcase its C-RAN prototype for 5G technology, which is one of the first prototypes in the world.

Notes:
India has been ranked 43rd out of 45 global economies in the 5th edition of Intellectual Property Index (IPI)-2017, as per the latest report titled “The Roots of Innovation” by the US Chamber of Commerce (USCC)’s Global Intellectual Property Center (GIPC). This is the 5th year in a row that India has been ranked at the bottom of the pack in the index. The list is topped by United States, followed by United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and Sweden respectively. The GIPC highlighted the need for the government to build upon the positive rhetoric of its IPR policy with the substantial legislative reforms that innovators need.

Notes:
India has recently signed MoU with United Kingdom to ease restrictions on number of scheduled flights. The limits on flights from key Indian cities including Chennai and Kolkata have been scrapped and the MoU will allow for a greater range of flights for passengers while providing a boost to trade and tourism for the UK and India. The agreement has also opened all destinations in the UK for Indian carriers for code share flights and reciprocally the UK carriers can also operate code share flights to any International Airport in India, through domestic code share arrangements.

Notes:
Ajay Tyagi, a 1984 batch IAS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre, has been appointed the new chief of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Currently, Tyagi is an additional secretary at the finance ministry’s economic affairs department and will succeed U.K. Sinha, who retires from the post on March 1, 2017. The chairman of SEBI receives a consolidated pay package of Rs 4.5 lakh per month.

Notes:
The Union HRD Ministry has recently constituted a sub-committee of Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) under Chairmanship of Kadiyam Srihari to look into issues of girl’s education. Srihari is the Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister of Telangana. The terms of reference of the sub-committee would be to examine the reasons for low participation of girls in education, including the socio-economic factors with resultant gender bias and suggest ways to reduce gender disparity so as to achieve better gender parity index. It will analyse girls’ participation at all levels of school education across socio-economic groups of SC/ST, minorities and in rural-urban areas and reduce existing educational disparities among them. It will also examine the existing schemes, measures and incentives aimed at enhancing girls’ participation and ensuring their retention in education and suggest improvements and modifications in the existing schemes.

Notes:
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has observed its 3rd National Deworming Day (NDD) on February 10 to tackle worm infections among pre-school (anganwadi) and school-age children across India. The aim of the NDD is to reach every child, regardless of their socio-economic circumstance. It is the world’s largest deworming programme that covers 340 million children under-19 years of age across 36 states/ UTs. The deworming programme is India’s commitment to a comprehensive national response to the public health threat posed by worms.

Notes:
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a member of the Social Democratic party (SPD), has been elected the new President of Germany by the Federal Assembly meeting in Parliament in Berlin. He won 931 out of 1,260 votes. Steinmeier will succeed Joachim Gauck on March 18, 2017.

Notes:
Sandeep Jajodia, the CMD of Monnet Ispat & Energy Ltd., has been appointed the new President of industry chamber Associated Chambers of Commerce of India (ASSOCHAM). He succeeded Sunil Kanoria. The ASSOCHAM is one of the apex trade associations of India. The organisation represents the interests of trade and commerce in India, and acts as an interface between industry, government and other relevant stakeholders on policy issues and initiatives.