Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2017

Notes:
Asim Basu (81), the renowned theatre artiste and director, art director, painter and playwright, has recently passed away in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. He was known for his set design work in Ollywood movies and designing Oriya book covers and movie posters. He directed around 200 plays and did stage designing for over 500 plays and was the art director for several Odia films. Some of his major works are Indradhanura Chhai, Dadagiri and apana Banika.

Notes:
The Union Health Ministry has recently launched Measles-Rubella (MR) vaccination campaign at a function in Bengaluru, Karnataka that targets around 41 crore children across India. The campaign against these two diseases will start from Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Goa and Lakshadweep and will cover nearly 3.6 crore children. All children aged between 9 months and less than 15 years will be given a single shot of MR- vaccination. The MR vaccine will be provided free- of- cost across the states. Currently, Measles vaccine is provided under Universal Immunization Programme (UIP). Though, rubella vaccine will be a new addition. Measles is a deadly disease and one of the important causes of death in children. Rubella is generally a mild infection, but has serious consequences if infection occurs in pregnant women, causing congenital rubella syndrome.

Notes:
Top seeded Indian team has won gold medal in the boys’ team event at the 18th Asian Junior Team Squash Championship-2017 by defeating Malaysia by 2-0 in the final in Hong Kong. It’s 2nd time that Indian boys team has won the championship. Earlier in 2011, they defeated arch-rivals Pakistan in Colombo.

Notes:
The Telangana government has recently launched India’s first social innovation centre “Kakatiya Hub for Social Innovation” in Nizamabad on Februray 5, 2017, which is expected to be run by September 2017. The hub is funded by the Telangana government and will function like a rural incubator to encourage entrepreneurship at grassroots level. The purpose of the hub is to create a model for promoting entrepreneurs in rural and semi-urban areas in the country. The incubator will be run through Kakatiya Sandbox, a centre that fosters entrepreneurship and innovation modelled after Deshpande Foundation’s Hubli Sandbox.

Notes:
Recently, the Union Sports Minister Vijay Goel has laid the foundation stone of the India’s first centre of excellence for differently-abled sportsmen at Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The Center of Excellence is proposed with an estimate of over Rs 50 crore. It will have world class facilities where para athletes can train for various international competitions including Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and Olympic Games. It will also act as a classification center for para athletes. The Center will also hold seminars, educational programmes and workshops throughout the year with the help of International Paralympic Committee. Approx 50 differently-abled sportspersons (boys & girls) between age group 8-12 will be imparted training in Athletics, Swimming and power lifting at the training centre. The entire project will be constructed by CPWD in coordination with various experts and consultants having full accessibility as per the norms of IPC.

Notes:
Lucideus, an IT risk assessment and digital security services provider, has won the ‘Best IT Startup of India’ award under the IT (Information Technology) and ITES (Information Technology Enabled Services) category at the National Entrepreneurship Award 2016 at the DRDO auditorium in New Delhi. Lucideus is behind the security for BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) app — an Aadhaar-based mobile payment platform. The annual awards were organised by the Ministry of Skill Development and
Entrepreneurship.

Notes:
Debendranath Sarangi, who is the President of the Squash Rackets Federation of India, has recently elected as the vice-president of the Asia Squash Federation (ASF) with two-third majority at the 37th ASF Annual General Meeting. With this, he became the 2nd Indian to become the vice-president of the ASF after N Ramachandran. Sarangi replaced Syed Razi Nawab of Pakistan.

Notes:
Rajeev Singh, Member (Finance) in Prasar Bharati Board, has taken charge as acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the public service broadcaster Prasar Bharti. He succeeded Suresh Panda, who retires on February 4, 2017. Panda has been serving as interim CEO since November 2016, after full time chief Jawhar Sircar resigned in October 2016. Prasar Bharati looks after the functioning of Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR).

Notes:
Pathani Patnaik (89), the renowned litterateur, poet, writer and academician, has recently passed away in Cuttack, Odisha. He was the former principal of Christ College and also served as President of Odisha Sahitya Akademi. He had written over 50 books on different aspects of literature, including short stories and poems and also received the Kendriya Sahitya Akademi Award in 2010 for his autobiography “Jeebanara Chalapatha”.

Notes:
The 4th Rollball World Cup will be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh from February 17 to 23, 2017. Approx 700 competitors from 45 countries are expected to participate in the tournament. It is the largest-ever event in any field where such a huge number of countries will be participating in any Asian Country. The International Rollball Federation (IRBF) is a body which is associated with International Rollball. This game was created by Raju Dabhade of Pune City, India and is also the Secretary of the IRBF. Rollball is a game played between two teams of 12 players. Out of 12, only 6 players are allowed to play on court at a time. This game is played on skates.