Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2018

Notes:
Neelam Kapoor, a 1982 batch officer of the Indian Information Service (IIS), has been appointed as the new director general of the Sports Authority of India (SAI). At present, she is the Principal Director General of the Directorate of Field Publicity. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved her appointment to the post till her superannuation, i.e. July 31, 2019. Kapoor was also the Principal Director General of the Press Information Bureau in the UPA government. As PIB chief, she was in-charge of information officers attached to every central government ministry.

Notes:
Anu Kumar of Uttarakhand has grabbed the first gold medal of the Khelo India School Games in 1500 metres at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on February 1, 2018. Tamil Nadu athletes won two of the six gold medals on the opening day of the games. The rest were shared between Uttarakhand, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Anu Kumar is a past 800-metres silver medalist for India at the World School Games in France. In the girls category, C Chanthini of Kerala won the gold medal in 1500-metres run. Abhishek Singh of Uttar Pradesh won the Shot Put with an excellent throw of 18.73 metres while Praveen of Tamil Nadu won the triple jump in his sixth attempt with 15.22 metres. Haryana girl Pooja excelled in the Shot Put and won the gold with a best of 13.88 metres.

Notes:
The 32nd Surajkund International Crafts Mela 2018 has started at Faridabad, Haryana on February 2, 2018. The Mela is organized by the Surajkund Mela Authority and Haryana Tourism in collaboration with Union Ministries of Tourism, Textiles, Culture and External Affairs. This year, Uttar Pradesh is the theme state and Kyrgyzstan is the Partner Nation. The 17-day cultural extravaganza will see a spectacular showcase of regional and international crafts, handlooms, traditions along with some mouth-watering multi-cuisine food for the visitors. Representing the ethos of rural India, the Mela celebrates the unique diversity of Indian traditions and culture. Around 20 countries & all the states of India will participate in the fair. The Surajkund Mela will continue till 18th of this month from 10.30 am-8.30 pm.

Notes:
B A Chopade has been appointed the new vice-chancellor of Banaras Hindu University (BHU). He is at present the vice-chancellor of Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University. President Ram Nath Kovind, who is the Visitor to the university, approved Chopade’s appointment recently. The post was lying vacant after Girish Chandra Tripathi went on leave following the ruckus on campus in September 2017. Chopade will take charge from BHU Registrar Neeraj Tripathi, who had been holding the additional charge of the top post since October 2017.

Notes:
Arun Jaitely, the Union Finance Minister, has inaugurated India’s first sentiment index “CriSidEx” for micro and small enterprises in New Delhi. CriSidEx, which is developed jointly by SIDBI and CRISIL, is a composite index based on a diffusion index of 8 parameters and measures MSE business sentiment on a negative to positive scale. This index will give the detail breakup of the sentiment sentiments and analysis as the sector sees it for the current quarter and for the next quarter. The current parametric feedback was captured through a survey of one thousand one hundred MSEs in November and December last year.

Notes:
The unique, first-of-its-kind, floating market has come up in Patuli in Kolkata, West Bengal. The market is similar to the ones on Dal Lake in Srinagar and in Bangkok. The project is being implemented by Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA). There are 228 stalls, set up on 114 boats, with zone-wise demarcations for fish, meat, vegetables, grocery, etc. Wooden ramps have been constructed, over which people will walk to reach the boat of their choice. Modern technology is being adopted to ensure proper oxidation of the water and thus maintain ecological balance. The surrounding path beside the water body, a canal, on which the market is being set up, is being decked up with paver blocks. The market will be run through a cooperative. The prices will be similar to those in normal markets.

Notes:
The 9-member committee, headed by former ISRO chief K Kasturirangan, was constituted by the Union HRD Ministry to draft new National Education Policy (NEP) on June 2017. The committee will submit its report by March 31, 2018. After that, the HRD Ministry will deliberate on the report and thereafter suggestions of the committee will be presented to the Union Cabinet for its approval. The committee also includes former IAS officer KJ Alphonse and Ram Shanker Kureel, who has a wide experience in the field of agricultural sciences and management. The committee has been appointed keeping in mind that the members bring expertise related to the diverse areas of education. Significantly, the panel also reflects the diversity of the country as the members belong to different sections as well as regions. The existing NEP was framed in 1986 and revised in 1992.

Notes:
The Central Government has announced a Rs 1.4 lakh-crore KUSUM Scheme to promote decentralised solar power production of up to 28,250 MW to help farmers. The acronym KUSUM stands for “Kisan Urja Suraksha Utthaan Maha Abhiyaan”. In the Union Budget 2018-19, the Centre has allocated Rs 48,000 crore on the 10-year KUSUM scheme. The scheme would provide an extra income to farmers by giving them an option to sell additional power to the grid through solar power projects set up on their barren lands. It would help in de-dieselising the sector as also the DISCOMS. Under the scheme, the Central Government will provide subsidy to farmers on setting up of solar power plants on their barren land. The 60% subsidy on the solar pumps provided to farmers will be shared between the Centre and the States while 30% would be provided through bank loans. The balance cost has to be borne by the farmers. As a result, Kusum Scheme will solarize agricultural pump sets to double the income of farmers by 2022.

Notes:
Eminent molecular biologist Professor Michael N Hall of the Biozentrum University of Basel, Switzerland, has been chosen for the 2018 Genome Valley Excellence Award for his pioneering work in discovering the nutrient-activated TOR (Target of Rapamycin) proteins and their central role in the metabolic control of cell growth. The award will be presented to him during BioAsia 2018, an annual flagship event of the Telangana government. The award, instituted in 2004, was in recognition of the transformative advances toward biomedical research and facilitating improvement in human life and was chosen by an international advisory board consisting of eminent personalities of the life sciences industry.

Notes:
The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International airport has become the world’s busiest single-runway airport, after creating a new world record for single-runway operations by handling 980 arrivals and take-offs in 24 hours, or almost one flight every minute on January 20, 2018.