Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2018

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 Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) has signed a project agreement with the World Bank (WB) for Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP) on Ganga to enhance navigation on National Waterway-1 from Varanasi to Haldia. Beside this, the Government of India and the World Bank has also signed a $375 million loan agreement for JMVP. The signing of the pact comes after Union Cabinet approved the implementation of $800 million JMVP for capacity augmentation of navigation on River Ganga. The JMVP, which is expected to be completed by March 2023, is being implemented with the financial and technical support of the World Bank. The development and operations of the National Waterway-1 project will lead to direct employment generation to the tune of 46,000 and indirect employment of 84,000 in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. 

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 first-ever International Kala Mela has been inaugurated by the Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts in New Delhi on February 4, 2018. The aim of the event is to focus on direct interaction between the artist and the connoisseur and also educating and raising awareness about art. The Art Festival, organised by Lalit Kala Akademi, will continue till the 18th of this month wherein artists and groups will showcase their work. More than 800 artists from all over the country are expected to participate in the event. Many Embassies and Cultural Centres will also take part. Some the countries taking part in the event are China, Venezuela, Portugal, Sri Lanka, Poland, Mexico, Bangladesh, France, United Kingdom, Spain and Brazil. There are around 325 stalls for Indian artists and organisations including International representations.

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:
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has successfully launched the world’s smallest rocket with the ability to put a tiny satellite into orbit. The experimental SS-520 sounding rocket lifted off from the Uchinoura Space Center. It carried a microsatellite TRICOM-1R, a three-unit CubeSat weighing about 3 kilograms. The CubeSat will now be used to collect images of the Earth’s surface via multiple cameras. This satellite launch was a re-flight of the TRICOM-1 mission, which was lost in SS-520’s failure in 2017.

Notes:
The Maharashtra Government has recently approved Ghodazari Wildlife Sanctuary in Chandrapur district as a new wildlife sanctuary in the state. The decision was taken at the 13th meeting of the Maharashtra State Board for Wildlife, chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The sanctuary, in the North East of Tadoba, will include 159 sq km of Brahmapuri forest. This will not only save the forest but will also improve tourism in nearly 40 villages in the area.

Notes:
Shabnam Asthana, an Indian public relations expert, speaker, and entrepreneur, has been honoured with the ‘Times Power Women of the Year 2017’- Pune for Global PR. The Times Group recently celebrated the invaluable contribution of women by introducing The Times Power Woman 2017 (Pune) awards. These awards were initiated to celebrate the victories of women who have been a great source of inspiration. These awards focused on the women of Pune and the prestigious list included 34 select women with power, supremacy, command and control. These awardees have been instrumental in working towards the improvement of the socio-economic, art, health, education, and fashion, scientific and intellectual potential of the society.

Notes:
In the 6th Bi-monthly Monetary policy statement for 2017-18, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has kept the key interest rate “repo rate” unchanged at 6% and reverse repo at 5.75%. Also, the Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate kept at 6.25%. The decision of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is consistent with the neutral stance of monetary policy in consonance with the objective of achieving the medium-term target for consumer price index (CPI) inflation of 4% within a band of +/- 2%, while supporting growth.

Notes:
Shubhankar Sharma from Chandigarh has become the highest ranked Indian golfer after grabbing 72nd position in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR). He has won the Maybank Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Sharma now also has the rare distinction of leading both the European Tour Race to Dubai and the Asian Tour Order of Merit. Shubhankar’s latest success also helped him join the exclusive club of Indians who have achieved two wins in the same European Tour season, the others being Jeev Milkha Singh (2006) and Anirban Lahiri (2015).