Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2018

Notes:
India’s Umang App has won the Best M-Government Service award in the Accessible Government category while Aadhaar won the best emerging technology award at the recently concluded 6th edition of the World Government Summit 2018 in Dubai, where India had the status of ‘Guest of Honour’ country. The summit acknowledged technology pioneers for providing global solutions to global challenges. The mobile application “Umang App” provides users a unified platform that combines government departments and services, facilitating transactions for citizens. The award acknowledged Government of India’s efforts to provide convenient services to its citizens. The Aadhaar project was recognized as the world’s largest biometric enabled identification programme which provides access to service income tax, passport services, bank accounts, social services benefits aimed at providing 1.2 billion citizens unique identification card with fingerprint, eye-print and other vital data. The award recognized the efforts of the Government of India (GoI)’s invention and innovation in the field of technology and making the country completely digitalized.

Notes:
The world’s tallest hotel ‘Gevora’ has opened in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on February 11, 2018. The gleaming gold 75-storey Gevora Hotel stands 356 metres, or nearly a quarter of a mile, tall. The hotel has 528 guest rooms and suites and four restaurants. It has 232 Deluxe Rooms, 265 one-bed room deluxe and 31 two-bedroom suites. It also have a pool, jacuzzi and health club as well as a luxury spa. Dubai is also home to the world’s tallest building “Burj Khalifa”, which pierces the city skyline at 828 metres (half a mile) high.

Notes:
The World Sustainable Development Summit – 2018 has inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi on February 16, which has been organized by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) to discuss frameworks to resolve climate change crises in developing countries. The theme of the 2018 Summit is – Partnerships for a Resilient Planet – which seeks to create action frameworks to resolve some of the most urgent challenges facing developing economies in the backdrop of climate change. The 3-day summit will see participation from over 41 countries, bringing together different stakeholders in the fields of sustainable development, energy and environment sectors. The conference will address a wide variety of issues, including combating land degradation and air pollution, effective waste management and create financial mechanisms to enable effective climate change mitigation.

Notes:
The Maharashtra government will launch cheap sanitary pad scheme “Asmita Yojana” on the International Women’s Day for rural women. Under the scheme, girls in Zilla Parishad schools will get a sanitary napkin packet at Rs 5 while rural women can avail it at a subsidised rate of Rs 24 and Rs 29. The scheme, catering to girl students and women in rural areas, will be formally launched on March 8, 2018.

Notes:
Legendary singer Asha Bhosle has been conferred with the 5th edition of Yash Chopra Memorial Award 2018 on February 16 in Mumbai for her outstanding contribution to the Hindi film industry. The award has been instituted by MP T Subbarami Reddy in the memory of Chopra, who died in 2012, in association with Anu Ranjan and Shashi Ranjan. The award also carries a cash prize of Rs 10 lakh. The previous recipients of the award were Lata Mangeshkar, Amitabh Bachchan, Rekha and Shah Rukh Khan.

Notes:
The Ranganadi Dam is a concrete-gravity diversion dam on the Ranganadi River in Arunachal Pradesh which serves a run-of-the-river scheme. The dam is intended for hydroelectric purposes and is part of Stage I of the Ranganadi Hydro Electric Project and supports the 405-megawatt Dikrong Power House.

Notes:
The Kallanai dam is an ancient dam, which is built across the Kaveri river in Tiruchirapalli district in Tamil Nadu. It is the 4th-oldest water-diversion or water-regulator structures in the world and the oldest in India which is still in use. Originally, the dam was constructed by the Chola king Karikalan in 2nd century AD.

Notes:
India will be the global host of 2018 World Environment Day (WED), which is scheduled to be held on June 5, 2018. The theme “Beat Plastic Pollution” urges governments, industry, communities, and individuals to come together and explore sustainable alternatives and urgently reduce the production and excessive use of single-use plastic polluting our oceans, damaging marine life and threatening human health. The World Environment Day is a UN Environment-led global event and is the single largest celebration of our environment each year.

Notes:
The University Grants Commission (UGC) has recently constituted a four-member Empowered Expert Committee (EEC), which is being entrusted to conduct the appraisal of applications for short listing 20 Institutions of Eminence. N Gopalaswami, former Chief Election Commissioner of India is the Chairperson of the committee. The government is likely to announce the names of the selected institutions by April 2018. The committee was constituted by the UGC after the approval of the central government, as per the UGC (Institutions of Eminence Deemed to be Universities) Regulation, 2017, and UGC (Declaration of Government Educational Institutions as Institutions of Eminence) Guidelines, 2017.

Notes:
The 22nd edition of the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT-2018) has been inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi through a video conference in Hyderabad on Feb 19, which will continue till Feb 21. The WCIT is held for the first time in India. Beside this, the 26th edition of NASSCOM India Leadership Forum (ILF) was also held in the same venue later on. Since NASSCOM is the host of the WCIT, the 26th edition of India Leadership Forum (ILF) is a limited edition. Telangana is the state partner for both the events. At least 20 CEOs from Fortune 500 companies and 100 other top executives besides over 5,000 delegates are expected to attend the conference.