Current Affairs - February 5, 2018 Current Affairs

President Ram Nath Kovind will open the annual Udyanotsav of Rashtrapati Bhavan. The Mughal Gardens will remain open to the public from the tomorrow to 9th of March between 9:30 AM to 4:00 PM. The gardens will, however, remain closed for visitors on Mondays on account of maintenance. The public will also be able to visit the Spiritual Garden, Herbal Garden, Bonsai Garden and Musical Garden. AIR correspondent reports the special feature of this year's Udyanotsav is bulbs flowering plants. Ranunculus and Tulips which are in bloom since the first week of January, are expected to blossom till the last week of February. About 10,000 programmed Tulip bulbs in 8 varieties of different colors were imported from the Netherlands and have been planted in the Mughal Gardens. The several beds of roses, including both new and heritage varieties, margined with dwarf trimmed hedge and numerous exotic flowers, including Tulips and other bulbous flowering plants, are the main attraction of the Long Garden.

The President of Bangladesh, Abdul Hamid appointed Syed Mahmud Hossain as the new Chief Justice of the country. Justice Hossain is the 22nd chief justice of Bangladesh. President administered the oath of office to Justice Hossain.

India contributed an additional $1 million to the India-UN Development Partnership Fund earmarked for South-South cooperation. This latest contribution of India is aimed at intensifying its partnerships with other developing countries. India-UN Development Partnership Fund was launched in June 2017 for supporting sustainable development projects in Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States.

Japan successfully launched a mini-rocket that sent a microsatellite into orbit. The No. 5 vehicle of the SS-520 series took off from the Uchinoura Space Center in Kagoshima prefecture, Japan. The rocket is 10 m long. It weighs 2.6 tons. It is claimed to be the smallest satellite-carrying rocket in the world. The rocket successfully put a microsatellite into its desired orbit. The microsatellite has a weight of 3 kg. This microsatellite was developed by the University of Tokyo.

International Conference on 'Demetrios Galanos and His Legacy' was inaugurated at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) in New Delhi. Demetrios Galanos was a Greek scholar who came to India to study in the nineteenth century. He stayed in India for 47 years (for 40 years he lived in the city of Varanas. During the course of his stay, Demetrios Galanos compiled a Sanskrit-English-Greek lexicon of about 9000 words. He also translated the Bhagvad Gita into Greek. IGNCA's 'Bharat Vidya Prayojana' project, under which, attempts are being made to reconceive Indology from Bharat perspective is the principle host of this conference.

Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Arun Jaitley launched CriSidEx , India's first sentiment index for micro and small enterprises ( MSEs). This index has been developed jointly by CRISIL & Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). It is based on 8 parameters and measures MSE business sentiment on a scale of 0 to 200, wherein 0 is 'extremely negative' while 200 is 'extremely positive'.

B A Chopade has been appointed as the vice-chancellor of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) by the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry. B A Chopade is currently the vice-chancellor of Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University. BHU Registrar Neeraj Tripathi had been holding the additional charge of BHU vice-chancellor since October 2017.

The Floating Treatment Wetland (FTW) was inaugurated on World Wetlands Day (February 2) in Neknampur Lake in Hyderabad to clean and purify the pollution. FTW is a joint effort of NGO Dhruvansh, Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), district administration and other organizations. There is no need of soil. There are small holes at bottom of the base which facilitates the flow of nutrients from water to plants through biological uptake.

Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced that, out of the two defence industrial production corridors that was mentioned in the Union Budget 2018, the first defence industrial corridor will link Chennai and Bengaluru. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that, two defence industrial production corridors will be developed by the government, when he presented the Union Budget 2018. The first defence industrial corridor will link Chennai and Bengaluru and it will pass through Coimbatore and various other industrial regions.

UK has permitted doctors to create three-parent babies through mitochondrial donation, in a move to prevent passing of incurable genetic diseases from mothers to babies. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has permitted to apply the procedures to two women in Newcastle, England. This will utilize mitochondrial donation therapy for those women, who are sure that their children would inherit a neurodegenerative disorder. Mitochondrial DNA will be obtained from a donor "mother". So that, the genetic conditions will not be passed on to the baby from the original mother. This will be the first three-parent baby in the UK.

Indian golfer Shubhankar Sharma won the Maybank Championship, at the Saujana Golf and Country Club, in Malaysia.Shubhankar Sharma holed 10 birdies and finished 10-under-par 62 in the finals. He won the Maybank Championship. He was awarded USD 500,000. Jorge Campillo finished in the second position. Pablo Larrazabal and Ryan Fox finished in the third position.

The First ever International Kala Mela was inaugurated by the Vice President of India, Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu in New Delhi. The International Kala Mela has been organized by the Lalit Kala Akademi in partnership with IGNCA of the Ministry of Culture. More than 800 artists from across the world took part in the Festival.

Uttar Pradesh State Government inaugurated state's first ever butterfly park in Kanpur. Estimated cost for constructing this butterfly park is Rs. 1 crore. In order to attract butterflies, 100 species of flowers have been planted in the park. So far, more than 50 species of butterflies have already been spotted in this park. The Butterfly Park in Kanpur will open for public by March 2018. Butterfly parks are pollution-free spaces which do not have chemicals/pesticides and play an important role in conserving endangered butterfly species.

Maharashtra State Government has approved Ghodazari in Chandrapur district as a new wildlife sanctuary in the state. This decision was taken at the 13th meeting of the Maharashtra State Board for Wildlife, held on January 31, 2018. The new wildlife sanctuary will include 159 sq km of Brahmapuri forest. This decision will not only help in conserving the forest but will also benefit nearly 40 villages in the region on account of consequential increase of tourism related activities.

Sri Lanka celebrated the 70th Independence Day in a grand ceremony at the Galle Face Green in Colombo. The theme of the ceremony was "One Nation". It was on this day in 1948 that country achieved freedom from British rule. Representing Britain's Queen, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, and the Countess of Wessex participated in the celebrations as Chief Guests.