Current Affairs - February 10, 2018 Current Affairs

Writer T.D. Ramakrishnan has been chosen for the 2nd edition of Akbar Kakkattil Award 2018 for his novel "Sugandhi Enna Andaldevanayaki". According to a press release by the secretary of the Akbar Kakkattil Trust, filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan will present the award comprising a purse of Rs 50,000, a citation and a memento to Mr. Ramakrishnan at a function to be held in Kozhikode on February 17, 2018.

Forbes has released its first ever list of richest people in terms of cryptocurrency ownership. During 2017, cryptocurrency garnered lot of attention owing to meteoric price appreciation witnessed in popular cryptocurrencies viz. Bitcoin, Ethereum and XRP. With an estimated crypto net worth of $7.5-8 billion, Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen has topped this inaugural list. Forbes report has outlined that currently there are nearly 1500 cryptoassets in existence. Combined valuation of all the cryptoassets stands at $550 billion. Among others who featured on the list include Joseph Lubin with crypto net worth of $1-5 billion, Changpeng Zhao ($1.1-2 billion), Cameron & Tyler Winklevoss ($900 million-1.1 billion) and Matthew Mellon ($900 million-1.1 billion).

President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the 88th Mahamastakabhisheka Mahotsav of Lord Gomateshwara at Shravanabelagola in Hassan district, Karnataka. The Mahamastakabhisheka Mahotsav is held once in 12 years. It has been celebrated for nearly 1,000 years. Karnataka Governor Vajubha Vala, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Charukeerthi Bhattaraka Swami, Jain saint Acharya Vardhamana Sagar, and Veerendra Heggade of Dharmastala, were also present at the inauguration ceremony.

India has become the top source market for Dubai, with 2.1 million visitors in 2017, as per data published by Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism). The data regarding this was published by Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (Dubai Tourism). In 2017, Dubai had experienced 15 % growth in tourist arrivals from India. India has also become the first country to exceed 2 million visitors in a single year. This increase has been credited to Dubai Tourism's collaboration with actor Shah Rukh Khan in the 'BeMyGuest' campaign. Saudi Arabia (KSA) secured the second place with 1.53 million tourists in 2017. UK secured third position with 1.27 million tourists.

PlastIndia, 10th edition of international plastics exhibition, started in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. It is held for 6 days from 7th February 2018 to 12th February 2018. It was inaugurated by Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. It is organized by Plastindia Foundation. It has participation from buyers and sellers from nearly 28 countries. New products and technologies are displayed by national and international sellers.

Smriti Mandhana, Indian cricketer, was appointed the new brand ambassador of 'Power', Bata's sport wear brand. Smriti Mandhana is 21 years old. She is an Indian women's cricket team opener. From February 2018, she will start with the promotion works for Power's latest range of products.

Over 200 scientists from 25 nations are conducting simulation tests in the vast sandy terrain of Dhofar Desert in southern Oman for a manned mission to Mars. Scientists from across the world sent ideas for experiments and the mission, named AMADEE-18, quickly grew to 16 scientific experiments, such as testing a "tumbleweed" whip-fast robot rover and a new space suit called Aouda. The cutting-edge spacesuit, weighing about 50 kilograms, is called a "personal spaceship" because one can breathe, eat and do hard science inside it. The suit's visor displays maps, communications and sensor data. A blue piece of foam in front of the chin can be used to wipe your nose and mouth.

Justice Antony Dominic has been sworn-in as the new Chief Justice of Kerala on February 9, 2018. Kerala Governor P. Sadasivam administered the Oath of Office in the presence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at Raj Bhavan in Thiruvanthapuram. Chief Secretary Paul Antony read out the Presidential order appointing Justice Dominic as the Chief Justice of the state. Senior High Court judges, judicial officers, cabinet ministers, political leaders and other officials filled the audience.

National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) appointed Biswamohan Mahapatra as non-executive chairman. He has been appointed for two years term and he succeeds B Sambamurthy who was the interim chairman. Last month NPCI had appointed Dilip Asbe as its managing director and CEO. National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is an umbrella organization for all retail payments in India. It was set up with the guidance and support of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks Association (IBA) under the provisions of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007

The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games 2018 saw a record-setting performance of 1,218 drones (unmanned aerial vehicles), flying in sync to create huge formations of various Olympic sports and the iconic Olympic rings. This record was set by Intel. The drones set a world record for the 'most unmanned aerial vehicles airborne simultaneously,' which was previously held by 500 drones during a 2016 performance in Germany.

Bengaluru city has the highest number of electric car owners in India, with over 6,000 electric vehicles. Now, the government is planning to install 11 public charging points for e-vehicles. The first charging point will be opened for public from February 15th. It is located at the KR Circle at Bescom's corporate office. Currently, Mahindra is the only manufacturer that commercially sells electric vehicles in India. In the future, manufacturers like Tata, Maruti Suzuki, Toyota and Hyundai have plans to launch electric vehicles in the Indian market too.

The government has directed the banks to only accept online applications for education loans in a bid to make the loan disbursement process transparent and efficient. The banks have also been asked to not consider any application received in physical form. The move also aims to tackle the delay in sanctioning of the education loans. Vidya Lakshmi is the IT-based Student Financial Aid Authority to administer and monitor scholarships as well as education loan schemes.

Kerala has topped the list of larger states on overall health performance in the Health Index report released by Niti Aayog while Uttar Pradesh appeared at the bottom among larger states in terms of overall performance. As per the index "Healthy States, Progressive India' report for large states, Kerala was followed by Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Besides Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Odisha are among the states that performed poorly in the health index. Among small states, Mizoram ranked first, followed by Manipur and Goa in terms of annual incremental performance. The Health Index will act as a tool to leverage cooperative and competitive federalism, accelerating the pace of achieving health outcomes. It has been evolved through comprehensive study and inputs from World Bank India and Ministry of Health.

Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay are the only two Indian institutions to feature among Top 50 educational institutes in Asia in TIMES Higher Education (THE) World University Ranking's. Among Indian institutes, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) ranked highest at 29th. IISc is followed by IIT, Bombay at 44th. Total 17 institutes from India featured in the list this year. Interestingly, although number of Indian institutes featuring in the list has increased, rank of many institutes has dropped as compared to last year. National University of Singapore has been adjudged as Asia's top university for the third consecutive year. With 89 universities featuring in the list, Japan is the most-represented nation.

National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is launching a pilot project on Delhi Mumbai national highway (NH8) to analyse the feasibility of "Pay as you use" tolling system in India. The pilot project includes developing a satellite based electronic toll collection system that works on GPS/GSM technology for nearly 500 commercial vehicles on the Delhi Mumbai national highway. This project will be carried out for 1 year. It will work using mobile telecommunications technology (GSM) and the satellite-based Global Positioning System (GPS). This system will deduct money from a vehicle account and credit money to the concessionaire in 1 day and open the toll gate. In case of transaction failure, toll operator will be alerted, and money will be collected manually before opening the gate.