Current Affairs - February 14, 2018 Current Affairs

Hockey India named a 33-member core probables list for a national camp ahead of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and Commonwealth Games - the first two major events of what is going to be a gruelling season. It is a crucial year for the men's team with major events lined up starting with the prestigious 27th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2018 between March 3 to March 10 followed by the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games starting April 4.

Uttar Pradesh government in collaboration with UNICEF launched "Dastak Campaign against Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES)". Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath inauguratred the "Dastak Campaign against Japanese Encephalitis (JE) and Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES)". Also, he released a CD, sanitary kit and publicity material during the inauguration. He said that, in order to control encephalitis, health department has been made the nodal agency. Departments such as urban development, Panchayati Raj, Women and Child Welfare, Rural Development, Medical Education, Animal Husbandry and basic education departments will work under the health department. Vaccination against encephalitis will be finished by March-April 2018. A sanitation drive will also be conducted as a part of this campaign.

West Bengal became the first state to opt out of the National Health Protection Scheme unveiled in the Union Budget. Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant has pegged the expenses for the Centre's health plan at Rs 5,500-6,000 crore a year. The Centre has made a provisional allocation of Rs 2,000 crore and wants states to bear the rest. Mamata Banerjee announced that her government has made hospitalisation and treatment free in Bengal.

Jayant Madhab Bora has been conferred with the 2017 Sahitya Akademi Award for Assamese literature for his novel "Moriahola". The annual Sahitya Akademi awards for 2017 were presented at a function in New Delhi on February 12, 2018. The awards were given in 24 languages. The awarded works includes Seven novels, five collections each of poetries and short stories, five works of literary criticism, a play and a book of essays. Excerpts are as follows: Afsar Ahmed received the award for his Bengali Novel 'Sei Nikhonj Manusta' and in Bodo language Rita Boro was presented the honours for her Novel 'Thwisam'. While in Dogri, Shiv Mehta received the award for his short stories 'Banna', Urmi Ghanshyam Desai got the award for her literary criticism Gujarati Vyakaranna Baso Varsh. The awardee received a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and a cheque of Rs 1 lakh.

World's first robot ski competition "The Edge of Robot: Ski Robot Challenge" was held near PyeongChang at Welli Hilli ski resort in South Korea. Eight humanoid robots from universities and other organisations participated in this robot ski competition. The robots had sensors, batteries and deep learning algorithms to move and ski on their own. Prize money of the competition was said to be $10,000.

Kannada litterateur Chandrashekar Kambar elected as president of the Sahitya Akademi in the election held for the post. He replaced Vishwanath Prasad Tiwari. Hindi poet Madhav Koushik has been elected as vice-president. This is the second time election was held in the history of Sahitya Akademi, after Ananthamurthy's election to the post. Prof. Kambar has served as the member of the Akademi executive board for over 10 years and was vice-president for 2013-18.

K P Ramanunni from Kerala has been conferred with the 2017 Sahitya Akademi Award for Malayalam literature for his novel "Daivathinte Pusthakam", which deals with India's communal situation, at a function in New Delhi on February 12, 2018. He received a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and a cheque of Rs 1 lakh. However, the highlight of the event was that Ramanunni donated his prize money of Rs 1 lakh to the mother of Junaid Khan, the teen stabbed to death on a Mathura-bound train from New Delhi in June 2017. Junaid Khan from Haryana was lynched to death while he was returning home after Eid shopping.

The Union Minister of culture Mahesh Sharma announced that from April 1, domestic tourists visiting the Taj Mahal will have to pay Rs 50 to enter the premises and pay an additional Rs 200 to gain entry into the 16th century monument's main mausoleum and the tomb in the basement. And he said, for better crowd management, the government has also decided to limit the validity of all tickets to three hours. Tourists who stay inside the monument longer than three hours will have to pay the entry fee once again.

Citi Bank, India has issued an email notification to its customers stating that credit and debit cards cannot be used to purchase cryptocurrencies. In the email notification, Citi Bank India has cited global and local concerns (including from the Reserve Bank of India) about dealing in cryptocurrencies (including Bitcoin) and has cautioned its customers that such transactions involves potential economic, financial, operational, legal, customer protection and security related risks. Earlier, in January 2017, RBI had warned banks about cryptocurrencies and had directed them to step up scrutiny of financial transactions by companies and exchanges involved in the trade of Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin are decentralised digital currencies which are not backed by any Sovereign Government, Central Bank or monetary authority.

Union Minister of State (IC) for Power and New and Renewable Energy, R.K. Singh inaugurated the 'Indian Power Stations 2018', a three-day International Conference on Operations and Maintenance. It is being hosted by NTPC Limited to commemorate synchronization of its first Thermal plant at Singrauli Super Thermal Power Station, on February 13, 1982. Theme of the Conference is "Technological Challenges: Risks and Challenges in Power Generation". The Conference will serve as a platform for sharing best practices for Operation and Maintenance of power plants. During the course of this conference, discussions will be held on safety measures, strategies for enhancing efficiency and reliability, environment management, renewable generation and other recent technological developments.

Professional social network site LinkedIn on Wednesday launched a new tool called 'Scheduler' that will help ease the hiring process both for recruiters and candidates as well as avoid fallouts. 'LinkedIn Scheduler' automates initial interview scheduling for recruiters and candidates, directly via InMail. The new tool would help candidates and recruiters save time spent on scheduling a meeting and help recruiters focus their energies on hiring strategically and onboarding the best candidate, the Microsoft-owned company. LinkedIn 'Scheduler' is just the latest way that we're working to make recruiters more productive, powerful, and personal, Rigano added. To use the feature, recruiters first need to automatically provide availability via InMail by syncing 'Scheduler' to Office 365 or Google calendar.

The World Radio Day (WRD) is observed every year on February 13 to remember the unique power of radio which touches lives and brings people together from every corner of the globe. It is the day, in 1946, United Nations Radio was established. The 2018 theme 'Radio and Sports' will promote the inseparable relationship between sports and gender, as well as how improved gender equality in sports broadcasting can lead to greater freedom of expression for all.

Tata Steel has been honoured as the World's Most Ethical Company for the year 2018 by Ethisphere Institute. Tata Steel has been conferred with the Most ethical Company award for the sixth time in the 'Metals, Minerals and Mining' category. The World's Most Ethical Company assessment is done with reference to the Ethisphere Institute's Ethics Quotient (EQ) framework. This year about 135 entities from 23 countries are honoured.

India's 1st Online Radio Station 'Radio Umang' was launched recently in India. Listeners can tune in to this online radio station through web streaming or download the app. It provides programmes for 24 hours. It has gained a good reach in Hindi speaking states of India and in more than 60 countries. Theme of Radio Umang is love, peace and happiness. It features various talk shows apart from music.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former Liberian President, has been honored with the 2018 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership for excellence in African leadership. The $5 million African Leadership prize is awarded by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation which honors role models on a continent where many leaders have stayed in power for decades. Sirleaf, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Africa's first female president, is also the first female and only the fifth person to receive the Ibrahim leadership award since it was established in 2007.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver the inaugural address at the World Congress on Information Technology 2018 (WCIT) from February 19. This is for the first time that the WICT is being held in the country. The WCIT's official page on the Nasscom website also indicates that Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, state Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and Sophia the humanoid are expected to speak at the three-day event.