Current Affairs - February 27, 2018 Current Affairs

PM Narendra Modi addressed the 2nd India-Korea Business Summit in New Delhi. The theme of the Summit this year is "India-Korea: Scaling up the Special Strategic Relationship through Trade and Investments". The Summit aims to create the framework for an open and action-oriented dialogue between top business leaders and Government officials from both countries. India and Korea are the third and fourth largest economies in Asia. The two way trade between India and South Korea currently stands at nearly 17 billion dollars.

Indian shuttler Sameer Verma beat former world number two Jan O Jorgensen and clinched the men's singles title at the $150,000 Swiss Open Super 300 tournament. Verma, who joins Kidambi Srikanth and HS Prannoy as the Indian shuttlers who have won the Swiss Open, had clinched the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold last year.

Reigning Asian Champion Gopi Thonakal retained his title at the IDBI Federal Life Insurance New Delhi Marathon in New Delhi on February 26. Gopi, who is also in the Indian Army, had clocked 2 hour, 15 minute and 16 seconds to clinch the gold under ideal running conditions. However, he missed the tough Commonwealth Games qualification mark set by the Athletics Federation of India by three minutes. Nitendra Singh Rawat was second, while Bahadur Singh Dhoni took the bronze. Around 65 elite Indian athletes took part in the full marathon of 42.195km. In the women's event also, Monika Athare retained her title. Monika Athare clocked 2 hours, 43 minutes and 46 seconds, ahead of last edition silver medallist Jyoti Gawte and Monica Raut who finished third.

The 21st edition of National conference on e-Governance has started in Hyderabad, Telangana with theme "Technology for Accelerating Development" on February 26, 2018. The conference, which is jointly organised by the Government of India (GoI) and Telangana Administrative Reforms department, will provide a forum for Secretaries of Administrative Reforms and Information Technology of the Centre and the State Governments, IT Managers and software solution providers to exchange views, discuss issues and analyse various solution frameworks. The two-day conference will deliberate on several aspects of the e-governance including its universalization and replication, governing e-governance, best practices, emerging technologies and synergising role of national and state governments.

Union Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Uma Bharti launched the Swajal pilot project at Village Bhikampura in Rajasthan. Besides ensuring the availability of clean drinking water to every household around the year, the project would also generate employment. Swajal is a community-owned drinking water programme for sustained drinking water supply. Under the scheme, 90% of the project cost will be taken care by the Government and the remaining 10% of the project cost will be contributed by the community.

Rahul Mahajan has been named the new Editor-in-Chief of Rajya Sabha Television. The Rajya Sabha Television channel is run and operated by Rajya Sabha. Rahul Mahajan was selected as Editor-in-Chief of Rajya Sabha Television from 57 applicants. Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu approved his appointment. Rahul Mahajan is 46 years old. At present, he is Consultant Editor in Prasar Bharti. He has worked for Jansatta, Zee News, AjTak, Star News, News 24 and Bhaskar News. He has over 26 years of media experience and 12 years of experience covering the Parliament.

Michael McCormack has been elected as the new Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, after being selected as the leader of the country's National Party. McCormack succeeded former Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce who was forced to resign last week amid public anger over an extramarital affair with his former press secretary. The leader of the National Party automatically becomes deputy prime minister under the terms of the coalition agreement with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's Liberal party.

PyeongChang Winter Olympics 2018, officially known as the XXIII Olympic Winter Games was held in Pyeongchang, South Korea from 9th - 23rd February, 2018. Motto of PyeongChang Winter Olympics 2018 was "Passion.Connected".Soohorang, a white tiger, and Bandabi, an Asiatic black bear were the official mascots for this event. More than 2900 athletes from 92 countries took part in PyeongChang Winter Olympics 2018. Soohorang, a white tiger, and Bandabi, an Asiatic black bear were the official mascots for this event.

20th Conference of the Commonwealth Education Ministers (20CCEM) was held in Nadi, Fiji from 19th - 23rd February 2018. The Conference was held for Education Ministers of Commonwealth nations to meet and discuss solutions to contemporary issues and challenges in education sector viz. low enrolment rates in preschool, primary and secondary schools, gender disparities in education and low adult literacy. Theme of 20CCEM was "Sustainability and Resilience: Can Education Deliver?". Indian delegation to this conference was led by Dr. Satya Pal Singh, Minister of State, Ministry of Human Resource Development. First Commonwealth education conference was held in Oxford, UK in 1959.

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will get the largest chunk of loans on offer under Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE). This shifts funding mechanism to CFIs in higher education from grant assistance to loans to assure more funds, greater accountability. RISE scheme was announced in Union Budget 2017-18. It aims to lend low-cost funds to government higher educational institutions.

Bharti Airtel announced that it has joined 'Seamless Alliance', a new global collaboration to bring high-speed and uninterrupted in-flight data connectivity to mobile customers. Objective of this alliance is to work towards leveraging satellite technology to offer high-speed data connectivity to mobile users even when they are up in the air. Along with Bharti Airtel, OneWeb, Airbus, Delta and Sprint are the other founding members of this alliance. The founding members will jointly work to minimise cost and eliminate hurdles associated with acquisition, installation and operation of data access infrastructure by streamlining system integration and certification.

Tech Mahindra has set up a lab in Bengaluru in association with US chipmaker Intel to prepare for 5G services, according to a top executive of the IT firm. The company's CEO CP Gurnani said that about 30,000 of its employees have already been re-skilled to handle the emerging technologies. The company expects to roll out 5G services by 2019.

The CRPF has launched a bike ambulance initiative in areas of anti-Naxal operations in Chhattisgarh, for providing basic healthcare facilities to those living in remote jungle areas of Bastar region. Medical teams, accompanied by well-armed security personnel ride their motorcycles to help the sick and injured in about 70 villages. The battalion is based in Bijapur.

Sterlite Techologies announced that it has received a Rs 3500-crore advance purchase order to design, build and manage communications network of the Indian Navy. This system integration project will provide an advanced digital communications network to the Indian Navy. Sterlite Technologies will design, build and manage the communications network for over 10 years. A high-capacity IP-MPLS (Internet Protocol - Multi Protocol Label Switching) network will be developed as part of the project. Once the project is completed, it will link multiple Indian naval sites and India-administered islands.

The 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics concluded with a spectacular closing ceremony. In the closing ceremony, the Olympic flag was handed over to Chinese organisers for the next Winter Games in Beijing in 2022. With the 2022 Games, Beijing will become the first city in the world to host both the summer and winter editions of the Olympic Games after hosting the Summer Games in 2008.