Current Affairs - February 7, 2019 Current Affairs

Dakshayani, an 88-year-old captive she-elephant in Kerala, has died at a care centre at nearby Pappanamcode in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on 5th February 2019. She was the oldest captive elephant in Asia and Guinness record holder. She was also called the 'Gaja Muthassi' (grandmother of elephants).

The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has launched Shehri Samridhi Utsav to extend the outreach of DAY-NULM (Deendayal Antyodaya Mission - National Urban Livelihoods Mission) to the most vulnerable. The event will also showcase its initiatives and facilitate access of Self-Help Group (SHG) members to the other government schemes.

The State Bank of India's UK head Sanjiv Chadha has been honoured with the 'Freedom of the City of London' award in recognition of his contribution to promoting the bilateral relations. Sanjiv Chadha was nominated for the honour by Lord Mayor of London Peter Estlin and Sheriff Vincent Keaveny.

The contingency fund is a fund for emergencies or unexpected outflows, mainly economic crises.

The Maharashtra government has set up a 17-member committee to review various schemes being implemented for the welfare of tribals in the state. The committee will be headed by former MLA and Shramjeevi Sanghatna president Vivek Pandit.

Ministry of External Affairs appointed Sanjiv Ranjan as the Ambassador of India to the Republic of Colombia.

The North Sentinel Island (NSI) is home to the Sentinelese tribe, which have consistently refused any interaction with the outside world. They are hostile to outsiders and have killed people who approached or landed on the island. Sentinelese people are believed to be the only pre-Neolithic people in the world. This means they have a culture that existed in the middle period of Stone Age.

India's latest communication satellite GSAT-31 was successfully launched by European launch services provider- Arianespace's rocket from Kourou Launch Base in French Guiana on February 6, 2019. The Ariane-5 vehicle (Flight VA247) also carried Saudi Geostationary Satellite 1/Hellas Sat 4 along with GSAT-31.

Saudi Arabia announced the launch of its first satellite for communications, SGS-1, from the French Guiana Space Centre.

In a huge relief to a number of students who fail to qualify to enter into prestigious institutions like IITs due to negative marking, the Madras High Court ruled against negative marking in competitive examinations saying they are bad in law. The Court stated that the practice of awarding negative marks will eradicate intelligent guessing in competitive exams. The judgment was passed while disposing of a writ petition filed in 2013 by an IIT JEE aspirant S. Nelson Prabhakar (a Scheduled Caste student), who failed to clear the Mains due to negative marking.