Current Affairs - February 18, 2019 Current Affairs

According to a biennial report released by the government, the Centre has identified 106 Coastal and Marine sites as Conservation Reserves under its National Wildlife Action plan for the period of 2017-2031. This was the 2nd biennial updated report which was made by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and was submitted to the UN body on Climate change in December 2018. According to the report, India has been successful to sustain the ecosystem when it is at its edge of disappearing at an alarming rate. Also, it will further conserve the coastal and marine ecosystems from the impact of climate change. Both the coastal and marine areas facilitate with food baskets and fish protein to population, and also provide a valuable foreign exchange in turn.

The new districts - Narayanpet and Mulugu started functioning from February 17, 2019. Now, the number of districts in the Telangana rose to 33. Narayanpet has been carved out of Mahbubnagar district and Mulugu from Jayashankar Bhupalpally. Telangana had 10 districts when it came into being as India's 29th state on June 2, 2014, after it was carved out of Andhra Pradesh.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between Edelweiss and Bank of Singapore in order to form a strategic partnership. The MoU will provide an opportunity to clients of both entities to access each other product platforms.Edelweiss became the first Indian Wealth management company to sign an MoU with offshore private bank (Bank of Singapore).Bank of Singapore has signed similar MoU with financial companies from Switzerland and Japan.

Chandramouli Ramanathan of India was appointed as the Controller, Assistant Secretary-General for Programme Planning, Finance and Budget in the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Mr. Ramanathan has led high level management initiatives, including implementation of IPSAS(International Public Sector Accounting Standards) and Umoja(the United Nations Enterprise Resource Planning solution). He has also served as Acting Controller since September 2018, along with his position as Assistant Secretary-General for Enterprise Resource Planning since 2016. He previously served as Deputy Controller, Director of Accounts Division, and Chief of Service, IT Services Division.

Prime Minister inaugurated the Ekalavya Model Residential School which has a capacity of 420 students in Nanded, in order to improve the quality of education amongst tribal people.The School is spread in 16 acres and equipped with modern facilities including provision for food, residential facility, playground and IT facilities.

The Himachal Pradesh Assembly passed the Official Language (Amendment) Bill 2019 to make Sanskrit the second official language in the state. The bill was introduced in the Assembly by Irrigation and Public Health Minister Mahender Singh. Once given assent by the Governor, it will amend the Himachal Pradesh Official language Act, 1975. Now, Hindi is the official language of Himachal Pradesh. The Assembly also renamed Himachal Pradesh University of Health Sciences after former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Professor Faizel Ismail, an Indian-origin global negotiator, has been appointed as the director of a renowned academic institution in South Africa. He will take charge as the director of the University of Cape Town's (UCT) Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance from Professor Alan Hirsch in July 2019. Ismail is known for his role in negotiating major agreements for South Africa, including with the Southern African Customs Union as well as the Trade and Development Agreement with the European Union. He chaired the International Trade and Administration Commission from 2015 to 2018, and was reappointed for a five-year term till 2023. Ismail, a professor at the UCT's School of Economics, has in the past served as an ambassador to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and a senior advisor to the Minister of Trade and Industry.

A book 'Simplicity & Wisdom' written by Dinesh Shahra was launched at Parmarth Ashram in Kumbh Mela. Launched by the Governor of West Bengal- Keshari Nath Tripathi and Swami Chidanand Saraswati, Head of Parmarth Ashram, this book is dedicated to Late Vedanti Swami Pragananandji. The book aims at guiding towards saintly wisdom and leading a content and happy life.

India with immediate effect has boosted the Customs Duty on all the goods imported from Pakistan to 200% followed by the day after India repealed Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status from Pakistan. This punitory move followed by the Pulwana Terrorist attack that led to the death of 42 CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force). This step is likely to strike Pakistan's exports to India which were $381 million in the April-Nov period and for overall FY18, it was $489 million. This 200% tariff rate is higher than the average bound rate of 113.5% for agriculture products and 34.6% for non-agriculture products. The MFN applied rates are 32.8% and 10.7%, respectively for farm and non-farm products.

Vidarbha became the only 3rd team in Indian Domestic Cricket history after Bombay and Karnataka to defend their Irani cup titles at Jamtha Stadium in Nagpur by defeating rest of India. Vidarbha chased a target of 280 runs on the day and young Karnewar was the Player of the match.

Larsen & Toubro Infotech Ltd. (LTI) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Germany's Nielsen+Partner (N+P), an independent Temenos WealthSuite specialist, for Euro 28 million on a cash-free, debt-free basis, which includes upfront consideration and a performance-based earn-out. N+P is a leading partner of Temenos in Europe and APAC with subsidiaries in Luxembourg, Switzerland, Thailand, Singapore and Australia and branch office in Belgium.

Infosys, the country's 2nd largest IT firm has launched a next-generation digital platform 'InfyTQ' to facilitate engineering students with best learning experiences by imparting technical and professional skills. InfyTQ is a free platform available on both mobile and desktop, featured with always-on, anytime, anywhere learning catered through a continuous transfer of digital skills.

Sudanese refugee, Abdul Aziz Muhamat, who spent 5 years in Australian detention centre on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, was given the Martin Ennals Award 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland, for exposing "the very cruel asylum seeker policy of the Australian Government". He said that his name was stripped off and he was referred to as number- QNK002 and prisoners were fed through a chain-link fence and treated worse than animals.It was the first time that the prize focused on the plight of refugees and awarded to someone who has suffered violations due to the policies of a Western nation.

PM Modi on his visit to Jhansi laid foundation stone of Defence Corridor which will create a lot of direct and indirect employment to the youth in the region. Government decided to establish 2 defence corridors in the country, one at Tamil Nadu and the other in Uttar Pradesh. Jhansi is one among six nodal points of the UP defence corridors.The Defence Corridor will make India independent in defence production. The project will also attract many foreign and domestic Defence related companies to invest in the region.

Eva de Goede from Netherlands and Arthur van Doren of Belgium were titled the International Hockey Federation's Players of the Year for 2018 on 14th February 2019. Eva de Goede, 29, was named the Female Player of the Year and Arthur van Doren, 24, won the Male Player of the Year award for the second year in a row.

The researchers from the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) have developed the first ant-like walking robot 'AntBot' that can explore its environment and find its way home without Global Positioning System (GPS). The scientists took inspiration from desert ants, which are extraordinary solitary navigators, to design the AntBot. Ants use polarised light and ultraviolet radiation to locate themselves in space. Cataglyphis desert ants in particular can cover several hundreds of metres in direct sunlight in the desert to find food, then return in a straight line to the nest, without getting lost. AntBot copies the desert ants' exceptional navigation capacities, allowing it to explore without using GPS. The six-legged robot has an optical compass that uses polarised light to determine its direction, and an optical movement sensor directed to the sun to measure covered distance.

Indiamoneyinsurance.com, a subsidiary of the Indiamoney.com Group has acquired a broking license from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) of India's to enter Insurance Business. Key points The company will come to process within the next few days and projects to hire 2000 employees before the year ends.

According to Bloomberg, India's crude oil import from Venezuela jumped 66 per cent to 6,20,000 barrels a day. However, Venezuelan crude exports have plunged since the US imposed sanctions against the country's oil company.

Former President Shri Pranab Mukherjee released the book, which is a compilation of 92 selected speeches of Vice President Shri Venkaiah Naidu, in New Delhi. It contains the wide experience of the Vice President in Public Affairs. Mr. Mukherjee and Mr. Naidu also paid homage to the martyrs of Pulwama terror attack and said that the country must stand together to fight against terrorism.

Sunil Chhetri, the all-time leading scorer for India in international football, has been conferred the first ever Football Ratna honour by Football Delhi, the association governing the sport in Delhi. He is popularly known as Captain Fantastic. He has scored the 2nd highest number of goals in international matches among active players after Cristiano Ronaldo.