Current Affairs - February 3, 2020 Current Affairs

On February 01, 2020, one of the former communications ministers of Iraq, Mohammed Allawi was appointed the Prime Minister of the country by the President of Iraq, Barham Salih.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami announced a new initiative, Direct CTO, to enable companies operating under green category industries to receive faster clearances from the government to commence operations. The move would primarily benefit micro, small, and medium enterprises planning to set up operations in the state.

Central Government appoints M Ajit Kumar as chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs. The appointment comes just two days before the Union Budget presentation.

All the four Indian Grand Masters including teen sensation R Praggnanandha, bowed out of title contention in the Master's category of 18th Gibraltar Chess Festival in Gibraltar. Grand Master Aryan Chopra secured the best finish among the Indians, taking the 11th place while Karthikeyan Murali was 13th. The experienced K Sasikiran took 18th spot while Praggnanandhaa was 20th.

On February 2, 2020, India and Maldives signed 5 Memorandum of Understandings to establish Addu Tourism in 5 islands of Addu atoll. The tourism is to be developed at a cost of 2.49 million USD. Addu is a city in Maldives that contains several inhabited Islands.

Lieutenant General Yogesh Kumar Joshi assumes charge of GOC-in-C, Northern Command in Jammu and Kashmir's Udhampur.K Joshi was commissioned into 13 JAK RIF on 12 June 1982 and later commanded the same unit. The general officer is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Khadakwasla, and a postgraduate from the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington.

Access to casinos for the locals in Goa will be banned from February 1. Only tourists will be allowed. This was the demand of the public

As part of the ongoing Indo-Bangladesh defence cooperation, a joint military training exercise SAMPRITI-IX will be conducted at UMROI, Meghalaya, India from February 3 to February 16, 2020.

Former Madhya Pradesh minister and sitting BJP MLA from Agar Malwa assembly constituency, Manohar Untwal, died of a brain-related ailment. He was 54.Untwal died during treatment at Medanta Hospital in Gurugram in Haryana.

Vijayveer Sidhu won the men's 25m Pistol T2 event in the National Shooting trials at Thiruvananthapuram. Chandigarh's Vijayveer won the junior men's 25m Pistol with an aggregate score of 585. He had three inner 10s, more than second-placed Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu of Punjab.

Sanjana Kapoor will receive the prestigious French honor of 'Chevalier dans Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) for her outstanding contribution to the field of theatre. Franck Riester will confer the symbol of the distinction on Kapoor in a special investiture ceremony on January 28 at the French embassy in New Delhi.

The Cabinet approved the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020 to amend the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971. In a progressive reform and giving reproductive rights to women the limit of 20 weeks of medical termination of pregnancy has been increased to 24 weeks.

President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind will visit Telangana on February 1 and 2, 2020 to inaugurate the new global headquarters Kanha Shanti Vanam of Shri Ram Chandra Mission in Rangareddy District on February 2, 2020. Kanha Shanti VanamKanha Shanti Vanam is the global headquarters of the Heartfulness Institute.

The Indian Navy conducted the Coastal Security Exercise, Malta Abhiyan in the Sunderbans region and the exercise is unique of its kind. The exercise was conducted to create awareness about the coastal security to the local community.

The latest round of FICCI's Economic Outlook Survey puts forth the annual median GDP growth forecast for 2019-20 at 5.0%. While the median growth forecast for agriculture and allied activities has been put at 2.6% for 2019-20; the industry and services sector are expected to grow by 3.5% and 7.2% respectively during the current year. Growth is likely to improve to 5.5% in 2020-21 as per the projections.

Hitesh Chandra Awasthi will serve as the interim Director General of Police (DGP) of Uttar Pradesh. UP government announced. Awasthi, a 1985 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, will replace OP Singh retired from the top police post in Uttar Pradesh. Awasthi served in the CBI for 13 years, who is presently posted as Director-general Vigilance. He will retire in June 2021.

Telangana State Government will begin testing of Novel Corona Virus in Hyderabad with the help of testing kits. The authorities at Gandhi Medical Hospital begun test trails of the packages following the approval given by the Central Health Ministry for testing the Virus in Hyderabad.

Olympian Ayonika Paul won the women's 10m Air Rifle T1 event Vijayveer Sidhu won the men's 25m Pistol T2 event in the National Shooting trials at Thiruvananthapuram. She came to a quality eight-woman field, which had the likes of Tokyo 2020 quota holders ApurviChandela and Anjum Moudgil among competitors.

Noted Urdu poet Ajmal Sultanpuri died after protracted illness. He was 97.Sultanpuri was admitted to Karunashray Hospital 6 for treatment of age-related illness and after he slipped into coma, his family members took him back to his home where he breathed his last.

The Chandauli district of UP topped the list followed by Bolangir of Odisha, YSR (AP) in second and third positions respectively. Sahibanj of Jharkhand and Hailakandi of Assam were placed in fourth and fifth places. The rankings were done for 112 aspirational districts. The districts selected from six developmental areas in December 2019.