Daily Current Affairs MCQ - Feb 17, 2021 - UPSC MCQ

Prime Minister Modi will launch the 'Mahabahu-Brahmaputra' in Assam on 18th February 2021.

• The launch of Mahabahu-Brahmaputra will be marked by the inauguration of the Ro-Pax vessel operations between Neamati-Majuli Island, North Guwahati-South Guwahati and Dhubri-Hatsingimari; Shilanyas of Inland Water Transport (IWT) Terminal at Jogighopa and various tourist jetties on River Brahmaputra and launch of digital solutions for Ease-of-Doing-Business.

• The program is aimed at providing seamless connectivity to the Eastern parts of India and includes various development activities for the people living around River Brahmaputra and River Barak.

Prime Minister Modi will lay the foundation stone of Dhubri Phulbari Bridge and perform Bhumi Pujan for construction of Majuli Bridge Assam on 18th February 2021.

Dhubri Phulbari Bridge

• Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone for the four lane bridge over the Brahmaputra between Dhubri (on North Bank) and Phulbari (on South Bank).

• The proposed Bridge will be located on NH-127B, originating from Srirampur on NH-27 (East-West Corridor), and terminating at Nongstoin on NH-106 in the State of Meghalaya.

• It will connect Dhubri in Assam to Phulbari, Tura, Rongram and Rongjeng in Meghalaya.

Majuli Bridge

• Prime Minister will perform Bhumi Pujan for the two-lane Bridge on the Brahmaputra between Majuli (North Bank) and Jorhat (South Bank).

• The bridge will be located on NH-715K and will connect Neematighat (on Jorhat side) and Kamalabari (on Majuli side).

The President of India inaugurated the Rashtrapati Bhavan Krida Sthal (renovated Football Ground and Basketball Court) in the President's Estate on February 16, 2021.

• These state-of-art sports facilities are developed with the aim to cater to the needs of the employees of Rashtrapati Bhavan and their families.

• An inter-departmental football tournament with five teams namely – President's Secretariat Heroes, Household Youngs, PBG Warriors, Army Guard Daredevils and Delhi Police Stalwarts also started to encourage the employees and their family members to take part in the sports activities.

The Rashtrapati Bhavan has served as a home to Viceroy Lord Irwin and subsequently to other Viceroys of India till Lord Mountbatten, the last British Viceroy and the first Governor-General of independent India in 1947. Lord Mountbatten administered the oath of Prime Minister to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru under the Central Dome of Rashtrapati Bhavan in 1947. C. Rajagopalachari, the first Indian Governor-General also took oath under the Central Dome on June 21, 1948 and became the first Indian to reside at the Government House, as it was then called.

The Prime Minister addressed the event organized to commemorate 75 years of Shri Ram Chandra Mission.

• Sahaj Marg (The Natural Path), a form of Raja Yoga, is a meditation system involving meditation, cleaning, and prayer.

• The cleaning of impressions (called samskaras) is claimed to be unique to this method.

• The organizational body Shri Ram Chandra Mission (SRCM), was formally registered in 1945 by Ram Chandra (1899-1983). As part of the Sahaj Marg spiritual practice, Ram Chandra adopted a technique called 'pranahuti' as taught by his spiritual master, 'Lalaji'.

Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh launched E-Chhawani portal and mobile app in New Delhi on February 16, 2021.

• The portal (https://echhawani.gov.in/) has been created to provide online civic services to over 20 lakh residents of 62 Cantonment Boards across the country.

• Through the portal, the residents of cantonment areas will be able to avail basic services like renewal of leases, application for birth & death certificates, water & sewerage connections, trade licences with just a click of a button.

• The portal is jointly developed by eGov Foundation, Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), Directorate General Defence Estates (DGDE) and National Informatics Centre (NIC).

An Enrolment Module for TECHNOGRAHIS, has been launched by The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).

• TECHNOGRAHIS are students from IITs, NITs, engineering, planning and architecture colleges, faculty members, academicians, and stakeholders.

• The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) is promoting six Light House Projects (LHPs) as Live Laboratories for transfer of technology to the field.

• The LHPs are model housing projects. About 1,000 houses at each location are being built with allied infrastructure facilities.

• Interested candidates can register themselves to visit these Live Laboratories at six LHP sites for learning, consultation, generation of ideas and solutions, experimentation, innovation, and technical awareness.

• Till the completion of the LHPs within a period of 12 months, the 'Technograhis' will get regular updates from the sites for information dissemination.

Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment will virtually release the 3rd edition of the Indian Sign Language (ISL) Dictionary with 10,000 terms (including 6,000 earlier terms) on 17th February 2021.

• The Dictionary has been brought out by the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC), an autonomous Institute under the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan), Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment.

• The 3rd edition of the ISL Dictionary contains total 10,000 terms of everyday use, academic terms, legal & administrative terms, medical terms, technical terms and agricultural terms.

• The Dictionary also contains regional signs used in different parts of the country.

• The 1st edition of the ISL Dictionary was launched on 23rd March 2018 with 3000 terms and the 2nd edition with 6000 terms (including earlier 3000 terms) was launched on 27th February 2019.

Two more rovers — NASA's Perseverance and China's Tianwen-1 — are set to land on Mars on February 18 and in May 2021 respectively.

NASA's Perseverance Rover

• The most sophisticated mission from an engineering standpoint, NASA's Perseverance Rover, is en route to Mars, and is set to land on Thursday at Jezero Crater, which was likely filled with water in the past.

• Perseverance is NASA's 4th generation Mars Rover

• The goal is to look for biosignatures in the dried up lake bed at Jezero Crater.

Tianwen-1

• Tianwen-1, the first mission to Mars from China, successfully underwent orbital insertion on February 10. Tianwen-1 carries an orbiter, a lander, and a rover. China's approach for landing a rover is somewhat different. Unlike NASA rovers, Tianwen-1 will orbit Mars for a few months before attempting to land in May this year.

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has launched a Pilot Pey Jal Survekshan under Jal Jeevan Mission- Urban, JJM-U.

• It will be conducted in cities to ascertain equitable distribution of water, reuse of wastewater and mapping of water bodies with respect to quantity and quality of water through a challenge process.

• As a first step, the Ministry has decided to launch the Survekshan in 10 cities- Agra, Badlapur, Bhubaneswar, Churu, Kochi, Madurai, Patiala, Rohtak, Surat and Tumkur.

• Jal Jeevan Mission Urban is designed to provide universal coverage of water supply to all households through functional taps in all 4,378 statutory towns in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal - 6.

• The total outlay proposed for JJM (U) is 2 lakh 87 thousand crore rupees which includes 10 thousand crore rupees for continuing financial support to AMRUT Mission.

Dr. Kiran Bedi has been removed from the post of Puducherry Lieutenant Governor. Telangana Governor Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan has been given additional charge as Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry.

• Article 153 of the Indian constitution states that here shall be Governor for each State.

• nothing in this article shall prevent the appointment of the same person as Governor for two or more States.