February 26, 2018 - Current Affairs Quiz - Current Affairs MCQ

On February 22, 2018, Indian Government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC)for research collaboration in various fields. This MoU envisages ‘programme based research support’ in handling current and future global and local developmental challenges. It is to be noted that, since 1972, IDRC has funded 551 research activities worth 159 million Canadian Dollars in India.

On February 26, 2018, Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), introduced a ‘Baal Aadhaar’ card for children below the age of five years.’Baal Aadhaar’ Card will be of Blue Colour. No biometric details will be needed for ‘Baal Aadhaar’. However, when the child turns five, a mandatory biometric update will be required, which is to be done by taking the child to any nearby Aadhaar centre. In context of this news, it is important to note that Aadhhar Card is not mandatory for children in this age group. However, it is required if the child is attending educational programmes overseas and if he/she wants to avail government scholarships.

23 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will be getting the largest portion of loans on offer under Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE) scheme. During Union Budget 2018 speech, Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley had announced RISE scheme with a corpus of Rs 100000 crore. Under this scheme, all centrally-funded institutes (CFIs), including central universities, IITs, Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and IISERs, can borrow funds from the corpus over the next four years to expand and build new infrastructure. Rs 25000 crore, out of above stated Rs. 100000 crore corpus will be set aside exclusively for the 23 IITs. Central Universities will be getting second largest share of Rs 20000 crore. National Institutes of Technology (NITs) can borrow up to Rs 11300 crore, new IIMs will get Rs 4500 crore while five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) can borrow Rs 5000 crore. Under RISE, all financing will be done through the Higher Education Funding Agency (HEFA).

Indian Navy’s Andaman & Nicobar Command will be hosting a multinational mega event ‘MILAN 2018’ from 6th – 13th March, 2018 at Port Blair. Conducted biennially since 1995, MILAN is a congregation of navies of several countries, organised by Indian Navy at the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, under the aegis of the Andaman and Nicobar Command. Objective behind this event is to foster co-operation through naval exercises and professional interactions.Theme of ‘MILAN 2018’ will be ‘Friendship Across the Seas’. Inaugural address at this event will be delivered by Chief of the Naval Staff of the Indian Navy, Admiral Sunil Lanba. Professional exercises, seminars, social events and sporting fixtures will be conducted during the course of this event.

Prime Minister Narednra Modi flagged off the ‘Run for New India’ marathon in Surat, Gujarat. Chief Minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani was also present on the occasion. Objective behind this Marathon is to create awareness about social causes and call upon youth to resolve to build a New India. ‘Run for New India’ marathon was organized by the Surat Nagrik Samiti. It is divided into 4 categories which included 41 KM full marathon. Around 1.50 lakh runners, across all age groups, participated in this marathon.

On 26th and 27th February 2018, the 21st National Conference on e-Governance is held in Hyderabad, Telangana. The 21st National Conference on e-Governance is organized by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), jointly with the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology along with Telangana Government. Y.S. Chowdary, Union Minister of State for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, presided over the inaugural session. The theme for this year’s Conference is: ‘Technology for accelerating Development’. The conference features plenary sessions based on the following themes: Building User Experience, Universalization and Replication and Governing e-Governance, e-Governance Good/ Best Practices, Emerging Technologies.

China has been elected as the Vice President of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). India has congratulated China over its election as the Vice President of Financial Action Task Force (FATF). On 23rd February 2018, the FATF plenary meeting was held in Paris, France. Measures to fight terror financing and money-laundering were discussed. Pakistan was not put on FATF’s international terror-financing watch list. Islamabad has been provided time till June 2018 to develop an action plan against terrorist groups operating from Pakistan. Pakistan was put on FATF’s ‘grey list’ from 2012 – 2015.

Turkmenistan announced the start of construction work on the Afghan section of $8 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) natural gas pipeline that will link energy-rich Turkmenistan to Pakistan and India. Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India Pipeline (TAPI), is a natural gas pipeline project to transport Caspian Sea natural gas from Turkmenistan, through Afghanistan into Pakistan and then to India. It was proposed in 1990s by Turkmenistan. However, starting work on the pipeline has been delayed because of the problem of crossing Afghanistan. With the work starting on Afghanistan section, India’s hopes for getting natural gas from Turkmenistan’s Galkynysh Gas Field (world’s second-biggest gas field) have brightened. TAPI is supported by United States and Asian Development Bank (ADB).

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. It has been taking place every three years since then.

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.

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. Once the platform will go Live, Airtel’s 370 million mobile customers will be able to enjoy uninterrupted access to high-speed data services even while they are in-flight.

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 was elected as Australia’s deputy prime minister. On 23rd February 2018, former Australian Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce resigned as leader of the National party and Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, following an allegation of extra-marital affair. Now, Michael McCormack has been elected Australia’s new deputy prime minister and also the leader of the National Party. Michael McCormack defeated George Christensen in the voting. Michael McCormack has become deputy Prime Minister of Australia under a coalition agreement between the National Party and the 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. In this edition of Winter Olympics, competitions were held for 102 events across fifteen sports. More than 2900 athletes from 92 countries took part in PyeongChang Winter Olympics 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.

Sajeev Krishnan was appointed Additional Director on the Board of Dhanlaxmi Bank. The Board of Dhanlaxmi Bank named Sajeev Krishnan as Additional Director, at a meeting held on 8th February 2018.

India’s Vikas Krishan has won a gold medal the best boxer of the tournament honour at the 69th Strandja Memorial boxing tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria. Vikas Krishan defeated USA’s Troy Isley in the middle-weight (75kg) finals and won the gold medal. He was also named the best boxer of the tournament. Indian boxers won a total of 11 medals in the tournament. Amit Panghal (49kg) also won a gold medal in the tournament. M C Mary Kom (48kg), Seema Poonia (+81kg) and Gaurav Solanki (52kg) won silver medals. Meena Kumari Devi (54kg), L Sarita Devi (60kg), Saweety Boora (75kg) and Bhagyabati Kachari (81kg) are the women who won bronze medals. Mohammed Hussamuddin (56kg) and Satish Kumar (+91kg) won bronze medals among men.

Indian Olympic Association (IOA) announced that it has partnered with Edelweiss Financial Services Limited as sponsor of the Indian team for 2018 Commonwealth Games, the 2018 Asian Games and the 2020 Olympic Games and National Games 2018 and 2019. IOA has also declared Raymond as its official styling partner and Shiv Naresh Sports as its official sports apparel partner for the Commonwealth Games that is to be conducted in Gold Coast, Australia, from 4-15 April 2018. Minster of Youth Affairs and Sports Col. Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, President IOA Dr. Narinder Dhruv Batra and Secretary General IOA Mr. Rajeev Mehta launched the official ceremonial outfit and sports apparel of athletes. Edelweiss Tokio Life Insurance, provides a Rs 50 lakh life Insurance cover for Indian athletes participating in the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

On 26th February 2018, TRS Subramanian, former cabinet secretary, passed away. TSR Subramanian was 79 years old. The cause of his death and other details are not yet known. He was an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of the 1961 batch from the Uttar Pradesh cadre. He was the cabinet secretary from 1996 to 1998. He was also the founder member and former Chancellor of the Shiv Nadar University. He had written a few books: “India at Turning Point: The Road to Good Governance”, “GovernMint In India: An Inside View” and “Journeys Through Babudom and Netaland: Governance in India”.

On 25th February 2018, Manganlal Shah, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA, died after suffering from liver disease, at the Jolly Grant Medical College, in Dehradun. Manganlal Shah was a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Tharali. He had been getting treatment for liver disease at the Jolly Grant Medical College.

Dr Vanit Nalwa presented her book ‘Hari Singh Nalwa: Champion of the Khalsaji (1791-1837)’ at National Archives of India, in Delhi. During the presentation of her book, Dr Vanit Nalwa, said that, Hari Singh Nalwa, a Sikh warrior who lived in the 19th century, got his surname after Maharaja Ranjit Singh said “wah mere Raja Nal, wah”. Maharaja Ranjit Singh said those words, as he compared Hari Singh’s bravery as a child with that of King Nal of Mahabharat. Other information related to Hari Singh Nalwa were also shared at the presentation. Dr Vanit Nalwa is a seventh generation descendant of Hari Singh. Hari Singh was born in 1791. He became a leader when he was 13 years. He led an army of 800 men. Dr Vanit Nalwa has written this book after 7 years of research.