Test: February 2020 Weekly Current Affair - 4 - UPSC MCQ

Nitin Jairam Gadkari, the union minister for Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) flagged off ‘Apiary on Wheels’ in New Delhi in the presence of Shri Vinai Kumar Saxena, Chairman of Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC). Apiary on Wheels is a unique concept for easy maintenance of BeeBox and migration of live colonies, designed by KVIC.

The Government of India (GOI) is to host the National Organic Food festival from February (21 to 23, 2020) at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi, India. The festival will be inaugurated by Smt. Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Minister of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI). The 3-day festival is celebrated for the 1st time in order to boost organic products and to promote women entrepreneurship in the area of production & processing of organic products. Theme: Unleashing India’s Organic Market Potential.

The IFAD’s 43rd Governing Council meeting was held in Rome, Italy on 11-12 February 2020 on the theme “Investing in sustainable food systems to end hunger by 2030”.

SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) has constituted Municipal Bonds Development Committee headed by Shri Sujit Prasad, Executive Director, SEBI in order to get recommendations on policy matters pertaining to development of municipal debt securities market. The members of the committee include representatives from ministry, Municipal Corporation, lawyers, professionals and market practitioners.

The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) annual “Military Balance” report states that global spending on defence hiked by 4% percent in 2019, showing largest growth in 10 years (2010-2019). The report showed top 15 countries, among them, the world’s biggest defence spenders are United States (US), China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and India.
Table Showing Defence Spending of Top 10 Countries in 2019

The Madhya Pradesh (MP) forest department & Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT) has radio-tagged an Indian Pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) for the first time in order to know its ecology and develop an effective conservation plan.

The Naga tribes of Manipur celebrated seed sowing festival ‘Lui-Ngai-Ni’ at Tangkhul Naga Long (TNL) ground in Ukhrul, Manipur. It is the second major inter-tribe Naga festival after Hornbill Festival, which is celebrated by more than ten Naga tribes of Nagaland.

The Chief Minister of Haryana Manohar Lal Khattar has announced that the state government will provide Rs. 6 crores for the players who bagged gold medals, Rs. 4 crores for the silver medalist and Rs. 2.5 crores for the bronze medalists at the Olympics Games and also employment in Haryana Civil Service or Haryana Police service to the sportsperson.

Prime Minister Modi flagged off the IRCTC’s (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) Maha Kaal Express through video link. The train will connect 3 Jyotirling Pilgrim Centres – Varanasi, Ujjain and Omkareshwar. This would be first overnight journey private train in the country. Every passenger travelling on the train will be covered with complimentary travel insurance of Rs 10 lakh. Facilities like security services, quality vegetarian food, bedrolls, and housekeeping services will also be available onboard. The Kashi Mahakal Express will run between Varanasi and Indore.

On February 17, 2020, Moody’s Investors Service, an American credit rating agency, has lowered India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth estimate for the current financial year (2019-20) to 5.4% from 6.6% and the next financial year (2020-21) growth rate estimate to 5.8% from 6.7%

During the Portugal’s president Mr Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa visit to India One of the MoU is to develop a world class National Maritime Heritage Complex (NMHC) at Lothal, Gujarat with the cooperation from the Republic of Portugal. It will pay the way for cooperation between the two countries for showcasing common Maritime Heritage.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan launched “Yodhav” (Warrior) mobile app at Kochi, Kerala, through which the public can inform police about drug abuse & its distribution.

The RBI released “Statement on Developmental and Regulatory Policies” which stated about Long Term Repo Operations (LTROs) for improving monetary transmission. It is aimed at providing cheaper money to banks at the repo rate so that it can be used to boost credit growth. RBI decided to conduct Long Term Repo Operations (LTROs) for one-year and three-year tenors for up to a total amount of ₹ 1,00,000 crores at the policy repo rate. Simply, RBI is injecting Rs 1 lakh crore into the banking system through auctions with long term maturity periods (compared to one day repos) of 1 year and 3 years. LTRO is in addition to the existing LAF (Liquidity adjustment facility) and MSF (Marginal Standing Facility) operations. The current repo rate is 5.15%.

The Government of India (GoI) and the World Bank(WB) have inked a $ 450 million (mn) loan agreement to support Atal Bhujal Yojana (ABHY) – National Groundwater Management Improvement Program that will be implemented by the Ministry of Jal Shakti in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh (UP) and cover 78 districts.

On February 17, 2020, Laureus World Sports Awards 2020 was held in Berlin, Germany.It was the 2nd Laureus World Sports Awards to take place in Berlin, following the 2016 ceremony which took place at the Messe Berlin. Indian former international cricketer Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar’s 2011 World Cup-winning moment was voted the Laureus Sporting Moment of 2000-2020. This moment of Sachin has been titled ‘Carried on the Shoulders of a Nation’. Vinesh Phogat is the 1st Indian to get Nominated for Laureus sport awards in 2019.

In accordance with the US-based think tank World Population Review, India has become the fifth-largest in the world with a GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of $2.94 trillion overtaking the UK (United Kingdom) and France in 2019. The size of the UK economy is $2.83 trillion and that of France is $2.71 trillion. The list has been topped by the United states (US) with $21.44 trillion GDP.
Table showing Top 5 Largest Economies of World:

The Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying announced that the Government will facilitate the increase of milk processing capacity to 108 million metric tonne (MT) from 53.5 million metric tonne by 2025.

Andhra Pradesh (AP) Chief Minister (CM) Yedugiri Sandinti JaganMohan Reddy launched the Nadu-Nedu scheme (roughly meaning then and now in Telugu) at STBC ground, Kurnool, AP. An amount of Rs 15,337 crore has been allocated to modernise all government (govt)hospitals in 3 years.

In order to provide enough credit to entrepreneurs in the MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) sector, the state Government of Gujarat has signed an MoU (memorandum of understanding) with State Bank of India (SBI), through which the bank will provide working capital to entrepreneurs aims to start new MSME within 15 days of making an application. In October 2019, The Gujarat state announced that MSME units will no longer be required to take various approvals to start operations for the initial 3 years period.They can start operations after getting an acknowledgment certificate from the state nodal agency by submitting ‘declaration of intent.’

Afghanistan’s Incumbent president Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai (70) wins second term as Afghanistan president as an Independent Candidate securing 50.64% votes in september 2019 election announced by the Election Commission of Afghanistan. Ashraf Ghani defeated Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, who gained 39.52% votes in the election.

Supratim Bandyopadhyay was appointed as chairman of the PFRDA (Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority). The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved Supratim appointment for a period of 5 years from the date of assumption or till attaining the age of 65 years. He was the successor of Shri Pankaj Jain.

A high powered selection committee headed by Narendra Modi has selected former Information and Broadcasting Secretary Bimal Julka, current Information Commissioner became new Chief Information Commissioner in the Central Information Commission. Bimal Julka to succeed Sudhir Bhargava as CIC. Also, Sanjay Kothari, current Secretary to the President as the new Chief Vigilance Commissioner(CVC). Sanjay Kothari to succeed K. V. Chowdary as CVC.

According to the Times Higher Education’s (THE) Emerging Economies University Rankings 2020, which ranks a total of 533 universities from 47 countries, India has 11 institutes among world’s top 100 universities where Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru (Karnataka) emerged as India’s top-ranked institution by getting the rank 16th with the score 48.4. Tsinghua University in China has topped the list with the score of 83.8.
Here’s the list of Top 3& Indian Universities in the ranking:

The Worldwide Education for The Future Index (WEFFI) 2019 ranked India in 35th position, whereas in 2018 it was ranked 40th position. The WEFFI report is created by The Economist Intelligence unit and commissioned by Yidan Prize foundation. The index is topped by Finland, followed by Sweden in second place and New Zealand in third place.
Overall Ranking:

Kolkata based defence PSU (Public Sector Undertakings) GRSE (Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers ltd.) has delivered its fourth and Last Anti-Submarine Warfare Corvette (ASWC) INS (Indian Naval Ship) Kavaratti to Indian Navy under Project-28. The first 3 ships under project-28 are INS Kamorta, INS Kadmatt and INS Kiltan (Participated in EX-MALABAR) are delivered to Indian Navy by GRSE.