Test : February 2019 Weekly Current Affair - 3" - Current Affairs MCQ

On 7th February 2019, Reserve Bank of India decided to treat deposits to over Rs.2 crore as ‘bulk’ as they doubled the limit for the same from the earlier Rs.1crore. This move will enhance operational freedom of Banks. RBI also proposed banks would maintain their bulk deposits interest rate cards in the core banking system for supervisory review. National Federation of Urban Cooperative Banks and Credit Societies Limited (NAFCUB) has suggested this proposal. The decision in proposal for setting up an Umbrella Organization (UO) for urban cooperative banks in pending with RBI.

Narendra Modi laid foundation stone for Greenfield airport at Hollongi during his Arunachal Pradesh visit which will improve connectivity.The total cost of the airport will be Rs.1042 crore in which centre will provide Rs.955 crore and State’s share will be Rs.87 crore.The airport will have a capacity of 200 passengers in peak hour handling with 5 check-in counters and 2 parking bays.

During the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Arunachal Pradesh, he launched DD ArunPrabha Channel in Itanagar. It is Doordarshan 2nd channel in north-eastern region after DD North East. The project cost is estimated to be 60 crore which is part of the Rs. 1054.52 crore fund approved by Cabinet. The service will be 24×7.

The Jammu & Kashmir Government on Friday declared Ladakh as the third administrative division of the state.The Government has approved the creation of a separated administrative/revenue division of Ladakh.The division will comprise Leh and Kargil districts, with Leh as the division’s headquarters.The creation of two posts of Divisional Commissioner and Inspector General of Police (IGP) has been sanctioned for the new division.

Hindi is included as the third official language in the Abu Dhabi court system with a motive to improve access to justice for foreign workers.Authorities have created bilingual language guides to explain complex legal terms in an effort to help people understand court process.The other two official languages are Arabic and English.

25.25 lakh candidates,out of the 37.32 lakh (aprrox.), have been trained under the Short-Term Training (STT)of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojna (PMKVY). Similarly, 11.27 lakhunder Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and 0.8 lakh under Special Project in various sectors across India.‘Skill Loan Mission’ has been launched by the Government to support youth by providing loan facility to individuals who wish to enrol for the skill development courses, as per the Skill Loan eligibility criteria.All the member banks of the Indian Banking Association (IBA) and other banking and financial institutions, including Micro Finance Institutions, regulated by the Reserve bank of India (RBI) are applicable for the Skill Loan Scheme.The Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship’s lead bank, ‘Bank of India’ is the first bank to notify and implement the scheme.Loans are available in the range of Rs 5000 to Rs 15,000.In the financial year 2017-18, total amount of Rs 29.06 crore was disbursed against 3551 accounts, and during 2018-19 (till Dec 18), Rs 19.46 crore against 2429 accounts.

Netflix drama ‘Roma’ won the best film prize along with director, Alfonso Cuaron and co-stars Olivia Colman and Rachel Weisz won in their respective categories.

Jamie Chadwick from Bath, England made history by becoming the fist female driver to win the MRF challenge title after scoring a triple win in the final round in Chennai.Chadwick won 3 out of the 5 races to close an 18-point margin in Max Defourny of Germany.Chadwick won 6 out of 15 races in the series which had stated in November and included events in Dubai and Bahrain.

On 12th February 2019, Joint Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Exercise `Exercise Rahat´ concluded in Jaipur, Rajasthan. It was demonstrated in Jaipur, Kota and Alwar in Rajasthan. Indian Army was represented by Jaipur based Sapta Shakti Command. Representatives from Armed Forces, National Disaster Management Response Mechanism (NDMRM), SDMA Rajasthan and DLMAs participated in the exercise.With a view to cooperate efforts for humanitarian assistance and Disaster Relief operations NDMA coordinated the exercise.The exercise was conducted in three places, in Jaipur it was in the form of a table top exercise and at Kota and Alwar it demonstrated on-ground capability and coordination among various stakeholders.

On February 11,2019,Dr. Najma Heptulla, Governor of Manipur, inaugurating the two-day National Conference on Unani Medicine organized by the Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM) in New Delhi. This conference was held as a part of 3rd Unani Day celebration .Theme of the conference was ‘Unani Medicine for Public Health’.Unani Day on 11th February every year,is celebrated to mark the birth anniversary of Hakim Ajmal Khan .

New Zealand won the Twenty20 International (T20I) 3-match series at Seddon Park Ground, Hamilton, New Zealand beating India won the series.New Zealand’s wicket keeper-batsman, Tim Seifert, won the player of the series award. He scored 138 runs at a strike-rate of 173.75 and an average of 46.33 on the 3 matches. He also picked 3 catches as the wicketkeeper.

On 12th February 2019, National Productivity Council (NPC) has commemorated its 61st Foundation Day as Productivity Day. NPC is celebrating National Productivity Week from 12th Feb to 18th Feb, 2019.The theme of this year’s Productivity Day is “Circular Economy for Productivity and Sustainability”.This is to signify a distinctive opportunity for circular business representative models for ‘Make-Use-Return’ for further economic prospects and revitalization of materials. The inauguration was organized to discuss the challenges, problems and repercussions from the execution of the circular economy which will augment productivity and create jobs. During the Productivity Week, workshops were organized in New Delhi and seminars were organized by regional Directorate of NPC at Kolkata, Guwahati, Chennai, Chandigarh and Bhubaneswar. National Productivity council is going to play a vital role in achieving the growth target to raise the Indian Economy to the level of USD 5 trillion by 2025 and USD 10 trillion by 2035.

Indian army demonstrated its artillery firepower, aviation and surveillance capacity at the annual ‘Exercise Topchi’ at Deolali Camp near Nashik.The latest ultra-light Howitzer M-777, self-propelled gun K-9 Vajra and indigenous Swathi weapon-locating radar was demonstrated.The aviation assets showcased were the indigenous advanced light helicopter, light combat helicopter, Cheetah & Chetak helicopters.

South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, will be taking over as the Chair of the African Union (AU) in 2020 after Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi completes his term.

The Sports and Youth Ministry in the meeting of Executive Committee of the National Games 2022 has chosen the ‘Smiling Clouded Leopard’ to be the Mascot for the National Games 2022. Meghalaya will host the 2022 National Games, which is coinciding with its 50 years of statehood.Clouded Leopard is among the wild cats that live throughout the forests of Garo, Khasi and Jaintia Hills.The meeting has decided that an open completion would be held to design a smiling clouded leopard that will be used as the mascot for the national Games.

Godavari Mega Aqua Food Park, first aqua mega food park was commissioned by Secretary of Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Pushpa Subrahmanyam on behalf of Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal via video conferencing in Andhra Pradesh.The park is set up on 57.81 acre of land and the facilities at its Central Processing Centre (CPC) includes pre-processing line, freezing and cold storage of fish and shrimp, an ice plant and food testing laboratory.

Ending a long running dispute with Greece, the Republic of Macedonia has officially changed its name to North Macedonia. Greece had been blocking Macedonia’s entry into the European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as it disapproved of the name of the country,as the Greek province of Macedoniaadjoining it has been associated with Alexander the Great. On 6th Feb. 2019, NATO member states signed an accession protocol allowing North Macedonia to join the alliance and become the 30th member.

Union Cabinet approved the proposal for allotment of 30 acres of land to Pasteur Institute of India for establishment of New Viral Vaccine Manufacturing Unit at Coonoor, Tamil Nadu. The land for the project will be transferred free of cost and will also be changed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare from ‘industrial’ to ‘institutional’.The project includes production of Anti Sera (like snake venom and Anti Rabies Sera) and Viral Vaccine (like TCA anti-measles vaccine, JE vaccine, etc.) at its manufacturing unit in Coonoor

President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed Sushil Chandra, the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), to be designated as the new Election Commissioner on 14th February, 2019. Mr. Sushil Chandra is an IIT graduate and is a1980 batch officer of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) official of Income Tax Cadre, was recently retired from CBDT.Mr. Chandra was appointed CBDT Chairman on November 1, 2016 and further he got 2 extensions.The Election Commission now has Sunil Arora as the Chief Election Commissioner who will succeed O.P. Rawat and Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra as fellow commissioners.

A non-venomous snake species has been discovered by Herpetologists Jayaditya Purkayastha of Help Earth, Guwahati and Patrick David of Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris in Guwahati, Arunachal Pradesh.The Snake has been named as “Crying Keelback (Hebius lacrima)” due to the presence of black spots below the snake’s eye which is taken as an allusion for crying. The 48 mm long Snake is found is “jhum” (shifting) cultivation areas in the Basar area West siang district of Arunachal Pradesh in 2010-11.The Discovery of snake is published in a peer reviewed journal for animal taxonomy known as “Zootaxa”.