Test: February 2020 Weekly Current Affair - 1 - UPSC MCQ

India’s first of its kind fruit train was launched from Tadipatri Railway Station in Anantapur district & from Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh. This is the first time an entire train carrying a load of 980 metric tonnes of locally grown bananas. The bananas will be exported under the brand name ‘Happy Bananas’. Guntakal Railway division (is one of the four divisions of South Coast Railway zone of the Indian Railways) has loaded bananas for export to West Asian countries from Tadipatri at very first time and also it has been sent to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNP)in Mumbai, Maharashtra from where it will be exported to Iran.

President of India Shri. Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated the 34th edition of Surajkund International Crafts Mela in Haryana. Surajkund International Crafts Mela the Largest crafts fair in the world will be held every year at Surajkund in Faridabad district, Haryana.

India’s biggest rural technical festival ‘Antahpragnya 2020’ was held in Rajiv Gandhi University of knowledge Technologies (RGUKT), Basar, Nirmal district, Telangana and the festival was inaugurated by M Prashanthi, District Collector of Nirmal, Telangana. The festival was held for 3 days from 31st January to February 1,2020. The theme for the year 2020 was “Spot and encourage rural tech innovators”. The festival displays 300 prototypes, working models, exhibits technologies such as automatic switch for water, homemade electricity, smoke absorber, automatic street lighting system, smart dustbins, zero budget farming, automatic irrigation etc.

Supreme Court (SC) bench headed by Justice Nuthalapati Venkata (NV) Ramana has directed the state governments to issue notifications for establishing mobile village courts called “Gram Nyayalayas” within 4 weeks. It also asked the High Courts (HC) to speed up consultation with department concerned on the matter.

The cabinet has given its ‘in-principle’ approval for setting up a Major Port at Vadhavan near Dahanu in Maharashtra at a cost of Rs. 65,544.54 crores. The port will be developed on “land lord model”.

The Arun-3 hydropower project, the largest Indian-backed project in Nepal, secured NPR (Nepalese rupee) 100 Billion for the 900 MW (megawatt) hydropower project being built on the Arun River in Nepal’s Sankhuwasabha District. India’s Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) Arun-III Power Development Company, the developer of the Arun-III hydropower project has signed the financial closure of the project with 7 banks in Kathmandu, Nepal.

The Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA), has launched, two Assessment Frameworks, viz. Ease of Living Index (EoLI) and Municipal Performance Index (MPI) 2019 to assess to assess quality of life of citizens in 100 Smart Cities and 14 other Million Plus Cities. This will empower the cities to use evidence to plan, implement them & then monitor their performance. This survey, which is being administered both online and offline, has commenced from 1st February 2020 and will continue till 29th February 2020.

On February 01, 2020 the govt of Andhra Pradesh (AP) has launched a doorstep pension delivery scheme named YSR Pension Kanuka. Under the scheme various welfare pensions will be delivered to the pensioners. The old age pensioners age has also been reduced from 65 to 60 years. The beneficiaries will be delivered with the pension services through volunteers equipped with smartphones.

Himachal Pradesh is the ‘Theme State’ of the 34th Surajkund International Crafts Mela 2020, which is showcasing its unique culture and rich heritage through various art forms and handicrafts from the state. There is also a replica of Also a replica of ‘Bhima Kali Temple’ and the already existing ‘Maheshwar Devta Temple’, promises to be the main attraction of this year’s Mela.

The Kerala government has declared the novel coronavirus epidemic as a “state calamity” after three people were tested positive for the infection in the state, which was announced by State Health Minister KK Shailaja, nearly 25 countries were infected by novel coronavirus so far.

The Andhra Pradesh (AP) state Government led by its Chief Minister(CM) Jaganmohan Reddy,has created a record with its ‘Intivadhakey Pension’ (Pension to your Doorstep) Scheme by covering 94 % of about 60 lakh pensioners at their doorstep within a few days. The scheme was launched in 13 districts on February 1, 2020. AP is the 1st state in India to take up such an initiative of Door delivery of pension service.

The cabinet has approved introduction of the Indian Institutes of Information Technology Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2020 the bill has provision to provide the Five IIITs in Public-private partnership (PPP) as institution of national importance to Surat (Gujarat), Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh), Bhagalpur (Bihar), Agartala (Tripura) and Raichur (Karnataka) will now be able to use the nomenclature of Bachelor of Technology, BTech or Master of Technology or PhD degree.

Uttarakhand government has cleared the design of a glass floor suspension bridge, the first of its kind in the country, to be built across Ganga River in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand as a replacement to iconic Lakshman Jhula which was closed in 2019 due to safety reasons. It has been in place for 94 years. The glass floor suspension bridge design is prepared by Public Works Department (PWD). It will be safe for commutation for at least 150 years.

Chief Minister of Telangana State Mr. K. Chandrashekhar Rao flagged off new Metro line from Jubilee Bus Station (JBS) to Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS) connecting twin cities if Hyderabad and Secunderabad, and the stretch covering of 11-kms(Kilometers) becomes India’s 2nd largest Metro Rail Network of total operational distance of 69.2kms, only next to Delhi Metro Rail Network having an operational distance of 231kms. Karnataka’s Namma Metro rail network is India’s 3rd largest network of operational distance of 42.3kms.

The 2019 Global Go to Think Tank Index Report (GGTTI), by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) of the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, United States(US) was released. The index ranked top think tanks from around the world. As per the report India’s Observer Research Foundation (ORF) was ranked at 27th place among 176 global think tanks previously ranked 118 in 2018. The Index was topped by Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) of Unites States.

On February 01, 2020 Export of all kinds of personal protection equipment, like clothing and masks for protecting people from airborne particles including coveralls and N95 masks were banned by India with immediate effect. The move has been taken assuming that there could be a growing demand for such products due to the recent outbreak of Novel Coronavirus (nCoV).

DST (Department of Science and Technology) that works under the Ministry of Science and Technology, has launched a special scheme called “Sophisticated Analytical & Technical Help Institutes (SATHI)” with the aim to create shared, professionally managed and strong Science and Technology infrastructure in India.

The Ministry of Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises(MSME) implemented a new scheme named “Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries” (SFURTI). Under this scheme, financial support will be given to set up traditional industries clusters in 5 years viz. Khadi, Coir & Village industries clusters and to make industries more profitable. Rs 2.3 crores has been sanctioned for the SFURTI scheme in the budget 2020.

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister (PM) Shri Narendra Modi, has approved exemptions in Air India’s subsidiary- Alliance Air for the operation of international flights between India & Sri Lanka with prior effect by waiving the rule that an airline needs to have minimum 20 aircraft to operate internationally.

The 15.6km long railway line between Agartala, India(Tripura)-Akhaura in Bangladesh will be completed by September 2021, these railway routes will improve connectivity between Indian Railways and Bangladesh Railways and will boost trade between the two countries. Rs.580 cores has been sanctioned for the Indo-Bangla railway link in the Indian side. the process of acquisition of land for this project has been done and handed over to IRCON (Indian Railway Construction Company Limited) who is the Executing agency for the construction of the project for both countries. This will be the 1st train from the NorthEast India to Bangladesh.

Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry has notified Quality Control norms for LPG (Liquefied petroleum gas) Rubber Hose with an aim to contain import and production of sub-standard products in India. The norm will come into effect from August1, 2020. The DPIIT has also come out with quality control norms for certain steel items and cables and pressure cooker.

As per 2019 Global Think Tank report by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP) of the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, United States, India has the 2nd-largest number of think tanks with 509 in the country. The US has the highest number of think tanks at 1,871. China ranks 3rd in large number of think tanks.

In order to improve air quality, TERI along with Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) have launched Clean Air Project (CAP) in 4 Indian cities namely, Uttar Pradesh’s (UP) Lucknow and Kanpur and Maharashtra’s Pune and Nashik. This move will support the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) which aims to reduce the PM (particulate matter) 2.5 and PM 10 concentrations by 20-30 % by 2024. NCAP was launched by Environment Ministry in January 2019.

Alliance Air which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Air India commenced direct daily flight operations from Bhubaneswar(Odisha) to Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) under the RCS-UDAN (Regional Connectivity Scheme – Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik) of Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA). This marked the 250th route under RCS-UDAN.

The following schemes are being merged into SFURTI: The Scheme for Enhancing Productivity and Competitiveness of Khadi Industry and Artisans, the Scheme for Product Development, Design Intervention and Packaging (PRODIP), the Scheme for Rural Industries Service Center (RISC) and other small interventions like Ready Warp Units, Ready to Wear Mission, etc. run by KVIC during XI Plan from Khadi Grants and VI Grants.