February 20, 2018 - Current Affairs Quiz - Current Affairs MCQ

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has given its approval for construction of 4.531 km long 2-Lane Bi-Directional Silkyara Bend – Barkot Tunnel in Uttarakhand. Total cost of this project is estimated at Rs. 1383.78 crore. It will be funded by Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and forms part of ambitious Chardham Mahamarg Pariyojana. This tunnel falls along NH-134 (old NH-94) in the State of Uttarakhand. It will be built under Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Mode and will be completed in four years.

Telangana State Government constituted a task force on urban mobility to study the feasibility of the monorail model and other modes of transport for the IT corridor in Hyderabad. Arvind Kumar, Principal Secretary, Municipal Administration is the Member Convenor of this task force. Other members of the task force include senior government officials and representatives from the corporate sector. The task force will suggest the corridors for phase II and phase III of the metro-rail project. It will suggest best and most economical ways of transport viz. monorail, tram and e-vehicles on various routes. Besides, the task force will recommend various options for funding such projects. The options may include public-private partnership (PPP), joint ventures and annuity funding.

Delhi government will implement ‘Mission Buniyaad’ to improve learning levels of students attending primary classes in the state government and municipal schools. Announcement in this regard was made by Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia. ’Mission Buniyaad’, which is to be implemented from next academic session will focus on students of Class 3 to Class 8. This programme has been planned in wake of results of National Achievement Survey (NAS) conducted by National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), to find out the learning standards of schoolchildren. As per findings of NAS, majority of Class 3 to 5 students in government and aided schools of Delhi, performed poorly in science, mathematics and languages. ’Mission Buniyaad’ will run for three months from April to June, during which, students will be assessed on reading abilities and basic mathematics.

On 20th February 2018, Union Minister of State (IC) for Power and New & Renewable Energy, R.K. Singh inaugurated the ‘International R&D Conclave’ in New Delhi. The International R&D Conclave is a two day conference. It is organised by Central Electricity Authority (CEA). It focuses on Emerging Opportunities and Challenges of R&D in Indian Power Sector. Sessions of the conference will be mainly related to R&D activities in Thermal Generation, Hydro Generation, Renewable Energy, Transmission, Grid Operation, Distribution, Trading, Marketing and Tariff. Nearly 100 entries for paper presentation were received. Out of this 45 papers have been selected to be presented in the Conference. Papers from Germany and Japan are also included in this list.

The parliament house will launch a crèche facility soon for women employees who prefer to bring their kids to the day care facility. In March 2017, Minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi had notified Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan about the absence of crèche facility in the parliament house premises. In response, Sumitra Mahajan has stated that a crèche facility will be soon launched in the parliament house premises. As per ‘Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017’ a healthy workplace diversity needs to be maintained. This enforces the provision of crèche facility for women employees. The crèche facility will be launched in the 1500 square feet premises. It will be run by professionals. It will have separate feeding room for lactating mothers and will take care of the all-round development of children.

On 19th February 2018, Uttar Pradesh government announced a new tourism policy aimed to raise tourist count and investment in Uttar Pradesh. The Department of Tourism aims for 10 % annual increase in the number of foreign tourists and 15 % annual increase in the number of domestic tourists. The 10 tourist circuits are the Ramayana circuit, the Braj circuit, the Buddhist circuit, wildlife and eco-tourism circuit, Bundelkhand circuit, Mahabharata circuit, Shakti Peeth circuit, Adhyatmik circuit, Sufi circuit and the Jain circuit. Under the new tourism policy, a “Bed and Breakfast” scheme has been launched. This scheme includes Ashrams also. Uttar Pradesh government offers 10 % subsidy on sports and cruise, 20 % on tentage facilities, 20 % on small budget hotels, 15 % on new resorts and 15 % on wellness centres and 25 % on light and sound and laser shows.

The Central Government has formed a committee lead by Rajiv Kumar, Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog, to study the Brahmaputra and flood control measures in Assam and nearby states. Announcement regarding this was made by Assam Water Resource Minister Keshab Mahanta. He said that, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced 100 crore rupees to figure out permanent solution for flood, during his visit to Guwahati in 2017. He said that the Assam government has submitted report on flood control measures to the committee. He added that, work to repair the damaged river embankment due to flood is done by the Water Resource department.

According to a report by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), India has ranked 12th among 52 lower middle-income countries in terms of neonatal mortality rate. Deaths per 1000 live births (during first 28 days) is referred to as Neonatal Mortality Rate. First 28 days of life (the neonatal period) are the most critical for a child’s survival. It is during this period that the newborns are vulnerable and face the highest risk of dying. As per UNICEF, the Global Neonatal Mortality Rate is 19 deaths per 1000 live births.

On February 19, 2018, Indian and Indonesian armies began the sixth edition of ‘Garuda Shakti’ military drill in Bandung, the capital of West Java province of Indonesia. This joint exercise between Indian and Indonesian Special Forces will continue till March 4, 2018. Objective of Garuda Shakti exercise is to strengthen relations between the two Armies of India and Indonesia and to enhance their ability to undertake joint tactical level operations. During the course of this exercise, Indian and Indonesian Special Forces will engage in counter-terrorism operations, close quarter combat, experience sharing and other areas of special operations.

UK-India joint research projects on ‘Water Quality Research’ and ‘Energy Demand Reduction in Built Environment’ were launched. The projects were launched by NITI Aayog member Dr V K Saraswat, Department of Science and Technology Secretary Ashutosh Sharma and Research Councils UK- India Director Daniel Shah. The Water Quality Research programme consists of 8 projects and Energy Demand Reduction in Built Environment programme consists of 4 projects. The total joint investment for these projects is up to 15 million. These projects provide benefits and research solutions to both UK and India. They also work towards shared global sustainable development goals of clean water and clean energy. Also, dossier stating India’s efforts in Building Energy Efficiency with details on 30 projects was released.

US India Business Council (USIBC), a business advocacy organisation has announced the formation of an India Advisory Council to enhance bilateral strategic and economic partnership between India and US. India Advisory Council has 11 members including Arun Kumar – Chairman and CEO of KPMG India, Pramath Raj Sinha – Founder and Managing Director of 9.9 media, Krish Iyer from Walmart India, Manoj Adlakha from American Express banking Corporation, Vanitha Narayan from IBM India, Nishith Desai from Nishith Desai and Associates and Prabal Chakraborty from Boston Scientific. Udayant Malhotra from Dynamatic Technologies Limited, Rekha Menon from Accenture and Nivruti Rai – Head of Intel India are other members of the India Advisory Council.

On 13th to 23rd February 2018, Cobra Gold 2018 an international military exercise, is held in Thailand. The opening ceremony of the “Cobra Gold 2018” was presided over by Royal Thai Armed Forces, Gen. Thanchaiyan Srisuwan, Mr. Glyn T. Davies, U.S. Ambassador to Thailand, and Lt. Gen. Lawrence Nicholson, commander, III Marine Expeditionary Force, at the Royal Thai Naval Aviation Division, U-Tapao International Airport, in Chonburi province. This is the 37th edition of the Cobra Gold exercise. It is co-sponsored by the Royal Thai Armed Forces and the U.S. Armed Forces. Its objective is to improve regional security, maritime security and interoperability between participating countries.

On 19th February 2018, the Pakistani Senate declared Mandarin as one of the official languages of Pakistan. This move has been made to improve ties between Pakistan and China. It is said that, the people related to the China Pakistan Economic Corridor could communicate easily by making Mandarin as one of the official languages of Pakistan. In recent times, Pakistanis are showing more interest in learning Mandarin, expecting to grab job opportunities easily in Pakistan and China.

Israel announced that is has successfully tested Arrow-3 advanced missile defence system. Arrow-3 is an advanced missile defence system having the ability to defend against ballistic missile threats outside the atmosphere. Arrow-3 is a part of Israel’s multi-layered system that is being developed to defend against short and mid-range rockets fired from Gaza Strip, Lebanon and long-range missiles from Iran. Iron Dome, David’s Sling, and the Arrow-2 systems are a part of it. It has been developed by Israel Aerospace Industries and Boeing. It started operations in January 2017.

India successfully test-fired medium range nuclear capable Agni-II Missile from Abdul Kalam Island off the coast of Odisha. Agni-II missile has a strike range of 2,000km. It is an Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM). Trial of Agni-II missile was conducted from a mobile launcher at the launch complex-4 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR). The tests were conducted by Army’s strategic forces command (SFC). Logistic support was provided by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). Agni-II missile is 20 metre long. It has a launch weight of 17 tonnes. It is capable of carrying a payload of 1,000kg up to a distance of 2,000km. Agni-II has already been inducted into the services. It was launched as a training exercise.

Christian Coleman of US broke the 20 year old world record in 60 metre sprint with 6.34 seconds timing, at the US Indoor National Championships in Albuquerque. Christian Coleman has broken American Maurice Greene’s record of 6.39 seconds, made in Madrid in 1998. Christian Coleman is 21 years old. Now, Christian Coleman will lead the American team to IAAF world indoor championships in Birmingham, England, that will be conducted next month.

On February 19, 2018, Union Minister of Environment, Dr. Harsh Vardhan announced that this year’s World Environment Day celebrations (on June 5, 2018) will be hosted by India. On February 19, 2018, Union Environment Secretary C K Mishra signed a ‘Letter of Intent’ to host the WED in India in presence of Erik Solheim, the head of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). This year’s theme of WED will be ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’ aimed at discouraging use of hazardous plastic. As a run up to the event, environmental awareness campaign and pollution mitigation activities are being planned in Delhi and other parts of India from 1st – 5th June 2018. Every year, a different country hosts the global celebration of the WED. India previously hosted WED global celebration in 2011.

On 20th February 2018, World Day of Social Justice was observed all over the world. On 26th November 2007, the UN General Assembly declared 20 February as the World Day of Social Justice. The World Day of Social Justice is an annual observance. This day is celebrated to improve efforts to manage issues like poverty, exclusion and unemployment. The theme for World Day of Social Justice 2018 is: Workers on the Move: the Quest for Social Justice.