Daily Current affairs - February 27, 2018 for all competitive exams
World NGO Day is an international calendar day, annually
observed on the 27th February.
- Officially
recognised and declared by the 12 member countries of the IX Baltic Sea
NGO Forum of the Council of the Baltic Sea States in 2010 and first time
marked by the UN, EU leaders and international organisations in 2014 –
hosted by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland.
World NGO Day, February 27, was established by a millennial
social entrepreneur Mārcis Liors Skadmanis, aged just 24. His determination
to bring about a better future for everyone, and his passion for finding new
solutions to global development problems, drove him to establish World NGO
Day – a day, that is now recognised by many large communities, international
leaders and organisations all over the world
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Centre to be all ears at the local level
For sharper delivery of the government’s message to the
voters, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (I&B) approved the
hiring of 716 social media executives, one for each district of the country.
- Their
primary responsibility will be to analyse local news media and help the
government adapt the message according to the responses to it.
- The
responsibility of these executives will be to “monitor local editions of
newspapers, local cable channels, local audio channels and important local
social media handles for important local developments”.
- This
hiring is part of the Ministry’s outreach programme for smaller cities and
rural areas.
Union Government to launch GOBAR-Dhan Yojana
The government is
planning to create an online platform for trading cow dung and agricultural
waste under its recently announced waste to wealth scheme, GOBAR-DHAN
(Galvanising Organic Bio Agro Resources) scheme.
- The
Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan (GOBAR-DHAN) scheme was first
announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley during his budget speech on
February 1.
- The
scheme would focus on managing and converting cattle dung and solid waste
in farms to compost, biogas and bio-CNG. It will help in keeping the
village clean while increasing the income of farmers and cattle herders.
- This
is hugely helpful for the country as India is home to the highest cattle
population in the world, close to 300 million in number, with a daily
output of 3 million tonnes of dung.
- The
Scheme will encourage the farmers to consider dung and other waste not
just as a waste but as a source of income. It will provide many benefits
to the rural people. It will be easier to keep the village clean and
sanitized, livestock health will improve and farm yields will increase.
SRIJAN’ has been launched at MyGov portal
‘SRIJAN’ (Station
Rejuvenation Initiative through Joint ActioN) is an idea competition for 635
Station Development on Indian Railways. It has been launched at MyGov portal.
- The
winner for logo competition will get cash prize of Rs 75,000/-and for
tagline also will get Rs 75,000/-.
- The
last date for submission of entries in this competition is 26.03.2018. The
winners will get certificates and worthy ideas will be incorporated in the
designs.
Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation Limited
(IRSDC) is taking up redevelopment of around 600 major Railway stations
across the country.
In this mega exercise, assistance and involvement of all
stakeholders i.e. railway passengers, urban planners, architects, engineers
is important.
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Center released Draft pesticide bill
The Centre has
released a new draft Pesticide Management Bill 2017 to replace an almost
50-year old legislation governing the plant chemicals sector. Proposed as a
step towards promoting safe use of pesticides, this Bill seeks to regulate the
manufacture, inspection, testing and distribution of pesticides.
The Pesticide
Management Bill, 2008:
- The
Bill establishes a Central Pesticides Board to advise the
government on matters related to pesticide regulation, manufacture, use
and disposal. It establishes a registration committee to register
pesticides.
- No
pesticide can be registered unless tolerance limits for its residues on
crops and commodities are specified under the Food Safety and Standards
Act, 2006.
- The
Bill defines a pesticide as any substance used to destroy or control pests
in agricultural commodities or animal feeds. Pesticides used for
non-agricultural purposes, such as health care, are thus excluded from
this definition.
EPFO Introduces UAN- Aadhar Linking New
Facility
Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has
introduced UAN-Aadhaar linking facility for the convenience of members using
EPFO Link in UMANG Mobile App.
- The
facility on e-KYC Portal has further added a new feature to link UAN with
Aadhaar online using biometric credentials.
- UAN
stands for Universal Account Number.
- EPFO
has reduced the interest rate on deposits to 8.55% for 2017-18 from 8.65%
for 2016-17.
Revitalising Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE)
IITs will corner the largest
chunk of loans on offer under the new funding model — Revitalising
Infrastructure and Systems in Education (RISE) —
for all centrally-run institutes, announced in the Union Budget. A quarter of
loan amount under the scheme will be set aside exclusively for the 23
IITs. The second largest share, Rs 20,000 crore, will be earmarked for
central universities.
- Under
RISE, all centrally-funded institutes (CFIs), including central
universities, IITs, IIMs, NITs and IISERs, can borrow from a Rs 1,00,000
crore corpus over the next four years to expand and build new
infrastructure. The initiative aims to step up investments in research and
related infrastructure in premier educational institutions, including
health institutions.
Higher Education
Financing Agency (HEFA) would be suitably structured for funding this
initiative. The manner in which investment in institutions is provided is
likely to be the same as is practised in HEFA, but there may be different
windows for different institutions.
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Uma Bharti Launches 2nd Project of Swajal
Yojana in Rajasthan
Union Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation,
Uma Bharti launched the Swajal pilot project at Village Bhikampura in
Rajasthan. Besides ensuring the availability of clean drinking water to every
household round the year, the project would also generate employment.
- Swajal
is a community-owned drinking water programme for sustained drinking water
supply. Under the scheme, 90% of the project cost will be taken care by
the Government and the remaining 10% of the project cost will be
contributed by the community.
World’s tallest war memorial to come up at
Amaravati
India’s first and world’s largest war memorial
with a 250 feet statue of a soldier of the Indian Army to built-in Amaravati.
- There
is other a 200-feet bronze ring to be constructed around a huge Buddha
statue.
- Connecting
the two statues would be a 2-km-long and 80-feet-wide traffic-free stretch
along the Krishna River on approximately 130 acres.
- The
MoU for the 6,100 crore project stated that it would be the
first-of-its-kind street tourism destination to attract national and
international tourists.
National Technology Centre for Ports, Waterways and Coasts at IIT
Chennai
The Ministry of
Shipping and IIT Chennai have signed an MoU to set up National Technology
Centre for Ports, Waterways and Coasts (NTCPWC), at IIT Chennai.
- NTCPWC
is being set up under the Shipping Ministry’s flagship programme Sagarmala.
Envisioned as a world class state-of-the – art centre, NTCPWC will be a
hub for latest technology tools and reduce our dependence on foreign
institutions. It will also reduce the cost of research drastically and
result in cost and time savings for work in the port and maritime sector.
- It
will act as a technology arm of the Ministry of Shipping for providing
engineering and technological inputs and support for Ports, Inland Waterways
Authority of India and other institutions.
- It
will carry on applied research in the areas of 2D and 3D Modelling of
ocean, coastal and estuarine flows, sediment transport and morphodynamics,
navigation and maneuvering, dredging and siltation, port and coastal
engineering-structures and breakwaters.
Free sanitary napkins for schoolgirls in Odisha
The Naveen Patnaik government launched “Khushi”, a scheme to
provide free sanitary napkins to schoolgirls across Odisha.
- Under
the scheme, the State will provide free sanitary napkins to 17 lakh girls
in government and government-aided schools from Class VI to XII
From Mission Shakti (for economic empowerment) to MAMATA (a
maternity benefit scheme) to 50% reservation (in local bodies), women have
been the focal point of all our key interventions
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SC seeks details on over-crowded prisons
The Supreme Court has
asked the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) to provide details and
figures of prisons where the occupancy rate is over 150% as on December 31,
2017.
- The
apex court further agreed to hear issues related to standard operating
procedure for Under Trial Review Committees (UTRCs) and
responses received from States and Union Territories on open jails.
- Supreme
court is hearing a matter relating to inhuman conditions prevailing in
1,382 prisons across the country.
The
UTRCs, set up in every district, deliberates and recommends the release of
undertrial prisoners and convicts who have completed their sentences or are
entitled to be released from jail due to bail or remission granted to them.
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Maldives declines India’s invite for naval
exercise ‘Milan’
Maldives has declined India’s invitation to participate in
the biennial naval exercise ‘Milan’ beginning on March 6.
- This
comes amid the state of emergency in Maldives after the government refused
a Supreme Court order to release political prisoners.
- India
had said it is important that Maldives returns to the path of democracy.
China Plans to build military observatory in
Maldives
China is planning to build an ocean observatory in the
Maldives for military purposes, located in Makunudhoo.
- The
observatory will also give China access to an important shipping route in
the Indian Ocean.
- Both
China and the Maldives had finalised an official agreement called the
‘Protocol on Establishment of Joint Ocean Observation Station’ last year.
India-Korea Business Summit in New Delhi
PM Narendra Modi addressed the 2nd India-Korea
Business Summit in New Delhi. The theme of the Summit this year is
“India-Korea: Scaling up the Special Strategic Relationship through Trade and
Investments”.
- The
Summit aims to create the framework for an open and action-oriented
dialogue between top business leaders and Government officials from both
countries.
- India
and Korea are the third and fourth largest economies in Asia. The two way
trade between India and South Korea currently stands at nearly 17 billion
dollar.
India ranks 47th on Inclusive Internet Index
India has been ranked 47th out of 86 countries on the
Inclusive Internet Index by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), which was
commissioned by Facebook
- Sweden
took the first place, followed by Singapore and the US.
- The
scores on the index, which covered 91% of the world’s population, is based
on the scores of Availability, Affordability, Relevance and Readiness
categories.
Jordan king’s three-day visit begins
Jordanian king’s three-day visit will start.
- During
his visit, both sides will look to expand ties in a range of key areas
including defence and security.
- King
Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein, a 41st generation direct descendant of Prophet
Muhammad, is known for his global initiative to fight radicalisation and
terrorism.
TV Journalist Rahul Mahajan Named Rajya Sabha
TV Editor-In-Chief
Television journalist Rahul Mahajan has been
appointed as editor-in-chief of the television channel Rajya Sabha TV.
- Mahajan’s
name was recommended by a five-member selection committee headed by Prasar
Bharti chairman A. Surya Prakash and was approved by the vice-president of
India M.Venkaiah Naidu.
- The
committee also included Swapan Dasgupta, Shashi Shekhar Vempati, P.P.K.
Ramacharyulu and Rahul Srivastava.
Michelle Obama book to be out in November
Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming will be released
on November 13.
- Ms.
Obama had tweeted that the book would come out a week after the 2018
midterm polls.it was in the top 20 on Amazon.com.
“Writing Becoming has been a deeply personal experience
- Becoming will
be released in the U.S. through the Crown Publishing Group, a Penguin
Random House division that has published works by both Obamas.
- The
book will be published in 24 languages.
Kidambi
Srikanth claims the highest honour of Sportsperson of the Year
Kidambi Srikanth was honoured as Sportsperson of
the Year at the third Mahindra Scorpio Times of India Sports
Awards (TOISA) powered by All-Out.
- Srikanth
has thus become the third Indian after Jitu Rai and PV Sindhu to win the
coveted award.
- He
became the first Indian shuttler to win four Super Series titles and moved
to a career-high No 2 in the BWF men’s singles rankings.
MC Mary Kom And Seema Poonia Bag Silver Medals
In Strandja Memorial Boxing Tournament
Indian stars Seema Poonia and MC Mary Kom have
settled for Silver medals after losing in the final of 69th Strandja Memorial
Boxing tournament at Sofia in Bulgaria.
- While
Mary Kom lost to Bulgarian Sevda Asenova in the 48-kilogram title bout,
Seema went down to Russian Anna Ivanova in the 81 kg final. Overall Indian
women ended up with two silver and four bronze medals in one of the oldest
boxing tournaments in Europe.
- Indian
boxer Vikas Krishan claimed a gold medal after defeating Troy Isley of the
USA. Vikas was adjudged the best boxer of the event, a first for an
Indian.
Morne Morkel to retire from international
cricket after Australia Test series
Morne Morkel, South African cricket team pacer,
has announced he will retire from all forms of international cricket.
- The
33-year-old Morkel has played 83 Tests, 117 One-Day Internationals and 44
T20 Internationals in a successful career spanning 12 years.
- He
has taken 294 Test wickets – including seven five-fors – and is currently
the fifth highest all-time wicket-taker for South Africa in Test matches.
- He
has an impressive tally of 529 wickets across the three formats.
