Current Affairs - February 2017 - Current Affairs for TNPSC Exams - TNPSCGURU.in

TNPSC Current Affairs February 2017
Miscellaneous

• Important Days
• February 4 - World Cancer Day
• February 13 - National Women's Day
• February 21 - International Mother Language Day
• February 24 - Central Excise Day
• February 28 - National Science Day
• Awards
• Gaurav Gill - was awarded Motorsports Person of the Year award.
• Karan Thapar - was awarded the G.K. Reddy Memorial National Award 2016 for excellence in journalism.
• 33 Feet Statue of Jesus Christ
• A 33 feet tall statue of Jesus christ similar to the christ the redeemer statue of Brazil was unveiled at the Vizhinjam Coast near Thiruvananthapuram.
• Srilata Swaminathan
• She was a veteran Communist party of India (ML) leader, recently passed away.
• Dalhousie Road to Dara Shikoh
• Dalhousie Road in New Delhi will be renamed as Dara Shikoh Road very soon.
• Dara Shikoh was the eldest son of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan.
• Kailash Satyarthi
• He is a social activist against the child labour.
• He was the founder of Bachpan bachao Andolan which aims to protect the child rights.
• He won the Nobel peace prize in 2014 along with Malala Yousafzai.
• The Nobel Prize Certificate of Kailash satyarthi was stolen from his residence recently.
• M S Swaminathan
• He is an Indian Agricultural scientist who is also called as the 'father of Indian Green Revolution'.
• The Canadian Govt honoured his work by conferring 'Canadian governor General's Medal'.
• Books
• My Ships Sailed the Seas But I Sailed Ashore - written by Capt. Mohan Ram (A Navy Officer) 
• Reliving Sujatha - written by Vimala Balakrishnan, it is the translated version of 8 tamil short stories and novels by Sujatha.
• Appointments:
• Vijay Joshi - to be appointed as the New chief of the Press Trust of India.
• Altamas Kabir
• He was the 39th Chief Justice of India.
• He passed away recently.
• National Cadet Corps
• The NCC has planned to set up a new Directorate in Velagapudi (Andhra pradesh).
• V K Rajagopalan
• He was the former Commissioner of Police who passed away recently.
• Oscars 2017 - 89th Academy Awards
• Best Picture - Moonlight (Directed by - Barry Jenkins)
• Best Director - Damien Chazelle (For Movie - La La Land)
• Best Actor - Casey Afflect (For movie 'Manchester by the Sea' Directed by 'Kenneth Lonergan')
• Best Actress - Amma Stone (for movie - La La Land)
• Best Supporting Actor - Mahershala Ali (for Moon Ligth)
• He became the first muslim to win oscar for acting.
• Best Foreign Language Film  - 'The Salesman' an Iranian film directed by Asghar Farhadi.

Polity

• RTI in Srilanka
• The Right to Information Act came to force in Srilanka from 4th Feb 2017 onwards.
• The RTI authorities should reply to the applicants within 28 Days.
• (In India the time period is 30 days).
• Goa and Punjab Elections 2017
• Percentage of votes cast
• In Goa - 83% votes
• In Punjab - 78.6 % Votes
• Supreme Court issued Contempt Notice to a Sitting High Court Judge
• The Supreme Court of India for the first time issued a contempt notice to a sitting High court Judge.
• The notice was issued to Justice C.S. Karnan (Calcutta High Court Judge) for his letters against the supreme court and high court judges.
• The notice was issued by the Bench of seven judges headed by CJI J.S. Khekar.
• National Women's Parliament
• It is an event organised by the Andhra Pradesh Assembly.
• Over 10000 women delegates from all over the world participated in it.
• Theme for the year 2016 - 'Empowering Women - Strengthening Democracy'
• T R Zeliang
• He was the Chief Minister of Nagaland who resigned his post recently.
• He belongs to the Nagaland's People Front Party.
• Shurhozelie Liezitsu
• He was appointed as the New Chief Minister of Nagaland (From Nagaland's People Front Party).
• Nagaland Governor: P B Acharya

Economy

• Sanjeev Sanyal
• He is the former MD of Deutsche Bank who is to be appointed as the Principal Economic Adviser in the Department of Economic Affairs.
• Fake Currency Detected
• About 19.5 Crore Rs worth fake notes has been detected since the demonitization.
• Afzal Amanullah Panel
• The central govt has formed a 6 member panel headed by Afzal Amanullah.
• This panel will study the Haj Policy and the subsidy to the pilgrimage.
• Earlier the supreme court has directed to abolish the subsidy by 2022.
• RBI: No limits for cash withdrawal for March 13.
• The Reserve Bank of India recently increased the weekly withdrawal limit of 24000 to 50000 form February 20. 2017 onwards.
• Also there will not be any curbs on withdrawal limits from March 13, 2017.
• Crowdfunding
• It is a method of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people each contribute a small amount of money.
• Mostly the money will be raised via Internet.
• SEBI to form a committee on Crowfunding
• Recently U. K. Sinha the chairman of SEBI announced that a new advisory committee to facilitate the crowdfunding will be formed soon.
• SEBI's New Chairman - Ajay Tyagi
• Ajay Tyagi to be appointed as the New chairman of SEBI from March 1. 2017 onwards.
• He will suceed the present SEBI's chairman U K Sinha.
• Aadhaar Mandatory for getting subsidy under NFSA
• The Consumer Affairs and food ministry issued a notification that for getting subsidy under the National Food Security act (2013) requires the individual to furnish the proof of Aadhaar.
• BharatQR
• It is the world's first inter-operable payment acceptance solution developed by NPCI (National payment corporation of India) , Mastercard and Visa.
• It uses Unique QR Code in which the customer can scan from his mobile phone and make payment.
• The main advantage of this Bharat QR is that it can be used to make payment even from different platforms.
• TN Seventh Pay Commission
• TN government has formed a five member committee on 7th Pay commission and to suggest measures on implementing it.
• The committee would summit its report before June 30, 2017.
• Members
1. The Finance Secretary
2. Home Secretary
3. School Education Secretary
4. Labour Secretary 
5. a Member Secretary
• Fourth Tranche of the Sovereign Gold Bond Scheme
• The Central Govt has planned to start the fourth tranche of the sovereign gold bond scheme on Feb 27 to March 3, 2017.
• The minimum amount that the customer can buy is eight year bond of 1 gram worth gold.
• The main aim of this scheme is to reduce the demand for the physical gold in market.
• The first tranche of this scheme was announced in November 2015.
• SBI Merger
• The Central Govt has planned to merge SBI associate banks to SBI Bank itself.
• The merger of the SBI associate banks will effect from April 1, 2017.
• The name of the SBI associate banks to be merged were.
1. State bank of Travancore
2. State bank of Mysuru
3. State bank of Hyderabad
4. State bank of Patiala
5. State bank of Bikaner & Jaipur.

Environment & Health

• Third Hand Smoke
• It is the sticky residue left out from tobacco puff that clings to walls and furniture.
• The recent Studies shows that these smoke can harm infants.
• Seemai Karuvelam
• The botaonical name for the Seemai karuvelam is 'Prosopis juliflora'.
• Nilambur Teak
• A superior quality teak found in Nilamur region in Malapuram district of Kerala to get the Geographical Indication GI tag soon.
• Nilambur is also known as the Mecca of Teak.
• Ennore Oil Spills
• On Jan 28, 2017, the two ships BW Maple and MT Dawn Kanchipuram (Carrying Spirit Oil and High speed diesal) collided with each other.
• About 15 metric tonnes of oil is estimated to be leaked to the sea.
• Eman Ahmed Abd El Aty
• She is the world's heaviest women (500 kgs) form Egypt.
• She recenlty came to Mumbai for her weightloss treatment.
• National Biodiversity Congress 2017
• It was held at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala.
• 2017 Theme: Mainstreaming Biodiversity for Sustainable Development.

Science & Tech

• ISRO to Set a New Record
• On Feb 15, 2017 104 satellites will be launched through ISRO's PSLV-C37.
• On successful launch it will make history by sending the most number of satellites in a singe launch Vechicle.
• 150 Seismometers to be installed in Uttarakhand
• The Central govt has approved to install 150 seismometers (Earthquake sensors) in various parts of Uttarakhand.
• INS Sarvekshak
• It is India's first warship to use the solar energy to fullfil the onboard electricity requirement.
• A 5.4 Kw solar panel was installed in it.
• Ballistic Missile Shield
• It is India's Interceptor missile developed by DRDO.
• It has a range of 2000 km.
• It was test fired recenlty from the Dr. Abdul Kalam Wheeler Island.
• SMS Alerts for Power Cut
• The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company  is going to Send SMS alerts about power cuts in the city.
• Cyber Swachhta Kendra
• It is a centre launched by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to tackle the botnet infections and analyse the malware.
• It aims to provide a secure cyber space for the Internet users.
• INS Betwa 
• It is an Indian warship which collapsed while undocking in Dec 2016.
• It was recently restored in Mumbai dockyard.
• 7 Earthlike Planets found
• Scientists have found 7 earth sized planets revolving around the dwarf star TRAPPIST-1.
• These planets have massess similar to that of our earth.
• The TRAPPIST-1 star is 39 light years away from the sun.
• 
  

World

• US Court suspends travel ban imposed by US President.
• The Washington state SC suspended the travel ban from 7 muslim nations to US which was imposed earlier by the US President Donald Trumph.
• The Seven countries were.
1. Iran, 
2. Iraq, 
3. Libya, 
4. Somalia, 
5. Sudan, 
6. Syria and 
7. Yemen
• Roberto Azevedo
• He was the Director General of World Trade Organisation who is set to visit India on a 2 day tour.
• Iftikhar Ahmed
• He was a 5 Year old boy who was handed over to his mother from Pakistan by the Indian Officials.
• Earlier his father from India took him to Jammu from Pakistan.
• Dongfeng-16
• It is china's medium range ballistic missile.
• It has a range of 1000 Km.
• The newly formed Rocket force of China conducted an exercise with this Dongfeng-16 recently.
• Luo Zhauhui - China's Ambassador to India.
• Brexit Bill
• Brexit stands for Britain Exit which denote the referendum on June 23rd, 2016 in which the britian people voted in favour of exiting from the European Union.
• Recently the House of Commons of the Britain Parliament passed the Brexit Bill.
• India officially request UK to extradite Vijay Mallya
• The Central govt has handed over the request for extradition of Vijay Mallya to the UK High commission.
• Wang Qi
• He is a Chinese soldier who was arrested in 1963 after the India-china war.
• He stayed in India after his imprisonment, and now he was allowed to return to china.
• Vice President of India Visited Uganda
• Vice President M Hamid Ansari visited Uganda on an official visit.
• Yoweri Museveni - President of Uganda.
• Turkey
• The Turkey's Army lifted the ban on wearing the Islamic Headscarf (Hijab) for the women officers.
• Sheikh Hasina
• She is the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
• She will visit India in the month of april for Bilateral talk regarding the communication between the two countries. 
• MR-SAM
• India and Israel has planned to develop jointly a MR-SAM (Medium range Surface to Ail Missile).
• It will be developed by DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) and Israel Aricraft Industries (IAI).
• The MR-SAM will have the range of 50 to 70 Km.
• S Jaishankar - India's Foreign Secretary
• Wang Yi - Chinese Foreign Minister.
• Krishtalina Georgieva
• She is the CEO of World Bank.
• She visited India recently.

Sports

• 37th Asian Track Cycling Championship
• Alena Reji and Shushikala Agashe the Indian pair won the Bronze medal in the women team sprint event.
• They also became the first from India to win medal in the team sprint event.
• Women's world chess championship 2017
• It will be held at Teheran, the capital of Iran.
• ISSF World Cup
• International Shooting sport federation world cup was held in New Delhi.
• Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu won the Gold medal in the mixed air pistol category.
• Col C K Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award 2016 (Cricket)
• Men's Category
• Rajinder Goel and Padmakar Shivalkar have been nominated for the Col C K Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award 2016
• Women's Category
• Shanta Rangaswamy became the first women recipient of the Col C K Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award.
• V. V Kumar
• He was the former cricketer from tamil nadu who was nominated for the BCCI Special award.

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