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Important Current Affairs till (1st Feb - 15 Feb)

Appointments: ● Neelam kapoor - Director General - Sports Authority of India. ● Senior IPS officer - Sudeep Lakhtakia - Director General of National Security Guard. ● Abhilasha Kumari - Chief Justice of the Manipur High Court. ● Chandrashekhar Kambar - President of the Sahitya Akademi.

Committee: ● N Chandrasekaran committee: The Ministry of Defence constituted a 17 member task force to study use and application of artificial intelligence (AI) in military. ● Dinesh Sharma committee: The Finance Ministry to ban cryptocurrencies from payments system and at the same time appoint regulator to oversee unregulated exchanges that trade in crypto assets.The committee is constituted by the govt. to look into issues relating to cryptocurrencies and submit its report ending on March 2018.

Meetings and agreements: ● The 7th India Energy Congress (IEC) 2018 - New Delhi. Theme Energy 4.0: Energy Transition Towards 2030. It was organised by World Energy Council India (WEC India). ● India joins Ashgabat Agreement which aims at transit and transportation of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf to significantly boost up trade and investment.It further aims at establishment of International Transport and Transit Corridor between the Iran, Oman, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. ● Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) signed agreement with World Bank for Jal Marg Vikas Project i.e. National Waterway-1 on Ganga River from Varanasi (U.P.) to Haldia (West Bengal). It also inked US $375 million loan agreement for the project. ● World Government Summit (WGS) 2018 - Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai. ● 2018 - Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit - Qingdao, China. 2017 - 17th SCO Summit - Astana, Kazakhstan (2017)

National Affairs: ● The 32nd edition of Surajkund International Crafts Mela was held at Faridabad, Haryana. It is annual cultural festival hosted to showcase richness and diversity of the handicrafts and cultural heritage of India. This year Uttar Pradesh is theme state and Kyrgyzstan is the partner nation. ● Mumbai - 12th richest city globally in the report published by New World Wealth with a total wealth of US $950 billion. The list was topped by New York with total wealth of US $3 trillion. ● Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) under its “Development of Solar Cities” scheme has sanctioned development of 60 Solar Cities including 13 Pilot and 5 Model Cities up to 12th Five-year Plan period (2012–2017). So far, master plans of 49 Solar Cities have been prepared. Moreover, Stakeholders Committees have been constituted in 21 Cities and Solarcity Cells have been created in 37 Solar Cities. ● The book “Exam Warriors” - Prime Minister . The books aims to inspire youth to face the difficult moments of examinations and life with fresh and new energy. It emphasizes the importance of play, sleep & even travel.

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● The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change has launched Green Good Deeds campaign in New Delhi.The purpose of the people-oriented campaign is to sensitise people and students, in particular about climate change and global warming.‘Green Sainiks’ to broaden the ‘Green Good Deeds’ campaign and take it to the grassroots level. The campaign aims to broad its base with involvement of teachers, students and other voluntary organisations. ● The ‘Pelican Bird Festival-2018’ was held for first in Atapaka Bird Sanctuary on at Kolleru lake in Andhra Pradesh. ● Uttar Pradesh Government has launched massive door to door “DASTAK campaign against Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) and Japanise Encephalitis (JE)” to eradicate deadly diseases from the state. It was launched in association with UNICEF. ● The West Bengal became the first state to opt out of Centre’s National Health Protection Scheme announced in Union Budget 2018-19 as it has already made hospitalisation and medical treatment free for its citizens and has enrolled 50 lakh people under its Swasthya Sathi programme.

Sports : ● The first Khelo India School games were held under the Khelo India Programme to highlight India’s young sporting talent and showcase India’s sports potential. It was held across 16 disciplines in Under-17 age category. ● India has won Under-19 ICC World Cup 2018 by defeating Australia by eight wickets. With this victory, India became first nation to win Under-19 World Cup four times.The 2018 final match was played at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui, New Zealand.

Awards : ● ‘Geospatial World Excellence Award-2018’- Odisha Government for successful IT application for tracking of mineral production, dispatch and value accrued on real- time basis through its i3MS web-based software.

Important Days ● World Wetland Day : 2nd Feb. [The Floating Treatment Wetland was inaugurated in Neknampur Lake in Hyderabad to clean and purify the polluted waterbody. ● The World Cancer Day (WCD) - 4 February [Its primary goal is to reduce the illness and related deaths by 2020].Theme “We can. I can”. It is special three-year campaign from 2016 to 2018 to explore how everyone - as individuals or as a collective – can do their part to reduce the burden of cancer globally. ● National Deworming Day - 10 February. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) launched National Deworming Initiative in 2015. It aims to reach more than 32.2 crore children aged between 1 to 19 years to combat parasitic worm infections. ● Safer Internet day- 6 February Google launched ‘#SecurityCheckKiya’ campaign in India to create awareness around Internet safety.Also, Google and NCERT signed a pact to integrate a course on ‘Digital Citizenship and Safety’ in information and communication technology (ICT) curriculum.The course aims to bring awareness amongst the young generation of India to make Internet a Safe space.

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● The National Productivity Day - February 12 . Theme: “Industry 4.0 Leapfrog Opportunity for India”. ● The World Radio Day - 13th February. Theme “Radio and Sports”

International Events ● Sweden has signed Strategic Partnership Agreement with United Nations for committing record $370 million dollars to UN World Food Programme. The contribution is for next four years i.e. 2018-2021. It is the biggest ever contribution made by donor within a WFP Strategic Partnership Agreement. ● India’s and Umang App won awards at recently concluded 6th World Government Summit 2018 in Dubai. Umang App - Best m-Government Service Award for Accessible Government Category and Aadhaar - Best Government Emerging Technologies Award. ● India was ranked 44th out of 50 countries in the Intellectual Property (IP) Index released by US Chamber of Commerce. Last year, India was ranked 43rd out of 45 countries in index, with an overall score if 8.4 points.

Static G.K. ● Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium - New Delhi. ● Capital and Currency

Country Capital Currency

Sweden Stockholm krona

Iran Tehran rial

Oman Muscat rial

Turkmenistan Ashgabat manat

Uzbekistan Tashkent som

● Headquarters of SCO - Beijing, China ● Headquarters of World Bank - New York, USA

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