Current Affairs Questions & Answers: February 18, 2017

Notes:
The two-day South Asian Speaker’s summit has been inaugurated by the Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan at Indore in Madhya Pradesh on February 18, 2017. The summit is organized by the Indian Parlianment and Inter-Parliamentary Union which is focused on Achieving Sustainable Development Goals in member countries. The delegates from legislatures of Afganistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka are attending the summit. Representatives from Pakistan and Myanmar are not attending the summit due to their personal reasons.

Notes:
Melody Queen Lata Mangeshkar has been honoured with the ‘Legendary Award ‘ 2017 by Brand Laureate. The Brand Laureate Awards recognise world-class achievement in branding amongst individuals and companies. She is known for songs like “Lag jaa gale”, “Aayega aanewala”, “Aye mere watan ke logon”, “Luka chuppi”, and many more.

Notes:
Bhau Jambhuwantrao Dhote (83), the former Member of Parliament (MP) from Nagpur Lok Sabha constituency, has recently passed away in Yavatmal, Maharashtra. He was known for his demands of a separate state for Vidarbha. Dhote won his first election to Lok Sabha in 1971 from Nagpur as a Forward Bloc nominee. Later in 1980, he joined Congress and won the Nagpur seat on the Congress ticket. After leaving Congress he founded Vidarbha Janta Congress party in 2002. He was elected to Maharashtra Assembly five times. Due to his active participation in various movements for separate Vidarbha and farmers and his aggressive speeches, he was also known as the Lion of Vidarbha.

Notes:
Surendra Verma, the well-known Hindi scholar and playwright, has been selected for Vyas Samman 2016 for his novel “Kaatna Shami Ka Vriksha : Padma Pankhuri Ki Dhar Se”. It is awarded annually by the K.K. Birla Foundation and includes a cash payout of Rs 3.50 lakhs. To be eligible for the award, the literary work must be in the Hindi language and have been published in the past 10 years.

Notes:
The 11th edition of ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2017 will be hosted by England from 24 June to 23 July 2017. Recently, India qualified for Women’s Cricket World Cup 2017 by defeating Bangladesh by 9 wickets in a Super Six match in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Eight teams will qualify to participate in the tournament.

Notes:
Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan will host the Hindi version of popular international show “TED Talks”, which is the super-inspiring and super-influential talk series. Star India will air the Indian version “TED Talks India: Nayi Soch” in summer 2017 but a definite telecast date is yet to be announced. This is the first time TED is collaborating with a network and mega-star to produce a TV series featuring original TED Talks in a language other than English.

Notes:
Norman Isaac has become the first Indian ever to be promoted by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) as Technical Delegate (TD). As a TD, Isaac will be assigned to any country except his own and will be responsible for conduct of an entire event, ranging from actual competition management to every related aspect from media arrangements to logistics. Prior to this appointment, he was a FIBA Commissioner.

Notes:
Tata Motors has signed pact with Microsoft India to redefine connected and personalized driving experiences for Indian customers. The purpose of the pact is to provide an enriched mobile experience for its consumers. Tata Motors will leverage Microsoft’s connected vehicle technologies that bring together artificial intelligence (AI), advanced machine learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT) capabilities on the global hyper-scale Azure cloud, to traverse the digital and physical worlds and create a highly personalized, smart and safer driving experience across the digital life of a vehicle owner. The first vehicle developed through this partnership will be unveiled at the 87th Geneva International Motor Show on 7th March 2017.

Notes:
The book “Jobless Clueless Reckless” has been authored by Revathi Suresh. It’s a novel about teenagers that gives an insight into what happens in the minds and lives of teenagers in an upper middle class, urban society.

Notes:
The India Vetiver Network (INVN) has been launched at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. The INVN is a not-for-profit scientific network to promote vetiver in India. Vetiver (Indian grass with fragrant root ) has worldwide application to tackle many environmental issues like soil erosion, mitigation of soil and water pollution. The mission of INVN is environmental protection using vetiver.