Monthly Current Affairs Quiz - February, 2018

Notes:
Neelam Kapoor, a 1982 batch officer of the Indian Information Service (IIS), has been appointed as the new director general of the Sports Authority of India (SAI). At present, she is the Principal Director General of the Directorate of Field Publicity. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet approved her appointment to the post till her superannuation, i.e. July 31, 2019. Kapoor was also the Principal Director General of the Press Information Bureau in the UPA government. As PIB chief, she was in-charge of information officers attached to every central government ministry.

Notes:
Anu Kumar of Uttarakhand has grabbed the first gold medal of the Khelo India School Games in 1500 metres at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on February 1, 2018. Tamil Nadu athletes won two of the six gold medals on the opening day of the games. The rest were shared between Uttarakhand, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. Anu Kumar is a past 800-metres silver medalist for India at the World School Games in France. In the girls category, C Chanthini of Kerala won the gold medal in 1500-metres run. Abhishek Singh of Uttar Pradesh won the Shot Put with an excellent throw of 18.73 metres while Praveen of Tamil Nadu won the triple jump in his sixth attempt with 15.22 metres. Haryana girl Pooja excelled in the Shot Put and won the gold with a best of 13.88 metres.

Notes:
B A Chopade has been appointed the new vice-chancellor of Banaras Hindu University (BHU). He is at present the vice-chancellor of Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University. President Ram Nath Kovind, who is the Visitor to the university, approved Chopade’s appointment recently. The post was lying vacant after Girish Chandra Tripathi went on leave following the ruckus on campus in September 2017. Chopade will take charge from BHU Registrar Neeraj Tripathi, who had been holding the additional charge of the top post since October 2017.

Notes:
The 2018 Kala Ghoda Arts festival has started at Cross Maidan in Mumbai, Maharashtra on February 3 and will go on till February 11. It is in news recently because the Bombay High Court has refused permission for cultural events as part of the Kala Ghoda Festival at public properties free of cost and without imposing any conditions, which were granted by the Maharashtra government. The 2018 theme of the fest is “Hara Ghoda” to promote sustainable living, recycling and environment-friendliness. It is an open platform to discuss contemporary issues led by individuals from different disciples.

Notes:
Arun Jaitely, the Union Finance Minister, has inaugurated India’s first sentiment index “CriSidEx” for micro and small enterprises in New Delhi. CriSidEx, which is developed jointly by SIDBI and CRISIL, is a composite index based on a diffusion index of 8 parameters and measures MSE business sentiment on a negative to positive scale. This index will give the detail breakup of the sentiment sentiments and analysis as the sector sees it for the current quarter and for the next quarter. The current parametric feedback was captured through a survey of one thousand one hundred MSEs in November and December last year.

Notes:
The first-ever International Kala Mela has been inaugurated by the Vice President of India M. Venkaiah Naidu at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts in New Delhi on February 4, 2018. The aim of the event is to focus on direct interaction between the artist and the connoisseur and also educating and raising awareness about art. The Art Festival, organised by Lalit Kala Akademi, will continue till the 18th of this month wherein artists and groups will showcase their work. More than 800 artists from all over the country are expected to participate in the event. Many Embassies and Cultural Centres will also take part. Some the countries taking part in the event are China, Venezuela, Portugal, Sri Lanka, Poland, Mexico, Bangladesh, France, United Kingdom, Spain and Brazil. There are around 325 stalls for Indian artists and organisations including International representations.

Notes:
Syed Mahmud Hossain has been sworn-in as the 22nd chief justice Chief Justice of Bangladesh. He succeeded acting chief justice Abdul Wahab Mian. Mian was appointed as the acting chief justice after the Bangladesh’s first Hindu chief justice Surendra Kumar Sinha resigned in November 2017 amid graft allegations. Juestice Sinha was at the centre stage of the dispute after the apex court delivered a verdict declaring void 16th constitutional amendment, scrapping Parliament’s authority in impeaching Supreme Court judges.

Notes:
Dr. Dinesh Srivastava, the distinguished nuclear scientist, has taken charge as the new Chief Executive of the Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC). He succeeded G. Kalyanakrishnan. In this capacity Dr. Srivastava will also be Chairman of the NFC Board. Prior to this assignment, he was holding the position of Deputy Chief Executive in NFC. Previously , he had worked for 3 decades in Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai and is a senior Professor in Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), Mumbai.

Notes:
Google has launched new online security campaign #SecurityCheckKiya in India to promote security awareness among general public. The purpose of the campaign is to protect young and first-time web users from account hijacking, safeguard Android devices from malicious apps and secure all their personal data if they lose their device. Under the campaign, Google recommended three simple steps for Internet safety. It includes reviewing security settings and Google account activity. Furthermore, ‘Google Play Protect’ service scans and checks Android devices for any harmful apps. Find My Device app from Google helps a user to easily long away.

Notes:
Shabnam Asthana, an Indian public relations expert, speaker, and entrepreneur, has been honoured with the ‘Times Power Women of the Year 2017’- Pune for Global PR. The Times Group recently celebrated the invaluable contribution of women by introducing The Times Power Woman 2017 (Pune) awards. These awards were initiated to celebrate the victories of women who have been a great source of inspiration. These awards focused on the women of Pune and the prestigious list included 34 select women with power, supremacy, command and control. These awardees have been instrumental in working towards the improvement of the socio-economic, art, health, education, and fashion, scientific and intellectual potential of the society.