Current Affairs Current Affairs February 2019

 Eva de Goede from Netherlands and Arthur van Doren of Belgium were titled the International Hockey Federation’s Players of the Year for 2018. Eva de Goede, 29, was named the Female Player of the Year and Arthur van Doren, 24, won the Male Player of the Year award for the second year in a row.
Other awards given were:
  • Men’s Goalkeeper of the Year: Vincent Vanasch.
  • Male Rising Star of the Year: Arthur de Sloover.
  • Male Coach of the Year: Shane McLeod.
  • Female Coach of the Year: Alyson Annan.
  • Female Goalkeeper of the Year: Maddie Hinch.
Source: The Times of India

  Sudanese refugee, Abdul Aziz Muhamat, who spent 5 years in the Australian detention centre on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, was given the Martin Ennals Award 2019 in Geneva, Switzerland, for exposing “the very cruel asylum seeker policy of the Australian Government”. It is sometimes referred to as the “Nobel Prize for human rights”. Abdul Aziz Muhamat’s podcast “The Messenger”, created from more than 4,000 WhatsApp messages Muhamat sent from the detention centre, had won best radio/audio feature at Australia’s Walkley Awards in 2017.
Source: Reuters

 
  • MoU between the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of India and the Ministry of Defence of the Argentine Republic on Defence Cooperation.
  • MoU between the Republic of India and the Republic of Argentina for cooperation in the field of Tourism.
  • MOU on Cooperation and Collaboration between Prasar Bharti, India and the Federal System of Media and Public Contents, Argentina.
  • MoU in pharmaceuticals between Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), GoI, and National Administration of Drugs, Food and Medical Technology, Argentina.
  • MoU on Antarctic Co-operation between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship of the Argentine Republic and the Ministry of Earth Sciences of the Republic of India.
  • Work Plan on Cooperation between the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare of the Republic of India and the Ministry of Production and Labour of the Argentine Republic within the MoU signed in 2010.
  • Work Plan for the year 2019-21 between Indian Council of Agriculture Research Republic of India and the State Secretary of Agro-industry of the Ministry of Production and Labour of the Argentine Republic within the MoU signed in 2006.
  • Joint Declaration of Intent on Cooperation in the field of Information & Communications Technology and Electronics between the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology of the Government of the Republic of India and the Government Secretary of Modernization of the Republic of Argentina.
  • MOU between Global Centre for Nuclear Energy Partnership (GCNEP), India, and CNEA, the Secretariat of Energy, Argentina.
  • Agreement for the establishment of India-Argentina Centre of Excellence for Information and Technology.
Source: Press Information Bureau

 Flight Lieutenant Hina Jaiswal from Chandigarh, became the First Indian Woman Flight Engineer of the Indian Air Force(IAF). She was commissioned in the IAF’s engineering branch in 2015 and completed the 6-month Flight Engineer course from the 112 Helicopter Unit attached to the Air Force Station in Yelahanka, Bengaluru. The Flight Engineer branch was opened to women officers in 2018.
Source: NDTV

  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) withdrew the 20% limit on investments by FPIs in corporate bonds of an entity with a view to encourage more foreign investments. As part of the review of the FPI investment in corporate debt undertaken in April 2018, it was stipulated that no FPI should have an exposure of more than 20% of its corporate bond portfolio to a single corporate (including exposure to entities related to the corporate).
Source: Money Control

  The government of India gets Rs.10000 crore from Bharat-22 Exchange Traded Fund(ETF) by additional offering. The government has absorbed approximately Rs.46000 croreby way of disinvestment with the successful offering of Bharat-22 ETF. Bharat-22 is an Exchange Traded Fund ( ETF) which will closely track the performance of Bharat-22 index. It was launched by Government of India in November 2017. ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund AMC will manage the fund.
Source: Financial Express

 India with immediate effect has boosted the Customs Duty on all the goods imported from Pakistan to 200% followed by the day after India repealed Most Favoured Nation (MFN)status from Pakistan. This punitory move followed by the Pulwana Terrorist attack that led to the death of 42 CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force). This step is likely to strike Pakistan’s exports to India which were $381 million in the April-Nov period and for overall FY18, it was $489 million. This 200% tariff rate is higher than the average bound rate of 113.5% for agriculture products and 34.6% for non-agriculture products. The MFN applied rates are 32.8% and 10.7%, respectively for farm and non-farm products.
Source: Indian Express

  United Arab Emirates (UAE) based international cooling provider, National Central Cooling Company PJSC (Tabreed) entered into a 30-year concession with Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) to build India’s first district cooling system in Amaravati. The agreement is for a contracted cooling capacity of 20,000 Refrigeration Tons (RTs) and will cater to the State’s Assembly, High Court, Secretariat and other Government buildings currently being constructed, for which cooling services will start in early 2021.
Source: The Times of India

  The best-selling British author Andrea Levy, who explored the experience of Jamaican British people in a series of novel over 20 years, has died from cancer at the age of 62. She was known for penning books ‘The Long Song’ and ‘Small Island’. She was conferred with Orange prize for fiction, Whitbread book of the year, Commonwealth writers prize and many more.
Source: Economic Times

  77 years old Swiss actor, Bruno Ganz who is famous for his role of German dictator, Adolf Hitler in the Oscar-nominated film Downfall, passed away in Zurich, Switzerland due to Colon Cancer. Bruno Ganz was born in 1941 and he was active in German theatre, film, and television for more than 50 years. He was honoured with European Film Academy Lifetime Achievement award and David di Donatello for Best Actor.
Source: Indian Express


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