Daily Gk 23rd Feb 2019

Important Current affairs for FCI,CWC,SSC CGL,UPSC,AFCAT,SBI PO/Clerk 2019

National:

President promulgates 4 Ordinances including Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Second Ordinance

·        President Ram Nath Kovind promulgated four Ordinances. These are the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Second Ordinance, the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Second Ordinance, the Companies (Amendment) Second Ordinance and the Banning of Unregulated Deposit Schemes Ordinance, 2019

·        The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Second Ordinance has been promulgated to give continued effect to the provisions brought in by the earlier ordinance.

·        This Ordinance declares the practice of instant triple talaq to be void and illegal and also to make it an offence punishable with imprisonment up to three years and fine.

Suresh Prabhu inaugurates Aviation Infra Projects in 7 States

·        Civil Aviation Minister, Suresh Prabhu, inaugurated several infrastructure projects across the length and breadth of the country via video link in New Delhi.

·        This was done in order to make them world class and future ready.

·        These airports include Trivandrum, Calicut airports in Kerala, Mangaluru airport in Karnataka, Madurai airport in Tamil Nadu, Rupsi airport in Assam, Jaipur airport in Rajasthan, Amritsar airport in Punjab and Imphal airport in Manipur.

Smriti Irani launches Integrated Large Scale Eri Farming in Arunachal Pradesh under NERTPS

·        Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani launched the Integrated Large Scale Eri Farming in Arunachal Pradesh under North East Region Textile Promotion Scheme  (NERTPS) in Itanagar.

·        Initially, the Project will cover five districts of the state, that are: Papumpare, East Kameng, Siang, East Siang and West Siang.

·       About one thousand acres land will be covered for Eri Farming in the chosen districts of the state.

Two-day Regional Maritime Safety Conference 2019 held in Mumbai

·        The Regional Maritime Safety Conference 2019 was organized by India for the first time, commenced in Mumbai.

·        The two-day conference will deliberate on issues related to assuring maritime safety in the India-ASEAN sub-region, safeguarding our shores and promoting maritime trade.

·        The conference will address a range of issues that affect regional maritime safety, including transport safety, maritime law, ship building, transportation of hazardous goods, marine oil spill, pollution and environmental safety.

·        The inaugural edition is being organized by the National Maritime Foundation (NMF), in coordination with Ministry of Shipping and Ministry of External Affairs.

International:

Sudan: President Bashir declares year-long state of emergency

·        Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has declared a year-long state of emergency, dissolving his cabinet and local governments throughout the country.

·        Omar al-Bashir's term ends in 2020 and he has repeatedly promised over the years not to make new runs for the presidency.

FATF keeps Pak on grey list for failing to curb terror funding

·        International terror financing watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has decided to keep Pakistan on its grey list at the end of its week-long plenary meeting in Paris.

·        India had made a strong push to ensure that Islamabad is not taken off the list, in the aftermath of Pulwama terror attack.

Business & Economy:

RBI bundles NBFCs into one category

·        To provide greater operational flexibility to non-banking lenders, the Reserve Bank created a single category for them by bundling their present three-tier structure.

·        The central bank also decided that exposures to all NBFCs, excluding core investment companies, would be risk weighted as per credit ratings.

·        “To provide NBFCs with greater operational flexibility, harmonisation of different categories of NBFCs into fewer ones shall be carried out based on the principle of regulation by activity rather than regulation by entity,”.

Science & Technology:

World's largest bee spotted for the first time since 1981

·        The Wallace's giant bee is as big as a human thumb.

·        It's the largest bee in the world, and scientists feared it might be extinct -- until now.

Israeli company sends world's first privately funded mission to moon

·        An Israeli spacecraft aboard a SpaceX rocket has launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, beginning a two-month journey to land on the Moon.

·        If successful, Israel, a state with fewer than 9 million citizens, will join Russia, the US and China as the only countries to have made a controlled landing on the surface of earth’s nearest neighbour.

·        About the size of a washing machine, the 585kg (1,290lb) robotic lander named Beresheet, the Hebrew word for Genesis.

Discovered: More than 300,000 new galaxies

·        More than three hundred thousand previously undetected galaxies have been discovered in a new radio survey. A team comprising over 200 astronomers from 18 countries used the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope, based in Netherlands, to survey a part of the northern hemisphere at low radio frequency.

Miscellaneous:

World Thinking Day

·        World Thinking Day, formerly Thinking Day, is celebrated annually on 22 February by all Girl Guides and Girl Scouts. It is also celebrated by Scout and Guide organizations and some boy-oriented associations around the world.

Divya Karnad first Indian woman to receive Future of Nature award for marine conservation

·        Dr Divya Karnad has grown to be the second Indian and the first girl to obtain the 'Global Future of Nature Award' for her paintings on marine conservation.

·        The 'Future For Nature Award' is a prestigious international award that celebrates tangible achievements in protecting wild animal and plant species.