Current affairs notes on 11/02/2019-15/02/2019.

1.Focussing on its mission to empower women, social networking giant Facebook on launched a digital skilling and mentorship initiative named GOAL (Going Online As Leaders) across five states in India that would encourage tribal girls to become village-level digital young leaders for their communities.

2.A Himalayan Cloud Observatory is set up in Tehri district with a motive to forecast and monitor cloudburst incidents in the Himalayan region and help to minimise the damage.

3.Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has been elected as the chairman of the African Union at the continental body's summit in Ethiopia.

4.The book "Law, Justice and Judicial Power - Justice P N Bhagwati's Approach" written by Mool Chand Sharma was launched by the Chief Justice of India, Shri Justice Ranjan Gogoi. The first edition of the book was received by President Ramnath Govind.

5.INS Trikand, the frontline warship of the Indian Navy, participated in a multi-national training exercise 'CUTCLASS EXPRESS 2019'. The annual Exercise Cutlass Express is sponsored by U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) and conducted by Naval Forces Africa (NAVAF).

6.The 32nd Meeting of GST Council was concluded in New Delhi. The Limit of annual turnover for composition scheme increased to 1.5 crore rupees effective from April 1, 2019. The Council has decided to increase the GST registration threshold limit to 40 lakh rupees from 20 lakh.

7.The 11th edition of EIU Democracy Index 2018 was released by the Economist Intelligent Unit compiling the state of democracies in 167 countries in the world. In the list, Norway topped and India has slipped to 42nd place on the Economist Intelligence Unit's annual Global Democracy Index.

8.Ashok Chawla resigned as chairman of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE) with immediate effect "in light of recent legal developments".

9.President of the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF), Birendra Prasad Baishya has been named as India's Chef de Mission for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. it is for the first time that the sport of Weightlifting has been accorded with the honour of Chef de Mission for the Olympics.

10.Union Cabinet has approved Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to six communities of Assam.The communities that are proposed to be extended ST status include, Koch Rajbongshi, Tai Ahom, Chutiya, Matak, Moran and the tea tribes.

11.Weightlifter Jeremy Lalrinnunga from Mizoram has recently clinched silver in men's 67kg category & fetched India's second medal in the EGAT's Cup International Weightlifting Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

12.The 13th Conference of Parties (COP) of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS 13) will be held at 15th to 22nd February 2020 at Gandhinagar in Gujarat. Recently, the Government of India (GoI) has announced that the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) will be its mascot for CMS COP-13.

13.The 2nd ASEAN-India Youth Summit 2019 was held in Guwahati, Assam on the theme “Connectivity is the pathway to shared prosperity” from 03-06 February 2019.

14.The first-ever World Pulses Day (WPD) is observed on 10th February to raise awareness about the multiple benefits of eating pulses. Pulses are a type of leguminous crop that are harvested solely for the dry seed.

15.The Meghalaya Cabinet has recently decided to rename the Dikkibandi stadium in Tura town after former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A Sangma. The state Cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma.

16.The third edition of Swachh Shakti-2019 was held at Kurukshetra, Haryana ,It is a national event to recognize the leadership role played by rural women in Swachh Bharat Mission towards achieving a Clean and Open Defecation Free (ODF) country by 2nd October 2019.

17.Maharashtra topped the medal tally with 37 golds at the Khelo India Youth Games in Pune. Delhi was at second position with 35 gold and Haryana too maintains its third position with 29 gold. 10-year old Abhinav Shaw became the youngest gold medallist in the shooting.

18.Gujarat has become the first state to implement the 10% reservation for economically weaker sections of the general category. This comes a day after President Ram Nath Kovind gave his assent to the bill.

19.The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, received the first-ever Philip Kotler Presidential award, in New Delhi. The Award focuses on the triple-bottom-line of People, Profit, and Planet.

20.Bengaluru Raptors have won their first ever Premier Badminton League, Star player Kidambi Srikanth, Vu Ji Trang and the Men's Doubles pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Satiawan won their matches for Bengaluru.

21.Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Col Rajyavardhan Rathore launched the National Youth Parliament Festival 2019 at a function in New Delhi. The festival will continue till 24th of Feburary 2019.The theme of the festival is- "Be the Voice of New India" and "Find solutions and contribute to policy".

22.Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar announced a Universal Old Age Pension scheme, named Mukhya Mantri Vriddha Pension Yojana (MMVPY), irrespective for all caste, community, religion, except for those who are retired from government organizations.

23.The foundation stone for Sree Krishna Ayush University in Kurukshetra was laid by PM Narendra Modi. It is the first varsity related to the Indian system of medicine in Haryana.

24.The World Sustainable Development Summit (WSDS) is The Energy and Resources Institute's (TERI) annual flagship event. The 2019 edition of WSDS was held in New Delhi with theme 'Attaining the 2030 Agenda: Delivering on Our Promise'.

25.India’s first engine-less Semi-High Speed Train (SHST), “Vande Bharat Express" has been flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on New Delhi-Kanpur-Allahabad-Varanasi route train from the New Delhi Railway Station on 15th February 2019. Vande Bharat Express can run up to a maximum speed of 160 kmp.

26.As on 06.02.2019, nearly 1.04 crore LPG consumers have voluntarily surrendered their LPG subsidy under ‘GiveItUp’ campaign.‘Give it Up’ scheme encourages well-to-do households to voluntarily give up their liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) subsidy so that it could be targeted to the poor.

27.The Government is formulating a Scheme ‘Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM)’ which inter-alia aims to promote use of solar energy among the farmers.

28.Swachh Shakti 2019 Awards were recently distributed by the PM on the occasion of Swach Shakti 2019 programme. The Swachh Shakti Programme is a national event which aims to bring in to focus the leadership role played by rural women in Swachh Bharat Mission. 

29.The government has commissioned Godavari Mega Aqua Food Park at Tundurru Village in Bhimavaram Mandal, West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh. This is the 1st Mega Aqua Food Park operationalised exclusively established for fish and marine products processing in the State of Andhra Pradesh.

30.The Union Ministry of Labour and Employment has launched the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan Yojana (PM-SYM), a mega pension scheme for unorganised sector. The scheme was announced in the Interim Budget 2019.

31.The World Sustainable Development Summit 2019 is being held in New Delhi. It is organized by The Energy and Resources Institute – TERI.

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