Current Affairs Today 18th February 2020| Current Affairs News

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Daily Current Affairs PDF of 18th February 2020

CURRENT AFFAIRS: NATIONAL

IDSA to be renamed as Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses

• Union Government has decided to rename the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, IDSA as Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses.
• The decision has been taken to honour the commitment and legacy of late Manohar Parrikar.
• It will align the vision and aspiration of the premier defence institute with the contribution of the former Defence Minister and Padma Bhushan awardee.

External Affairs Ministry issues travel advisory for Indians travelling to five provinces of Iraq

• External Affairs Ministry has stated that Indian nationals may now consider travelling to Iraq except to the five provinces of Nineveh, Salahuddin, Diyala, Anbar, and Kirkuk.
• These five provinces remain unsafe due to the prevailing security situation in the country.
• Those Indian nationals wishing to travel for employment and already having work permits and appropriate visas may return to their jobs in the safe areas in Iraq.

EAM to inaugurate Indian Pavilion at 70th Berlin International Film Festival on Feb 20 in Germany

• External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar will inaugurate Indian Pavilion at 70th Berlin International Film Festival on February 20 in Germany.
• The festival will be held till 1st of March.
• India Pavilion will provide a platform to popularize Indian cinema in the overseas market and facilitate new business opportunities.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: STATES

Uddhav Thackeray approves renaming of Latur Medical College after former CM Vilasrao Deshmukh

• Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has approved the renaming of the Latur Medical College as Vilasrao Deshmukh Institute of Medical Sciences.
• The late Vilasrao Deshmukh had served as the former CM of Maharashtra.
• Vilasrao was a member of the Indian National Congress, he served as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra for Two times from 1999 to 2003 and from 2004 to 2008 and he also served as Union cabinet Minister for the Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Panchayat Raj and Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises of Government of India.

About Maharashtra

• Capital- Mumbai
• CM- Uddhav Thackeray
• Governor- Bhagat Singh Koshyari

Ambala city bus stand renamed after late Sushma Swaraj

• The Ambala city bus stand was renamed after late external affairs minister and BJP veteran Sushma Swaraj.
• Swaraj was born in Ambala Cantt and was elected MLA twice from here.
• Local BJP MLA Aseem Goyal had requested Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar that the newly-constructed bus stand be named after Swaraj.
• Rs 18 crore had been spent on the construction of the bus stand where all basic facilities would be provided to passengers.
• Haryana Roadways operates 3,200 buses in the state at present. In the next six months, 1,500 more buses would be added.

About Haryana

• Capital- Chandigarh
• CM- Manohar Lal Khattar
• Governor- Satya Narayan Arya

Punjab to honour cops under ‘Appreciate and Commend’ scheme

• The Punjab Police have launched ‘Appreciate and Commend’
• The move is aimed at boosting the morale of police officers who work exceptionally and diligently.
• Nominations will be sought from police chiefs of various districts by the 25th of every month, and these will be screened by a committee comprising senior Police Officers from the headquarters and the field. The names would be announced by the 5th of every month.
• The initiative was launched during a high-level meeting of the top brass of the Police in Phillaur and 15 police personnel, including three women Sub Inspectors, were honoured.
• The awardees included two Inspectors, six Sub Inspectors, three Assistant Sub Inspectors, one Head Constable, and three Constables.
• The performance of these cops had been rated outstanding in various policing areas, such as action against terrorists and gangsters, the arrest of proclaimed offenders, a large number of NDPS recoveries, property forfeiture in NDPS cases, spreading drug awareness, investigation of sensitive cases, community policing initiatives and police station management.

About Punjab

• Capital- Chandigarh
• Chief Minister – Captain Amarinder Singh
• Governor- Vijayender Pal Singh Badnore

Kerala CM launches ”Yodhavu” mobile app to combat drug menace

• ‘Yodhavu’ (Warrior), a mobile app through which the public can inform police about drug abuse and its distribution, was launched by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan as part of efforts to curb the growing menace in the State.
• A special feature of the application, introduced by the Kochi city police, was that the informer’s identity could be kept secret.
• The chief minister also inaugurated a most modern cyberdom cyber crime police station, new building of the Infopark police station and regional forensic science laboratory’s upper and lower subordinate quarters at the TCS auditorium at Infopark.
• The chief minister also unveiled the model of Kochi city police’s new police complex being constructed at Marine Drive.

About Kerala

• Capital- Thiruvananthapuram
• CM- Pinarayi Vijayan
• Governor- Arif Mohammad Khan
• National Parks -Anamudi Shola NP, Eravikulam NP, Mathikettan Shola NP, Pambadum Shola NP, Periyar NP, Silent Valley NP.

Uttar Pradesh government announces two new youth-centric schemes

• The Uttar Pradesh government announced two new schemes to promote and help the youth of the state.
• The two new schemes are Chief Minister Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (CMAPS) and the Yuva Udyamita Vikas Abhiyan (YUVA) will make the youth self-dependent.
• A provision of Rs 100 crore has been made under the CMAPS to impart on-job training to the youth of the state in MSME units and link them with an employment of definite period.
• Under the scheme, they will not only be provided training but also be given a stipend.
• A novel initiative is being taken through the Yuva Udyamita Vikas Abhiyan to provide employment to lakhs of trained youths in the state; a ‘YUVA Hub’ will be set up in every district of the state.
• “An amount of Rs 50 crore is proposed for setting up ‘YUVA Hub’ in every district and a target has been fixed to train two lakh youths under various training programmes of the UP Skill Development Mission.

About Uttar Pradesh

• Capital – Lucknow
• CM – Yogi Adityanath
• Governor – Anandiben Patel

CURRENT AFFAIRS: AWARDS AND HONOURS

Filmfare 2020: ‘Gully Boy’ Bags Top Awards

• The 65th Amazon Filmfare Awards 2020 was held at Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium in Guwahati, Assam. This was the first time that the prestigious award ceremony was held outside Mumbai.

Best Film	Gully Boy
Critics’ Award for Best Film	Article 15 and Sonchiriya
Best Director	Zoya Akhtar, Gully Boy
Best Actor In A Leading Role (Male)	Ranveer Singh, Gully Boy
Critics’ Award for Best Actor (Male)	Ayushmann Khurrana, Article 15
Best Actor In A Supporting Role (Female)	Amruta Subhash, Gully Boy
Best Actor In A Supporting Role (Male)	Siddhant Chaturvedi, Gully Boy
Best Music Album	Gully Boy and Kabir Singh
Best Lyrics	Divine and Ankur Tewari for Apna Time Aayega (Gully Boy)
Best Playback Singer (Male)	Arijit Singh for Kalank Nahi (Kalank)
Best Playback Singer (Female)	Shilpa Rao for Ghungroo (War)
Best Dialogue	Vijay Maurya, Gully Boy
Best Screenplay	Reema Kagti and Zoya Akhtar for Gully Boy
Best Original Story	Anubhav Sinha and Gaurav Solanki for Article 15
Best Debut Director	Aditya Dhar, Uri: The Surgical Strike
Best Debut (Male)	Abhimanyu Dassani, Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota
Best Debut (Female)	Ananya Panday, Student Of The Year 2
Best Action	War
Best Background Score	Gully Boy
Best Choreography	Remo D’Souza for Kalank track Ghar More Pardesiya
Best Cinematography	Gully Boy
Best Costume	Sonchiriya
Best Editing	Uri: The Surgical Strike
Best Production Design	Gully Boy
Best Sound Design	Uri: The Surgical Strike
Best VFX	War
People’s Choice Award for Best Short Film	Deshi
Best Short Film in Fiction	Bebaak
Best Short Film in Non Fiction	Village Of A Lesser God
Best Actor Female Short Film	Sarah Hashmi, Bebaak
Best Actor Male Short Film	Rajesh Sharma, Tindey

CURRENT AFFAIRS: SUMMITS AND CONFERENCE

2020 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP 26)

• The 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 26) to the UNFCCC is expected to take place from 9-19 November 2020, in Glasgow, UK.
• Indian-origin Alok Sharma from Agra,Uttar Pradesh(UP) has been appointed as the minister in charge of the UK’s COP26 climate change summit.
• British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promoted Alok Sharma to the post of Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in cabinet reshuffle, where he replaced Claire Perry O’Neill, a former energy minister.

J&K Global Investors Summit-2020

• Chief Secretary, B V R Subrahmanyam chaired 2nd Apex Committee meeting to review preparations for the upcoming J&K Global Investors Summit-2020 to be held in the capital cities of Srinagar and Jammu.
• The summit will not only help to present business-friendly policies of the Government; identify business opportunities in J&K to participating trade and industry organizations but also harmonize J&K’s intrinsic strength and aspirations of development and employment opportunities.
• The road shows will be held at Bengaluru, Kolkata on February 17, Mumbai on February 21, Hyderabad on March 2, Chennai on March 5 and Ahmedabad on March 9, 2020.
• Senior officers and dignitaries will preside over the pre-event functions slated during the road shows to set the stage for the main summit. International road shows are also being planned to attract foreign investment.
• Mini Conclaves will be held at Srinagar and Jammu in the month of March, 2020. Signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with interested investors will also form a part of the road shows and the main summit.

Hyderabad all set to host 17th Edition of BioAsia 2020

• Telangana is all set to host the three-day Bio Asia 2020, Asia’s largest Biotechnology and Life Sciences Forum with the theme of ‘Today for Tomorrow’ in Hyderabad.
• About 2,000 delegates from 37 countries will be attending the annual flagship event of Government of Telangana in the presence of most eminent personalities and industry stalwarts from life sciences sectors across the globe.
• Switzerland will be the partner Country this year as part of the annual tradition. An eminent 40-member team comprising industries, academia and start-ups from Switzerland will participate in the event.
• The best 5 out of the 75 start-ups will be awarded a cash prize co-sponsored by BIRAC and CIE-IIIT Hyderabad during the closing ceremony and present their innovative solutions.
• BioAsia has been playing a key role in bringing together the global industry leaders, researchers, policymakers, innovators, and investors together on one platform discussing the new opportunities and developing strategies to succeed.
• BioAsia 2020 is being organized in partnership with Government of India, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of MSME, Department of Biotechnology, Department of Pharmaceuticals and it has state partners include Assam, Kerala, Odisha and Gujarat.

3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety

• The 3rd Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety “Achieving Global Goals 2030” will take place in Stockholm, Sweden.
• Hosted by the Government of Sweden and co-hosted by WHO, the Ministerial Conference will be an opportunity for delegates to share successes and lessons from implementation of the Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020, chart future strategic directions for global road safety, and define ways to accelerate action on proven strategies. The Ministerial Conference will also provide an opportunity to link road safety to other sustainability challenges.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

ISRO to launch an unprecedented 10 earth imaging satellites

• The country will send up an unusually large number of 10 earth observation (EO) satellites during 2020-21, according to the latest annual report of the Indian Space Research Organisation for 2019-20.
• It includes new categories such as the first Geo Imaging Satellite, GISAT-1.
• The annual plan mentions 36 missions, another high for a year: these includes both satellites and their launchers.
• For the ongoing fiscal, ISRO had proposed launching six EO satellites, of which two are due to go. For 2021-22, the plan is to add eight EO satellites.
• ISRO was recently given a budget of nearly ₹13,480 crore for the next fiscal.
• The upcoming EO satellites include radar imaging satellites RISAT-2BR2, RISAT- 1A and 2A; Oceansat-3 and Resourcesat-3/3S.

About ISRO

• Headquarters– Bengaluru, Karnataka
• Chairman– K Sivan

CURRENT AFFAIRS: BOOKS AND AUTHOR

Book compiles well-known aphorisms of Chanakya

• “Chanakya Niti: Verses on Life and Living” is translated from the original Sanskrit by long-time career diplomat A N D Haksar and published by Penguin Random House India.
• A new book takes a look at the Chanakya Niti corpus as a whole through some of well-known aphorisms attributed to the ancient master of statecraft Kautilya.
• According to Haksar, who has translated several Sanskrit classics, these sayings are mainly about everyday life and living. Called Chanakya Niti as a whole, these epigrammatic verses of observation and advice have frequently been quoted in later Sanskrit works and anthologies and many are still remembered.

CURRENT AFFAIRS: SPORTS

Asian Wrestling Championship begins in New Delhi

• Asian Wrestling Championship will begin in New Delhi. It will be held at the KD Jadhav Hall of Indira Gandhi Stadium till 23rd of this month.
• The event will have a total of 30 weight classes, 10 each in Freestyle Men, Women, and Greco Roman.
• The Championship will begin with Greco-Roman events, followed by women wrestling and men’s freestyle.
• On day 1 of the tournament, 55, 63, 77, 87 and 130 kg wrestlers will take to the mat to prove their mettle.

NADA bans javelin thrower Amit Dahiya for four years

• National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) has banned javelin thrower Amit Dahiya for four years for evading sample collection and trying to cheat officials during the 2nd National Javelin Throw Open Championship 2019 held at SAI Centre in Sonipat.
• NADA said the ADDP has now passed an order to suspend him for four years from the date of his provisional suspension