February 29 – Current Affairs Quick Gyan

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the Quick Gyan (QG) Section of D2G. QG is just a glimpse of what happened today all over the world.

Only For Serious Candidates : We strongly recommend you to read the Current Affairs in detail. For your convenience, we have provided quick links under the updates. Make use of it.

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AWARDS AND HONORS

The 2016 Oscars Winners – Complete List

The 88th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2015. The Academy is known around the world for its annual Academy Awards, now officially known as The “Oscars”. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) is a professional honorary organization with the stated goal of advancing the arts and sciences of motion pictures.

Quick Link – Oscar Awards

Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Ranveer Singh chosen for 2016 Dinanath Mangeshkar Award

On April 24 every year, the Mangeshkars honour the finest artistes in India to commemorate Lataji’s father Pandit Dinanath Mangeshkar’s death anniversary. This year, the Pandit Dinanath Mangeshkar award will be given to filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali and actor Ranveer Singh, at a function to be held in Pune. The award will be bestowed upon them by Lata Mangeshkar at a function to be held in Pune on 24 April to commemorate Pandit Dinanath Mangeshkar’s death anniversary. The award was instituted in 1999 in the memory of Dinanath Mangeshkar, father of Lata Mangeshkar. Deenanath Mangeshkar (29 December 1900 – 24 April 1942) was a well-known Marathi theatre actor, a renownedNatya Sangeet musician and a Hindustani classical vocalist.

Quick Link – Dinanath Mangeshkar Award

Randeep Hooda gets achievement award in Australia

Bollywood actor Randeep Hooda was felicitatedby Melbourne based South Asian community members in Australia. The members of a non profit organization South Asian Public Affairs Council (SAPAC) honoured the visiting actor with an achievement award for making his mark in the film industry. Receiving the award, Hooda said he got his first break in the Bollywood industry because of his Australian accent. The actor who made his debut as an NRI from Australiain Mira Nair’s film ‘Monsoon Wedding’ in 2001, said he was very happy to be back in the country after 15 years. A local councilor Oscar Yildiz also offered Hooda to become an ambassador of ‘Bully Zero Australia’ which the actor accepted. At the event,Hooda also formally launched a non profit organisation ‘Nobody Dies Hungry’ founded by an Australian Indian Aloke Kumar.

Quick Link – Achievement award

APPOINTMENTS

Alok Kumar Verma takes charge as Delhi Police Commissioner

Senior IPS officer Alok Kumar Verma took charge as the new Commissioner of Delhi Police at a time it is battling mounting criticism over handling of the JNU row. Kumar succeeds BS Bassi who was at loggerheads with the AAP government on a range of issues in the last one year. Verma, a 1979 batch IPS officer of the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory) cadre, was serving as the Director General of Tihar jail. Verma, who had joined as DG of Tihar on August 6, 2014 after serving as Special Commissioner of Police (Administration), is set to retire after 17 months.

Quick Link – Alok Kumar as Commissioner

Dinesh Sharma – Chairperson of Governing Council of IFAD

Dinesh Sharma, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance and India’s Governor to the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), Rome was unanimously elected as the Chairperson of the Governing Council of IFAD. He has been elected for a period of two years in its 39th Session held in Rome. IFAD was set-up in 1977 as the 13th Specialised Agency of the United Nations and works towards removing poverty and hunger in rural areas all over the world. India is a founder member of IFAD and a key contributor among the member countries. IFAD is managed by the two main governing bodies i.e. the Governing Council and the Executive Board. The Governing Council is the highest decision making body and consists of 176 member countries.

Quick Link – Dinesh Sharma as Chairperson of IFAD

BANKING AND FINANCE

Union Budget 2016 – Everything You Need to Know

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has presented the Union Budget 2016. With an eye on supporting the small tax-payer and the small investor, the Minister announced a slew of schemes, and income tax exemptions. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley did not change income tax slabs in his third Budget, but he did tweak some deductions and announced multiple new cesses, which will impact tax liability for the common man. Infrastructure and agriculture cess to be levied. Excise duty raised from 10 to 15 per cent on tobacco products other than beedis. 1 per cent service charge on purchase of luxury cars over Rs. 10 lakh and in-cash purchase of goods and services over Rs. 2 lakh. SUVs, Luxury cars to be more expensive. 4% high capacity tax for SUVs.

Quick Link – Union Budget 2016

INDIAN AFFAIRS

February 28 : National Science Day

National Science Day is celebrated in India on 28 February each year to mark the discovery of the Raman effect by Indian physicist Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman on 28 February 1928. For his discovery, Raman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930. The theme of the year 2016 is on “Scientific Issues for Development of the Nation”. National Science Day is being celebrated every year to widely spread a message about the significance of scientific applications in the daily life of the people. To display all the activities, efforts and achievements in the field of science for human welfare. To discuss all the issues and implement new technologies for the development of the science.

Quick Link – National Science Day

DRI exposes over Rs 1000 Crore rice export scam

According to a probe being done by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), over two lakh metric tonnes of Basmati rice was illegally offloaded in Dubai in the last over a year instead of in Bandar Abbas in Iran. Over 25 big exporters from Haryana and Punjab are under the scanner of DRI and other agencies for their involvement in the multi-crore scam, they said. The rice would be taken to Gujarat’s Kandla Port by these exporters. They would then file Shipping Bills–documents filed with customs authorities carrying details of goods to be exported, consignor and consignee–for export to Iran. Instead of the consignment reaching Iranian shores, it would be diverted mid-sea to Dubai allegedly with the connivance of cargo ship operators carrying the goods.

Quick Link – DRI Exposes

SIDBI to raise Rs 10 K Crore “Stand Up India” Fund

The Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) will be raising the proposed Rs 10,000-crore corpus for ‘Stand Up India Fund’ from RBI, which will be disbursed to Dalit and women entrepreneurs. Sidbi Chairman and Managing Director Kshatrapati Shivaji said “We are working to have the corpus in place for the Stand Up India Fund corpus. It will be raised from the Reserve Bank through the priority sector lending shortfalls“.

Under the scheme announced by Prime Minister NarendraModi earlier this year, each bank branch has been mandated to lend to one micro-enterprise promoted by a woman and SC/ST entrepreneur.

Quick Link – SIDBI

FOREIGN RELATIONS

Japanese get Visa-on-arrival facility in India

As announced by the Prime Minister, the Visa on Arrival for Japanese nationals is being launched from tomorrow i.e. 1st March, 2016. This facility will be available at six airports viz. Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Hyderabad. This facility can be availed for the purposes of business, tourism, conference and medical. Validity of this visa after entry will be for a period of 30 days. The facility being given to Japanese will be an upgradation of e-Tourist Visa currently offered to citizens of 150 countries. About 1.80 lakh Japanese nationals visit India every year on various kinds of visas. Business and Tourist Visas constitute around 78% of these.

Quick Link – Japanese get Visa

VII Indo-Seychelles joint training exercises Lamitye concluded

Lamitye 2016, the seventh Indo-Seychelles joint training exercises, aiming to improve interoperability between both armies in counter-insurgency operations, has concluded at Victoria, Mahe Island in Seychelles. Focused on interoperability in drills pertaining to counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism, a number of activities and exercises were conducted during the joint training. It culminated with a cordon and search operations, enmeshed with hostage rescue operations in an anti-piracy setting at Cape Ternay, with realistic orchestration of events extending over two days in an urban insurgency environment. An Indian contingent, comprising an infantry platoon and representatives from the special forces, attended the exercise Lamitye 2016.

Quick Link – Lamitye

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

WhatsApp to end support to BlackBerry, Nokia platforms

WhatsApp will end support for for its app for BlackBerry devices including BlackBerry 10 by the end of 2016. The company will also do away with WhatsApp Messenger for Nokia S40, Nokia Symbian S60, smartphones with Android 2.1, Android 2.2 and Windows Phone 7.1. The announcement was made soon after WhatsApp celebrated its seventh anniversary and recently crossed over 1 billion users worldwide.

ISRO chief signals India’s readiness for Chandrayaan II mission

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman A S Kiran Kumar signaled country’s readiness for Chandrayaan II mission, which will be India’s second mission to the moon. Chandrayaan II is an advanced version of the previous Chandrayaan-1 mission. It consists of an Orbiter, Lander and Rover configuration. It is planned to be launched as a composite stack into the Earth Parking Orbit (EPO) of 170 X 18,500 km by GSLV-Mk II.

The Lander will soft land on the moon at a specified site and deploy the Rover. The scientific payloads onboard the Orbiter, Lander and Rover are expected to perform mineralogical and elemental studies of the lunar surface.

SPORTS

Bahadur Singh Rana wins gold at Walking Championships

London Olympian Basant Bahadur Singh Rana clinched the gold medal in men’s 50km race walk event on the second and final day of the National Championships in Jaipur. Delhi walker Rana clocked 4 hours seven minutes 24 seconds to finish first but he must have been disappointed as he could not touch the revised Olympics qualification time of 4:06:00 on a fast Jaipur course which saw as many as seven men’s 20 km race walkers breached Rio Games cut-off mark. The 32-year-old Rana has a personal best of 3:56:48 which he clocked a in the 2012 London Olympics, which was a national record then. Uttarakhand’s Chandan Singh, who has already achieved Rio qualification mark in men’s 20 km event, finished second with a time of 4:09:50 while Jitender Singh Rathore of Rajasthan took the bronze medal in 4:12:10.

Quick Link – Walking Championships

Stan Wawrinka wins 2016 Dubai ATP Tennis title

World number four Stan Wawrinka overcame the spirited challenge of Marcos Baghdatis to win the Dubai Tennis Championship. The Swiss triumphed 6-4 7-6 (15-13) for his ninth straight final win and his second title of the season. The French Open champion, 30, saved five set points in a tense tie-break and won when a Baghdatis return went wide on a fourth match point. It was Wawrinka’s first time playing the tournament in eight years. He had reached the final when Nick Kyrgios retired from their semi-final with a back injury. That had been the first match between the pair since the infamous match in Montreal last August, when on-court microphones recorded Kyrgios making a lewd suggestion about Wawrinka’s girlfriend.

Quick Link – Dubai ATP Tennis title


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