Current Affairs: February 01, 2018

February 01, 2018

PM Modi launches Khelo India School Games

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 31

declared the inaugural Khelo India School Games

open and said the event will highlight the country's

sporting talent and its potential to the world. Modi

declared open the KISG at a colourful opening
ceremony at the Indira Gandhi Stadium in New

Delhi. The ceremony showcased the rich 'Guru-Shishya' tradition of the country in grand style.
KISG has decided to select 1000 kids every year from different sports and provide them Rs 5

lakh per annum for 8 years.

Bulletin: Google launches a crowdsourced, hyperlocal news app

Expanding its reach into the hyperlocal news,

Google has introduced a new app named

“Bulletin” that allows anybody to submit stories for

and about their communities. “This is a free,

lightweight app for telling a story by capturing

photos, video clips and text right from your phone,

published straight to the web (without having to create a blog or a website),” Google said. “The

app is made for contributing hyperlocal stories about your community, for your community,

right from your phone. ‘Bulletin’ makes it effortless to put a spotlight on inspiring stories that
aren’t being told,” the tech giant added.

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Current Affairs: February 01, 2018

Government launches GeM 3.0 with more features

Government e Marketplace (GeM), has been

envisaged by Government of India as the National

Procurement Portal of India. GeM strives to keep

pace with ever-evolving technological challenges and

stakeholder aspirations and in line with this

endeavor, GeM is coming up with a scaled up the
third version. The GeM 2.0 was launched as a pilot in August 2016 and its success led to this
massive transformation program - GeM 3.0 which would offer standardised and enriched

catalogue management, powerful search engine, real-time price comparison, template-based

Bid and RA creation, demand aggregation, e-EMD, e-PBG, user rating, advanced MIS and

analytics and more.

India commissions high-performance computer system ‘Mihir’

India on January 30 commissioned its High-

Performance Computer (HPC) system - named
'Mihir' (meaning Sun) - at the National Centre for
Medium-Range Weather Forecasting at Noida, Uttar

Pradesh. The facility will improve India's capacity in

weather forecasting and help it to come out with

weather forecast down to the block level (for about 6500 blocks) across the country later this

year. At present, such facility is available at district level. Dedicating the system to the nation,
the Union minister of earth sciences Harsh Vardhan noted that the country will now also be

ranked 4th - after Japan, UK and USA - for dedicated HPC resources for weather/climate

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Current Affairs: February 01, 2018

community. Dr. Harsh Vardhan has recently dedicated India's fastest and first multi-petaflops
supercomputer named 'Pratyush' to the nation in Pune.

NITI Aayog member Dr. Vinod Paul wins global award

NITI Aayog member Dr. Vinod Paul was awarded the

Ihsan Dogramaci Family Health Foundation Prize by

the Executive Board of the World Health

Organization (WHO) at its session in Geneva. Dr.

Paul, a former professor at AIIMS, Delhi, is the first

Indian to win the award that recognizes work in the

field of family health. He will be conferred the prize formally at a World Health Assembly event
in May. The WHO Board resolution recognizes Dr. Paul as an internationally renowned

researcher, clinician, educator and public health advocate in the area of family health.
World Health Organization Headquarters at Geneva, Switzerland and its Head is Tedros

Adhanom.

MCG to host World T20 finals in 2020

On January 30, the International Cricket Council (ICC)

announced the venues for the men's and women's

World T20 tournaments in 2020, which for the first time

will be played as standalone events in the same host

country. The women's competition will run from

February 21 to March 8, while the men's will be held

from October 18 to November 15. The tournaments will

receive equal billing with both finals to be held at the MCG - the same venue which hosted the
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Current Affairs: February 01, 2018

2015 ODI World Cup and attracted a cricket record of 93,013 fans.
International Cricket Council Headquarters at Dubai, United Arab Emirates and CEO is Dave

Richardson.

Soumitra Chatterjee conferred Legion of Honour

Legendary Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee (83) was

awarded France’s highest civilian award, Legion

d’Honneur. He was presented the medal by French
Ambassador Alexandre Ziegler at a function in

Kolkata, West Bengal. Chatterjee was awarded in

recognition of his remarkable career and his

outstanding contribution in promoting Indian cinema in France and his long-standing attraction

for our country.

INS Karanj launched in Mumbai

The Indian Navy’s third state-of-the-art Scorpene

class submarine, INS Karanj, was launched by

Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Sunil Lanba, at

Mumbai on January 31. Six Scorpene class

submarines are being built under Project 75 by the

Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDSL),

Mumbai, under a $3.75 billion technology transfer signed in October 2005 with the Naval Group
of France. INS Kalvari, the first to be launched, was commissioned in December 2017 by Prime

Minister Narendra Modi. INS Khanderi, which was launched in January 2017, is currently

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Current Affairs: February 01, 2018

undergoing deep dive trails and is expected to be commissioned later this year, according to
Navy officials.

The Government of India and Asian Development Bank (ADB) sign Loan of $250
Million

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the

Government of India signed a $250 million loan to

finance the construction of 6,254 kilometers all-

weather rural roads in the States of Assam,

Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West

Bengal under the Prime Minister’s Rural Roads

Program (PMGSY). The program is aimed at

improving rural connectivity, facilitating safer and more efficient access to livelihood and socio-

economic opportunities for rural communities through improvements to about 12,000

kilometres Rural Roads across the 5 States.

Asian Development Bank Headquarters at Mandaluyong, Philippines and President is Takehiko
Nakao.

SBI to provide credit cards to farmers

State Bank of India (SBI) has introduced a pilot scheme

on credit cards for farmers, which extends facilities like

lower interest rate besides the normal 40 days’ credit

available for credit card users, said Chairman Rajnish

Kumar. “SBI has launched this facility on a pilot basis in

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Current Affairs: February 01, 2018

three States – Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. So far, 100 applications have been

received”. They had unveiled two apps, which would enable farmers to enjoy the benefits of

online shopping for their farm inputs and produce.

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