Current Affairs [February 2010]

• NATO forces carried out Marjah operation (dubbed Moshtarak) against Taliban forces in Afghanistan.
• European Union summit was held in Brussels. EU & IMF decided to giving support to Greece in its struggle to bring its ballooning budget deficit under control. EU President is Herman Van Rompuy.
• Iran's President Mahmood Ahmedinejad declared that Iran had produced first batch of 20 % enriched uranium and now Iran became a nuclear state.
• Iran launched 'Kavoshger -3 rocket' capable of carrying a satellite. It carried a mouse, worms & two turtles.
• Kirit Parikh committee , set up to review petro pricing regime, submit its recommendation. Its major recommendation are to deregulate the prices of petrol & diesel as per market prices, reduce the subsidy on LPG.
• India signed a Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement with the UK, which became the 8th country to enter into such a pact, since the lifting of atomic trade embargo in 2008.
• Govt set up a panel under the Chairmanship of former Justice B N Srikrishna which would consider the demand for splitting Andhra Pradesh.
• India and Denmark signed a social security pact which will relieve their workers from double taxation and provide for cooperation in areas of labour market expansion and orderly migration.
• Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits Saudi Arabia in Feb 2010. He was the first Indian PM in 28 years to visit the gulf country. Saudi Arabia is India's largest supplier of crude oil ( 23 %) followed by Iran ( 17 %) and Nigeria ( 11 %). India is offering upto 10 % equity to Saudi petroleum firm Saudi Aramco in a refinery being built in Orissa. PM addressed the Shoura council of Saudi Arabia.
• Constitution 111th Amendment – Proposes to incorporate a new Part ( Part IX B) in the Constitution so as to provide for legal framework to regulate the functioning of cooperative societies. A new Article ( Article 43 B) is also proposed to be inserted in Part IV of the Constitution (Directive Principles of State Policy) for the States to promote voluntary formation, autonomous functioning of cooperative societies.
• Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill 2009 commonly known as Nuclear Liability Bill will be introduced by Govt in Parliament in Winter session 2010. The draft bill aims at limiting the liability of a nuclear plant operator to Rs. 300 crore in the eventuality of an accident. The bill provides for the penalty to be paid by the operator and not the supplier companies which would mainly be American in this case. India has entered into civil nuclear cooperation agreement with eight countries so far.
• 11th South Asian Games 2010 : Held at Dhaka, Bangladesh from 29 Jan to 8 Feb. Originally scheduled to take place in 2009, but due to general elections in Bangladesh, the games were held in 2010. This was the third time that the Dhaka hosted the Games, thus becoming the first city to hold the games three times. 8 countries participated in the games in 23 different sports, including T20 cricket, which was introduced for the first time in SAG. The 8 countries included are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan & Sri Lanka. 1The logo of the games was 'Kutumb', a flying doel , which is the national bird of Bangladesh. The mascot of the games featured a magpie robin, which was holding the torch to begin the games. The final medal tally include : India - 1st place with 90 G 55 S 29 B Total 174, Pakistan- 2nd place with 19 G 25 S 36 B Total 80, Bangladesh- 3rd place with 18 G 23 S 56 B Total 97.
• West Zone won Duleep Trophy ( 2009-10) defeating South Zone.
• India's Gaganjeet Bhullar won the Asian Tour International Trophy 2010. It is his 2nd consecutive title.
• Euro 2012 to be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine.
• 2010 Winter Olympic Games were held at Vancouver, Canada. Mascot of the game was MIGA (a sea bear), QUATCHI( a sasquatch) and SUMI (animal guardian spirit). The logo of the games was Ilnaaq meaning Friend in Inuktut. There were 86 events in 7 sports. The games were held from 12 Feb to 28 Feb. Final medal tally. Canada- 14 G 7 S 5 B, Germany- 10 G 13 S 7 B, USA- 9 G 15 S 13 B.
• IOC (International Olympic Committee ) has approved ICC (International Cricket Council) bid to join the Olympic games 2020. The first time cricket was included in the Olympic games was in Paris Olympic 1900.
• 11th World Hockey Cup 2010- To be held in Delhi, India. This is 2nd WHC which India is hosting. India also hosted the WHC in 1982 at Mumbai. 12 countries participated in the tournament. WHC is held in the years between two summer Olympics. First WHC was held at Barcelona in 1971. Pakistan has won the cup four times, Netherland three times, Germany two times, India & Australia once each. India won the WHC in 1975.
• Sachin Tendulkar became first player in the world to score a double century in ODI (One day International). He scored 200 (Not out) against South Africa.
• Commonwealth Shooting Championship was held in New Delhi in Feb 2010. India stood at first place with 35 Gold 25 Silver and 14 Bronze. England stood at 2nd place with 4 gold and Wales stood at 3rd place.
• USA Space agency NASA launched Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) to discover the causes of extreme solar activity such as sun spots and solar winds & flares.
• 'GANGES'- Global Advisory Network Group on environmental sciences. It was created by Govt for environment research work.
• Agni-III ballistic missile with a range of 3500 Km was successfully launched from Wheeler Island, Orissa.
• Ht Cotton – Herbicide Tolerant Cotton. The variety of Ht Cotton in MON 1445. The variety can withstand herbicides (weed killers) for better productivity and is under trail.
• Cervical cancer is caused by HPV- Human Papilloma Virus.
• South Korea has world's highest average connection speed at 14.6 Mbpd in Internet links. Japan has 2nd highest average speed.
• Scientist deciphered the genetic blueprint of South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Titu.
• Horst Kochler , Germany President visit India in Feb 2010.
• Abdullah Gul, Turkey President visit India in Feb 2010.
• Economist Kokkadan Nandanath Raj, who made a significant contribution in the preparation of first Five Year Plan(1951-56) died.
• Sharad Chandra Sinha is appointed as Director General of National Investigation Agency(NIA).
• Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian President visit India in Feb 2010.
• Muhammad Shahrul Ikram Yaakob of Malaysia appointed Chairman, International Atomic Energy Agency.
• Govt appointed R S Pandey as its mediator for talk with NSCN(IM) in Nagaland to carry forward the peace process.
• Former Justice P V Reddy will be appointed as Chairman, Law Commission of India.
• Ram Baran Yadav, Nepal President visit India in Feb 2010. It was the first visit by Yadav to any foreign country after taking over as Nepal's President. Yadav is the first President of Nepal since monarchy ended in 2008. India extended $ 250 million soft line of credit to Nepal.
• Rajinder Singh became first non-white and also first Asian member of the right wing British National Party, after it amended its constitution to allow black and Asian to be its member.
• Amitabh Bachan became the brand ambassador of Gujarat state.
• Amnesty International, the global human right organization has appointed Salid Shetty as its next Secy General from June 2010. He will be the first Indian to head the organization.
• Shah Rukh Khan & Kajol become the first Indian bollywood actors to ring the opening bell of the world's biggest stock exchange' NASDAQ'.
• Rajiv Satav appointed President, Indian Youth Congress.
• Katrina Kaif awarded with 2009 Excellence in Performing Arts Award established by ASSOCHAM.
• M H Hussain, famous painter accepted citizenship of Qatar.
• Planning Commission grant special category status to the Bundelkhand region comprising 9 distt of Uttar Pradesh and 15 distt of Madhya Pradesh for the irrigation projects. Under special category status, state govt can seek 90 % grant assistance from the centre and 10 % as loan.
• Govt revises base year for the calculation of National Income from 1999-2000 to 2004-2005. The GDP for 2009-10 will be Rs. 55,74,449 crore and the fiscal deficit for the corresponding period will be 6.4 %.
• Capital Control – Foreign capital inflows in the form of loans and equity that are allowed in a restricted form are said to be controlled. The capital inflows include foreign borrowings by Indian corporate and businesses, NRI deposits and portfolio flow from institutional investors into the stock market. Loans to Govt and short term trade credit are also included. India had control on both capital account transactions as well as on current account with the local currency fixed by the Central Bank. In 1991, rupee was first made convertible on the current account. In 1994, Govt allows foreign portfolio investments.
• Govt will replace Benchmark Prime Lending System (BPLR) with Base rate system from 1 April 2010 to make bank lending more transparent. It provided for minimum rate for all types of loans for banks.
• Milan 2010, a biennial meeting of navies of Asia Pacific countries held at Port Blair in Feb 2010. 12 countries of Asia Pacific Region participated in it. It is the 7th edition of Milan exercises. It is a biennial exercise of Asia Pacific maritime navies, hosted by the Indian Navy. First Milan exercise was held in 1995.
• 'Vayu-Shakti' name given to IAF exercise conducted at Pokhran range in the Thar desert in Feb 2010. IAF is the 4th largest air force in the world after USA, Russia and China.
• 'Bo' language of Andaman become extinct. Its last speaker died.
• As per Indian Meteorological deptt, 2009 was the warmest year since 1990. The annual mean temperature for 2009 was 25.55 degree celcius for the country s as a whole.
• Uttarakhand became first state in the country to ban the cultivation of Bt Brinjal ( Country's first Genetically Modified food crop). Bt Brijnal is a genetically modified crop which has a special gene- Cry1AC, inserted to make it poisonous to pests. GM Crops resists pests and give better yields as well as nutrition. Bt Brinjal is developed in India by Mahyco company. GM foods are derived from organisms whose DNA has been modified through genetic engineering.
• China ranked 1st in the wind power capacity in the world. India is at 5th place with 10925 MW capacity. The five top nations in the order of wind power capacity are China, US, Spain, Germany & India.
• Eurozone is a economic and monetary union of 16 EU member states which have adopted the euro currency as their sole legal tender. PIIGS countries include Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece & Spain.
• 17 army jawans killed in a avalanche at High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS) at Khilanmarg, J&K.
• West Bengal govt reserved 10 % of govt jobs in the state for poor muslims.
• China will celebrate 2010 as Year of Tiger.
• India has a road network of 33 lakh km and is second largest in the world. It included 200 km of expressway, 70548 km of national highways, 131899 km of state highways, 467763 km of major district roads and 26.5 lakh km of rural & other roads. The Golden Quadrilateral joining four metro cities of Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkatta, has a length of 5846 km.
• Taj Mahotsav organized by UP govt in Feb 2010 with the theme 'Ek Utsav Prem Ka'.
• Vancouver city, Canada named as the World's most livable city as per survey conducted by Economics Intelligence Unit. Delhi is ranked at 113th place and Mumbai at 117th place.
• 16th Conference of Parties (COP) will be held in Dec 2010 at Mexico. The 15th COP was held in Copenhagen in Dec 2009.
• Hyderabad International Airport has been named amongst the world's five top airports. Other four airports are Seol, Singapore, Hong Kong and Beijing.
• '1000 faces for 1000 tigers' campaign was launched in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The campaign aims to help double the number of wild tigers in Malaysia by 2022.
• Sachin Tendulkar features in BMC's 'Save Water Campaign'.
• Indian Navy inducted Russian built MiG 29 K fighters planes.
• Basic Capabilities Index 2009- India received 68 points. The index was published by Social Watch's. The highest BCI points was given to Iran having 97 points and lowest points 44 was given to Chad.
• K R Sridhar, an US based Indian scientist invented Bloom Box- which convert air and virtually any other fuel source into clean electricity. The box uses solid oxide fuel cells and can generate 100 KW of power.
• Present life expectancy of life at birth in India is 63.4 yrs. The highest expectancy of life is in Australia of 81.4 yrs, 81 yrs for France and 79.3 yrs for England.
• World Cancer Day – 04 Feb
• International Condom Day – 14 Feb