February 20 Current Affairs

State :

Tamilnadu :

Amma bio-fertilizers to be rolled out 

• At a time when there is a general perception that Amma brands are losing sheen after Jayalalithaa’s demise, the State government is planning to distribute Amma bio-fertilisers to farmers. In 2018-19, the agriculture department will distribute 3,000 metric tonnes of carrier-based bio-fertilisers and six lakh litres of liquid bio-fertilisers.

Youth held with golden blades at Madurai airport

The officials of the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of Customs Department seized around 250 grams of 24-carat gold, concealed as shaving blades and rings used in caps, from a passenger, M. Abudhahir (38) of Chennai  .Part of 250 grams of smuggled gold was in the form of rings used in caps .

Renowned violinist M.S. Anantharaman passes away

• Violinist M.S. Anantharaman, an exponent of Parur style of violin playing, died.  He was 94 and is survived by his sons M.S. Sundaresan and M.A. Krishnaswamy and daughter M.A. Bhagirati, all of whom are proficient in Carnatic music .

Kerala :

Official language oath in Malayalam kicks up a row

• The Kerala government’s move to have an ‘official language oath’ in Malayalam does not seem to have gone down well with the Kannada and Tamil linguistic minorities in the State. The pledge will come into effect on International Mother Language Day on February 21 (Wednesday) and students in government and aided schools have been asked to take it mandatorily.

Affordable health care gets major push

• Kerala’s new health policy focusses on improving and equipping the public health system to deliver affordable, accessible and quality care to the public at primary, secondary and tertiary levels so as to bring down the huge out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure on health in the State.

Andhra Pradesh :

No-trust motion will be our last resort: Naidu

• To the proposals on the motion and resignations by political parties as part of the fight against the Centre to seek justice for the State, Mr. Naidu said, “Moving no-confidence motion should be the last resort. First we have to raise questions in Parliament. Promises made in Parliament and the AP Reorganisation Act must be fulfilled. If not, we will mount pressure on the government. Unless we have the support of 54 [MPs], we cannot move it.

CPI willing to be part of team for Delhi on SCS

• The CPI has expressed its willingness to be part of any all-party team formed by the State government to press for Special Category Status (SCS) to Andhra Pradesh.
• Party’s national secretary K. Narayana has also announced that his party will extend support to the TDP if it moves a no-confidence motion in Parliament against the NDA Government.

India :

Centre denies snubbing Canadian PM Trudeau

• The government dismissed reports that it had “snubbed” the visiting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as he began the second leg of his seven-day visit to India in Gujarat, where he paid homage at Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram, and visited the Akshardham temple and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA)

Cabinet committee clears several rail, road projects

• The government approved several railway projects, including a 130 km-long Jeypore-Malkangiri project at a cost of ₹ 2,676 crore and another 425 km-long Jhansi-Manikpur and Bhimsen-Khairar line doubling-cum-electrification projects costing ₹ 4,956 crore.
• The Jeypore-Malkangiri new line project, likely to be completed by 2021-22, will cover the left wing extremism (LWE) affected districts of Koraput and Malkangiri of Odisha, an official statement said.

A Canadian project, inspired by India

• “IT companies are of particular interest. We want to see how we can help with Smart City challenges of major urban centres.“Economic growth is top on the agenda of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Growth that helps everyone as businesses and individuals. The same values are also shared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said.

India test fires medium-range nuclear capable Agni-II missile

• India test-fired its medium range nuclear capable Agni-II missile with a strike range of 2,000 km from Abdul Kalam Island off Odisha coast, Defence sources said.
• The trial of the surface-to-surface missile was conducted from a mobile launcher at the Launch Complex-4 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at around 8.38 am, the sources said,

World :

‘China deploys warships in Indian Ocean’

• “At present, the Indian Ocean region is not peaceful and the political situation in the Maldives continues to be turbulent,” says the post. The article flagged on Sunday pointed out that the Chinese Navy’s ‘Blue 2018A’ fleet has been training in the East Indian Ocean for a “week or so”. However, Indian defence sources denied any movement of Chinese ships near the Indian Ocean island nation.

Maldives on a collision course with India

• According to an official statement from President Abdulla Yameen’s office, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on National Security voted for the extension, by “easing constitutional restrictions”. The extension, the statement said, was submitted at the request of Mr. Yameen due to the present “threat to national security and the constitutional crisis” following a February 1 ruling.

Indian H-4 entrepreneurs in limbo as U.S. rethinks visa rules

• Nitin Venugopal is an Indian engineer who has an H-1B visa but has chosen to be on an H-4 visa, meant for dependents of H-1B visa-holders, to pursue his entrepreneurial dream. H-1B visa regulations require its holders to earn a salary. Mr. Venugopal invoked his dependent status, linked to his wife’s H-1B visa, when he cofounded a gaming start-up with two American colleagues, in New York. “Salary was not available then,”

Pakistan is the riskiest country for newborns

• The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund in a report released on Tuesday singled out Pakistan as the riskiest country for newborns, saying that out of every 1,000 children born in Pakistan, 46 die at birth.
• “We don’t need front-line medical doctors. We have plenty of them. We need skilled midwives,” said Ghazna Khalid, an obstetrician in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. She said nearly 80% of the deaths could be prevented if skilled birth attendants are present

Business : 

China outbids India for stake in DSE

• The Dhaka Stock Exchange on February 10 had approved the Chinese offer to buy a quarter of the bourse’s 1.8 billion shares, but Bangladesh’s financial regulator asked it to “further scrutinise” the decision.
• “The board has reconfirmed its decision about approving the Chinese consortium’s bid as it is higher than its nearest competitor’s,” said stock exchange spokesman Shafiqur Rahman after the meeting.

PNB fraud case: Firestar finance head Vipul Ambani arrested

• The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday arrested Firestar International president (finance) Vipul Ambani and four other key executives of companies implicated in the alleged ₹11,400-crore fraudulent transactions in the Punjab National Bank (PNB).
• Mr. Ambani, who was President (finance) of the Firestar Diamonds of the Firestar International group, has been arrested in the case against Nirav Modi and others. “He has been accused of being involved in the scam,” said a CBI official.

Chief Economic Adviser rues breakdown of banking controls, rules

• “The problem has been festering for a long time and it is not just the PNB alone; there are issues with the Bank of Baroda and State Bank of India, too. We have to look at how to improve internal controls and consider whether it has anything to do with the ownership,”

China outbids India for stake in DSE

• India’s NSE had offered 15 taka ($0.18) per share during the tender process this month. China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges made a joint higher bid of 22 taka per share, or $122 million, and offered additional technical support worth nearly $37 million.

Sports :

India vs SA: India target series-clincher, South Africa look to survive

• A ruthless India has only complacency to guard against while a deflated South Africa would be fighting another battle of survival when the two sides clash in the series-deciding second Twenty20 International.Virat Kohli expected to be fit for the second T20 at Centurion.

ICC rankings: Virat Kohli crosses 900-point mark, Bumrah tops bowling list

• India captain Virat Kohli became the only second batsman in the history of the game to cross the 900-point mark concurrently in Tests and ODIs, while pacer Jasprit Bumrah grabbed the joint top position among bowlers in the latest ICC ODI player rankings released.
• Kohli has become only the second batsman after South Africa’s AB de Villiers to attain the 900-point mark concurrently in both ODI and Test formats.

India wins CWG bridge

• The Indian team, led by Kiran Nadar, won the fifth Commonwealth bridge championship, held between February 14 to 18 in Gold Coast, Australia.

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