04 February 2018 Current Affairs

1. Government to launch KUSUM(Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Utthaan Mahaabhiyan) scheme to encourage farmers for solar farming.

• Centre has announced a ₹1.4 lakh-crore scheme for promoting decentralised solar power production of up to 28,250 MW to help farmers.
• The Centre will spend ₹48,000 crore on the ten-year scheme which was announced in the Union Budget 2018-19. 
• The 60% subsidy on the solar pumps provided to farmers will be shared between the Centre and the States while 30% would be provided through bank loans.

Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Utthaan Mahaabhiyan(KUSUM)

1. This Scheme would provide extra income to farmers, by giving them an option to sell additional power to the grid through solar power projects set up on their barren lands.
2. The positive outcomes when the scheme is fully implemented across the country include promotion of decentralised solar power production, reduction of transmission losses as well as providing support to the financial health of DISCOMs by reducing the subsidy burden to the agriculture sector. The scheme would also promote energy efficiency and water conservation and provide water security to farmers.

Minister Of Power : R K Singh (Arrah, Bihar Lok Sabha)

2. Assam signs MoU with NBCC for Rs 1950 cr twin-tower trade centre in Guwahati.

• Estimated cost of construction of Twin Tower Trade Centre is Rs. 1950 crore.
• "NBCC has received approval letter from Government of Assam for the construction of twin tower trade centre at Guwahati amounting Rs 2,000 crore (approx) on self revenue generation model.

National Building Construction Corporation(NBCC(

CMD : Anoop Kumar Mittal

Head Quarter : New Delhi

Assam

Capital : Dispur

CM : Sarbanand Sonowal

Governor : Jagdish Mukhi

National Park & Sanctuary : Kaziranga National Park,Orang National Park

Airport :  Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi InternationalAirport

Island : Majuli (Floating Island)

3. 4 February - World Cancer Day

• Theme : We Can I Can
• World Cancer Day is the one singular initiative under which the entire world can unite together in the fight against the global cancer epidemic. It takes place every year on 4 February.
• World Cancer Day aims to save millions of preventable deaths each year by raising awareness and education about cancer, and pressing governments and individuals across the world to take action against the disease.

4. Uttar Pradesh gets its first butterfly park in Kanpur

• Estimated cost for constructing this butterfly park is Rs. 1 crore.
• Total of 100 species of flowers have been planted in order to attract the butterflies.
• Atleast 50 species of butterflies have already been preserved in the park. 
• The park will open around March 2018 for the public.
• The park will be developed in association with Uthaan, an NGO.

Uttar Pradesh

Capital : Lucknow

CM : Yogi Aditya Nath

Governor : Ram Naik

Airport : Lal Bahadur Shastri Airport(Varanasi)

National Park & Sanctuary : Dhudhwa National Park

5. PM Modi inaugurates Assam – Global Investors Summit 2018 in Guwahati.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the inaugural Assam Global Investors’ Summit in Guwahati .
• Global Investors’ Summit  will showcase the state’s investment potential to countries in South and South East Asia, in sectors including manufacturing, services, power, agriculture and food processing, IT, transportation, petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, textiles and handicrafts and tourism.
• It has been organised by the Assam State Government in association with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
• There are leading industrialists, businessmen, delegates and corporate leaders from across the world attending the event, several from ASEAN and BBIN (includes Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal) countries.

Assam

Capital : Dispur

CM : Sarbanand Sonowal

Governor : Jagdish Mukhi

National Park & Sanctuary : Kaziranga National Park,Orang National Park

Airport :  Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi InternationalAirport

island : Majuli (Floating Island)

6. The Floating Treatment Wetland (FTW) was inaugurated on World Wetlands Day (February 2) in Neknampur Lake in Hyderabad, Telangana.

• It has been formed by the joint efforts of Dhruvansh, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority, the Ranga Reddy district administration and other organisations.
• It has been named the largest Floating Treatment Wetland(FTW) in India by the India Book of Records. It has been developed based on soil-less hydroponics technique.

Telangana

Capital : Hyderabad

CM : K Chandrashekar Rao

Governor : E S L Narmasimham

National Park & Sanctuary : Kinnerasani Wildlife Sanctuary, Mahavir Harina Vanasthali National Park

7. China, UNDP sign $4m agreement to help FATA, Balochistan

• China and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed a $4 million agreement to support the recovery of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and Balochistan that have been affected by natural and human-made crises.
• According to the agreement, the project, which is funded by the “China South-South Cooperation Assistance Fund”, is expected to help 8,100 families returning to the areas affected by insecurity in Fata, as well as about 19,000 school children in Balochistan after their schools were damaged in the 2010-2011 floods.

China

Capital : Beijing

Currency : Renminbi

President : XI Jinping

United Nation Development Programme(UNDP)

Head Quarter : New York, USA

President : Achim Steiner

8. CRISIL & SIDBI Launch India’s First MSE Sentiment Index CriSidEx

• The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs Shri Arun Jaitley launched CriSidEx , Indias first sentiment index for micro and small enterprises ( MSEs) developed jointly by CRISIL & SIDBI .
• CriSidEx is a composite index based on a diffusion index of 8 parameters and measures MSE business sentiment on a scale of 0 (extremely negative ) to 200 ( extremely positive) .
• CriSidEx will have 2 indices , one for the survey quarter and another for the next quarter once a trend emerges after few rounds of the survey , providing independent time series data.

Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited(CRISIL)

Head Quarter : Mumbai, Maharashtra

CEO : Ashu Suyash

Small Industries Development Bank of India(SIDBI)

CMD : Mohammad Mustafa

Established : 2 April 1990

Head Quarter : Lucknow, UP

9. India’s first defence industrial corridor will connect Chennai and Bengaluru, Karnataka

• Defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced that, out of the two defence industrial production corridors that was mentioned in the Union Budget 2018, the first defence industrial corridor will link Chennai and Bengaluru.
• The first defence industrial corridor will link Chennai and Bengaluru and it will pass through Coimbatore and various other industrial regions.

Union Defence Minister : Nirmala Sitharaman( Karnataka Rajya Sabha)

10. B A Chopade appointed BHU vice-chancellor

• B A Chopade has been appointed as the vice-chancellor of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) by the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry.
• B A Chopade is currently the vice-chancellor of Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University. BHU Registrar Neeraj Tripathi had been holding the additional charge of BHU vice-chancellor since October 2017.

11. Malaysia’s Lai Jia Yi won the 4th edition of International Young Chef Olympiad (YCO) 2018 in Kolkata.

• Indian student chef Surya Sekhar Roy Choudhury secured the second position.
• he trophy and cash prize were presented by Chefs Sanjeev Kapoor, David Foskett, and founder and chief mentor of IndiSmart Group and IIHM – Suborno Bose.
• This event was executed by the International Institute of Hotel Management (IIHM). It was held in Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune and Kolkata.

12. China successfully launched ‘Zhangheng 1’, its first seismo-electromagnetic satellite to study seismic precursors.

• A Long March-2D rocket was launched from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in Gobi Desert.  It carried the China Seismo- Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) of 730 kg into a sun-synchronous orbit at a height of 500 km.
• Zhangheng 1 will let scientists monitor the electromagnetic field, ionospheric plasma and high-energy particles for five years.

China

Capital : Beijing

Currency : Renminbi

President : XI Jinping

Desert : Gobi Desert

13. India won U-19 Cricket World Cup at the Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui, in New Zealand

•  India defeated Australia in the final by eight wickets. The team was led by Prithvi Shaw. Man of the Match was conferred on Manjot Kalra.
• 4th U-19 World Cup title for India.

International Cricket Council (ICC)

Chairman : Shashank Manohar

President : Zaheer Abbas

CEO : David Richardson

Headquarters : Dubai, United Arab Emirates

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