Weekly Current Affairs February 2019: Week III

National Events

India has set the target to eliminate Tuberculosis in India by 2025.
To evolve a strategy in this regard, India has put in place National Strategic Plan 2017 – 2025 which sets out the government plans of how the elimination of TB can be achieved.
Elimination of a disease is defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as there should be less than 1 case of TB for a population of a million people.
India is now the second largest consumer and importer of the LPG in the world.
Import of LPG The import of LPG grew by 12.5 per cent over the past five years
India now stands at the second position when it comes to the import of LPG surpassing Japan.
India is at second place behind China.

PM Narendra Modi laid Foundation Stone for the Sela Tunnel Project in Arunachal Pradesh across Sela Pass.
PM Narendra Modi launched various developmental works in the state of Arunachal Pradesh which includes DD Arunprabha – a dedicated 24×7 Satellite channel for Arunachal Pradesh.
The government of Meghalaya has decided to rename the Dikkibandi stadium after P A Sangma.
The Sarthi Sandesh Vahini vehicles were flagged off by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The Uttar Pradesh state family welfare department has initiated the Sarthi Sandesh Vahini mission to spread awareness regarding family planning in urban and rural areas.

Ministry of External Affairs
It is a flagship initiative for Diaspora engagement which familiarizes Indian-origin youth (18-30 years) with their Indian roots and contemporary India
It was a three-week programme in existence since 2003
In 2016, the scheme was revamped to increase duration from 21 to 25 days, with a 10-day visit to one or two States and preference given to PIOs from Girmitiya countries.
Since 2016, six KIPs are being organised in a year.
An online portal (kip.gov.in) has been launched in 2017 exclusively for Know India Programme.
A maximum of 40 Indian Diaspora youth are selected for each programme and provided full hospitality in India.
90% of the total cost of international airfare is also paid by the Ministry.
The entire process of applying, processing etc. is now through a portal (kip.gov.in).

The government of Assam has announced a new scheme called Arundhati to provide gold at free of cost to the brides.
Under the scheme, the government of Assam aims to provide 1 Tola Gold to brides belonging to all such communities of Assam where it is customary to provide gold at the time of the wedding.
The government has set aside Rs 300 cr has been for the implementation of the Arundhati Scheme.
The benefit under Arundhati scheme can be availed upon formal registration of marriages under Special Marriage (Assam) Rules, 1954 & the gold will reach beneficiaries right in time for the social marriage. The scheme is limited for economically weaker sections, whose annual income is below Rs 5 lakh.

The second edition of the Asia LPG Summit was held at New Delhi.
The two-day summit revolved around the theme ‘LPG – Energy for Life’.
The Union Government has announced the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) as the mascot for the 13th Conference of Parties (COP) of the UN Convention on the conservation of migratory species (CMS) to be held in Gujarat next year.
The mascot for the event, Great Indian Bustard has been fondly named as ‘Gibi’.
The seventh annual World Government Summit was held in Dubai (UAE). The World Government Summit is a forum dedicated to shaping the future of governments.
The first LAWASIA Human Rights Conference was organised by LAWASIA, in association with the Bar Association of India in New Delhi.

The annual multinational maritime exercise Cutlass Express was held from 27 Jan to 06 Feb 19.
The annual Exercise Cutlass Express is sponsored by U.S. Africa Command (USAFRICOM) and conducted by Naval Forces Africa (NAVAF).
Exercise Cutlass Express 2019 is the eighth iteration of the annual multinational maritime exercise and was held in the vicinity of Djibouti, Mozambique and Seychelles.
The Indian Navy was represented in the exercise through INS Trikand.

The State Bank of India’s UK head Sanjiv Chadha has been honoured with the ‘Freedom of the City of London’ award in recognition of his contribution to promoting the bilateral relations.
Father Franois Laborde was conferred with Légion d’Honneur (Legion of Honour) in recognition of his work for specially-abled and destitute children.
Father Laborde has his roots in France and is the citizen of India now.

The six-member monetary policy committee (MPC) headed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das has lowered the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.25 per cent.
The limit of collateral free bank loans for farmers to Rs 1.6 lakh from Rs 1 lakh
The definition of “bulk deposits” has been increased to Rs 2 crore from Rs 1 crore currently.
The Union Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the abolition of institutions of Ombudsman for income tax and indirect tax.
The office of Income-Tax Ombudsman was set up in 2003 to deal with grievances of public related to the settlement of complaints relating to income tax.

Abu Dhabi has included Hindi as the third official language to be used in its courts, alongside Arabic and English. It is part of the efforts of Abu Dhabi to improve access to justice.
India and Bangladesh signed a MoU for training 1800 Bangladesh Civil Servants.
The MoU was signed between India’s National Centre for Good Governance (NCGG) and the Ministry of Public Administration of Bangladesh.
The book “Law, Justice and Judicial Power – Justice P N Bhagwati’s Approach” written by Mool Chand Sharma was launched by the Chief Justice of India, Shri Justice Ranjan Gogoi.
The first copy of the book was received by the President Ram Nath Kovind.
The book is a collection of 24 essays celebrating Justice P N Bhagwati’s judicial work and landmark judgments as well as his work towards introducing public interest litigation in India.
February 10, 2019, was celebrated as the first World Pulses Day.
The Year 2016 was celebrated as International Year of Pulses to highlight the contribution of Pulses to sustainable food production and towards food security and nutrition.