Daily Current Affairs, 19th February 2019

1) Rajnath Singh Launches Pan-India Number 112 For Women Safety

•Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi launched a range of citizen safety initiatives in New Delhi. It includes the Emergency Response Support System, ERSS, for women safety in 16 states and Union territories. The service has already been launched in Himachal Pradesh and Nagaland.

•Persons in distress can dial a pan-India number: 112. Under this system, all the stateshave to set up a dedicated Emergency Response Centre, ERC. A citizen may Press the power button on a smartphone thrice quickly to activate a panic call to ERC. In case of a feature phone, long press on number 5 or 9 on the phone keypad will activate the panic call.

2) Rajasthan Assembly Passes Bills Scrapping Minimum Qualification For Local Polls

•The Legislative Assembly of Rajasthan passed the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and the Rajasthan Municipality (Amendment) Bill, 2019 to end the minimum education criterion for panchayat and civic polls candidates.

•The previous BJP government had introduced the minimum qualification of class 10 for Zila Parishad/Panchayat member election, and class 5 or 8 class for the post of sarpanch.

3) 4th Agri Leadership Summit 2019 Held At Sonipat, Haryana

•Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare, Radha Mohan Singh, inaugurated the 4th Agri Leadership Summit 2019 at the India International Horticulture Market (IIHM) in Ganaur, Sonipat district, Haryana. It was a 3-day summit. The theme of the summit was “Entrepreneurship & Agri-Business; Agri Allied – A Promising Sector and Agri Service- Direct Marketing”.

•President Ram Nath Kovind addressed the closing ceremony of the summit. He launched Digital Kisan Platform. He also conferred Krishi Ratna Puraskar on Vice Chancellor K. P. Singh of Haryana Agriculture University, Hisar and honoured 9 farmers with the Kisan Ratna Puraskar.

4) Iran’s First Semi-Heavy Missile-Equipped Submarine Fateh Unveiled

•Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani unveiled the first Iranian made semi-heavy submarine named ‘Fateh’ (‘Conqueror’ in Persian), capable of being fitted with missiles, as per the reporting on Iran’s state TV.

•It has subsurface-to-surface missiles with a range of about 2,000 km (1,250 miles)and is capable of reaching Israel and U.S. military bases in the region.

5) International Annual Desert Festival Held In Jaisalmer

•The 40th International Annual Desert Festival held on the sand dune in Jaisalmerwith thousands of tourists participating in the colourful event. The 3-day festival, which exhibits the rich cultural heritage of the desert state, commenced with a colourful procession from Gadsisar lake fort.

•It had interesting events like Mr. Desert and Ms. Moomal competitions, mustache competitions, turban tying, musical and cultural performances, among others. Folk artists also gave their enthralling performance.

6) India’s First ‘Fulldome 3D Digital Theatre’ Inaugurated In Kolkata

•Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma inaugurated India’s very first ‘Fulldome 3D Digital Theatre’ at the Science City in Kolkata, West Bengal. It is fully funded by the Ministry of Culture at a cost of Rs 20 crore. The Science City is operated by the National Council of Science Museums under the Ministry of Culture.

7) IAF Carried Out ‘Vayu Shakti’ Exercise At Pokhran

•Indian Air Force conducted mega exercise ‘Vayu Shakti’ in Pokhran, Rajasthan. The exercise was carried out day and night where the IAF showcased firepower capability of indigenously developed platforms and efficacy of missiles.

•For the first time, the Advanced Light Helicopter (ALP) and the Akash surface-to-air missile were deployed in the military exercise. MiG-29 fighter jet also participated in the exercise. The capability of Griffin Laser Guided Bomb (LGB) a laser-guided bomb system was also showcased in the exercise. The honorary group captain of the IAF, Sachin Tendulkar was present during the exercise.

8) RBI To Pay Rs 28,000 Crore As Interim Dividend To Government

•The Reserve Bank has announced that it will transfer an interim surplus of 28,000 crorerupees to the central government for the half-year ended 31st December 2018. The central bank follows a July-June financial year and usually distributes the dividend in August after annual accounts are finalised.

•With this interim transfer, the government will get a total of Rs 68,000 crore from the central bank in the current fiscal. The RBI had transferred Rs 40,000 crore to the government in August 2018.

•This will be the highest receipt from RBI in a single financial year for the government, exceeding the Rs 65,896 crore it received in FY16 and Rs 40,659 crore in FY18. A committee headed by former Reserve Bank of India governor Bimal Jalan has been set up to review RBI’s economic capital framework.