Daily Current Affairs, 26th February 2020

1) 1st anniversary of National War Memorial being observed

•The first anniversary of the iconic National War Memorial is being observed on 25th February. The memorial is a fitting tribute to those heroes who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty during various wars and internal security challenges since Independence. The monument was dedicated to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 25th February last year. Chief of the Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and veterans from the three services will lay wreaths and pay homage to the fallen soldiers.

•The National War Memorial commemorates the soldiers who made supreme sacrifice during the Counter Insurgency Operations and Peace Keeping Missions. More than 25 thousand soldiers of the Indian Armed Forces have laid down their lives to defend the country’s sovereignty and integrity. For the first time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid homage to the fallen soldiers at National War Memorial instead of the Amar Jawan Jyoti on Republic Day this year. The memorial helps in strengthening the sense of high moral values, sacrifice and national pride in the citizens. Over the last year, more than 21 lakh people including dignitaries, both domestic and foreign, have visited the memorial.

2) Govt of Andhra Pradesh launched ‘Jagananna Vasthi Deevena’ scheme for students

•Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has launched a scheme named ‘Jagananna Vasthi Deevena’. This scheme is for students pursuing various post-Intermediate courses to meet hostel and mess expenses.

Benefits of the scheme:

•The scheme would provide financial assistance of Rs 2,300 crore in total. In total, 11,87,904 students pursuing ITI, polytechnic, under-graduate and post-graduate education would benefit from the scheme.

•ITI students would get Rs 10,000 each, polytechnic students would get Rs 15,000 and under-graduates and post-graduates Rs 20,000 each.

•The students would get the amount in two installments directly in their bank accounts. They will get in February and July every year.

3) MP becomes 1st state to launch unified vehicle registration card

•Madhya Pradesh has become the 1st state in the country to introduce the unified registration card and the 2nd state to launch the unified driving license after Uttar Pradesh. The new cards will have more exhaustive information printed on both sides of the cards. It will also bear a unique number recognized across the country.

•The unified smart cards for the driving license and vehicle registration will each have a QR code that will help in verifying the authenticity of the data printed on the cards. The unified driving license card will also have information about the ability of the driver to drive in hilly and dangerous areas and an emergency contact number. Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) had issued the guidelines to bring uniformity in driving licenses and vehicle registration cards across the country in March last year. These cards are being issued in compliance with these guidelines.

4) Losar festival celebrated in Himachal Pradesh

•Losar festival was celebrated at Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh. The festival is celebrated on the 1st day of the lunisolar Tibetan calendar also called Tibetan New Year. Losar is a festival in Tibetan Buddhism. Prayers were offered at Dorje Drak Monastery in Shimla. Cultural events were held in different parts of the state as the Tibetan community celebrated the festival.




5) Gandhinagar hosts cultural fair “Vasantotsav” at Sanskruti Kunj

•The department of Youth and cultural Affairs, Government of Gujarat has organised cultural festival called “Vasantotsav”. The annual festival was held at Sanskruti Kunj in Gandhinagar, Gujarat to celebrate the rich diverse heritage of the country.

•The cultural festival “Vasantotsav” was held with the theme of “Ek Bhaart Shreshth Bharat”. The festival also featured the participation of artists from across India and was inaugurated with a folk dance form of Chhattisgarh i.e. Panthi dance. Chhattisgarh has been paired with Gujarat under the Central Government’s scheme “Ek Bharat Shresth Bharat”.

6) India & US sign defence deals worth $3 billion

•India and the United States finalized defence deals worth 3 billion dollars. India has agreed to purchase USD 3 billion worth advanced American military equipment including Apache and MH-60 Romeo helicopters, which are the finest in the world.

•The deals were signed after delegation-level talks between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting US President Donald Trump. Under a USD 2.6 billion deal, India will buy 24 MH-60 Romeo helicopters from Lockheed Martin for the Indian Navy. Another contract to acquire six AH-64E Apache helicopters for USD 800 million from aerospace giant Boeing has also been sealed.

•Defence and security ties between India and the US have been on an upswing in the last six years. The bilateral defence trade touched USD 18 billion marks in 2019, reflecting growing defence cooperation between the two sides.

7) BIMSTEC to connect 3000 km long power grid from Myanmar-Thailand to India

•Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) is working on a project of connecting about 3,000 kilometre-long power grid from Myanmar-Thailand to India.

•The above announcement was made during the inauguration of the Conference on Enhancing Energy Cooperation in the BIMSTEC Region, which was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The 3,000 kilometre-long BIMSTEC regional power grid will come up with various advantages. The member country’s demand of energy will be ensured with the introduction of power grid. It will also benefit consumers with uninterrupted power supply at economical prices.

•The 3,000 kilometre-long BIMSTEC regional power grid will be established on the basis of memorandum of understanding signed by the BIMSTEC countries in 2018. BIMSTEC is a regional group of seven countries including Bhutan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand and Myanmar. The group promotes regional cooperation by keeping in mind an objective of rapid economic development.

8) ISRO to launch Geo Imaging Satellite “GISAT-1”

•The Indian Space Research Organisation will launch the Geo Imaging Satellite “GISAT-1”. GISAT-1 will be launched by Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F10) from the Second Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. The launch of GISAT-1 has been tentatively scheduled at 17:43 Hrs IST on March 05, 2020.

About GISAT-1:

•The Geo Imaging Satellite “GISAT-1” is an agile Earth observation satellite which has been planned to be placed in a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit by GSLV-F10. The satellite weighing about 2275 kg will reach the final geostationary orbit with the help of onboard propulsion system installed on it. The GSLV flight will be carrying an Ogive shaped payload having a diameter of 4 metre.

9) NPCI launches UPI awareness campaign “UPI Chalega”

•National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has launched an industry campaign named “UPI Chalega” to promote UPI as Easy, Safe, and Instant mode of payment. The “UPI Chalega” campaign is aimed to guide users towards the right usage of Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and help create a habitual change, use of UPI in their daily life. NPCI has launched the campaign in association with the payment ecosystem players.

•The UPI, which is a real time fund transfer interface, has significantly scaled since its launch in August 2016 when 92,000 transactions worth Rs 3.1 crore were processed on the NPCI operated platform to over 1.3 billion transactions worth Rs 2.16 trillion in January 2020.

10) Abhay Kumar Singh becomes new CMD of NHPC

•Hydropower giant National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) announced the appointment of Abhay Kumar Singh as the company’s Chairman & Managing Director. He will replace Ratish Kumar. In 1983, he completed his Civil Engineering from NIT (National Institute of Technology, Durgapur, West Bengal). He joined NFPC at Tanakpur HE(Hydro-Electric) Project as a Probationary executive in 1985 & played a vital role in many hydroelectric projects for 35 years.