Current Affairs Updates - 7th February 2018

Current Affairs Updates - 7th February 2018

We, the Achieversrule team have brought to you the important Current Affairs Updates for 7th February 2018. These include all the important bullet points in various sections such as Events, Sports, Appointments and others. We are trying to provide you with the top news and other detailed information which might be asked in your upcoming government examinations of Bank, Rail and SSC. You may also like our daily GK One Liners and Daily Current Affairs Quiz.

Important Days

6 February is  International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation

• The day is observed every year to eradicate the practice of female genital mutilation and began at 2003.

First in India & World

Japan has set a new spaceflight record as the country's Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has successfully launched the smallest-ever rocket to carry a satellite into orbit.

• As you might guess, the key to the record was the tiny cargo -- the rocket was carrying TRICOM-1R, a three-unit cubesat measuring just 13.6 inches long. 

New Appointments: National

Jerome Powell was sworn in today as the 16th chairman of the Federal Reserve in a brief ceremony in the Fed's board room. 

• Powell, who has been on the Fed board since 2012, was tapped by Trump on Nov. 2 after a highly public search for a new Fed chair. His nomination was approved by the Senate earlier this month for a four-year term as chairman that will end in February 2022. 

Rankings & Indexes

Actress Bhumi Pednekar has been named as part of Forbes India's 30 under 30 list.

• The Forbes' list is representative across 15 categories. The names have been selected names that meet three broad criterias -- the extent of impact of their achievements, and their ability to disrupt the status quo; scalability of the business or line of work and; their potential to stay a long-term player.

National Affairs

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will embark upon a State visit to Palestine, UAE and Oman from February 9 to 12. 

• This is the first ever visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Palestine coming a few months after he went to Israel on a standalone visit de-hyphenating India’s ties with the two countries.

The country's largest telecom player Bharti Airtel is set to land Rs 2,649 crore investment from Singapore-based telecom operator and longtime partner Singtel at a time when the Sunil Mittal-led firm has gone through consecutive quarters of plunging profits due to the price war unleashed by Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance Jio

• Singtel International Investments will invest the sum in Bharti Telecom, raising its stake in Airtel's holding company to 48.9 per cent from 47.17 per cent. 

India has contributed additional 1 million dollar to India-UN Development Partnership Fund, earmarked for South-South cooperation.

• The contribution aims to intensify its partnerships with other developing countries in south. India has pledged multi-year contribution of 100 million dollar to the fund established in June 2017.

Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) under Commerce Ministry has unveiled Start-up-India ranking framework to rank states/UTs based on measures taken to foster entrepreneurship.

• The framework aims to foster competitiveness and propel states/UTS to act proactively in startup matters. 

The Commerce and Industry Ministry (DIPP) has launched three tools to rank states and union territories on the basis of measures taken by them to promote budding entrepreneurs.

• These tools are the start-up-India ranking framework, compendium of good practices for promoting startups in India and Startup India Kit. They will help promote the start-up drive.

Ministry of Science & Technology has set up Mechanism in Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) to interact with Small-Scale Industry (SSI) for transfer of Technology from CSIR Labs.

• SSI sector is largest employment provider in country, next to agriculture. It contributes almost 40% of gross industrial value added in Indian economy.

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant Gets Extension Till June 30, 2019

• He was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of the government think tank on February 17, 2016 for a two-year term.

International Affairs

Security forces in the Maldives have arrested two Supreme Court judges Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and Judge Ali Hameed  and an opposition leader hours after President Abdulla Yameen declared a 15-day state of emergency in the island nation.  

• Their detention comes amid a bitter row between the top court and the president over the release of several imprisoned opposition politicians. 

Science & Technology

Google has launched #SecurityCheckKiya campaign which aims at promoting security awareness among general public.

• The campaign which was launched on Safer Internet Day targets not only youngsters and new users but also internet savvy users, and advises them to take a three-step action to ensure their security settings are in place.

Defence & Railway News

India successfully test-fired its short-range nuclear capable ballistic missile Agni-I with a strike range of over 700 km from a test range off the Odisha coast.

• The indigenously developed surface-to-surface missile was launched as a part of a periodic training activity by the Strategic Forces Command or SFC of the Indian Army to consolidate operational readiness, they said.

The Chief of US Air Force, General David L Goldfein flew a sortie in indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas at the Indian Air Force (IAF) station in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. 

• With this he became first foreign military chief to fly Tejas aircraft. He was accompanied by Air Vice Marshal AP Singh as a co-pilot during the short flight.

Agreements/ MoUs Signed

The Assam government and cab aggregator Ola entered into a memorandum of understanding to pilot an app-based river taxi service in Guwahati.

• The river taxis will be a machine-operated boats, which is touted to be faster and safer than conventional ones.
• Ola will pilot the high-speed taxis on Lachit Ghat and Machkhowa in Guwahati to North Guwahati across the river, bringing the commute time down by two to five minutes from 45 minutes by road.

Inland Waterways Authority of India signs project agreement with the World Bank for Jal Marg Vikas Project on Ganga 

• Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) signed a project agreement with the World Bank today, even as the latter entered into a US  375 million dollar loan agreement with the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance for Jal Marg Vikas Project (JMVP).

Summit /Conference / Events

The Fifth edition of South Asia Region Public Procurement Conference was held in New Delhi. Theme: “Public Procurement and Service Delivery”

• It aims to strive to improve public procurement of member countries to ensure timely and quality delivery of public services. 
• The First Conference was held in Kathmandu in 2010.

The ‘Pelican Bird Festival-2018’ was held for first in Atapaka Bird Sanctuary on at Kolleru lake in Andhra Pradesh 

• It was jointly organised by Andhra Pradesh Tourism Authority (APTA) and Krishna district administration.

Awards & Honours: Sports

Shubhankar Sharma emerged as the best Indian golfer in the world, grabbing the 72nd position in the Official World Golf Ranking (OWGR) after his recent title triumph at Maybank Championship.

• Sharma has enjoyed a golden run over the past few months on the international stage, clinching his first European Tour win at the Joburg Open in December last year.

Konsam Ormila Devi wins gold at the Asian Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships in Nepal.

• Indian weightlifter Konsam Ormila Devi has bagged a gold medal at the Asian Youth and Junior Weightlifting Championships in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Indian paddler Manav Thakkar settled for silver after losing in the final of the 2018 ITTF World Junior Circuit Finals at Luxembourg.

• The Indian failed to cash in on the close sixth game win as he ended with the junior boys silver medal on Sunday evening.