Important Current Affairs 16th February 2019

Committees:

Rajasthan forms committees to review textbooks.

• The Rajasthan government has set up two committees of experts and educationists to review the syllabus of school textbooks from class 1 to 8 and from class 9 to 12.

• The committee to review the syllabus of class 1 to 8 will be coordinated by I V Trivedi.

• The coordinator for the four-member committee for class 9-12 is the former Chairman of Rajasthan State Public Service Commission BM Sharma.

Defense:

IAF gets its first woman flight engineer.

• Flight Lieutenant Hina Jaiswal became the first woman flight engineer.

• She was commissioned in January 2015 to the IAF's engineering branch

• She created history when she was chosen as the first woman candidate to pursue the elite course.

• A flight engineer is a member of an aircraft’s flight crew and requires special skills for constantly monitoring and operating its complex systems.

Vice Admiral SN Ghormade: Takes over as COS.

• He was awarded the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal on 26 Jan 2017 and Nau Sena Medal in 2007 by the President of India.

BUSINESS AND ECONOMY:

RBI imposed penalty on 3 PSU banks.

• The monetary penalty was imposed for non-compliance on monitoring of end-use of funds and on the restructuring of accounts.

• A penalty of Rs 1.5 crore was imposed on Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) and Rs 1 crore each on Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Bank of India.

INTERNATIONAL:

India withdraws MFN status from Pakistan.

• India has withdrawn the MFN (Most Favored Nation) status that it had granted to Pakistan.

• It followed the attack in Jammu & Kashmir’s Pulwama that left 37 CRPF personnel dead.

• The decision was taken during the Cabinet Committee on Security meeting held in New Delhi.

• India had granted the status to Pakistan in 1996, a year after WTO’s formation.

PM Modi on 2-day visit to South Korea.

• PM Narendra Modi will pay a 2-day visit to South Korea from February 21 2019.

• He will be conferred with the 2018 Seoul Peace Prize on February 22, in recognition of his national and international contributions.

• He will also hold talks with President Moon Jae-in on a host of issues to strengthen strategic ties.

GOVERNMENT SCHEME:

App launched PMAY (U).

• Hardeep S Puri, Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs launched the PMAY (U) Mobile App on 14 Feb 2019.

• The app will allow beneficiaries to capture and upload high-resolution photographs of completed houses along with their families.

• The PMAY (U) mission was launched on 25th June 2015 with an aim to provide houses to every eligible urban household in India by the year 2022.

PM-SYM scheme implemented.

• Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan (PM-SYM).

• Scheme was implemented by the Ministry of Labor and Employment on 15 Feb 2019.

• The features of the scheme are family pension and minimum assured pension.

• The unorganized workers whose monthly income is Rs 15,000/per month or less and belong to the entry age group of 18-40 years are eligible for the scheme.

• Each subscriber under the PM-SYM shall receive minimum assured pension of Rs 3000/- per month after attaining the age of 60 years.

• During the receipt of pension, if the subscriber dies, the spouse of the beneficiary shall be entitled to receive 50% of the pension received by the beneficiary as family pension. Family pension is applicable only to spouse.

POLITY:

16th Lok Sabha session concluded.

• The last session of 16th Lok Sabha concluded on 14 Feb 2019

• There were a total number of 331 sittings for Lok Sabha. 205 bills were passed and the productivity was 85%.

• For Rajya Sabha, 154 bills were passed and the productivity was 68%

AWARDS AND RECOGNITION:

Bradley Cooper won the best director from PETA.

• Bradley Cooper was awarded the ‘Oscar’ by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

• The animal rights organization awarded the best director award to Cooper for his enlightened decision to cast his own canine companion in ‘A Star Is Born’.

APPOINTMENTS:

B P Sharma: CMD Pawan Hans.

• B P Sharma was re-employed as the CMD of the state-run helicopter manufacturer Pawan Hans.

• He was the CMD of Pawan Hans earlier in March 2015.

• He will be serving for a period of 5 months.

• Pawan Hans has a fleet of more than 50 helicopters.

Sushil Chandra became Election Commissioner.

• President Ram Nath Kovind appointed Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) Chairman Sushil Chandra as an Election Commissioner.

• The post had fallen vacant after the appointment of the then Election Commissioner Sunil Arora as Chief Election Commissioner.

• Ashok Lavasa is the senior-most Election Commissioner.

Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) has appointed senior IRS officer Pramod Chandra Mody as chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes.

• He will succeed Sushil Chandra, who was recently appointed Election Commissioner.

• The Government of India, Government of Himachal Pradesh (GoHP) and the World Bank signed a $40 Million Loan Agreement to help bring clean and reliable drinking water to the citizens of the Greater Shimla area.

• William Barr was sworn for second time as the Attorney General of US.

• Derrick Pereira is set to become the coach of the Indian Under-23 football team for the upcoming Asian Football Confederation (AFC) qualifiers, to be held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan from 22nd March.

• Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) has notified that its CEO Harshil Mehta has resigned from his position with immediate effect on 13th February, 2019.