GK and Current Affairs Updates

India will host Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation from 12 April 2016.
•    It will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 
•    It will have participation of all 13 tiger range countries (TRCs), Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Russia, Thailand, and Vietnam. 
•    It will also have and have long-term plan for tiger conservation. 
•    The first edition of Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation was held in Hua Hin, Thailand in 2010.
•    Tiger population in India is nearly 70% of the world’s tiger population.

India’s first indigenously built nuclear armed submarine INS Arihant successfully passed several deep sea diving drills and weapons launch tests. 
•    These successful tests took place at Vishakhapatnam coast.
•    Submarine was built at Vishakhapatnam coast. 
•    Submarine is now ready for formal induction into the Naval Fleet.
•    It is a 6,000-tonne nuclear powered submarine and is 112 metre long. 
•    It is Powered by 83 MW pressurised light water reactor.
•    Reactor was built with Russia’s help. 
•    It is Capable of launching twelve short range nuclear-capable ballistic missile BO-5 (K 15) 
•    BO-5 (K 15) has a range of 700 kms.
•    K 4 ballistic has a range of 3,500 km. 

Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) H L Dattuis going to be the new Chairman of National Human Rights Commission. 
•    He will succeed Mr. K.G. Balakrishnan who retired after his five-year term which ended on May 2015. 
•    Justice C Joseph wasacting Chairman. 
•    Committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi selected him for this post.
•    President appoints the Chairman and members of the NHRC on the recommendation of the committee headed by the Prime Minister. 
•    H L Dattu Born on 3 December 1950.
•    He started his legal career in 1975.
•    In 1995, he became judge of the Karnataka High Court. 
•    In 2007, he became Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court.
•    He was 42nd Chief Justice of India.

Ukraine’s Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk Football Club (FC) won the 2016 SaitNagjee International Club Football Tournament. 
•    Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk became first European team to win this Football tournament.
•    This tournament was held in India. 
•    Three goals were scored by IhorKohut, Denys Balanuik and Yuri Vakulkoof Ukraine’s Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk Football Club (FC).
•    It was 36th edition of the tournament.
•    It was also first edition after 1995.
•    Total 8 clubs from Latin America, Germany and Europe had participated. 
•    The tournament was established in 1952 .

(CGPDT) issued a revised guideline for Computer Related Inventions The new order says, mere computer programmes those not in conjunction with a novel hardware will not be granted patent in India. 
• The new guidelines Follow CGPDT’s stay on the revised guidelines issued in August 2015.
• Guidelines issued in August 2015allowed the patenting of software which demonstrated technical advancement. 
• Computer programmes as such are not intended to be granted patent as per Patents Act, 1970. 
• Software developers and start-ups will continue to have the freedom to innovate.

Haryana is going to be the first state in the country to have aquifer mapping for its groundwater resources by May 2016. 
•    Aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing rock from which groundwater can be extracted. 
•    It is scientific mapping of aquifers to asses the groundwater situation. 
•    This aquifer mapping is being done by Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) in 3D. 
•    CGWB is using heli-borne geophysical surveys and sophisticated softwares
•    CGWB aims to complete the aquifer mapping of the whole country by 2022. 
•    8 statesHaryana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Telangana have been selected for this scientific mapping.

 
Indian origin Ismail Mahomed from South Africa has been knighted by the French government. He has been honoured for his lifelong devotion to the promotion of arts. 
•    He was bestowed with Knight of the Order of Arts and Literature by French Ambassador Elisabet Barbier in Johannesburg. 
•    He is working as the Artistic Director of the National Arts Festival in  Grahams town. 
•    He has received Merit Honour Award for consistent high cultural programming from  the US State Department’s Africa Bureau. 
•    In 1999, he was awarded Premier’s Award for developing and promoting the arts and  culture  Artists William Kentridge and Gerard Sekoto, filmmaker Ramadan Suleman and musician  Johnny Clegg also received various awards

Pakistan’s Parliament building in Islamabad became the first building to run on solar power. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated this building.
•    It is supported by China. 
•    It was launched in 2015 when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited and addressed the Parliament. 
•    The project was announced in 2014 by Chinese government. 
•    Parliament have installed solar panel of 80 Mega Watts (MW) of which 62 MW is sufficient for it.
•    Parliament of Pakistan It is officially termed as Majlis-e-Shoora in Urdu.

Legarde elected as chief of IMF for Second Time The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 19 February 2016 chose Christine Lagarde to serve as IMF Lagarde, the main applicant assigned for the post, was supported by the UK, Germany, China, and her nation of origin, France, to remain focused an additional five years. In her first term as MD of IMF, Lagarde has supervised a facilitating of Europe's sovereign obligation emergency and has executed changes to give more prominent impact in the Fund to developing markets including China and Brazil. 

About Christine Lagarde 

• Christine Lagarde is a French attorney and Union for a Popular Movement government official who has been the MD of the IMF since 5 July 2011. 

• Previously, she held different pastoral posts in the French government. She was Minister of Economic Affairs, Finance and Employment and before that Minister of Agriculture and Fishing and Minister of Trade in the legislature of Dominique de Villepin. 

• She was the main lady to end up fund priest of a G8 economy, and is the primary lady to head the IMF. 

• She was the main female executive of the worldwide law office Baker and McKenzie. 

• On 16 November 2009, the Financial Times positioned her the best Minister of Finance in the Eurozone. 

• In 2014, she was positioned the fifth most capable lady on the planet by Forbes magazine.

The International Monetary Fund is an international organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., of "188 countries working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate  
Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States
CEO: Christine Lagarde
Founded: December 27, 1945, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States

Parent organization: United Nations

Founders: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White

Noted vocalist Bhubaneswari Mishra passed away on 19 February 2016 in New Delhi taking after a heart failure. She was 67. The traditional artist started her vocation with the tune Tiki Mora Naa Ti for the fanciful Odia motion picture Krushna Sudama in the 1970s. 

Aside from numerous recompenses, the veteran artist was additionally deliberated with the Odisha State Film Award for Best Playback Singer (female) for two continuous terms in 1979 and 1980 for the motion pictures Srikrushna Rasalila and Jay Ma Mangala individually.