Current Affairs | February 15-16, 2022

 

This article provides a brief account of daily events on February 15-16, 2022, in the style of GK one-liners to assist you in preparing for the forthcoming Kerala PSC, UPSC, SSC, Banking, Railways, and other competitive examinations.

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Current Affairs

February 15-16, 2022

Important Days & Events

February 15

•  International Childhood Cancer Day.
• Theme – 'Better Survival' is achievable #throughyourhands.

New Appointments

• New Chairman of CBSE – Vineet Joshi.
• Newly appointed co-chair of FICCI Media and entertainment Board – Jyoti Deshpande.
• CEO of Viacom18.
• Brand ambassador for Khadi and other handicrafts of Bihar – Manoj Tiwari (Bhojpuri singer).

National & International

• The ninth session of India-Italy Foreign Office Consultations took place in – Rome.
• Venue of World Sustainable Development Summit 2022 – India (New Delhi).
• Who is the present Defence Secretary of India? Dr. Ajay Kumar.
• Third Defence Cooperation Dialogue was held between India and ______ – Maldives.
• First Indian plastic waste neutral FMCG company in India – Dabur India Ltd.
• FMCG – Fast Moving Consumer Goods.
• 'Darkathon-2022,' a global event aimed at finding solutions to drug trafficking over the darknet, was organised by – Narcotics Control Bureau.
• 
  Founded in – 1986.
• Headquarters – New Delhi.
• Director-General – S.N. Pradhan.

• Maru Mahotsav is a festival of – Rajasthan.
• Feb. 13 to Feb. 16.
• A 4-day annual festival of Pokaran village in Jaisalmer.
• Also known as Jaisalmer Desert Festival.
• Medaram Jatara Festival is celebrated by the people of – Telangana.
• Four-day tribal festival.
• Celebrated by the Koya tribe.
• State Festival of Telangana (1998).
• Second-largest fair in India (first - Kumbha Mela).
• in the honour of the Goddesses Sammakka and Saralamma.
• Centre Govt has allocated Rs 2.26 crore for this year's festival.
• What is the new theme of Maru Mahotsav given by the tourism department for 2022? Umeedon Ki Udaan.
• On the occasion of the 17th foundation day of Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL), Nirmala Sitharaman released the first colour souvenir coin, which is based on? Panchatantra.
• Author – Vishnu Sharma.
• Jail Vaani is the FM radio channel of – Indore Central Jail.
• What is the acronym of the SEED scheme, which was launched by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment? Scheme for Economic Empowerment for DNTs.
• Aim – to improve the lives of De-notified, Nomadic, and Semi-Nomadic tribal tribes (DNT/NT/SNT), who are among the most ignored, ostracised, and economically and socially disadvantaged groups.
• MeitY has banned 54 apps from prominent Chinese internet corporations like as Tencent, Alibaba, and NetEase, (rebranded copies of apps already prohibited by India in 2020) which possess a security risk to India. Under which section of the IT Act does the MeitY prohibit the use of these apps? Section 69(A) of the IT Act 2000.
• MeitY – Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
• Established in – 1991.
• Cabinet Minister – Ashwini Vaishnaw.
• India blocked 267 Chinese apps in 2020.
• Garena Free Fire is among the list of apps banned.
• Name the  Indian techie who received Google's Vulnerability Rewards Program (VRP) reports in 2022 – Aman Pandey (CEO & founder of Bugsmirror).
• submitted 232 vulnerabilities in 2021.
• Chairman of 15th Finance Commission – N. K. Singh.
• What is the name of the programme organised by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy as part of the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav festivities from February 16 to 18, 2022? New Frontiers.
• The Ministry of Ports, Shipping, and Waterways have approved Rs. 24.53 crores for river dredging to support the Indo-Bangla canal project. What is the name of the river mentioned here? Gomati river.
• Cabinet Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways – Sarbananda Sonowal.
• Name India's largest household electrification programme, with the goal of attaining Universal Household Electrification in the country through last-mile connectivity and giving access to power to all un-electrified rural families and impoverished urban households – Pradhan Mantri Sahaj Bijli Har Ghar Yojana (SAUBHAGYA Scheme).
• Launched in – 2017.

• Which state has the most number of homes powered using the Saubhagya Scheme's solar-based standalone system? Rajasthan.
• R. K. Singh, Cabinet Minister of Power and New and Renewable Energy, has stated that India would achieve zero-diesel use in agriculture and will replace fossil fuel with renewable energy by __________.  – 2024.
• Which govt has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with global business process management company QX Global Group Limited for the holistic growth of the IT and ITeS sector? Gujarat.
• Capital – Gandhinagar.
• Governor – Acharya Devvrat.
• Chief Minister – Bhupendrabhai Patel.
• The CBI just registered the largest bank fraud case in its history (for an alleged Rs 22,842-crore financial fraud). What is the name of the firm that is perpetrating this fraud? ABG Shipyard.
• Which company reportedly planned to invest up to $20 billion in India's semiconductor industry? Vedanta.
• Largest producer of Aluminium and value-added products in India.
• Which corporation has formed a joint venture with the Vedanta group to manufacture semiconductors in India? Hon Hai Technology Group (or Foxconn; Taiwan) 

Kerala

• Kerala Paper Products Limited (KPPL) is located at – Vellore.
• Old name – Hindustan Newsprint Limited.
• First caravan park of Kerala is going to be set up at – Wagamon.
• under the Keravan Kerala project.
• ‘City of Honesty’ sculpture was unveiled at – Kozhikode.
• Government Ganapath Boys High School at Chalappuram.
• As part of whose digitalization effort were audiobooks issued to assist 10th and 12th-grade students by giving review lessons for all subjects? First Bell.
•  released by KITE (Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education).

• What is the name of the Malayali woman who is now the chairperson of the Rajasthan Women Commission? Rehana Rayaz Chisti.
• The first liver transplant at a government medical college in Kerala was performed at –– Thiruvananthapuram (2016).
• 2nd – Kottayam (2022).
• Which canal is being widened as part of the National Waterway development under the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board's (KIIFB) 87.18 crore project? Parvathy Puthanar Canal.
• canal between Kovalam & Akkulam.
• Swarna is a hybrid of _____ produced by  Kerala Agricultural University (KAU)'s Dept. of Vegetable Science, Vellanikkara under gynoecious technology – Seedless yellow-fleshed watermelon.
• Shonima – Seedless red-fleshed watermelon hybrid.
• KPCH-1, Heera & Shubhra – Cucumber hybrids.
• KRH-1 – Ridge gourd hybrid.
• Neelima – Brinjal Hybrid.
• What is Sarana Balyam Scheme?A Kerala Women and Child Development Department project to eradicate child labour, child beggary, and child trafficking in the state, as well as to rescue and rehabilitate the children.
• Launched in  – 2017 (Pathanamthitta).

Science & Technology

• First image captured by James Webb Space Telescope is of – HD 84406 star (Ursa Major Constellation/Big Bear).
• James Webb Space Telescope was launched by NASA.
• It is a SpaceX-operated private human spaceflight mission that will send four people into space to perform scientific research on board the Crew Dragon Spacecraft. What is the mission's name? Polaris Dawn.
• Which Indian firm formed a partnership with the Luxembourgish telecom company SES to provide satellite-based broadband services, and what is the project's name? Jio Platforms Ltd & Jio Space Technology Limited.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) launched an app in February 2022 to assist individuals to quit the use of tobacco in all forms. Name the app – Quit Tobacco App.

Armed Forces

• A joint military exercise of Indian defence forces were held at – Port Blair.

Awards & Recognitions

• Business Standard Banker of the Year 2020-21 – Sandeep Bakhshi (MD & CEO of ICICI bank).
• Recipient of Business Leader of the Year Award 2022 – Yohan Poonawalla.
• By URJA Awards, a brainchild of Usha Kakade's Gravittus Foundation.
• Chairman & Director of  Poonawalla Group of companies.
• ICAI award for excellence in financial reporting for the year 2020-21 was given to – RailTel.
• in Public Sector Entities Category.
• Arjunan Master award 2022 (Arjunopaharam) was won by – P. Jayachandran.
• 2021 – Sreekumaran Thampi.

Sports

• Winners of 70th Senior National Volleyball Championship – 
• Men's – Haryana.
• Women's – Kerala.
• Venue – Odisha.
• Who is appointed as the Chairperson of a three-member Committee of Administrators (CoA) to run the day-to-day affairs of the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI)? Justice Gita Mittal (Former Delhi High Court Chief Justice).
• 
  TTFI – 
• Founded in – 1926.
• Headquarters – New Delhi.
• President – Dushyant Chautala.
• Name the tennis player who says he is willing to sacrifice Grand Slams if the current vaccine mandate stays – Novak Djokovic.

Obituaries

• What was the real name of Bappi Lahiri, the renowned music composer and singer who was instrumental in popularizing Disco music in India? Alokesh Lahiri. 
• Filmfare Awards – 
• Best Music Director (1985)
• Lifetime Achievement Award (2018)

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We hope you found our post on Current Affairs for the 15th and 16th of February, 2022 to be useful. Aspirants for the Kerala PSC and other competitive examinations should keep up to date on Current Affairs and Static GK articles, which contribute to around 20-30% of questions in any test nowadays.

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