Current Affairs Update – 9th February, 2016

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 9th February, 2016. These are important for the upcoming LIC AAO 2016 Exam.

• Union Railway Ministry on 9
  February 2016 signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Chhattisgarh
  Government for formation of Joint Venture Companies for development of railway
  infrastructure in the state.
• The Joint Ventures with states
  for focused project development, resource mobilization, land acquisition,
  project implementation and monitoring of critical rail projects.
• The MoU envisages formation of a
  Joint Venture companies having 51 percent stakes of the respective State
  Government and 49 percent stakes of Union Ministry of Railways. Thus, the JV
  companies shall be fully owned by the Government.
• The ministry of Railways will
  sign a concession agreement of 30 years with the project SPV for safe and sound
  operation, revenue sharing and providing technical & marketing logistics to
  the SPV. The revenue sharing shall be based on already established formula
  being used for inter zonal apportionment of revenue.

• Google Chief Executive Sundar
  Pichai received restricted stock worth about $199 million, according to a
  regulatory filing by Google parent company Alphabet Inc .
• Pichai, who took over in August,
  received a grant for 273,328 Class C Google stock units on Feb. 3. The
  valuation is based on the stock’s closing price on that date.
• On the same day, Pichai sold 375
  Class A common shares at a price of $786.28 each, and 3,625 Class C capital
  stock at a price of $768.84 each, the filing said.

• The Ministry of Coal has approved
  a proposal to grant a short-term coal linkage to central and state public
  sector units which have been allotted Schedule III coal mines.
• Under the Coal Mines (Special
  Provisions) Act, Schedule III coal mines are those which require some work or
  clearances before they start to produce.
• The short-term linkages or
  ‘bridge linkage’ will be given to both power and non-power sector public sector
  units. The bridge linkage will fill the gap of coal requirement of the
  specified end use plant till the allotted coal mine starts production.
• Every plant, which wants a bridge
  linkage, will need to apply to the Ministry of Coal. The request will be
  considered by the Standing Linkage Committee (Long Term) and thereafter Coal
  India or Singareni Collieries Company Ltd shall decide the grate of coal and
  source of coal.
• About 21 Schedule III coal mines
  were allotted to 18 central and state public sector units.

• E-commerce giant Flipkart on
  Tuesday announced the launch of three new models of Hero Cycles. The company
  aims to attract young working professionals and fitness enthusiasts, with its
  three new models — Hero Mega Star 26” (18-speed), Studd 26T (18-speed) and
  Studd 26T (single-speed), it said in a statement.
• The Mega Star is priced at Rs
  8,999 the Studd 18-speed at Rs 8,555, while the single-speed version would cost
  Rs 6,350.

• International Fleet Review (IFR)
  2016 of the Indian Navy was concluded on 8 February 2016 along the coast of
  Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
• The 5-day long event was hosted
  by the Indian Navy with the theme United through Oceans. It was attended by the
  President of India Pranab Mukherjee and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• The review was aimed at assuring
  the country of the Indian Navy’s preparedness, high morale and discipline.
• Considered as country’s biggest
  military exercise, friendly naval contingents from around the world joined
  Indian navy’s ships and submarines.
• It saw the participation of 50
  navies, 90 ships, including 24 warships and over 70 aircraft. Besides, ships of
  Indian Coast Guard and mercantile marine also participated in the review.

• The Chettinad cotton saree in the
  first week on February 2016 won the India Handloom tag for its unique designs
  and identity.
• The Textiles Committee, Union
  Ministry of Handlooms and Textiles, Mumbai, registered the Chettinad cotton
  saree under the India Handloom Brand Scheme after checking various quality
  parameters stipulated by the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
• The Ministry authorised the
  Amarar Rajiv Gandhi Handloom Weavers Cooperative Society, which produced the
  sarees, to use the brand and logo for marketing the product.

• India’s the Directorate General
  of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and United States Technical Development Agency (USTDA)
  were on 9 February 2016 signed the grant agreement for India Aviation Safety
  Technical Assistance Phase II in New Delhi.
• The phase II of the project is
  aimed at sustaining efforts undertaken during 2014 for restoration of IASA
  Category 1 status and bringing in more systemic improvements in the area of
  operation, airworthiness and licensing. It will include components on general
  aviation and business aviation.

• The Operation Rahaat came in news
  in second week of February 2016 after the Royal Navy of United Kingdom (UK)
  presented its desire to officially study India’s humanitarian rescue operation
  in Yemen.
• The Royal Navy wants to study the
  Operation Raahat in all its details and understand the meticulous planning
  process that was followed. It also wants to learn the way the plans were
  executed.
• Operation Raahat was one of the
  most stellar rescue missions ever conducted in a strife-torn area
  internationally. It was overseen by Minister of State for External Affairs
  General (retd) VK Singh.

• After decades of delay and
  inaction, the Hindu minority community in Pakistan will soon have a marriage
  law as a parliamentary panel has unanimously approved the Hindu Marriage Bill.
• The National Assembly Standing
  Committee on Law and Justice yesterday passed the final draft of Hindu Marriage
  Bill 2015, where five Hindu lawmakers were specially invited.
• The bill will now be tabled in
  the National Assembly where it has fair chances of being passed as the ruling
  Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party is supporting it.
• Committee Chairman Chaudhry
  Mahmood Bashir Virk expressed regret over the long-drawn tactical delay in
  framing family law for the Hindu community.

• The place Sonadia Island was in
  news on 8 February 2016. It was in news because, as per newspaper reports,
  Bangladesh cancelled China’s proposal to develop a deep sea port on the island that
  lies in the Bay of Bengal.
• Sonadia Island is a small island
  of about 9-sq.km offshore of the Cox’s Bazaar coast in Chittagong Division,
  Bangladesh.
• The island is seen as a potential
  deepwater port that could serve the landlocked parts of India, Myanmar and
  China.

• The Tea Board of India, in its
  227th board meeting held today in Kolkata, elected Bidyananda Barkakoty as its
  new vice-chairman. Barkakoty’s tenure would begin from April 1, 2016 and would
  span till March 31, 2017.
• Barkakoty is a mechanical
  engineer by qualification and a tea planter by profession having his own
  plantations at Golaghat, in Assam.
• He is the past chairman of North
  Eastern Tea Association (NETA) and held the office for six years. Presently he
  is advisor to NETA, an executive committee member of Assam Tea Planters’
  Association (ATPA) and also president of Tea Vision, an NGO.

• Former Director General of The
  Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) Rajendra Kumar Pachauri on 8 February
  2016 was appointed as the Executive Vice-Chairman of the organisation with the
  immediate effect.
• On the other hand, Ajay Mathur,
  former chief of Bureau of Energy Efficiency, was appointed as the Director
  General of TERI.
• The post of Executive Vice
  Chairman has been recently created and Pachauri will be the first to hold the
  post.

• Joshna Chinappa on 8 February
  2016 clinched the gold in women’s individual squash after beating Maria
  Toorpaki Wazir of Pakistan at the South Asian Games.
• Top seed Chinappa recovered from
  one set down to beat second seeded Wazir 10-12 11-7 11-9 11-7 at the R G Baruah
  Sports Complex in Guwahati.

• The South Asian Wrestling
  Federation on 8 February 2016 announced the appointment of Brij Bhushan Sharan
  Singh as its President.
• During the General Body Meeting
  of South Asian Wrestling Federation held on 5 February 2016, Singh was
  unanimously elected as the president. Tabiur Rehman from Bangladesh was also
  unanimously elected Secretary General.
• The House unanimously authorised
  Singh to appoint one joint secretary from India, a treasurer from Afghanistan
  and one executive member from each South Asia Foundation (SAF) countries.
• Apart from the two members,
  Chawdhury Mohd. Ajgar of Pakistan, U.H. Neville Pdmashri from Sri Lanka and Raj
  Mohammed Ansari of Nepal were elected vice presidents.

• Eight scientists on 5 February
  2016 received the UNESCO Medals for their contributions to the development of
  nanoscience and nanotechnologies at Paris.
• The winner of the 2014 Nobel
  Prize in Physics, Professor Isamu Akasaki was among the eight.
• The Medal was established in 2010
  at the initiative of the International Commission responsible for developing
  the Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies theme for the Encyclopedia of Life Support
  Systems (EOLSS).

• Union Ministry of Labour and
  Employment announced the Prime Minister Shram Awards for the year 2014 on 9
  February 2016.
• There are nine nominations for
  the Shram Bhushan Award, Nineteen nominations for Shram Vir or Shram Veerangana
  and twenty six nominations for Shram Shree or Shram Devi Awards.
• Even though, the total number of
  Shram Awards is 32, the number of workers receiving the awards is 54 which
  Included 3 women, as some of the awards have been shared by workers and/or
  teams of workers consisting of more than one worker. These include 36 workers
  from the public sector and 18 workers from the private sector.

• This is the highest award (one in
  number) among the Shram Awards and carries a cash award of 2 lakh rupees with a
  Sanad.

• Total number of these awardees is
  nine. It carries a cash award of one lakh rupees and a Sanad.

• Nepal’s former Prime Minister
  Sushil Koirala passed away on 9 February 2016 in Kathmandu, Nepal due to
  chronic respiratory problem. He was 76.
• Koirala was a key figure in
  adoption of Nepal’s new constitution in September 2015 with overwhelming
  support in the Constitution Assembly.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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