Daily Current Affairs 17 Feb 2022

Daily Current Affairs 2022

Jaisalmer Desert Festival begins in Rajasthan

• The world-famous Jaisalmer Desert Festival, also known as Maru Mahotsav of the Golden City began at Pokaran village in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan from 13 to 16 February 2022.

Aim :

• To showcase the rich cultural heritage of Rajasthan.
• The four-day-long festival started with a colourful grand procession followed by Miss Pokaran and Mister Pokran competitions.
• Rajasthan Minority Affairs Minister, Shale Mohammad flagged off the event
• Organized by Rajasthan Tourism and District Administration, Jaisalmer, the festival will begin in

Pokhran, with a ceremonial procession on February 13.

• The festival is celebrated amidst the beautiful dunes of the Thar Desert in the Sam dunes (42 kilometres from Jaisalmer).
• Festival will conclude with Horse race, Camel dance and an attractive firework display on 16 th of February. 

CBSE appoints Vineet Joshi as new CBSE chairman

• According to the order released by the Ministry of Education’s Department of School Education and Literacy, IAS Vineet Joshi, Additional Secretary, Department of Higher Education, has been appointed as new chairman of Central Board of Secondary Education, CBSE with effect from Feb

14, 2022.

• Joshi would be replacing IAS Manoj Ahuja.

About Vineet Joshi :

• Joshi is a 1992 batch IAS officer of Manipur batch.
• He became the private secretary in 1999 under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and became the private secretary in the Ministry of Food Processing Industries from 2000 to 2001
• He is also the Director-General of the National Testing Agency (NTA). 

About Manoj Ahuja :

• He was appointed as CBSE’s chairman on May 12, 2020. 

Ahuja has served as Special Director, Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Department of Personnel and Training.

About CBSE :

• Formation : 2 July 1929
• Headquarters : New Delhi, Delhi,India
• Parent organisation : Ministry of Education
• The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) is a national level board of education in India for public and private schools, controlled and managed by the Government of India.

International Childhood Cancer Day: 15 Feb

• अंतरराष्ट्रीय बाल्यावस्था कैंसर दिवस 15 फरवरी को मनाया जाता है जो हर साल बचपन के कैंसर के बारे में जागरूकता बढ़ाने और कैंसर से पीड़ित बच्चों और किशोरों, बचे लोगों और उनके परिवारों के लिए समर्थन व्यक्त करने के लिए एक वैश्विक सहयोगात्मक अभियान है।

• यह वार्षिक आयोजन 2002 में चाइल्डहुड कैंसर इंटरनेशनल द्वारा बनाया गया था, जो 5 महाद्वीपों में 93 से अधिक देशों में 176 मूल संगठनों, बचपन के कैंसर से बचने वाले संघों, बचपन के कैंसर सहायता समूहों और कैंसर समाजों का एक वैश्विक नेटवर्क है।

Govt launches scheme for economic empowerment for DNTs:

• सरकार ने नई दिल्ली में गैर-अधिसूचित, खानाबदोश और अर्ध-घुमंतू समुदायों के कल्याण के लिए डीएनटी, बीज के लिए आर्थिक अधिकारिता के लिए एक योजना शुरू की है।

• गैर-अधिसूचित जनजाति समुदाय सबसे अधिक उपेक्षित, हाशिए पर और आर्थिक और सामाजिक रूप से वंचित समुदाय हैं।

• ऐतिहासिक रूप से, इन समुदायों की कभी भी निजी भूमि या घर के स्वामित्व तक पहुंच नहीं थी और उन्होंने अपनी आजीविका और आवासीय उपयोग के लिए जंगलों और चराई की भूमि का उपयोग किया।

• नि:शुल्क शिक्षा के अवसर, आयुष्मान भारत के तहत पांच लाख रुपये का स्वास्थ्य बीमा, आजीविका के लिए बेहतर सुविधाएं और घरों के निर्माण के लिए वित्तीय सहायता के साथ यह योजना गैर-अधिसूचित जनजाति समुदायों को सशक्त बनाने की दिशा में एक गेम चेंजर साबित होगी।

Jal Jeevan Mission Achieves Milestone of Providing Tap Water To 9 Crore Rural Homes:

• प्रधानमंत्री श्री नरेंद्र मोदी के 2024 तक देश के हर घर में नल का साफ पानी उपलब्ध कराने की दृष्टि , ढाई साल की छोटी अवधि में और COVID-19 महामारी और लॉकडाउन व्यवधानों के बावजूद, जल जीवन मिशन ने लोगों को नल का पानी उपलब्ध कराया है। 5.77 करोड़ से अधिक ग्रामीण परिवार।

• परिणामस्वरूप, देश में 9 करोड़ ग्रामीण परिवार स्वच्छ नल के पानी की आपूर्ति का लाभ उठा रहे हैं।

• पांच साल की अवधि में प्रत्येक ग्रामीण परिवार को नल का पानी उपलब्ध कराने के विशाल कार्य को प्राप्त करने के लिए 3.60 लाख करोड़ रुपये आवंटित किए गए हैं। रु. 3.8 करोड़ घरों को नल का पानी उपलब्ध कराने के लिए केंद्रीय बजट 2022-23 में 'हर घर जल' के लिए 60,000 करोड़ रुपये आवंटित किए गए हैं।

• जल जीवन मिशन पारदर्शिता, जवाबदेही, धन का उचित उपयोग और सेवा वितरण सुनिश्चित करने के लिए प्रौद्योगिकी के उपयोग का लाभ उठाता है।

Arjun Ram Meghwal Launches the Career Counselling Workshop ‘Pramarsh 2022’:

• संस्कृति और संसदीय कार्य राज्य मंत्री श्री अर्जुन राम मेघवाल ने बीकानेर, राजस्थान के छात्रों के लिए कैरियर परामर्श कार्यशाला ‘प्रचार 2022’ का शुभारंभ किया

• इस कार्यशाला में मुख्य रूप से ग्रामीण क्षेत्र के बीकानेर जिले के हजारों से अधिक स्कूलों के एक लाख छात्रों ने भाग लिया.

• राष्ट्रीय कैरियर सेवा संस्थान (एनआईसीएस) के सहयोग से आयोजित कार्यशाला, जो श्रम और रोजगार मंत्रालय और शैक्षिक स्टार्ट-अप एडुमाइलस्टोन के अंतर्गत आता है।

• शिक्षा निदेशालय, राजस्थान ने भी इस कार्यशाला के लिए सहयोग और सुविधा प्रदान की।

• प्रधानमंत्री श्री नरेंद्र मोदी के गतिशील नेतृत्व में केंद्र सरकार ने राष्ट्र निर्माण प्रक्रिया में युवाओं की पूरी क्षमता को सामने लाने के लिए विभिन्न पहल की हैं।

NITI Aayog in association with PhonePe launches the Fintech Open Hackathon:

• NITI Aayog in association with PhonePe will be hosting the first-ever open-to-all Hackathon event for ideating and coming up with the most creative solutions for the FinTech space. 
• The Hackathon will provide an opportunity for innovators, digital creators and developers from all over India to think, ideate and code
• Participants at the hackathon need to use any open-data APIs like PhonePe Pulse along with frameworks such as Account Aggregator as a foundation to power the following use cases:
• Alternate risk models for Lending, Insurance or Investments with focus on financial Inclusion
• Innovative Products that use the power data signals for various demographics and Geos for broader adoption of financial services
• Improved Visualisation and Derived intelligence based on the Digital payments data
• The final app that participants come up with must incorporate one of the above.

Cabinet approves preparations for India’s G20 Presidency and setting up and staffing of the G20 Secretariat:

• The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved the setting up of a G20 Secretariat and its reporting structures, which will be responsible for implementation of overall policy decisions and arrangements needed for steering India’s forthcoming G20 Presidency.
• India will hold the Presidency of the G20 from 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2023, culminating with the G20 Summit in India in 2023.
• G20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation that plays an important role in global economic governance.
• As per practice, a G20 Secretariat is being established to handle work relating to substantive / knowledge / content, technical, media, security and logistical aspects of India’s G20 Presidency. 
• The Secretariat will be functional till February 2024.

MoHUA, chairs 58th meeting of CSMC under PMAY(U):

• Project proposals for more than 60,000 houses were approved for construction in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan at the 58th meeting of Central

Sanctioning and Monitoring Committee (CSMC) under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana. 

• The meeting, held in video conference mode, was chaired by Shri Manoj Joshi, Secretary, Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).
• The total number of sanctioned houses under PMAY(U) is now 114.04 Lakh; of  which around 93.25 Lakh have been grounded for construction and around 54.78 Lakh have been completed and delivered to the beneficiaries. 
• The total investment under the Mission is ₹ 7.52 Lakh crore, with Central Assistance of ₹ 1.87 Lakh

Cr. 

• So far, Central Assistance amounting to ₹ 1.21 Lakh Cr has already been released.
• A booklet on ‘Transformative Reforms Towards Housing for All’ was also released by Secretary,

MoHUA.

Indian Army Conducts First Hackathon Sainya Ranakshetram 

• The Indian Army had conducted a first-of-its-kind Hackathon named “Sainya Ranakshetram” from

01 Oct 2021 to 31 Dec 2021.

• The Hackathon was conducted at the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering (MCTE),

Mhow under the overall guidance of the Shimla based Army Training Command (ARTRAC).

Purpose :

• To showcase the technological side of the Army and promote proficiency and expertise in the use of emerging technologies.
• The virtual event witnessed the participation of over 15,000 participants and comprised a number of challenges based on Secure Coding, Software Defined Radio exploitation and Cyber Offensive

skills.

About Ministry of Defence :

Defence Minister :  Rajnath Singh

• Minister of State : Ajay Bhatt
• Defence Secretary : Dr. Ajay Kumar

About Indian Army :

• Founded: 1 April 1895, India
• Headquarters : New Delhi
• Motto(s): Service Before Self
• Commander-in-Chief : President Ram Nath Kovind
• Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee : General Manoj Mukund Naravane
• Chief of the Army Staff : General Manoj Mukund Naravane
• Vice Chief of the Army Staff : Lieutenant General Manoj Pande

3rd India-Maldives Defence Cooperation Dialogue held in Maldives

• Indian Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar co-chaired ‘3rd India Maldives Defence Cooperation Dialogue’ with Chief of Defence Force (CDF) of Maldives National Defence Force Major General Abdulla Shamaal.
• Both sides discussed joint efforts and capacity building initiatives being taken by both the countries to deter trans-national crimes and bolster national security in the region.

India’s Defence Secretary Dr Ajay Kumar visited the Maldives on February 13-14, for discussions with the Maldives National Defence Force as part of the second Defence Cooperation Dialogue.

• In that meeting they discussed the immense and expanding India-Maldives defence cooperation in the past three years.
• The Defence Secretary also inaugurated the Phase -I extension of the Composite Training Centre (CTC) of the MNDF located in Maafilaafushi, which was built using $1.07 million in grant assistance provided by India
• Development cooperation has been an imperative pillar of the Indo-Maldives relationship with New Delhi providing Lines of Credit of over USD 1.2 billion (one billion is equal to Rs 100 crore) for infrastructure and grants for community development projects in the island nation.

Note :

• The first Defence Cooperation Dialogue was held in July 2016 during the presidency of Abdulla

Yameen Abdul Gayoom and the second DCD was held in January 2019.

About Maldives :

• Capital: Malé
• President: Ibrahim Mohamed Solih
• Currency : Maldivian rufiyaa

BHEL bags order to supply compact heat exchanger sets for Tejas aircraft

• Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL), the country’s largest power equipment manufacturer, has received a prestigious order from Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the supply of compact heat exchanger sets for 83 Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) MK1A aircraft.
• The BHEL’s Heavy Plates and Vessels Plant (HPVP), Visakhapatnam is the sole supplier of heat exchangers for LCA Tejas to HAL since 1996.
• The BHEL-HPVP and Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), Bangalore have jointly designed and developed 13 different types of compact heat exchangers for Environmental Control System (ECS) and Secondary Power System (SPS) of LCA MK-1 programme.
• The BHEL is also currently working with DRDO for the development of Air Cycle Machine based

Liquid Cooling System (LCS) for Aircraft POD application for LCA MK-2.

• The BHEL-HPVP has dedicated, intricate manufacturing and inspection facilities for manufacturing of state-of-the-art Compact Heat Exchangers for different types of aircraft manufactured by HAL
• The same are progressively being augmented to meet International Aero Standards (AS9100) and

BHEL is ready to meet the requirements of future programs of LCA, ALH, Sukhoi and AMCA.

• It has been a reliable supplier of critical equipment and services in the defence and aerospace sector for over three decades

About BHEL :

Founded : 1956

• Headquarters: New Delhi, Delhi, India
• Chairman & MD : Nalin Shinghal
• Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) is an Indian government owned engineering and manufacturing enterprise. 
• It is under the ownership of the Ministry of Heavy Industries, Government of India.

About HAL:

• Established : 23 December 1940
• Headquarters : Bangalore, Karnataka, India
• Chairman : R Madhavan