Piyush Goyal announces “South Coast Railway (SCoR)" .......28, February 2019 : Current Affairs

1.National Youth Parliament Festival 2019 Awards 

*Narendra Modi addressed the closing ceremony of National Youth Parliament Festival Awards 2019 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi & conferred the National Youth Parliament Festival Awards 2019. He also launched the Khelo India App at the event

2.Prakash Javadekar Launched SHREYAS 

*Prakash Javadekar recently launched the Scheme for Higher Education Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills (SHREYAS) for providing industry apprenticeship opportunities to the general graduates exiting in April 2019 through NAPS, New Delhi 

3.IDBI Bank and LIC signed Bancassurance Agreement 

Source - Google Search

*IDBI Bank & LIC have signed a bancassurance agreement under which IDBI will offer LIC’s insurance products at its branches. As part of the service-Ievel agreement, the bank will become the preferred bank for LIC premium payments 

4.National e-Governance Awards, 2019 

*Dr. Jitendra Singh, presented the National e-Governance Awards, 2019 in a function organized by Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG). IRCTC Rail Connect App was presented the Special Jury Award

5.NITI Aayog's Atal lnnovatibn Mission partners with Adobe

Source - Google Search

*NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and Adobe today signed a Statement of  Intent (SOI) to collectively drive the charter of developing creative skills and spreading digital literacy across all Atal Tinkering Labs in India. 

6. 100th Letter of Intent under SATAT scheme

*Dharmendra Pradhan today handed over the 100th LOI to the Compressed Bio-Gas entrepreneur under the SATAT scheme. SATAT is an initiative aimed at providing a Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation to boost availabi|ity of affordable fuel

7.Heat Wave 2019 Conference organised 

National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in collaboration with the Government of Maharashtra is conducting a 2-day national workshop on Preparedness, Mitigation and Management of Heat Wave in Nagpur (27-28 February)

8.National Science Day 2019

*National Science Day is celebrated every year on February 28 to commemorate the discovery of Raman Effect by Tamil Physicist Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman on this day in 1928. The discovery won him the Nobel prize in physics in 1930

9.Project launched to convert high-ash coal into methanol 

*Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology (HT)-Delhi and engineers from Pune-based Thermax have joined hands to set up a pilot plant for producing methanol from high-ash content Indian coal. The pilot is expected to be completed in 2021

10.Piyush Goyal announces “South Coast Railway (SCoR)" 

*Piyush Goyal announced 18th zone named South Coast Railway with headquarter at Visakhapatnam. As per item 8 of Schedule 13 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganization Act, 2014, Indian Railways was required to establish a new railway zone

11.' Nuvoco won FICCI CSR Award 2017-18

*Nuvoco Vistas Corp. Ltd. (formerly Lafarge India Limited) bagged the FICCI CSR Award for 2017-18 in the Women Empowerment category in New Delhi. -They were awarded for their project 'Aakriti'.
*The project has been implemented in the Nimbaheda block of Chittorgarh, where, 400 women from neighbouring villages have been trained in tailoring and associated skills. 

12.Euro's Indian notes on Mahatma Gandhi

Source - Google Search

*The first-ever Euro Souvenir Indian notes that celebrate 150th year of Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary were unveiled recently
*The limited-edition Zero Euro 12 notes commemorative series were unveiled by Numisbing, with just 5,000 notes of each design.
*The first 2 notes of the series have been launched and the rest will be launched sequentially until Oct 2, 2019.

13. 42 cancer drugs under price control

*The government brought 42 on-scheduled anti-cancer drugs under price control, capping trade margin at 30%, on 27 February 2019. 
*The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has invoked extraordinary powers under Para 19 of the Drugs (Prices Control) Order, 2013 to control prices.
*As NPPA, the MRP for 105 brands will be educed up to 85%, entailing minimum savings of Rs. 105 crore.

14.Anthenm on plastic-free India launched

Source - Google Search

*Union Minister Harsh Vardhan launched an anthem as a part of a campaign to make India plastic-free by 2022 on 28 February 2019.
*Plastic Waste-Free India' is prepared and produced by Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Smriti Manch (PDUSM).
*It has been launched in seven languages Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Telegu, Malyalam and Kannada

15.Jammu and Kashmir government launched portal

*Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik launched an official portal, State Infrastructure Monitoring System (SIMS)
*It will provide a single platform for all the state departments to upload the information of their respective languishing projects.
*The portal will deal with the management, monitoring, information and payment system of infrastructure projects.


16.New railway zone for Andhra announced Railway Minister Piyush
*Goyal announced a new railway zone for Andhra Pradesh.
*The new railway zone, Southern Coast Railway, will be headquartered in Visakhapatnam.
*The north Andhra region, comprising Srikakulam, Vizianagaram and Visakha- patnam districts, is very backward and needs an impetus for development.


17.HRD ministry launched new scheme

*The Scheme for Higher Education Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills (SHREYAS) was launched on 27 February 2019.
*It has been launched for providing industry apprenticeship opportunities to fresh graduates.
*The scheme is a programme basket comprising the initiatives of 3 central ministries-HRD, Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, and Labour & Employment.

18.New NASA mission selected

Source - Google Search

*NASA has selected a $42 millio mission, Atmospheric Waves Experiment,to will help scientists understand and, ultimately, forecast the vast space weather system around our planet.
*It will be launched in August 2022, attached to the exterior of the Earth-orbiting International Space Station (SS).
*AWE will focus on colourful bands of light in Earth's atmosphere, called airglow.


19.Ancient petroglyph site found near Kollur

*An ancient petroglyph site with 19 unique rock artwork was discovered near Kollur in Karnataka by the researcher, T Murugeshi.
*The carvings were discovered at Avalakki Parenear Kollur, a grazing plain land of 15-20 acres inside the reserve forest.
*Petroglyphs are images created by re- moving part of a rock surface by incising, picking, or carving as a form of rock art.


20.Saurabh and Manu clinched Gold

Source - Google Search

*Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker won the gold medal in the 10-meter air pistol mixed team event of the ISSF World Cup 2019.
*The Chinese duo of Ranxin Jiang and Bowen Zhang won silver with, while the bronze went to the Korean pair of Minjung Kim and Daehun Park.
*Earlier, Saurabh Chaudhary won the gold medal in his first senior World Cup in the same event.


21.India's 1st indigenous chip unveiled

Source - Google Search

*India's 1st Indigenous Semiconductor Chip was unveiled by semiconductor company, "SIGNALCHIP" for 4G/LTE and 5G NR MODEMs in New Delhi.
*4 chips were unveiled at the event, which e- SCBM3412, SCBM3404, SCRF3402, and SCRF4502.
*The RF sections cover all LTE/5G-NR bands up to 6GHz and these chips also support positioning using India's own satellite navigation system, NAVIC.


22.Alastair Cook recieved knighthood

Source - Google Search

*Alastair Cook received the knighthood in the New Year's Honours.
*He received the honour at a ceremony in the Buckingham Palace and has become the 11th Englishman to be knighted for services to cricket
*Enid Bakewell, a legend of the women's game received an MBE, hile Alvin Kallicharran and Peter Wynne-Thomas were both recognised with a British Empire Medal.


23.MSP for minor forest produces launched

*The Minimum Support Price for Minor Forest Produces and the Value Addition component of Van Dhan was launched on 28 February 2019 in New Delhi.
*The Ministry of Tribal Affairs is now scaling up the 'Van Dhan Scheme' and is ready to extend it to all tribal Districts of the country.
*Friends of Tribes Scheme for sourcing of CSR funds from Public Sector Organisations (PSUs) was also launched.


24.DAC approved aquisition of defence equipment

*The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) gave approval for the acquisition of defence equipment for about Rs 2700 Crores on 27 February 2019.
*The council was chaired by Defence Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman.
*Approval was granted for procurement of 3 Cadet Training ships for the Indian Navy.
*The ships would be capableof undertaking Hospital Ship duties, providing Humanitarian Assistance etc.


25.nigerian President re-elected for 2nd term

Source - Google Search

*Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has been re-elected fora second four-year term.
*Buhari defeated his main rival, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar witha margin of around four million votes.
*Capital: Abuja Trending.
*Currency: Nigerian naira.