Current Affairs 9th February 2017

Current Affairs 9th February 2017 - Important Points

• Which state becomes first North-East state to implement e-Cabinet Solution - Arunanchal Pradesh
• First State for establishing cashless system for distribution of food grains - Gujarat
• For which plant scientists have identified evolutionary pathway recently – Pitcher plants
• Which Bill is passed by UK’s House of Commonslately - Brexit Bill
• Who has been appointed as Somali’s new President - Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo
• Which satellite of NASA detected distinct X- Ray signals - Chandra Satellite 
• Which authorities approved Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan - Union Cabinet
• What is the Rank of India in 5th Annual International IP Index of USCC - 43rd Rank

Current Affairs 9th February 2017  - Details

Which state becomes first North-East state to implement e-Cabinet Solution - Arunanchal Pradesh

Arunanchal Pradesh became the first North-East state to implement e-Cabinet Solution for the state members on 7th February 2017. 

How e-Cabinet solution will help –

• It will help to reduce the printing and delivering of thousands of official documents.

• It will help to manage time more efficiently by reducing the Cabinet meeting time from 4-5 hours to 30-40 minutes only.

• Cabinet members can also access the cabinet notes before the start of meeting.

• It will also provide the remote access to ministers for proper feedback and analysis

First State for establishing cashless system for distribution of food grains - Gujarat

Gujarat has become the first State for establishing cashless system for distribution of food grains in the First week of February. Union Minister for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan congratulated the Gujarat Government for this achievement.

Do you know ?

• Government installed Aadhaar Enabled Payment System in 17250 Fair Price Shops (FPSs), much before the targeted date of 31 March 2017.

• The beneficiaries who are under the National Food Security Act, 2013 will need to carry only Aadhaar cards to get their food grains.

• This will help in curbing corruption in the Public Distribution System (PDS).

For which plant scientists have identified evolutionary pathway recently – Pitcher plants

A group of scientists decoded the evolutionary pathway that led some plants to turn carnivorous. The findings were published in the journal “Nature Ecology and Evolution”on 6thFebruary 2017.

Detailed observations -

• Pitcher plants are different kind of carnivorous plants.

• A genetic analysis done on three species Cephalotus follicularis (Australian pitcher plant, related to star fruit), Nepenthes alata (Asian pitcher plant, related to buckwheat) and Sarracenia purpurea (American pitcher plant, related to kiwifruit) led in the interesting discoveries that these plants have ancient proteins to create enzymes for digesting prey.

Which Bill is passed by UK’s House of Commonslately - Brexit Bill

The lower house of British Parliament, House of Commons passed the Brexit Bill on 8th Feb 2017.

Important Points -

• There are no changes made in the final bill even after seven hour amendment debate.
• After this , Bill goes to the Upper House of Commons to either make changes and send back to lower house to reconsider or to send it to Royal Assent to turn it into Law.
• Theresa May expected to turn that Bill to Law in couple of weeks ahead.

Who has been appointed as Somali’s new President - Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo

Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo has been appointed as Somali’s new Presidenton 8 February 2017.

Key Points -

- Somalia is one of the seven Muslim-majority and poorest countries that face an immigration ban in the US, because of recent executive order of US President Donald Trump.

- The voting was conducted at a heavily guarded airport complex in its capital city, Mogadishu with a no-fly zone was imposed over the city and traffic was also banned.

- Farmajo won by 184 votes out of 328 votes from the opposition.

Which satellite of NASA detected distinct X- Ray signals - Chandra Satellite 

Distinct X- ray signals were detected by NASA’s satellite Chandra from the Milky Way Galaxy in February 2017. Scientists observed extra photons with an energy of about 3500 electron volts in the spectra. While probing the spectrum further, the production of X-ray photons with particular energy level was found. It could have been the result of decay of dark matter.

Interesting Facts :

• Such energy levels were also recorded in the past, but it wasn’t sure that the bump or line created by photons was just an instrumental artefact or something else.
• Scientists say, around 80% of the Universe is made with dark matter which can’t be seen but can be felt with its gravitational pull.

Which authorities approved Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan - Union Cabinet

The Union Cabinet approved the Pradhan MantriGramin Digital SakshartaAbhiyan (PMGDISHA)on 8 February 2017. The Program’s objective is to make 6 crore rural households digitally literate. Theestimated cost for the project is Rs 2351.38 crore. The project is in line after the announcement made by Union Finance Minister ArunJaitley in the Union Budget 2016-17.

Important Facts on PMGDISHA

• It is initiated under Digital India Programme and expected to be largest digital literacy programs.
• This program targets to train 25 lakh candidates in the Fiscal Year 2016-17, 275 lakh in the Fiscal Year 2017-18 and 300 lakh in the Fiscal Year 2018-19.
• It is expected to register an average of 200-300 candidates from each of the 250000 Gram Panchayats.

What is the Rank of India in 5th Annual International IP Index of USCC - 43rd Rank

India ranked 43rd position out of 45 position in 5th Annual International IP Index of USCC on 8th February 2017. India was leading only two countries – Pakistan and Venezuela whilst top four countries in the Index were – United States, United Kingdom, Japan, and European Union

Interesting Facts over India's Ranking

• A Delhi high court ruling that permitted photocopying of copyrighted material for educational purposes went against India along with other factors.
• The USCC's IP Index ranks countries on the basis of the points received on various aspects like copyrights, trademarks, enforcement, patents, trade secrets, ratification of international treaties and market access.
• In 2016, India stood at 37th rank out of 38 , this year 7 new countries have been added , these are – Egypt, Kenya, Pakistan, Hungary, Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Spain