Current Affairs 17th February 2015

Current Affairs 17th February 2015 - Important Points

• Who has been named for Dr. Y Nayudamma Memorial Award 2014 - Women scientists Geeta Varadan and Dr. Tessy Thomas

• Which film has won two awards in 65th Berlin International Film Festival - Film Dhanak directed by Nagesh Kukunoor

• Who has received the Faculty Early Career Development Award - Professor Srikanth Jagabathula

• Who has been appointed as MD and CEO of Multi Commodity Exchange - Balasubramaniam Venkataramani

• Which state government has been awarded for Renewable Power Development - Chhattisgarh Government

• Which country issued the Tsunami advisory - Japan

• Which agreement has been signed by India and Sri Lanka - Agreements on civil nuclear cooperation, Cultural cooperation

• Who is appointed as the CEO of Deloitte's Global Operations - Punit Renjen

• Which two countries had signed an agreement for sale of 24 Rafale fighter plane - France signed an agreement with Egypt

• Who had been awarded with the Honorary Life Membership of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) - Saurav Ganguly

Current Affairs 17th February 2015 - Details

Who has been named for Dr. Y Nayudamma Memorial Award 2014 - Women scientists Geeta Varadan and Dr. Tessy Thomas

On 15th February 2015, Women scientists Geeta Varadan and Dr. Tessy Thomas were jointly named for Dr. Y Nayudamma Memorial Award 2014 for their outstanding performance in the field of science and technology. The award will be presented to Geeta Varadan and Dr. Tessy Thomas at a special function to be held at Tenali in Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh on 1 March 2015 by Ramon Magsaysay award recipient Prof. Shanta Sinha. Geeta Varadan is the Project Director of Agni V, and Director, Advanced Data Processing Research Institute at ISRO and Dr. Tessy Thomas is the Drector, Advanced Systems Laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), Hyderabad.

Which film has won two awards in 65th Berlin International Film Festival - Film Dhanak directed by Nagesh Kukunoor

On 14th February 2015, two awards at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival was won by Film Dhanak directed by Nagesh Kukunoor. The 65th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 5/02/2015 to 15/02/2015. The awards won by the film are:

• Best Feature Film by the Children's Jury for Generation Kplus.
• Awarded with The Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus International Jury for the Best Feature-length film and received 7500 euro as prize money.

Who has received the Faculty Early Career Development Award - Professor Srikanth Jagabathula

On 11th February 2015, Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) was received by Indian-origin scientist Professor Srikanth Jagabathula for developing data-driven modelling and learning techniques to improve the accuracy of operational decision making. The National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States (US) presemted the award. He will receive a total of 500000 US dollar over the next five years to continue his research in developing data-driven modelling and learning techniques with the goal of improving the accuracy of operational decision making. The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Programme is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the NSF's most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through excellent education, outstanding research and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organisations.

Who has been appointed as MD and CEO of Multi Commodity Exchange - Balasubramaniam Venkataramani

On 13th February 2015, Balasubramaniam Venkataramani was appointed as Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) Limited. Previously, Venkataramani was Chief Business Officer of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) Limited

• It facilitates online trading, clearance and settlement of commodity futures transactions and the India’s first listed commodity futures exchange firm.
• It operates within the regulatory framework of the Forward Contracts Regulation Act, 1952 (FCRA, 1952) and had started functioning in November 2003.

Which state government has been awarded for Renewable Power Development - Chhattisgarh Government

On 15th February 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi awarded Chhattisgarh Government for being one of the best-performing states in the Renewable Energy Sector in India. During the first Renewable Energy Global Investors Meet (RE-Invest) 2015 in New Delhi, the award was presented to The Principal Secretary of Chhattisgarh Energy Department, Aman Singh. Currently 350 police stations, 100 community health centre, 1800 tribal hostels, 27 collectorates, 600 primary health centre and 1700 villages of the state get the power from solar power in Chhattisgarh.

Which country issued the Tsunami advisory - Japan

On 17th February 2015, The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami advisory for a possible 1-meter (3-foot) tsunami along the coast of Iwate prefecture after a 6.9-magnitude earthquake that struck in the Pacific at a depth of 10km.

Which agreement has been signed by India and Sri Lanka - Agreements on civil nuclear cooperation, Cultural cooperation

On 16th February 2015, India and Sri Lanka signed bilateral agreements during Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena four-day visit to India on civil nuclear cooperation, cultural cooperation and cooperation in the field of Agriculture and also agreed to expand trilateral format with the Maldives, defence and strategic cooperation.

Who is appointed as the CEO of Deloitte's Global Operations - Punit Renjen

On 16th February 2015, Punit Renjen was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited's Global Operations. Currently, he is serving as Deloitte group's US business Chairman and CEO. Renjen will be the first Indian-origin person to head a Big-Four audit firm. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Ernst & Young (EY), and KPMG are the other three firms in Big-Four group. Renjen will join a growing rank of Indians who head global corporations and financial institutions including MasterCard Inc’s Ajay Banga, Microsoft Corp’s Satya Nadella, Deutsche Bank’s Anshu Jain and PepsiCo Inc’s Indra Nooyi.

Which two countries had signed an agreement for sale of 24 Rafale fighter plane - France signed an agreement with Egypt

On 16th February 2015, France signed a 5.2-billion-euro (5.9 billion US dollar) agreement with Egypt for the first foreign sale of its Rafale fighter plane. France will supply 24 Rafale fighters to Egypt. The deal was signed at the Presidential palace in Cairo in presence of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. The deal will intensify the Egypt’s military capability to tackle the jihadists more efficiently and add more fire power to the air strikes. This is the first part of the deal that includes three contracts with Egypt. The other two contracts are supplying missiles and a FREMM multi-mission frigate from naval group DCNS.

Who had been awarded with the Honorary Life Membership of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) - Saurav Ganguly

On 13th February 2015, former Indian cricket captain Saurav Ganguly had been awarded with the Honorary Life Membership of Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). Saurav Ganguly has took the retirement from all forms of international cricket in 2012 after playing for India for 16 long years. He started playing for India in 1996 at the Lord’s against England and went on to score 131-run in first innings of his test debut. During Nat-West series Final at Lords in 2002, India defeated England to win the series and is considered as the greatest ever match played at Lord’s.