February 23: Water is the most valuable asset that we have today on earth.Without this natural resource, there will no life on the planet at all.But are we doing enough to save water especially at a time when there is severe drought in various places?Haryana had recently used aquifer mapping to trace groundwater that can be later extracted.Other Indian states must also use scientific tools to preserve the water if our future has to be free flowing.Here are the latest Current Affairs & News Update for February 23, 2016
National News:
The Budget Session of Parliament has begun with the address of President Pranab Mukherjee to the joint sitting of the Lok Sabha & the Rajya Sabha.The Rail Budget will be presented on February 25th & General Budget on 29th.
The Election Commission of India is working on ‘E-Governance Vision 2020’, said the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Dr. Nasim Zaidi during a Seminar on ‘Leveraging Technology for Transparent and Credible Elections’.
India remains the world’s largest arms importer, accounting for 14% of the global arms imports in the 2011-2015 period.
Haryana shall become the 1st state in the India to complete aquifer mapping for its groundwater resources by May 2016.
Swachh Paryatan mobile app was launched by Union Minister of State (MoS) for Tourism, Culture & Civil Aviation, Mahesh Sharma in New Delhi.
The 1st Gender Park in India will be inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee at Kozhikode.The park to be set up on a 24-acre campus shall promote research & other initiatives to enable total gender equality.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has requested the Union Civil Aviation Minister A Gajapati Raju to declare the Biju Patnaik International Airport as the embarkation point for the Haj pilgrims of Odisha from this year.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister has announced free education for scheduled caste students in government colleges including, engineering & medical institutions.
International News:
Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli said the mission of his visit to India was to clear misunderstandings that surfaced between the two nations following adoption of the new constitution.
China has removed the Head of its Securities Regulator, Xiao Gang as it is trying to tackle major volatility in its stock markets.He will be replaced by Liu Shiyu as the chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).
Cyclone Winston, that swept Fiji recently has increased the death toll to atleast 20, officials say.
Prince Turki al-Faial of Saudi Arabia has appealed to Muslim countries to take the lead in fighting terrorism & also mentioned about the Islamic Counter Terrorism alliance that was formed with 34 nations.
The President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad has announced that parliamentary elections are to be held on April 13, 2016.
New Appointments:
Amar Singh, an Indian origin Sikh officer was appointed Kuala Lumpur’s Commissioner of Police.
Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India Limited (MSEI) has appointed Udai Kumar as its Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
Awards & Honours:
Ismail Mahomed, an Indian origin playwright based in South Africa, was conferred Knighthood by the French government for his lifelong devotion to the promotion of arts.
Obituary:
Capt Eric “Winkle” Brown of the Royal Navy died at the age of 97.Captain Brown has the world record for flying the greatest number of different types of aircraft (487)
Sports:
Ukraine’s FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk won the Sait Nagjee International Club Football tournament beating Brazil Atletico Paranaense at the EMS corporation stadium at Kozhikode, Kerala
India’s Kumaravel Prem Kumar bagged silver in long jump by clearing 7.92m at the 7th Asian Indoor Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar.
Ronnie O’Sullivan won 7 frames in a row to beat Neil Robertson & and win 2016 Bet Victor Welsh Open title held at the Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff, Wales.
Italy’s Sara Errani defeated Czech Republic’s Barbora Strycova to claim the WTA Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships women’s singles title.
Italian woman Tennis player Francesca Schiavone won the Rio Open defeating Shelby Rogers of America in the final held in Rio de Janeiro.
Banking & Economy:
Euroclear,a Belgium based securities settlement company has agreed to a model suggested by the RBI to settle Indian government debt papers in the Overseas market.
HSBC may have encouraged Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) breaches by allowing its select customers to bank with offshore private banking locations though they dont qualify for the same, thinks RBI.
Volvo is recalling 59,000 cars across 40 markets over a fault that can temporarily shut down the engine.
China’s Lenovo Group Ltd will launch a global wireless service called Lenovo Connect for its mobile devices to cut roaming costs for its users. It shall allow users to travel to 50 countries & use their devices at local prices on mobile internet, without installing new SIM cards.
Electronics maker based in China, Huawei launched its first personal computer,
‘MateBook’ which is a convertible tablet targetted at the premium business customers.
Digital Ocean, the world’s second-largest cloud computing provider, will set up its first India data centre in Bengaluru, in the April–June quarter of 2016.
Reliance Communications (RCom) is all set to acquire Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd (SSTL) that operates under the MTS brand in India after getting the approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
