FEBRUARY 2016 CURRENT AFFAIRS (PART-4)

• The 30th edition of Surajkund International Crafts Mela has begun at Faridabad in Haryana. Telangana is the Theme State of this edition of Mela and the two focus countries are China and Japan. It is annual cultural festival hosted since 1987. The Mela showcases some of the most exquisite handlooms and handicrafts of India and its culture.
• International Mother Language Day (Bhasha Divas) is being observed across the world on 21 February. Theme of 2016 is “Quality education, language(s) of instruction and learning outcomes”.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the National Rurban Mission (NRM) from Kurubhat in Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh. The mission also dubbed as Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban mission (SPMRM) aims to spur social, economic and infrastructure development in rural areas by developing a cluster of 300 Smart Villages over the next 3 years across the country.
• West Bengal government is planning to get Geographical Indication tag for four traditional sweet delicacies of the state. These four traditional sweet delicacies are Moa of Jainagar, Sarpuria of Krishnagar, and Mihidana and Sitabhog of Burdwan.
• In recently released Intellectual Property Index by United States Chamber of Commerce, India was ranked 37th among the surveyed 38 countries. Venezuela ranked lowest below India at 38th position with 6.42 points on the index. In this edition of Intellectual Property Index, India has scored a low 7.0 out of maximum 30 points. Top rank Country is United States.
• The Union Government has appointed three Information Commissioners at the Central Information Commission (CIC). They were administered the oath of office by Chief Information Commissioner Radha Krishna Mathur. With their induction, for the first time CIC has full strength i.e. the total number of Information Commissioners including the CIC has gone up to 11. Their appointments have been made for a term of five years or till they turn 65.
• The Union Cabinet has approved 150 million dollars credit for Development of the strategically important Chabahar Port in Iran. In this regard, the Union Ministry of Shipping had forwarded the proposal for provision and operationalization of credit from EXIM Bank. Union Ministry of Shipping have to form a Company in Iran for implementing the Chabahar Port Development Project and related activities. In 2003, India and Tehran had agreed to develop Chabahar Port located in the Gulf of Oman near Iran’s border with Pakistan.
• Udai Kumar has been appointed as full-time Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Metropolitan Stock Exchange of India (MSEI) Ltd. His appointment was approved by SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India) and comes after stringent short listing process and interviews by the Selection Committee.
• Union Government has launched ‘Swachh Parayatan’ mobile application to keep tourist places clean. The project is being implemented by the Union Ministry of Tourism through Delhi eGovernance Society (DeGS) and National Informatics Centre (NIC). Initially the application facility will be available for 25 Adarsh Smarak Monuments protected by Archaeological Survey of India. The mobile app will be monitored by the project monitoring unit of Swachh Bharat Mission in the Union Ministry of Tourism. This mobile app will enable citizens, tourists to take photograph of garbage seen at the monument and upload it on the app along with his or her remarks.
• India continues to remain the world’s largest arms importer, accounting for 14% of the global arms imports in the 2011-2015 timeframe. It was revealed by report on international arms transfers released by a global think-tank, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Top arms importers are: India (14%), China (4.7%), Australia (3.6%), Pakistan (3.3%), Vietnam (2.9%) and South Korea (2.6%). India’s biggest suppliers are Russia, United States, Israel and France.