February 7 Current Affairs

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TAMILNADU

PeTA urges Tamil Nadu CM to ban jallikattu

  • People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PeTA) on Wednesday sent an urgent letter to Tamil Nadu chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami urging him to ban jallikattu since it has claimed the lives of people and bulls.
  • Around 23 men and six bulls died during jallikattu events in the recent past. On February 4, a bull died of a cardiac arrest during a jallikattu event held at Allur near Srirangam in Tiruchy district. Another frightened animal smashed into a train, while a third, attempting to flee from the event, fell into a well, PeTA said.

Rs 6 crore released for construction of World Tamil Sangam library in Madurai

  • The Tamil Nadu school education department on Monday sanctioned Rs 6 crore rupees towards construction of the World Tamil Sangam library in Madurai.
  • The library, to be constructed at the World Tamil Sangam Complex, will have separate rooms for children and individuals preparing for competitive exams besides a study room where public can bring in their own books.

Metro line from Nehru Park to Central likely by mid-April

  • The Chennai Metro Rail Limited is likely to open its fourth stretch — from Nehru Park to Chennai Central — on April 14, sources said. The final inspection by Commissioner of Metro Rail Safety (CMRS) may take place by March 25.
  • According to CMRL officials, the work is nearly complete on this stretch and various tests have to be carried out before the inspection by CMRS.“The signalling and electrification work has started and will be completed before the inspection. The finishing work on stations is also on. We recently had a trial run on this stretch and this will continue till the operations begin,” an official said.

Collector joins students for session on environment

  • When two Class IX students got an opportunity to talk on environment conservation to a group of elementary school students on Tuesday, they had among the rapt listeners Collector K.S. Kandasamy.

Governor suspends V-C who was arrested for graft

  • Bharathiar University Vice Chancellor A. Ganapathi, who was arrested on Saturday on corruption charges, was suspended by Governor-Chancellor Banwarilal Purohit on Tuesday evening. He is the second serving Vice Chancellor of a State university to be suspended in the history of Tamil Nadu.
  • Following his suspension, Higher Education Minister K. P. Anbalagan told The Hindu that a committee would soon be constituted to run the the university in Coimbatore. “Vice Chancellors are appointed by the Governor in his capacity as Chancellor. Hence we sent a report to Raj Bhavan,” Mr. Anbalagan said.

INDIA

Spine of steel: Howrah Bridge celebrates 75th anniversary

  • The inauguration of the Howrah bridge took place without any fanfare when a lone tramcar rolled down from the Kolkata city end to the Howrah Railway station end .Kolkata Port Trust has many plans for the iconic structure, which has survived the Second World War, a few technical glitches and corrosion from tobacco stains

  • With the engineering marvel turning 75 this year, the Kolkata Port Trust (KPT) has a number of plans to celebrate the iconic structure. One of the projects envisages a shelter for lakhs of pedestrians who cross the bridge on foot everyday.

Aadhaar data breach threat violates fundamental rights, KapilSibal tells SC

  • Sibal told the five-judge bench hearing the Aadhaar case that it makes people vulnerable. “I am not talking about the misuse by the state but in the absence of assurance of safety, all is compromised. Aadhaar is making individuals vulnerable and that is where the violation of Article 21 comes in,” Sibal added.

Nasheed snubs China, renews call for ‘liberator’ India’s help

  • Maldivians see India’s potential role in resolving the crisis gripping the island not as an occupation, but as “liberating assistance”, exiled former President Mohamed Nasheed said, reiterating his earlier call for Indian intervention.
  • A vast majority of Maldivians want New Delhi to intervene, says former President .Apparently rebutting China’s recent statement that the Maldives could deal with the current situation on its own, he said: “Some say this crisis must be resolved domestically. But that would involve fist fights, and blood on the streets, which could lead to anything.”

No dearth of fund for Sanskrit: Yogi Adityanath

  • The government has set up ‘Madhyamik Sanskrit ShikshaParishad’ for publicising the language and the budget of the ‘Sanskrit Sansthanam’ has also been doubled, Adityanath said at a felicitation function of Sanskrit Sansthanam here.

Judiciary must be very cautious in diluting government’s economic policy: SC

  • Judiciary must be “very cautious and circumspect” in diluting or setting aside an economic policy of the government, the Supreme Court observed on Wednesday.
  • A Bench of Justices Madan B. Lokur and Deepak Gupta said courts must intervene against an economic policy of the government only if it was constitutionally unavoidable.
  • “Otherwise, good governance could be a casualty,” the court warned.

Ujjwala Yojana to benefit eight crore women now

  • The Union Cabinet on Wednesday took a slew of decisions across sectors, including increasing the minimum support price for copra, increasing the target and budgetary allocation for the Ujjwala Yojana, extending the Discovered Small Fields Policy to include more oil and gas fields, approving several bilateral agreements signed by India, and giving its ex post factoapproval to the changes made in the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Bill.

WORLD

 

1.08 cr signatures on 70-km banner

  • The United Democratic Front (UDF) on Tuesday staged a spectacular display of 1.08 crore signatures on banners, mounted during Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala’s one-month long Padayorukkam campaign against the Central and State governments’ ‘unpopular policies’, along the 70-km stretch between the State Secretariat and the Kollam Collectorate.Collected during United Democratic Front’s Padayorukkam campaign

Consider doubling wind energy capacity

  • The State should explore the option of doubling its wind energy capacity and increase use of solar power against the expensive coal-fired power plants. A report titled ‘Electricity Transformation in India: A Case Study of Tamil Nadu’ was released at a press conference held in the city .
  • Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) cites the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (Tangedco) building 22,500 mega watt (MW) ‘expensive’ coal-fired power plants despite having a favourable atmosphere for capacity augmentation and tariff costs for renewable energy, including wind and solar power

Ancient Briton had dark skin and blue eyes, shows DNA test on ‘Cheddar Man’

  • “Cheddar Man”, Britain’s oldest, nearly complete human skeleton, had dark skin, blue eyes and dark curly hair when he lived in what is now southwest England 10,000 years ago, scientists who read his DNA have discovered.

Space sports car now flying beyond Mars

  • The world’s first space sports car is cruising toward the asteroid belt, well beyond Mars.SpaceX chief Elon Musk confirmed the new, more distant route for his rocketing Tesla Roadster, which was launched aboard the company’s Falcon Heavy from Florida.
  • In the driver seat of the Tesla is a space-suited mannequin nicknamed “Starman”. Mr. Musk doesn’t plan to fly people on the Heavy, but is working on an even bigger rocket for deep-space crews.

UK court upholds arrest warrant for Julian Assange

  •  UK arrest warrant for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, leaving him still a wanted man in the country where he has spent more than five years inside the Ecuadorean Embassy.
  • Judge Emma Arbuthnot rejected a call from Assange’s lawyers for the warrant to be revoked because he is no longer wanted for questioning in Sweden over alleged sex crimes. It was issued in 2012 for jumping bail.

Pakistan again rakes up Kashmir issue at UN

  • Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, sought periodic review of the implementation of the UN Security Council’s decades-old resolution on the issue.
  • “Nothing undermines the credibility of the Council more than ‘selective’ implementation of its resolutions,” Lodhi said during an open debate of the Security Council on its working methods.

real worm’ in virtual avatar

  • In a first, scientists have ‘uploaded’ the neural sytem of a worm into a computer, allowing it to live in a virtual avatar and even learn new tricks without human coding.

  • It is the only living being whose neural system has been analysed completely. It can be drawn as a circuit diagram or reproduced by computer software, so that the neural activity of the worm is simulated by a computer programme.

Kathakali maestro Madavoor Vasudevan Nair passes away

  • Kathakali maestro Madavoor Vasudevan Nair collapsed on stage and died while performing at Agasthyacodu Mahadeva Temple, Anchal on Tuesday night.
  • He was 89. Though he was rushed to a nearby hospital, he was soon declared dead by doctors. He is survived by wife Savithri Amma, son Ma

SPORTS

Khelo India Games: Maharashtra, Haryana and Delhi engaged in titanic tussle at top

  • Maharashtra with 24 gold held a slender lead over previous day’s leaders Haryana (23 gold) and hosts Delhi (22 gold) as the Games reached its climax.

Stephen Constantine offered contract extension till 2019 Asian Cup

  • Indian football coach Stephen Constantine was on Wednesday offered a contract extension till the end of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup, following a string of highly impressive results in recent times.

Indian men rout Maldives 5-0 in Badminton Asia Team Championships

  • ALOR SETAR (Malaysia): World No.5 KidambiSrikanth led the charge as India drubbed minnows Maldives 5-0 to make a resounding start in the men’s team competition of the Badminton Asia Team Championships

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