Important Current Affairs of January 30 to February 1, 2016

IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS OF JANUARY 30 TO FEBRUARY 1, 2016

• On January 31, 2016 World Leprosy Day was observed.
• This day is observed internationally on January 30 or its nearest Sunday to increase the public awareness of the Leprosy or Hansen's Disease. 
• Note : Leprosy is one of the oldest recorded diseases in the world. 
• Theme of World Leprosy Day 2016 : To live is to help to live
• On January 30, 2016 National Martyrs' Day was observed.
• This day is also known as Sarvodaya day / Shaheed Diwas.
• We observe this day to commemorate 68th death anniversary of Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi.
• Note : On this day in 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated at a prayer meeting.
• The Cultural Ministry has on January 30, 2016 confirmed that Ahmedabad has been selected as this year's nomination from India for the UNESCO world heritage city tag. 
• Delhi and Mumbai were also in the tentative list, but were rejected later. 
• Important Note : Even though there are over 250 heritage cities in the world, India has no UNESCO-recognised world heritage city till date.
• Vice Admiral Girish Luthra, took charge as the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Southern Naval Command (FOC-in-C, South) on January 30, 2016.
• Note : He took over the charge from Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba, who will take charge as Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Western Naval Command.
• Union Government has appointed Dr. Kamlesh Kumar Pandey as the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities (CCPD) for a period of three years.
• Actor Tom Hanks has been named America's favourite movie star, in a new online survey, by market research firm 'The Harris Poll'. 
• Rounding up the top three spots were Johnny Depp followed by Denzel Washington.
• To commemorate the occasion of 150th birth anniversary of Lala Lajpat Rai, the Ministry of Culture released a commemorative coin of 150 rupeesand a circulation coin of 10 rupees.
• The Commemorative Coin of 150 rupees is made of Quaternary alloy with diameter of 44 mm and weight of 35 grams.
• The Circulation coin of 10 rupees is made of bi-metallic material with diameter of 27 mm and weight of 7.71 grams.
• Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been chosen for the prestigious K Veeramani Social Justice Award. 
• He has been chosen for this award for his immense contribution for the cause of social justice especially for upliftment of weaker and marginalised sections of the society. 
• Indian Author and foreign affairs expert Nisid Hajari has won the prestigious 2016 William E. Colby Award for his book Midnight’s Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India’s Partition. 
• This book is based on partition history of India and Pakistan in 1947 and the violence that surrounded it.
• General KV Krishna Rao, the 14th Chief of the Army Staff of Indian Army passed away on January 30, 2016.
• Veteran journalist TN Gopakumar passed away on January 30, 2016. 
• Popularly known as TNG, he was the editor-in-chief of Asianet news and has anchored and produced a show "Kannadi" on the channel for 22 years. 
• A recipient of Kerala Sahithya Academy award, Gopakumar worked with BBC and the Indian Express among others.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will reportedly announce the sixth Bi-monthly monetary policy review for the current financial year on 2nd February 2016. 
• Important Points to Note : 
• The RBI, in 2015, reduced key policy rates by 1.25 percentage points to 6.75%. 
• Meanwhile, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said that it expects the RBI to further cut the repo rate by 0.25 percentage points in the review.
• The RBI has increased the Ways and Means Advances (WMAs) for all states to Rs 32,225 crore per year compared to the earlier ₹15,360 allotted for the current and the next financial year. 
• Note : The Reserve Bank, through the WMA, provides financial accommodation to the states to meet any temporary mismatches in the cash flow of their payments and receipts.
• Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's wholesale trading platform opened its first Indian physical trade facility in Jaipur on January 30, 2016.
• Note : Alibaba also launched a dedicated Hindi portal to connect Indian small and medium businesses with global buyers. 
• Ayonika Paul became the 11th Indian shooter to clinch an Olympic quota as she qualified for the Women’s 10m Air Rifle event at Rio 2016. 
• She won silver medal at the Asian Shooting Olympic Qualifiers in New Delhi yesterday.
• Switzerland is set to vote on a proposal in which every citizen would be paid 2,500 Swiss Francs (almost ₹1,66,000) per month regardless of whether the citizen is working or not. 
• The proposal, if accepted, would make Switzerland the first country in the World to introduce unconditional wages. 
• Note : The federal government will vote on the proposal in June.
• Canada's newly elected government, led by PM Justin Trudeau, has introduced a bill to change certain words from Canada's national anthem for recognising women's contribution in nation building. 
• Note : To allow more gender inclusiveness, the bill aims to change the third line of the anthem 'O Canada' from “True patriot love in all thy sons command” to “all of us command”.
• Vice President of India Mohd Hamid Ansari will be embarking on a two-nation tour to Brunei Darussalam and Thailand from tomorrow (1st February 2016).
• Note : This will be the first ever visit of a Vice President of India to the resources rich Brunei Darussalam.
• Kerala government has decided to launch 'Gender Taxi (G-Taxi)', a taxi service owned and operated by transgenders. 
• It aims to provide a better means of livelihood for the Transgender (TG) community and to ensure them equal treatment in the society. 
• Note : Kerala had also unveiled the county's first Transgender Policy in November to end societal discrimination against the community.
• Ambagarh Chowki, a tribal dominated naxal-hit block has become Chhattisgarh's first open defecation-free development block.
•  At least 151 villages of the block with a population of around 1.05 lakh have constructed toilets at home to quit the traditional practice of open defecation. 
• The NGO Mitr Trust is set to open a Transgender Model Agency in New Delhi, which will be India's first modelling agency for transgenders. 
• In order to evaluate the city's traffic in real time, Delhi Police will soon installhigh definition CCTV cameras at 50 major locations. 
• Connected to the traffic headquarters through direct radio links, the cameras will capture registration numbers as well as small objects that obstruct traffic. 
• Note : The Police have already installed the cameras in five locations on a pilot basis.
• River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Minister Uma Bharti on January 31, 2016 announced that the Centre will implement a four-pronged programme in which as many as 1,600 villages along the Ganga stretch will be made filth-free by October 2016. 
• Note : The second phase will be attained in four years after that, in which 6,000 villages will be taken up for the programme.
• The Uttar Pradesh Tourism Department has announced that it will celebrate February 14 as State Tourism Day, with activities planned at Lucknow this year in the presence of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 31, 2016 announced that the government is planning to create a network of 'Khadi Gramudyog'across villages in the country to provide job opportunities in thekhadi cloth manufacturing sector. 
• Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has unveiled the bronze statue of great Ahom General Lachit Borphukan and his soldiers on the river Brahmaputra in Guwahati on January 31, 2016. 
• The height of the statue of Lachit Borphukan is 35 feet.
• The total cost of the project was 8 crore and 25 lakh rupees.
• Note : Lachit defeated the mighty Mughal in the Battle of Saraighat.
• Indian actress and filmmaker Geetu Mohandas is among the winners of the Global Filmmaking award, aimed at encouraging emerging filmmakers, at the Sundance Film Festival 2016. 
• Geetu was chosen for her upcoming movie, 'Insha' Allah: In pursuit of Akbar'. 
• Note : Antonio Piazza and Fabio Grassadonia from Italy, Armando Capo from Cuba and Moroccan filmmaker Abdellah Taia also won the award.
• At the 22nd Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards held in Los Angeles on January 31, 2016,Leonardo DiCaprio won the Best Actor (Male) award for his role in 'The Revenant' while Brie Larson won the Best Actor (Female) for her role in 'Room'. 
• Sampriti Bhattacharyya, a PhD scholar from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has featured among Forbes’ top 30 most powerful young change agents of the world, for creating an underwater drone. 
• The drone can map ocean floors where GPS doesn't work. 
• Originally from Kolkata, Bhattacharyya (28) is the founder of a startup, Hydroswarm, that designs and markets drones for ocean exploration.
• The Uttar Pradesh government signed an agreement with the Union Ministry to take over 75% of loan liabilities of five state owned power distribution companies(DISCOMs) in the state, amounting to around 39,990 crore.
• Power utilities in Uttar Pradesh have the third highest debt in the country behind those in Rajasthan and Tamilnadu.
• Inorder to make Tamilnadu 'power Surplus' the state government is set to establish its first 800 MW coal based power plant under the Supercritical technology.
• The 6376 crore undertaken by public sector unit BHEL will be completed in August 2019, generating 19.2 million units of power a day.
• Brij Bedi, husband of former IPS officer Kiran Bedi, passed away on January 31, 2016.
• India's Bandminton star player Srikanth Kidambi won his first Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold tody after defeating China's Huang Yuxiang in the final match in Lucknow. 
• Indian pair of Akshay Dewalkar and Pranaav Jerry Chopra lost to Malaysia's V Shem Goh and Wee Kiong Tan in the final of the men's doubles competition in the Syed Modi Grand Prix Gold on January 31, 2016 to inish as the runners-up in the tournament (Silver Medal).
• World number one and defending champion Novak Djokovic defeated Andy Murray to clinch his sixth Australian Open title. 
• Important Points to Note : 
• With the victory, Djokovic equaled Roy Emerson's record of most Australian Open titles. 
• Djokovic now has a total of 11 Grand Slam titles, moving into joint fifth place with Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver.
• Angelique Kerber has won Australian Open women's singles title and her first Grand Slam by beating Serena Williams.
• India claimed the top spot in the ICC world T20I rankings after completing a 3-0 series whitewash against Australia on January 31, 2016. 
• Australia are in the eighth position after suffering the first whitewash in the limited overs format on home soil in 140 years. 
• West Indies are second while Sri Lanka are third in the rankings.