24th February 2016 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• The fifth edition of IBSAMAR 2016 trilateral naval exercise between Brazil, India and South Africa kicked off in Goa. 
• This is the for the first time the exercise is held in India as all the previous editions were held in South Africa since it began in 2006.  
• IBSAMAR - India Brazil South Africa Maritime.

New Appointments

• Amitava Bhattacharyya, retired Chairman, Staff Selection Commission, Bimal Julka, retired Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Divya Prakash Sinha, retired Secretary (Security), Cabinet Secretariat, appointed as Information Commissioners in the Central Information Commission, New Delhi.
• Bangladesh limited-overs captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza is set to be named as the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) " National Goodwill Ambassador for Youth".
• The appointment will be made official tomorrow following a signing ceremony.
• Justice Dinesh Maheshwari was today sworn-in as the chief justice of the Meghalaya High Court.
• He replaces former chief Justice Uma Nath Singh who retired on January 14.
• Maheswari was earlier a senior Judge of the Allahabad High Court.

Science & Technology

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is set to launch India’s first solar mission called Aditya-L1.
• Aditya-L1 satellite will be placed in an orbit about 15 lakh kilometres from the earth.
• Its primary objective will be to study the solar corona in different wavebands.
• ISRO is going to launch eight Indian and 19 foreign satellites this year.
• The countries whose satellites it will be launching include Algeria, Canada, Germany, Indonesia and USA.
• Facebook today globally launched 'Reactions', an expansion of its existing 'Like' button. 
• The feature adds five new reaction images to the Like button, including Love, Haha, Wow, Sad and Angry. 
• These reactions can be used on both desktop and mobile versions of Facebook by hovering over the Like button and tapping the desired reaction.
• World’s first fast-acting anti-rabies drug Rabies Human Monoclonal Antibody (RMAb) will be launched in India. 
• The drug has been developed by Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) and US-based MassBiologics of the University of Massachusetts Medical School. 

Awards & Honors

• Afghanistan's national women's cycling team has been nominated for the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. 
• The women are credited with challenging gender barriers in Afghanistan, and are among very few Afghan women who cycle socially in their country where it is considered taboo. 
• Hyderabad was named the top Indian city in terms of quality of life, in 2016 Quality of Living rankings by human resources consulting firm Mercer. 
• The study was carried out on 230 global cities wherein Hyderabad was ranked 139th, a drop of one place from last year. 
• Pune (144), Bengaluru (145), Chennai (150) and Mumbai (152) stood at remaining 4 positions.
• Vienna, Austria's grand capital on the Danube river, topped the list, while Iraqi capital Baghdad is at the bottom of the list.
• Veteran scriptwriter Sagar Sarhadi will be honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the second edition of the International Film Festival of Prayag (IFFP) for his contribution to Hindi cinema.
• Born in Abbottabad, Pakistan, Sarhadi is well known for his work in Bollywood films like “Kabhi Kabhie”, “Silsila”, “Chandni” and “Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai”.
• Note : His directorial “Bazaar” starring Smita Patil, Farooq Sheikh and Naseeruddin Shah was a critically acclaimed film.

Business & Economy

• State Bank of India (SBI) in partnership with Snapdeal has launched a new branch 'SBI e-Smart SME' to provide working capital loans to sellers on e-commerce platforms. 
• Sellers can apply for the loan online on Snapdeal or through the dedicated branch. 
• The bank will use proprietary platform data and information from public domain to assess seller’s creditworthiness for sanctioning of loans.
• The government today raised the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of raw jute by 18.5% to Rs 3,200 per quintal for 2016-17 in order to boost production. 
• Minister of Railways, Suresh Prabhu will present the Railway Budget for 2016-17 in Parliament tomorrow.
• MasterCard has confirmed that it will roll out Selfie payments across its products in 15 countries this year, after a trial in the US and the Netherlands was done last year. 
• In the new biometric security system, the users can ditch passwords and PIN numbers, and access apps or make online payments by snapping a shot of their face.

Sports

• India defeated Bangladesh by 45 runs in the opening game of the Asia Cup 2016 today. 
• New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum retired from international cricket today.

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