15th February 2015 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• SriLanka President Maithripala Sirisena is on 4 day maiden visit to India.
• This is his maiden foreign trip after assuming charge. 
• During this trip, he will hold talks with the Indian leadership on entire gamut of bilateral ties including ways to further enhance cooperation and the peace and reconciliation process in the island nation.
• He has already indicated that he wants to have a closer relationship with India and chose it for his first foreign visit.
• Pakistan released 172 Indian fishermen today, as a goodwill gesture, two days after the Prime Ministers of both countries decided to resume high-level talks.
• The fishermen had been held at the Malir and Landhi District Jails in Karachi for allegedly violating territorial waters in the Arabian Sea.
• China has opened a new embassy in Pakistan (Islamabad), its "largest overseas" diplomatic mission, which Foreign Minister Wang Yi described as a symbol of friendship between the "all weather" allies.
• The opening of this new embassy came as China and Pakistan deepen their all weather relations with the construction of the multi-billion Economic Corridor through the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK).
• China also set to construct two 1,100 nuclear reactors with $6.5 billion in addition to the four medium size reactors.

National Affairs

• Bihar Cabinet today approved a politically sensitive proposal of including the Paswan caste in the 'Mahadalit' category. 
• The decision was taken at a special meeting of the Cabinet presided over by Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi.
• The Paswan caste had been left out from the Mahadalit category during former Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's time when he had constituted a Mahadalit commission and announced many special welfare programmes for them.
• Manjhi also announced a gift for mediapersons by okaying Bihar mediapersons pension scheme.
• In accordance with this scheme, a sum of Rs 5000 per month would be provided to members of press after retirement at the age of 60. 
• In case of death a sum of Rs 2500 per month would be provided to family of the beneficiary scribes.
• Journalists and photographers of daily and fortnightly newspapers, magazines, electronic media, news portal, news channels and news agencies would benefit from the pension scheme.
• A study conducted by the Forest Survey of India that was recently published points out that West Bengal’s forest cover has increased by 3,810 sq km, which is followed by Odisha where increase in forest cover has been 1,444 km and Kerala where the increase has been about 622 sq km.
• Of the 5,871 sq km increase in the forest cover of India, West Bengal accounts for nearly 64 per cent of this rise.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi today inaugurated the first Renewable Energy Global Investors Meet and Expo (Re-Invest) 2015 in New Delhi.
• He described India's thrust towards renewable energy production as an effort to ensure universal energy access for India's poor.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the `Permanent Judicial Museum' at Bombay High Court, which has on display the Barrister Certificates of Mahatma Gandhi and Mohammed Ali Jinnah. 
• The museum has been set up as a part of the court's sesquicentennial (150th year) celebration.
• Kerala-based business conglomerate Muthoot Group has launched the 'Friends for Life' project in partnership with World Wide Fund for Nature-India.
• The project is part of the Muthoot Haathi Mera Saathi CSR initiative.
• This conservation project aimed at effective management of human-elephant conflict and protecting the habitats of Asian elephants in six states include North Bank landscape in Arunachal Pradesh, Kaziranga and Karbi-Anglong in Assam; Terai Arc landscape in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar; Western Ghats landscape in Tamil Nadu and Kerala and also some parts of northern West Bengal.

Sports

• World Cup 2015
• India won against long-time rival Pakistan by 76 runs, in their opening match in the cricket World Cup at the Adelaide Oval today.
  
• Pakistan scored 224 chasing India's 300.
• Virat Kohli hit a century in 119 balls and adjudged Man of the Match. 
• This was India's sixth straight World Cup win over pakistan.
• India vs Pak in World Cups
• 1992 : India won by 43 runs
• 1996 : India won by 39 runs
• 1999 : India won by 47 runs
• 2003 : India won by 6 runs
• 2011 : India won by 29 runs
• 2015 : India won by 76 runs
• India will play with South Africa in their next group assignment Feb 22 in Melbourne. 
• South Africa wins against Zimbabwe.

People in News

• Yogaraj CP, a 29-year-old Indian yoga teacher in Hong Kong today set a Guinness World Record for performing Yoga continuously for 40 hours non-stop, demonstrating more than 1,500 'asanas'.
• He broke the record for the 'Longest Yoga Marathon (Male)' by performing continuously for three days starting on Friday and ending today afternoon.
• Goa Police today arrested Shyam Kishor Garikapatti, a Dawood Ibrahim gang member who was convicted in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case and involved in 18 other major crimes, including the JJ hospital shootout.

Awards & Honors

• Dr. Tessy Thomas, Director, Advanced Systems Laboratory of the Defence Research and Development organization, Hyderabad and Project Director (Mission) of Agni V, and Mrs. Geeta Varadan, Director, Advanced Data Processing Research Institute ISRO, have been chosen for the prestigious Dr. Y. Nayudamma Memorial Award for the year 2014.
• Chhattisgarh was today felicitated for emerging as one of the best performing states in the renewable energy segment.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented the award to Principal Secretary of Chhattisgarh's Energy department, Aman Singh, during the Renewable Energy Global Investors Meet (RE-Invest).
• Filmmaker Nagesh Kukunoor’s ‘Dhanak’ has been honoured with The Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus International Jury for the best feature-length film at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival.
• The movie, which premiered at the festival, also received a special mention from Kids Jury at the festival.

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