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Current Affairs Capsule – February 21, 2020

February 21, 2020
Posted by: Team CP
Category: Current Affairs Capsule

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The Appointments Committee of Cabinet on 21st February, 2020 appointed retired IAS officers of 1983-batch Amarjeet Sinha and Bhaskar Khulbe as advisers to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a period of two years, or until further orders. Sinha, from the Bihar cadre, has served as the Rural Development Secretary while Khulbe, from the West Bengal cadre, has served in the PM’s office (PMO).
The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has discovered gold deposits of around 3,000 tonnes in Son Pahadi and Hardi areas of Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh, almost five times India’s current reserves of gold. GSI had started the work of finding gold reserves in Sonbhadra in 1992-93. As per the World Gold Council, India currently has 626 tonnes of gold reserves.
The National Organic Food Festival was jointly inaugurated by Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Union Minister for Women and Child Development and Textiles Smriti Zubin Irani on 21st February, 2020 in New Delhi. The three-day festival aims at strengthening organic market and encouraging women entrepreneurs engaged in manufacturing of organic produce. The theme of the 2020 National Organic Food Festival is “Unleashing India’s Organic Market Potential”.
The first-ever Khelo India University Games is going to be held at the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) in Bhubaneswar from 22nd February to 1st March, 2020. It will be organised by the Odisha government under the aegis of the Sports Authority of India and the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. The Games will witness over 4000 athletes from 100 Universities across India.
International Mother Language Day (IMLD) is observed annually across the globe on 21st February to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism. This year, the day is celebrated under the theme “Languages without Borders”. First announced by UNESCO on 17th November 1999, it was formally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly with the adoption of UN resolution 56/262 Multilingualism in 2002. The idea to celebrate International Mother Language Day was the initiative of Bangladesh. The day is being observed every year since 2000.
India jumped five positions from 40th in 2018 to 35th in 2019 in the Worldwide Educating for the Future Index (WEFFI) 2019, a report published by The Economist Intelligence Unit. India secured a total score of 53, based on three categories – policy environment, teaching environment and overall socio-economic environment. Finland topped the index for the second year globally in providing future-skills education for youth.
The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has been ranked 1st in the Nature Ranking Index 2020 that was based on total research output, which was carried out from 1st December 2018 to 30th November 2019. CSIR, New Delhi achieved the top position with 142 counts and a share percentage of 87.74 while IISC-Bengaluru stood second with 211 counts and 83.61 in share percentage. The counts mean total citations in numbers and shares mean the sharing percentage per article.