Q1. Name the state / UT in which Lithium reserves  has been found for first time ?

1. Ladakh
2. Jammu and Kashmir
3. Jharkhand
4. Uttarakhand
5. None of These

Q2. The billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Feb 10 has  announced Rs 75,000 crore investment over the next four years in expanding the telecom network, including roll out of 5G services, retail and new energy business in

1. Uttar Pradesh
2. Madhya Pradesh
3. Andhra Pradesh
4. Arunachal Pradesh
5. None of These

Q3. Name the state which has hosted the third edition of Khelo India Winter Games ?

1. Himachal Pradesh
2. Uttarakhand
3. Jammu and Kashmir
4. Sikkim
5. None of These

Q4. What is current repo rate ?

1. 6.10 %
2. 6.25 %
3. 6.5 %
4. 6.75 %
5. None of These

Q5. World Cancer Day is marked annually on

1. February 4
2. February 6
3. February 8
4. February 10
5. None of These

Answers

1-----------------2 Jammu and Kashmir

2-----------------1  Uttar Pradesh

3----------------3 Jammu and Kashmir

4----------------3 6.5 %

5-----------------1 February 4

Domestic airlines reported 2,613 significant technical snags in their planes in the last five years, Union minister V K Singh told the Lok Sabha on Feb 9.

The Minister of State for Civil Aviation said the regulations require occurrences relating to system and component failure to be reported to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

In this period, IndiGo reported 885 snags, SpiceJet (691), Vistara (444), Air India (399), AirAsia (India) Ltd (79), Go Air (54), TruJet (30), Alliance Air (13), Blue Dart Aviation (7), Akasa Air (6) and Fly Big (5), as per the reply.

AirAsia (India) has been renamed AIX Connect and Go Air as Go First.

In a separate written reply, the minister said the DGCA conducted 91 planned surveillance inspections of airports in 2022 and 7 planned surveillance inspections of airports till January 31, 2023.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Russian President Vladimir Putin on  Feb 9 held wide-ranging discussions in Moscow and agreed to continue working towards implementing the strategic partnership between the two countries.

The Indian embassy in Moscow said the discussions were focused on bilateral and regional issues, but it did not elaborate on the issues.

Doval began his two-day visit to Russia on Feb 8 .

Besides Russia and India, the meeting was attended by representatives from Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

In a first-of-its-kind initiative to inculcate sports culture among youths and develop Jharkhand as a nursery for sports, ‘Johar Khiladi Sports Integrated Portal’ has been launched for the overall development of sports and sportspersons in the state.

This portal will prove to be monumental in honing the talents of sportspersons in the state.

The portal, launched by Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Feb 9, is one of the first such portals to strengthen the idea of digitisation of sports.

A detailed database of players, coaches, referees, sports academies, sports grounds and sports stadiums is available on a single portal. Information about state and district-level competitions to be held in the state in future will also be made available on the portal in times to come .  A total of 32 sports have been added to the portal so that the players of all 32 sports recognized by the Indian Olympic Association can get benefitted out of it. 

At the same time, this portal will enable the Department of Sports to monitor the ongoing sports activities at the state level. Presently, registration related to Football, Hockey, Archery, Athletics, Volleyball, Weightlifting and Wrestling with the portal is in progress.

A grand temple dedicated to Bhakti Movement saint and Dalit icon Sant Ravidas will be built in Badtuma village of Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district, the state’s CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced on Feb 8.

He also announced the Mukhya Mantri Teerth-Darshan, a free pilgrimage scheme for the elderly. The train under the scheme will go from Madhya Pradesh to Varanasi, Sant Ravidas’s birthplace. The announcement is being seen as a calculated move by the BJP and its longest-serving CM to woo the 16 per cent Scheduled Caste vote in the assembly poll year in the state, particularly when the saffron party is apprehensive about its loyal OBC vote, which may not side with it strongly this time.

With over 83,000 vacancies, India's Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) are facing a shortage of manpower, according to the government.

The forces in which the posts are lying vacant are Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) and Assam Rifles.

MoS Home Affairs Nityanand Rai on Feb 9 informed the parliament that as many as 83,217 posts in the CAPF were vacant as of Jan. 1, 2023, against a total sanctioned strength of 10,15,237. The shortage of manpower since 2019 stands at 8 per cent of the total sanctioned strength. With 29,283 vacancies, the CRPF suffered from the highest shortage of personnel.

Meanwhile, the number of women personnel in the CAPFs and the ARs has been consistently increasing during the same period. In 2019, as many as 27,047 (2.9 per cent) of 9.12 lakh personnel in service were women. The number has now risen to 3.82 per cent, with at least 35,074 women in service from a total of 9.16 lakh personnel.

The CAPFs function under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Of the CAPFs, AR, BSF, ITBP and SSB help guard the country's border, while, the CRPF is deployed for internal security duties, maintenance of law and order and anti-militancy operations in Jammu and Kashmir and the northeast.

India is gearing up for its first digital census and the government has already made several technological advancements on the platform on which the exact headcount, class, gender, age, employment and other socio-economic data of over 130 crore Indian citizens would be captured and categorised.

Nityanad Rai, Minister of State for Home Affairs, informed the Parliament on Feb 7 that the next census will be an app-based exercise, adding, "the forthcoming Census will be the first digital Census and there is a provision for self-enumeration."

The Minister was responding to a question in Lok Sabha on the status of the decennial census, which was slated to be conducted in 2021.

Several Parliamentarians sought to know from the Ministry of Home Affairs as to when the census would be completed.

Sri Lanka has sought India’s support in the health sector in terms of receiving medicines and a possible government-to-government procurement mechanism.

Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India, Milinda Moragoda, met with Health Minister, Dr Mansukh Madaviya, on Feb 8 and made a few requests which would broaden and deepen cooperation in the health sector.