1. World NGO Day was observed on 27 February.

• World NGO Day is an international day annually observed on 27 February. The purpose of World NGO Day is to encourage people to be actively involved in NGOs and encourage more synergy between NGOs and both the public and private sectors.
• In 2010, 12 members of the Baltic Sea NGO Forum were officially recognized by the nations.
• In 2014, the United Nations, European Union leaders and international organizations marked the day for the first time.

2. Air India evacuated 119 Indians stranded onboard luxury cruise-ship  Diamond Princess.

• Air India has evacuated 119 Indians stranded on board Diamond Princess cruise ship off Japan coast due to novel Coronavirus. An Air India flight carrying 119 Indians and five foreign nationals from Sri Lanka, Nepal, South Africa and Peru landed at Delhi Airport from Tokyo.
• All passengers were under quarantine onboard the cruise ship due to COVID-19.
• On 3 February 2020, 3,711 passengers and crew were quarantined by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare after a passenger on the ship tested positive for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).This was the largest coronavirus outbreak on a cruise ship.

3. Indo-UK joint Air force exercise “Indradhanush-V” 2020  began in Hindan Air base, Uttar Pradesh.

• A 5-day long 5th edition of  Indo-UK (United Kingdom) bilateral air exercise “Indradhanush-V” 2020 between Indian Air Force (IAF) and British Royal Air Forces (RAF) has commenced at Air Force Station Hindan in Uttar Pradesh (UP). “Base Defence and Force Protection” is the focus of this year exercise.
• 36 specialised combatants from RAF Regiment & 42 combatants of the GARUD Force from IAF team participated in this exercise with para drops from C-130J aircraft, tactical insertions by Mi-17 V5 helicopters and use of various airborne sensors.
• During the exercise both the elements of the Air force will share and jointly validate strategies and tactics to tackle terror threats to their installations. Both the forces also to take up various missions including Airfield Seizure, Base Defence and anti-terror operations in Urban built up zones.
• The 4th edition of the “Indradhanush” was held in the UK from July 21-30, 2015.

Foot Notes:
About Indian Air Force(IAF)
Founded: 8 October 1932.
Headquarters: New Delhi.
Motto: Glory that touches the sky
Commander-in-Chief: President Ram Nath Kovind
Chief of the Air Staff (CAS): Air Chief Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria,

About Royal Air Force(RAF)
Founded: 1 April 1918
Country: United Kingdom
Chief of the Air Staff: Air Chief Marshal Mike Wigston

4. Delhi’s IGI airport ranked highest in duty-free revenue per passenger.

• The duty-free revenue per passenger for Indira Gandhi International Airport is highest in India at 10 to 11 dollars per passenger.
• According to a report by Knight Frank India, retailers do two times the business compared to some of the most successful city malls.
• The share of non-aeronautical revenue of the joint venture airport in New Delhi is at 70 per cent, well above the global average of 40 per cent.

Foot Notes:
About Delhi
Chief minister: Arvind Kejriwal
Governor: Anil Baijal

5. RBI lifted ban from Bandhan bank and allowed it  to open branches.

• The Reserve Bank of India allowed Bandhan Bank to open branches without its prior approval, lifting a ban imposed on the lender for failing to reduce promoter ownership below the mandated 40%. Bandhan Bank's current promoter holding at 61% is still above the regulatory ceiling.
• Bandhan Financial Holdings Ltd is the holding company and promoter of the Bandhan Bank. Its holding was diluted to 61% from 82% after the acquisition of Gruh Finance last year.
• RBI first came down heavily on Bandhan Bank on September 28, 2018, including a freeze on its founder-cum managing director Chandra Shekhar Ghosh's salary at the September 2018 level.

Foot Notes:
About RBI
Headquarters: Mumbai
Founder: British Raj
Founded: 1 April 1935, Kolkata
Governor: Shaktikanta Das
Four deputy governors: B. P. Kanungo, N. S. Vishwanathan, Mahesh Kumar Jain, and Michael Patra.

About Bandhan Bank
Headquarters: Kolkata
CEO: Chandra Shekhar Ghosh
Founder: Chandra Shekhar Ghosh
Founded: 2001
Chairperson: Anup Kumar Sinha

6. Shri Jawed Ashraf appointed as the next Ambassador of India to France.

• Shri Jawed Ashraf is appointed as the next Ambassador of India to France, he succeeds Vinay Mohan Kwatra. Vinay Mohan Kwatra will become the next Ambassador of India to Nepal, he succeeds Manjeev Singh Puri.
• Shri Jawed Ashraf was a 1991 batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer. Shri Jawed Ashraf is currently serving as a Indian High Commissioner to Singapore.
• Vinay Mohan Kwatra was a 1988 batch IFS officer.

Foot Notes:
About France
Capital: Paris
Currency: Euro, CFP Franc
President: Emmanuel Macron

About Nepal
Capital: Kathmandu
Currency: Nepalese rupee, Indian rupee

7. Five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova 'said goodbye' to tennis at 32.

• Five-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova, one of the world's most recognisable sports women, announced her retirement from tennis. The Russian won her first Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2004 aged 17 and completed the career slam, all four major titles,  by winning the French Open in 2012.
• In 2016, she served a 15-month ban after testing positive for meldonium.
• After returning from her ban in 2017, Sharapova struggled to recapture her best form and suffered from a number of injuries.
• She has dropped to 373 in the world, her lowest ranking since August 2002, and has lost in the first round of her past three Grand Slam tournaments.

8. Famous NASA mathematician “Katherine Johnson” passed away at 101.

• Katherine Johnson, a NASA mathematician whose life was portrayed in the movie ‘Hidden Figures’ passed away.
• Johnson's calculations helped put the first man on the Moon in 1969. She was little known until the Oscar-nominated 2016 movie that told the stories of three black women who worked at NASA.
• Her math talents later helped determine the trajectory of the Apollo 11 flight that landed Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon in July 1969. US president Barack Obama presented Johnson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the country, in 2015.

Foot Notes:
About NASA
Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States
Founder: Dwight D. Eisenhower
Founded: 29 July 1958, United States
Administrator: Jim Bridenstine

9. Bihar became 1st NDA state to adopt resolution against NRC.

• Bihar became the 1st National Democratic Alliance (NDA) state in India, which passed a resolution against National Register of Citizens (NRC) and also passed a resolution to implement the National Population Register (NPR), according to 2010 format, with an amendment. In this regard, a unanimous resolution has been passed by the Bihar assembly.
• The Bihar State government has written a letter to the Central government of India to drop the “Additional clauses” inserted in the NPR forms. According to the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Sushil Kumar Modi, who presented Bihar’s Budget in the assembly, the first phase of Census 2021 and the process of the National Population Register (NPR) in Bihar would be done between the period of May 15 to June 28, 2020.

Foot Notes:
About Bihar:
Capital: Patna
Chief Minister: Nitish Kumar
Governor: Phagu Chauhan

10. Carbon as old as 8,000 years found in Yongle Blue Hole.

• Carbon more than 8,000 years old has been found inside the world's deepest blue hole ‘the Yongle Blue Hole (YBH)’ which was recently discovered in the South China Sea.
• Blue holes are marine caverns filled with water and are formed following dissolution of carbonate rocks, usually under the influence of global sea level rise or fall.
• Such concentrations of carbon, usually found in deep marine holes like YBH, provide a natural laboratory to study carbon cycling and potential mechanisms controlling it in the marine ecosystem.
• YBH has a depth of 300 metres, far deeper than the previously recorded deepest blue hole, Dean’s Blue Hole in Bahamas, which had a depth of 202 metres.

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Current Affairs 26 February, 2020

Current Affairs 25 February, 2020

Current Affairs 24 February, 2020

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