SUPER 6 CURRENT AFFAIRS- 10th Feb 2017

NATIONAL

1. Govt decides to open 56 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras

2. National Women’s Parliament begins in Andhra Pradesh

3. Britain and India ease limits on flights to boost trade ties

4. Mission XI Million, the biggest school sports outreach programme in the country launched in New Delhi

5. Hemant Bhargava appointed as LIC’s managing director

6. Shawna Pandya To Become Third Indian-Origin Woman To Fly In Space

INTERNATIONAL

7. Official mascot of FIFA U-17 World Cup unveiled

8. MRI pioneer and Nobel laureate Sir Peter Mansfield dies

BUSINESS

9. Centre appoints 3 directors to RBI central board

SPORTS 

10. Official mascot of FIFA U-17 World Cup 'Kheleao' unveiled

NATIONAL

1. Govt decides to open 56 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras

• The Government has decided to open 56 Post Office Passport Seva Kendras, POPSK, at different locations of many states for delivering passport related services to public.

• The states include Delhi, Assam, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana and West Bengal.

• The External Affairs Ministry and the Department of Posts announced last month their decision to utilize the Head Post Offices in the various States as POPSK.

•  The objective of this partnership is to extend passport services on a larger scale and to ensure wider area coverage.

• Earlier, the project was started on a pilot basis at Mysuru in Karnataka and Dahod in Gujarat.

2. National Women’s Parliament begins in Andhra Pradesh

• The three-day National Women’s Parliament, being organised by Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly with the theme of ‘Empowering Women – Strengthening Democracy

• The vision of NWP is to enable and encourage social, political and economic empowerment of women in all strata of the society.

• One of the objectives of NWP is to generate new ideas, concepts, theories and ideologies for women empowerment

• An ‘International Woman Icon of the World’ award and 12 best young achievers awards for women in different fields will be presented at the NWP.

3. Britain and India ease limits on flights to boost trade ties

• India and the UK have inked a pact to ease restrictions on the number of scheduled flights between the two countries.

• "Limits on flights from key Indian cities including Chennai and Kolkata have been scrapped, allowing for a greater range of flights for passengers while providing a boost to trade and tourism for the UK and India," the Civil Aviation Ministry said in a release.

• Both countries have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to ease restrictions on the number of scheduled flights between the two countries.

• The agreement also opened all destinations in the UK for Indian carriers for code share flights and reciprocally the UK airlines can operate code share flights to any international airport in India, through domestic code share arrangements.

4.  Mission XI Million, the biggest school sports outreach programme in the country launched in New Delhi

• The Union Minister of State (I/C) for Youth Affairs and Sports, Vijay Goel has recently launched the “Mission-Eleven-Million” sports outreach programme to promote football among school children.

• The main purpose of the Mission XI is to instill the passion for football in 11 million children from every part of the country.

• The first-of-its- kind programme will encourage children to play the football, gain healthy habits and learn important life lessons in teamwork and sportsman spirit.

• As part of the programme, Government will motivate and incentivize school principals and sports teachers to promote football games in school on a regular basis.

•  The programme will also provide schools with necessary knowledge and equipment to encourage football as a sport played on a regular basis.

5. Hemant Bhargava appointed as LIC’s managing director

• Hemant Bhargava was on Friday appointed as managing director of state-owned Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India.

• He is at present LIC’s zonal manager, Delhi. The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved Bhargava’s appointment to the post till his superannuation, i.e., 31 July, 2019, an order issued by personnel ministry said.

• The top LIC management consists of the chairman and three managing directors.

6. Shawna Pandya To Become Third Indian-Origin Woman To Fly In Space

• An Indian-origin neurosurgeon currently based in Canada has been shortlisted by NASA for its 2018 space mission under the Citizen Science Astronaut (CSA) programme.

• If everything goes as per plan, Dr Shawna Pandya, 32, may join the league of Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.


• Dr Pandya, who was born in Canada, is a general physician with the Alberta University Hospital.

• She has her roots in Mumbai, where her grandmother currently lives in Mahalaxmi area.

• Dr Pandya, who is in Mumbai holding talks with medical professionals, was shortlisted after securing top score in the CSA programme.

INTERNATIONAL

7. MRI pioneer and Nobel laureate Sir Peter Mansfield dies

• A Nobel laureate who failed his school exams before going on to pioneer body scanning technology has died aged 83.

• Sir Peter Mansfield led a team in the 1970s that developed Magnetic Resonance Imaging, one of the most important breakthroughs in modern medicine.

• The son of a gas fitter, he left school at the age of 15 before embarking on a career at the University of Nottingham.

• Vice-chancellor Professor Sir David Greenaway said his work "changed our world for the better".

BUSINESS

8. Centre appoints 3 directors to RBI central board 

• The Centre on Thursday appointed three part-time non-official directors on the Reserve Bank of India’s Central Board for a four-year term.

• The Central Government has nominated Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Dr. Ashok Gulati and Shri Manish Sabharwal as directors on the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India for a period of four years with effect from February 9, 2017

SPORTS 

9. Official mascot of FIFA U-17 World Cup 'Kheleao' unveiled

• With just 238 days remaining for the start of FIFA Under-17 World Cup India 2017, the official mascot of the tournament 'Kheleao' was unveiled at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi today.

•  A clouded leopard called Kheleao was introduced to hundreds of football fans in a ceremony attended by Sports Minister Vijay Goel and All India Football Federation President Praful Patel.

• The clouded leopard is an endangered wild cat whose habitat extends from the Himalayan foothills to mainland Southeast Asia.


•  Kheleo will participate in numerous activities in the run-up to the first-ever FIFA tournament to be hosted by India, which will be played from October 6 to 28 this year.