Changing the way of learning Daily Current Affairs Capsule 16 th February 2019 1. PM Narendra Modi flags off India's fastest train Vande Bharat Express India's first semi-high speed train, the Vande Bharat Express, was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the New Delhi Railway Station. The train will travel from Delhi to Varanasi in nine hours and forty-five minutes. This includes stoppage time of 40 minutes each at Kanpur and Allahabad.
The train had been produced indigenously at the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai. The bookings for the train have begun and it will run commercially from February 17 from Delhi to Varanasi. 2. PM Modi lays foundation for Rs 20,000 crore defence corridor in UP Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation of the flagship Bundelkhand Defence Industrial Corridor in Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh. The project is expected to cost around Rs 20,000 crore. The defence corridor from Jhansi to Agra will strengthen the defence production in the country and stop migration. The mega project would have span 6 nodes at Aligarh, Agra, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow and Chitrakoot. Points to Remember India had taken the decision to establish two defence corridors in the country, one at Tamil Nadu and the other in Uttar Pradesh. 3. National Conference on Sustainable and Environment-friendly Industrial Production Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) organised a conference on Sustainable and Environment-friendly Industrial Production (SEIP) Project in New Delhi. Ministry organized this conference for dissemination of results, successful models and experiences so as to enable replication and plan further actions with state agencies on Pan-India basis. The project worked directly with companies and advised them on environment friendly production and wastewater management in 5 industrial areas in three states (Delhi, Uttarakhand and Gujarat).
Amongst 70 participants included representatives from 18 State Pollution Control Boards and 8 State Industrial Departments. 4. Sushma Swaraj on four-day visit to Bulgaria, Morocco & Spain External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is on a four-day visit to Bulgaria, Morocco and Spain. She start her tour with a visit to Bulgaria where she will meet with the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the country. In Morocco, the External Affairs Minister will interact with her counterpart Nasser Bourit. In Spain, Mrs Swaraj will hold a bilateral meeting with her counterpart Josep Borrell Fontelles to discuss bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual concern. Points to Remember Capital and currency of the above mentioned nations are as follow: Bulgaria: Sofia, Bulgarian lev Morocco: Rabat, Moroccan dirham Spain: Madrid, Euro 5. Union Minister Arun Jaitley assumes charge as Finance Minister Union Minister Arun Jaitley has assumed the charge of Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Corporate Affairs. The charge of the Ministries was given to Union Minister Piyush Goyal on a temporary basis on the 23rd of January. Jaitley, who left for New York last month, returned home last week after undergoing medical treatment. 6. IRS officer PC Mody takes charge as new CBDT chairman
IRS officer Pramod Chandra Mody took over as the new chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). Mody is a 1982-batch Indian Revenue Service officer. He has been appointed in place of Sushil Chandra, who was named as Election Commissioner. Mody has worked in various capacities in the I-T Department and has been working as the Member in the CBDT. The CBDT is headed by a chairman and can have a maximum of six members. 7. UN appoints Chandramouli Ramanathan as ASG in Management Strategy department The UN has appointed an Indian official in one of the top most positions in its Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance. Chandramouli Ramanathan has been appointed as Controller, Assistant Secretary-General for Programme Planning, Budget and Finance in the management strategy, policy and compliance department. He succeeds Bettina Tucci Bartsiotas of Uruguay. Ramanathan brings to the position nearly 40 years of executive international experience in diverse organisational settings in finance and budget, management and information technology. 8. Indian Air Force gets its first woman flight engineer
Flight Lieutenant Hina Jaiswal has created history by becoming the first Indian Woman Flight Engineer. She achieved the feat after completing the prestigious Flight Engineers course 112 Helicopter Unit, Air Force Station, Yelahanka. Commissioned in January 2015 in the engineering branch of the IAF, she has served as Chief of firing team and battery commander in a frontline Surface to Air Missile squadron. Jaiswal, hails from Chandigarh and has completed her Bachelor of Engineering degree from Punjab University.