Daily Current Affairs

Capsule 26th February

2019

1. Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif resigns

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced his resignation.

However his resignation can only take effect once President Hassan Rouhani accepts it.

Zarif played a prominent role in negotiating the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and

major international powers.

Zarif has served as Iran's foreign minister since August 2013 but he has faced severe criticism since the

US withdrew from the nuclear deal in May 2018.

2. First Indian-origin woman to get Blue Plaque in UK

Britain's World War II spy Noor Inayat Khan was confirmed as the first Indian-origin woman to be honoured

with a Blue Plaque at her former London home.

The Blue Plaque scheme run by English Heritage honours notable people who lived or worked in

particular buildings across London.

Khan's plaque is set to go up at 4 Taviton Street in Bloomsbury, where she lived as a secret agent during

the war.

Khan was the daughter of Indian Sufi saint Hazrat Inayat Khan.

She was an agent for Britain's Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II and was

captured and killed by the Nazis in 1944 at just 30 years of age.

3. Govt launches Rail Drishti Dashboard

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal launched Rail Drishti Dashboard in New Delhi.

The Dashboard has been launched to keep people informed about the work going on in the Railways

across the country.

The customer or railway passenger will get an exposure through this dashboard to the multifaceted

transformation underway in Indian Railways across the country.

This dashboard can be accessed using a desktop/laptop or a mobile device such as a phone or tablet and

the url of the dashboard is “raildrishti.cris.org.in”.

4. 4th Global Digital Health Partnership summit inaugurated

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare J P Nadda along with Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad

inaugurated the 4th Global Digital Health Partnership Summit in New Delhi.

The Global Digital Health Partnership is an international collaboration of governments and multinational

organisations dedicated to improving the health through the best use of evidence-based digital

technologies.

The summit will provide an opportunity to support governments and health system reformers to improve

the health and well-being.

Health minister also said that nearly 13 lakh poor people have availed the benefits of Ayushman Bharat

scheme in India.

5. Indra Nooyi joins Amazon Board of Directors

PepsiCo's India-born former CEO Indra Nooyi has joined Amazon's board of directors.

Nooyi, who stepped down as CEO of Pepsico in October last year, is the second woman to be added on

the Amazon's board of Directors.

Early this month, Starbucks executive Rosalind Brewer joined the Amazon Board.

Nooyi would be a member of the audit committee.

She served as the Pepsico CEO from October 2006 to October 2018.

6. Britannia to replace Hindustan Petroleum in Nifty 50

Britannia Industries will replace Hindustan Petroleum Corporation in the Nifty 50 index from March 29.

Shares of HPCL dropped 1.54 per cent to Rs 227.40 on NSE.

Britannia Industries on the other hand gained 1.43 per cent to settle at Rs 3,056 on the bourse.

Points to Remember

The NIFTY 50 index is National Stock Exchange of India's benchmark broad.

Full form of NIFTY is National Stock Exchange Fifty.

It represents the weighted average of 50 Indian company stocks.

7. President presented Gandhi Peace Prize

President Ram Nath Kovind presented the Gandhi Peace Prize for the years 2015, 2016, 2017 & 2018 at

Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi.

The recipients of the award are as follows:

Vivekananda Kendra for the year 2015.

Akshaya Patra foundation and Sulabh International for 2016.

Ekal Abhiyan Trust for 2017.

Yohei Sasakawa for 2018

Points to Remember

Gandhi Peace Prize for Social, Economic and Political transformation through Non-violence was

instituted in 1995.

The Award comprises an amount of Rs. One Crore and a Citation.

8. Abhijeet Gupta lifts Cannes International Open trophy

In Chess, Indian Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta lifted the Cannes International Open trophy.

He took an easy draw with Pier Luigi Basso of Italy in the ninth and final round.

Abhijeet won the tournament with 7.5 points.

This is his first solo International tournament victory.

Earlier this year, Abhijeet had also tied for the first place at the Delhi International open in January.