Monthly Current Affairs February 2016 “TIT-BITS” key points to Remember.
1) Salesforce has acquired PredictionIO, a startup with general-purpose open source machine learning software.
2) Canalysis of NASA’s data revealed that India has overtaken China’s air pollution levels in 2015 and the average particulate matter exposure was higher for the first time in the 21st century.
3) A recent study has revealed that there is a high sediment mercury levels in Artic which is more prone for pollution in the region.
4) The first animal to appear on Earth was very likely the simple sea sponges.
5) Flamboyant ((of a person or their behaviour) tending to attract attention because of their exuberance, confidence, and stylishness.) businessman Vijay Mallya has quit as Chairman of United Spirits after its new majority owner Diageo agreed to pay Rs 515 crore and absolve him of all liabilities over alleged financial lapses at the company founded by his family.
6) Pakistan on 24 Feb 2016 resumed Lahore-Delhi ‘Dosti’ bus service, days after it was suspended indefinitely at India’s request following violence and arson in Jat quota stir in Haryana.
7) Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, JP Nadda on 23 Feb 2016 inaugurated 3- day International Conference on Combating Antimicrobial Resistance in New Delhi.
8) Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on 22 February 2016 inaugurated an exhibition on the Coin and Currency of India at the Great Hall of North Block in New Delhi.
9) Air pollution kills more than 5.5 million people around the world each year, with over half of those deaths occurring in fast-growing China and India.
10) For the first time, India has participated in the Cobra GOLD 2016 multilateral exercise hosted by Indonesia after 12 member Indian Army delegation joined it.
11) E-commerce giant AMAZON on 17 Feb 2016 announced the launch of ‘Amazon Tatkal’, an initiative that enables small and medium businesses (SMBs) to go online and sell products on Amazon.
12) Saying ‘hello’ online in Sindhi just got easier as Google Translate will now speak Sindhi. Along with Sindhi, Google has introduced 12 other new languages— Amharic, Corsican, Frisian, Kyrgyz, Hawaiian, Kurdish (Kurmanji), Luxembourgish, Samoan, Scots Gaelic, Shona, Pashto and Xhosa.
13) The Hindu minority community in Pakistan will soon have a marriage law as a parliamentary panel has unanimously approved the Hindu Marriage Bill.
14) Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd, the largest bottler of Coca-Cola India, has stopped production at its bottling plant at Kaladera near Jaipur (Rajasthan), Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Brynihat (Meghalaya).
15) After TRAI’s decision on discriminatory pricing, Facebook has announced that it has scrapped its controversial Free Basics initiative from India.
16) Kirthiga Reddy, Facebook Inc’s India managing director who said she is stepping down and returning to the United States to “explore new opportunities” at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California.