NATIONAL NEWS

MEA to Organize Craft Festival 'COALESCENCE'

• The Ministry of External Affairs with Indian Council for Cultural Relations, ICCR will organize a Craft Festival- COALESCENCE from 23^rd February 2022 in New Delhi to showcase indigenous products. It will be conducted for three days.
• The event is organized under the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav Week, which is being celebrated from 22 February 2022 to 27 February 2022.
• It will be celebrated in different states of the country.
• This festival will be based on Craft, Culture, Community, and Climate, in which 22 groups of artisan from 11 states will participate on the three days event.

Khajuraho Dance Festival

• The 48th edition ‘Khajuraho Dance Festival’ will be held from February 20 to February 26, at world famous tourist destination Khajuraho located in Chhatarpur district, Madhya Pradesh.

• Governor of Madhya Pradesh Mangubhai Patel inaugurated the dance festival organized by the Government of Madhya Pradesh, cultural Department and Kala Academy in the Amrit Mahotsav being celebrated on the 75th anniversary of independence.

• The festival will also be presenting artists with the ‘National Kalidas Award’ for dance and the ‘MP state Rupankar Kala Award.

First Navigation App in Rivers

• Assam was the first state to launch the Night Navigation Mobile Application in rivers for ferry services on Brahmaputra River. It was launched by Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma.

• The night navigation mobile application was developed by the transport department in association with K Raju, the principal scientist of IIT Madras.

• The chief minister also launched e-ticketing system for Dhubri and Silchar ferry services.
• An MoU was also signed between the Common Service Centers under the ministry of information technology and transport department for facilitating people at the panchayat level to avail the online services.

Exercise Eastern Bridge-VI

• The Indian Air Force (IAF) and Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO) are scheduled to participate in a bilateral exercise named Eastern Bridge-VI from 21 to 25 February 2022 at Air Force Station Jodhpur.
• It will provide an opportunity to enhance operational capability and interoperability between the two Air Forces.
• This year marks the 6th edition of the exercise.

Kerala CM Inaugurates ‘Huddle Global 2022’

• Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated 3rd edition of the two-day virtual event ‘Huddle Global 2022’, which is one of Asia’s largest start-up ecosystem congregations and India’s biggest networking platform for entrepreneurs.

• During the event, Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), the nodal company of the Kerala authorities collaborated with Google to launch Google for startup accelerators, to attach native startups with the worldwide stratups.

• The event would set the stage for a meeting of globally known start-up founders, mentors, investors, industry leaders, and representatives of government departments, to deliberate a whole range of issues relating to the start-up ecosystem with a global perspective.

BANKING

IRCTC BoB Rupay Card

• A wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank of Baroda (BoB), BOB Financial Solutions Limited (BFSL) and Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) together launched the IRCTC BoB RuPay contactless credit card.

• The card will offer maximum savings to frequent railway travellers. The card user will also get multiple benefits for shopping from groceries to fuel. Cardholders can also use this card to transact at international merchants and ATMs through the JCB network.

• Customer will be provided with 1000 bonus reward points for purchase worth Rs. 1000 or more within 45 days of issuance of card.
• The card will provide 1 percent transaction fee waiver for customer on all train ticket bookings.
• The customer can earn 40 reward point per Rs. 100 spent for bookings made through IRCTC website and 4 reward points per Rs.100 spent on grocery.
• The reward points can be redeemed on the IRCTC website or Mobile app.

About BFSL:

• HQ: Mumbai, Maharashtra.

• MD & CEO: Shailendra Singh.

BUSINESS NEWS

Department of Commerce to achieve Target by 2027

• Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal has chaired a meeting focused on the restructuring to make the department of commerce and to achieve the target of USD 2 trillion exports by 2027.

• The Commerce Ministry also said that there will be a strengthened negotiation ecosystem with right expertise through multi skilled negotiations team and robust end-to-end processes with clearly defined focus areas.

• An inter-ministerial Trade Remedies Review committee including the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Finance also proposed for transparency.
• Centralization and digitization of trade facilitation processes has been recommended to drive ease of compliance and scheme administration.

Offshore Wind Projects

• Tata Power Renewable Energy Limited, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Powe signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Germany-based RWE Renewables GmbH to develop offshore wind projects in India.

• It is signed to achieve India’s Vision of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind installations by 2030 to face the increasing power demands.
• Tata Power, which is one of India’s largest integrated power companies and India is an attractive market to develop opportunities for offshore wind as it has a large coastline of about 7,600 kilometres.
• The government is in the process of conducting detailed technical studies and devising the regulatory framework to establish the first auctions for offshore wind of the coast of Tamil Nadu and Gujarat.

SPORTS

Indian GM R Praggnanandhaa Defeats World Champion Magnus Carlsen

• 16-year-old Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa (Chennai), defeated world champion, Magnus Carlsen (Norwegian) in the eighth round of the Airthings Masters competition.

• Praggnanandhaa has become only the third Indian after Viswanathan Anand and P Harikrishna to beat Carlsen.
• Praggnanandhaa won with black pieces in 39 moves.

AWARDS AND PRIZES

India’s Most Trusted Public Sector Company

• Coal India Limited, has been awarded the 'India's Most Trusted Public Sector Company' award.

• Award was given to the company at the “Energy Meet and Excellence Award” function organized by Industry Chamber “ASSOCHAM” in Kolkata.

• In the difficult times, Coal India has not allowed the situation of power crisis in the country by significantly increasing coal production and supply in the last few months to meet the increased demand for coal for the power sector.
• Pramod Agarwal, Chairman of Coal India was included in the list of “Top 40 CEOs of India” released in January 2022 by the well-known organization Start-up Lens.
• Coal India Ltd is a Maharatna company of the government of India headquartered at Kolkata, West bengal.

Criteria to become Maharatna

• The Average annual turnover of company during the last 3 years is more than Rs. 25,000 crore.

• The Average annual net worth during the last 3 years is more than Rs. 15,000 crore.
• The Average annual net profit after tax during the last 3 years is more than Rs. 5,000 crore.
• The company should have a significant global presence or international operations.

DPIFF Awards 2022

• On 20 February 2022, the 68th edition Dadasahed Phalke International Film Festival Award 2022 took place at Mumbai, Maharashtra. It was presented in the honour of the Dadasahed Phalkeji ‘Father of Indian Cinema’.
• It recognizes the outstanding efforts by international and national personalities from cinema industry.
• Bollywood stars Ranveer Singh and Kriti Sanon awarded Best Actor and Best Actress category for their performances in movies “83”and “Mimi”.

IMPORTANT DAYS

International Mother Language Day

• The International Mother Language Day is celebrated every year on 21st February 2022.

• The theme of the year 2022 is “Using technology for multilingual learning: Challenges and opportunities.”

• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) proclaimed International Mother Language Day in November 1999. The day aims to raise awareness and to promote multilingualism and develop quality teaching and learning for all.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

A Book by Priyam Gandhi Mody

•  Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Mansukh Mandaviya launched a book titled “A Nation To Protect” authored by Priyam Gandhi Mody. It is her Third book.

• Professor Shamika Ravi (Economist) and Dr VK Paul (member of NITI Aayog) were also present.

• It highlights the Prime Minister’s role and motivation during the Covid crisis in the past two years.

OBITUARY

Journalist Ravish Tiwari

• Senior Journalist Ravish Tiwari, National Political Editor passed away. He was 40. He was born on 1981.

• He served as the Chief of National Bureau of The Indian Express and popular for his political news reporting.
• He also served as editor in India Today and The Economic Times.

Freedom Fighter and Social Worker Shakuntala Choudhary

• Freedom Fighter and Padma Awardee Shakuntala Choudhary, passed away in Guwahati. She was 102 years old.

• Choudhary, popularly known as Shakuntala Baideo, associating with Kamrup, she worked for the wellbeing of villagers, especially women and children in the state of Assam

• Earlier, Chaudhary had been honoured with one of the highest civilian awards, Padma Shri by the Government of India for her social work.