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1. Rakesh Kumar Vats has been appointed as

the new Secretary-General of the Medical
Council of India.

2. Ajay Narayan Jha joined the 15th  Finance Commission as its

Member in place of Shaktikanta Das who had resigned as a Member of
the Commission after being appointed as Governor of the RBI.

3. Hasmukh Adhia was appointed as non-executive chairman of

Bank of Baroda.

4. Ajit Kumar Mohanty has been appointed as Director of Bhabha Atomic

Research Centre (BARC) (located in Mumbai, Maharashtra).

5. Bhagwan Lal Sahni (from Muzaffarpur, Bihar) has been appointed as

the chairman of the National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC).

6. P V Ramesh appointed as the director-general of the National

Archives of India.

1. “Mukhyamantri Parivar Samman Nidhi”

scheme was launched by the Haryana
government recently; the scheme is for
farmers with areas up to five acres and the
families with an income of less than Rs. 15,000
per month.

The scheme would provide a sum of Rs.

6,000 yearly. The scheme provides insurance facilities of- Rs. 2 lakhs on
natural death, Rs. 2 lakhs for accidental death, Rs. 2 lakhs for permanent
disability and Rs. 1 lakh for partial disability.
2. Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the “Pradhan
Mantri JI-VAN (Jaiv Indhan- Vatavaran Anukool Fasal Awashesh Nivaran)
Yojana”, the scheme provides financial support to Integrated
Bioethanol Projects using renewable feedstock.

The scheme focuses to incentivise 2G Ethanol sector and support this

nascent industry by creating a suitable ecosystem for setting up commercial
projects.

3. A water conservation scheme ‘Jal Amrutha’ was launched by

Karnataka CM, in Bengaluru.

4. Tripura Government has announced ‘Notun Disha’ (New

Direction) scheme for assessing the academic level of students in classes
III-VIII and then improving their current level.

5. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched the scheme

‘Mukhya Mantri Karigar Sahayata’ for financial assistance to craftsmen.

Craftsmen with 10 years of experience and having an annual income below

Rs.1 lakh are eligible to get the assistance of Rs.800 per month.

6. The Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee has unveiled a

new scheme Yuvashree Plan II or “Yuvashree Arpan” to encourage
entrepreneurship among youth of the state.

1. Punjab National Bank has been ranked

first among public sector banks in the
implementation of 'reforms agenda', as per the
BCG-IBA’s “EASE Reforms for Public Sector
Banks” report.

2. World Bank signed MoU with the

Government of India to provide $250
million support to the National Rural Economic Transformation Project
(NRETP).

3. SBI and Hitachi Payment Services Pvt Ltd, (a wholly-owned

subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd), launched their merchant-acquiring joint venture,
SBI Payment Services Pvt Ltd (SBIPSPL), for establishing a digital
payments platform for India and other countries in the region.

4.  The government has given a nod to the IDBI Bank to handle
import and export transactions with Iran. The move is aimed towards
boosting the trade between India and Iran amidst US sanctions on Iran.

5. RBI approved the merger of DBS Bank Ltd.’s Indian business unit
with DBS Bank India with effect from 1st March 2019.

6. Life Insurance Corporation Housing Finance Ltd (LICHFL) partnered

with India Mortgage Guarantee Corporation (IMGC) to offer home
buyers enhanced loan eligibility and easy loans.

7. IDBI Bank and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) signed a

bancassurance agreement under which the lender will offer LIC’s
insurance products at its branches.

8. USD 455 million agreement was signed between the Asian

Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the Government of India
for financing the Andhra Pradesh Rural Roads Project.

9. UAE based company will release 12 bank notes of zero value a first-
ever limited-edition to mark Mahatma Gandhi's 150 birth
anniversary. 

10. RBI has constituted an 8-member task force which will be headed by
its former deputy governor, Usha Thorat to examine issues related to
offshore rupee markets and recommend policy measures.

11. Indian Bank (Headquarter: Chennai, Tamil Nadu) has been awarded
the Best Bank Award by the Tamil Nadu government for successfully
meeting the needs of women’s self-help groups (SHGs).

1. A loan agreement worth $25.2 million

was signed between the Central government,
Chhattisgarh state government and the World
Bank.

2. Moody’s quarterly Global Macro Outlook

which was released recently, the Indian
economy is expected to grow at 7.3 per
cent in 2019 and 2020.

3. ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of

India), has conferred ‘Non-Life Insurer of the Year Award 2019′ to
Bharti AXA General Insurance.

4. National Health Authority (NHA), body implementating Ayushman

Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) has signed an MoU
with Uber– a ride-hailing app to provide free healthcare services to
Uber drivers.

1. TVS Motor was awarded the ‘Green Era

Award for Sustainability’ at Lisbon, Portugal.
The company also won the ‘Quality and Business
Excellence Award’ for its unmatched product
quality.

2. Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, who integrated the Eastern designs

and Western countries’ designs in his creative designs has been honoured
with Pritzker Architecture Prize 2019.

3. Kavya Kopparapu, an Indian-American teenager has been awarded

the National STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math)
Education Award 2019 in the USA.

She has been awarded for her contribution in enhancing treatments of

glioblastoma a form of brain cancer.

4. Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) was recently

honoured with SKOCH award for its remarkable achievements in the
field of disaster management.

5. British Indian World War II spy, Noor Inayat Khan, confirmed as the
first Indian-origin woman to be honoured with a Blue Plaque at her former
home, 4 Taviton Street in Bloomsbury, London.

6. Prime Minister’s Trophy for the Best Overall Performance by

integrated steel plants was conferred upon Tata Steel Limited,
Jamshedpur Works.

7. The Steel Minister’s Trophy along with a cash prize of 1 Crore rupees was
conferred upon JSW Steel Limited – Vijayanagar Works.

8. Satheesh Reddy, (Chairman of DRDO) has been chosen by the

American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) as the co-winner
of the 2019 Missile Systems Award. The other co-winner is Rondell J.

9. Indian Air Force Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman who was

recently in news has been chosen for the first Bhagwan Mahavir
Ahimsa Puraskar constituted by the Akhil Bharatiya Digambar Jain
Mahasamiti.

1. Second Edition of Indian Sign Language

(ISL) Dictionary was launched by Minister of
Social Justice and Empowerment, Thaawarchand
Gehlot in New Delhi.

2. The eighth edition of joint military exercise

‘Sampriti-2019’ between India and
Bangladesh was held recently in Tangail, Bangladesh.

3. 7th Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)

Intersessional Ministerial Meeting was organized in Siem Reap,
Cambodia.

4. PM Modi inaugurated two-day Expo-cum Conference on Construction

Technology India 2019 (CTI-2019) in New Delhi. He also declared ‘April
2019–March 2020’ as Construction-Technology year.

5. Border Security Force (BSF) and Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) took
part recently in ‘Mainamati Maitree Exercise 2019’ as a part of
‘Confidence Building Measures’ between India and Bangladesh.

6. Rare Disease Day: February 28

7. World Civil Defence Day: March 01

Theme of this year’s World Civil Defence Day was “Children’s safety, our
responsibility”.

8. Zero Discrimination Day observed: March 01

Theme: “Act to change laws that Discriminate”.

9. Civil Accounts Day: March 01

10. World Hearing Day: March 03

Theme: “Check your Hearing”.

11. World Wildlife Day: March 03

Theme: ‘Life below water: for people and planet’

National Safety Day: March 04

Theme: “Cultivate and Sustain a safety culture for building nation”.

12. March 7 will be observed as Janaushadhi Divas across India to

create awareness and provide further impetus to the Pradhan Mantri
Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP) scheme
 1. India ranked first in the Consumer
Confidence Survey which was conducted by
global performance management company
Nielsen Holdings. It means that India has the
most optimistic customers. South Korea has the most pessimistic
customers in the world.

2. Gurugram in the National Capital Region (NCR) emerged as the most

polluted region in the world in 2018 as per 2018 World Air Quality
Report. New Delhi has been ranked as the most polluted capital city.

In the country category, Bangladesh has been ranked as the most polluted
country.

3. According to the Delta ranking report released by NITI Aayog, Assam’s

Hailakandi has become the top aspirational district among the 112
aspirational districts of the country.

4. India has the cheapest mobile data in the world as per the research
by price comparison site cable.co.uk. In India, the average price of 1GB
data is 0.26 USD.

5. Malaysia recently became the 124th member of the International

Criminal Court (ICC), the world’s only permanent war crimes court which
aims to prosecute the worst abuses when national courts are unable or
unwilling.

6. Indore bagged the award for the cleanest city for the third straight
year in Swachh Survekshan 2019 Awards.

New Delhi Municipal Council area gets cleanest small city award while
Uttarakhand’s Gauchar was adjudged Best Ganga Town in the
survey.

Bhopal won the cleanest capital/ UT city award.

7. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos (USD 131 billion) topped the Forbes World’s
Billionaires list. Mukesh Ambani jumped six positions to be India’s best
ranked at world’s 13th richest person.

As per the list, India has 106 billionaires.

1. Rice Knowledge Bank-Assam, which is an

 agriculture web portal dedicated to magnify
knowledge on rice production technologies and
techniques, was launched under the World
Bank funded project – Agri-business and
Rural Transformation (APART).

2. Tamil Nadu has become the first state in

the country to introduce Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation
(TAVI) in the government hospitals.

1. BOLD-QIT which is Border Electronically

Dominated QRT Interception Technique was
inaugurated by Home Minister Rajnath
Singh on the entire 61-km India-
Bangladesh border in Dhubri, Assam.

2. Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal

announced a new railway zone (18th in the
country) in Andhra Pradesh, it would be called Southern Coast
Railway and it will be headquartered in Visakhapatnam.

3. Bengaluru based semiconductor company “SIGNALCHIP” unveiled

India’s first Indigenous Semiconductor Chips for 4G/LTE and 5G NR
MODEMs at an event in New Delhi.

4. Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) created a new Guinness

World Record for the longest single moving line bicycle parade at
the Yamuna Expressway recently.

5. “The Fate of Butterflies “, a novel by Nayantara Sahgal was

released recently in New Delhi.

1. Red Flag 2019, long advanced aerial

combat training exercise by the US Air
Force, has been initiated at Nellis Air Force
Base, Nevada, United States.

2. Kaja Kallas has been appointed as the first

female Prime Minister of Estonia (Currency:
Euro, Capital: Tallin).
3. India has collaborated with Bhutan, Nepal, Indonesia and
Malaysia to increase the population of three Asian rhino species –
Greater one-horned rhinoceros, Javan rhino and Sumatran rhino, by signing
the New Delhi Declaration on Asian Rhinos 2019, at the recently held
Second Asian Rhino Range Countries meet, at New Delhi.

4. Kylie Jenner was declared by Forbes magazine as the youngest ever

self-made billionaire.

5. Google India has unveiled an app- Bolo which focuses on improving

the reading and comprehension skills of students, especially the ones in
rural areas.

1. Vivo Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019’s

official partner, TATA Motors, will promote
its newly-launched SUV, Harrier, as its lead
brand at the event.

2. Chris Gayle became the first player in

the world to hit 500 sixes (he achieved the
feat against England).

3. International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF)’s inaugural World Cup

was held in New Delhi, India. India ranked 1st in the World Cup along
with Hungary.

4. Saurabh Chaudhary and Apurvi Chandela finished top of the 10m

Air Pistol event in the men’s and women’s category respectively.

5. Alastair Cook (former captain of England cricket team) was officially

awarded the knighthood for his services to cricket.

6. Anil Kumble was re-appointed ICC (International Cricket Council)

Cricket Committee, Chairman.

7. 57th  International Wrestling Tournament ‘Dan Kolov – Nikola

Petrov’ was conducted in Ruse, Bulgaria recently. Bajrang Punia won a
gold medal in 65 kg freestyle category and  Pooja Dhanda won gold in
59 kg women’s freestyle category.

1. Former Union Minister V. Dhananjay

Kumar died in Mangalore, Karnataka.

2. Russian Zhores Alferov who won the

Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 passed
recently.
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