1) 1st anniversary of National War Memorial being observed
•The National War Memorial commemorates the soldiers who made supreme sacrifice during the Counter Insurgency Operations and Peace Keeping Missions. More than 25 thousand soldiers of the Indian Armed Forces have laid down their lives to defend the country’s sovereignty and integrity. For the first time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid homage to the fallen soldiers at National War Memorial instead of the Amar Jawan Jyoti on Republic Day this year. The memorial helps in strengthening the sense of high moral values, sacrifice and national pride in the citizens. Over the last year, more than 21 lakh people including dignitaries, both domestic and foreign, have visited the memorial.
2) Govt of Andhra Pradesh launched ‘Jagananna Vasthi Deevena’ scheme for students
Benefits of the scheme:
•The scheme would provide financial assistance of Rs 2,300 crore in total. In total, 11,87,904 students pursuing ITI, polytechnic, under-graduate and post-graduate education would benefit from the scheme.
•ITI students would get Rs 10,000 each, polytechnic students would get Rs 15,000 and under-graduates and post-graduates Rs 20,000 each.
•The students would get the amount in two installments directly in their bank accounts. They will get in February and July every year.
3) MP becomes 1st state to launch unified vehicle registration card
•The unified smart cards for the driving license and vehicle registration will each have a QR code that will help in verifying the authenticity of the data printed on the cards. The unified driving license card will also have information about the ability of the driver to drive in hilly and dangerous areas and an emergency contact number. Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) had issued the guidelines to bring uniformity in driving licenses and vehicle registration cards across the country in March last year. These cards are being issued in compliance with these guidelines.
4) Losar festival celebrated in Himachal Pradesh
5) Gandhinagar hosts cultural fair “Vasantotsav” at Sanskruti Kunj
•The cultural festival “Vasantotsav” was held with the theme of “Ek Bhaart Shreshth Bharat”. The festival also featured the participation of artists from across India and was inaugurated with a folk dance form of Chhattisgarh i.e. Panthi dance. Chhattisgarh has been paired with Gujarat under the Central Government’s scheme “Ek Bharat Shresth Bharat”.
6) India & US sign defence deals worth $3 billion
•The deals were signed after delegation-level talks between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting US President Donald Trump. Under a USD 2.6 billion deal, India will buy 24 MH-60 Romeo helicopters from Lockheed Martin for the Indian Navy. Another contract to acquire six AH-64E Apache helicopters for USD 800 million from aerospace giant Boeing has also been sealed.
•Defence and security ties between India and the US have been on an upswing in the last six years. The bilateral defence trade touched USD 18 billion marks in 2019, reflecting growing defence cooperation between the two sides.
7) BIMSTEC to connect 3000 km long power grid from Myanmar-Thailand to India
•The above announcement was made during the inauguration of the Conference on Enhancing Energy Cooperation in the BIMSTEC Region, which was held in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The 3,000 kilometre-long BIMSTEC regional power grid will come up with various advantages. The member country’s demand of energy will be ensured with the introduction of power grid. It will also benefit consumers with uninterrupted power supply at economical prices.
•The 3,000 kilometre-long BIMSTEC regional power grid will be established on the basis of memorandum of understanding signed by the BIMSTEC countries in 2018. BIMSTEC is a regional group of seven countries including Bhutan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Thailand and Myanmar. The group promotes regional cooperation by keeping in mind an objective of rapid economic development.
8) ISRO to launch Geo Imaging Satellite “GISAT-1”
About GISAT-1:
•The Geo Imaging Satellite “GISAT-1” is an agile Earth observation satellite which has been planned to be placed in a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit by GSLV-F10. The satellite weighing about 2275 kg will reach the final geostationary orbit with the help of onboard propulsion system installed on it. The GSLV flight will be carrying an Ogive shaped payload having a diameter of 4 metre.
9) NPCI launches UPI awareness campaign “UPI Chalega”
•The UPI, which is a real time fund transfer interface, has significantly scaled since its launch in August 2016 when 92,000 transactions worth Rs 3.1 crore were processed on the NPCI operated platform to over 1.3 billion transactions worth Rs 2.16 trillion in January 2020.
10) Abhay Kumar Singh becomes new CMD of NHPC