1) India hosts Indian Ocean Region Defence Ministers’ Conclave
•India hosted Indian Ocean Region (IOR) Defence Ministers’ Conclave on the sidelines of Aero India 2021. The conclave is an initiative to promote dialogue in an institutional, economic and cooperative environment that can foster the development of peace, stability and prosperity in the Indian Ocean region.
•The broad theme of the conclave is ‘Enhanced Peace, Security and Cooperation in the Indian Ocean’. The conclave is also taking place at a time Indian and Chinese troops are locked in a bitter standoff in eastern Ladakh for the last eight months.
2) PM Modi Inaugurates Chauri Chaura Centenary Celebrations
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated the centenary celebrations of the Chauri Chaura incident on February 4 via videoconferencing. February 4, 2021 marks 100 years of the ‘Chauri Chaura’ incident, a landmark event in the country’s fight for independence.
•PM Modi also released a postal stamp dedicated to the Chauri Chaura incident, to mark the beginning of the event. The state government of Uttar Pradesh has planned a year of celebrations in all 75 districts of the state in the memory of the martyrs.
3) Andaman and Nicobar Islands becomes first Union Territory to be corona free
•Andaman and Nicobar Islands has become the first state or Union territory in the country to become Covid-19 free with active cases falling to zero in the islands. Health ministry’s website reported that the last four infected persons in Andaman and Nicobar Islands have been declared cured. The UT had reported a total of 4,932 cases and 62 deaths from the virus.
•The share of Kerala in India’s daily cases crossed 50 per cent for the first time. There were 11,024 fresh cases in the country out of which Kerala alone reported 5,716, 51.8 per cent of the total. The state also has the highest count of active cases at 69,157, out of around 1 lakh 61 thousand in the country.
4) India ranks 53rd in EIU’s Democracy Index
•India’s position has slipped by two places to be placed at 53rd spot in the 2020 Democracy Index, from among 167 countries. The overall score of India is 6.61 in the Index, on a scale of 0-10. India has been classified as a ‘flawed democracy’. Democracy Index is the global ranking released by The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) that provides a snapshot of the current state of democracy worldwide.
5) Centre Appoints Praveen Sinha as interim Director of CBI
•Department of Personnel and Training, under Personnel Ministry, has appointed Praveen Sinha, as the interim director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), with immediate effect on 03 February 2021. He has been appointed in place of the incumbent chief RK Shukla, whose tenure came to an end on February 03, 2021.
•Sinha, a 1988-batch Gujarat cadre Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, is currently an additional director at CBI, the premier investigating agency of India. Sinha shall look after the duties of Director CBI till the appointment of new director CBI, or until further orders, whichever is earlier.
6) Ayesha Aziz becomes India’s Youngest Female Pilot at 25
•A 25-year-old Kashmiri woman, Ayesha Aziz, has become the youngest female pilot in the country. She became the youngest student pilot to get a license at the age of 15 in 2011. The 25 -year-old from Kashmir who is the youngest female pilot in the country acts is a source of inspiration and a beacon of empowerment for numerous Kashmiri women.
7) Reliance sources world’s first ‘carbon-neutral’ oil from United States
•Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Ltd has received the world’s first consignment of ‘carbon-neutral oil’ from Oxy Low Carbon Ventures (OLCV), a division of United State oil major Occidental. This feat will further help the oil major to accomplish its target of becoming a net zero-carbon company by 2035.
•The Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) Sea Pearl containing the carbon-neutral oil from Permian basin, unloaded the cargo at Jamnagar on January 28, 2021. It must be noted that Reliance operates the world’s largest single-location oil refining complex at Jamnagar in Gujarat with a capacity of 68.2 million tonnes a year.
•This transaction is the first major petroleum shipment of Reliance, for which greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the entire crude lifecycle, including oil extraction, transport, storage, shipping, refining, subsequent use, and combustion, have been offset.
8) HAL inks deal with MIDHANI to develop, manufacture composite raw materials
•The state-owned aerospace and defence company, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hyderabad-based Mishra Dhatu Nigam Limited (MIDHANI) for development and production of composite raw materials for use in aerospace. This is the first time that such an MoU has been signed for composite raw materials. The MoU was signed during the Aero India 2021 on February 04, 2021, in Bengaluru.
9) S.N. Subrahmanyan appointed as Chairman of the National Safety Council
•The Ministry of Labour & Employment has appointed S.N. Subrahmanyan as the new Chairman of the National Safety Council (NSC) of India for a period of three years. Subrahmanyan is the CEO and Managing Director of L&T Ltd., India’s largest construction company.
