18th-20th February, 2023

1. IIT-Kanpur has developed an energy-efficient compressed air-based pipeline system for transporting coal and minerals, offering round-the-clock monitoring with considerable savings in time and costs.
2. Textile Advisory Group for Manmade Fibre, led by the Association of Man-Made Fibre Industry of India and the Association of the Synthetic Fibre Industry, held its first meeting with Minister of Textiles Shri Piyush Goyal.
3. 23rd edition of the India International Seafood Show (IISS-2023) was held in Kolkata, West Bengal.
4. Indian Railways and India Post have launched Rail Post Gati Shakti Express Cargo Service, a joint parcel service of Indian Railways and India Post.
5. Ministry of Tourism will organise the 1st Global Tourism Investors’ Summit in New Delhi from the 17th to 19th of May to showcase opportunities in the Tourism and hospitality sector.
6. Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has launched a new AI backed up chatbot named ‘Aadhaar Mitra’ to help people with their Aadhaar-related queries.
7. Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has launched the “Green Bonds” for setting up solar power plants.
8. 4th edition of joint military exercise, “EX DHARMA GUARDIAN”, between India and Japan conducted at Camp Imazu in Shiga province of Japan.
9. Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell, AICTE, Bureau of Police Research and Development (under Ministry of Home Affairs) and Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C, under Ministry of Home Affairs) have launched KAVACH-2023 – a national level hackathon.
10. Indian Army organised a Women’s Snow Cricket tournament in Panzgam village of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
11. Indian Navy’s all-women car expedition titled as “Nari Shakti” sets off from National War Memorial in Delhi to cover 2,300 km.
12. India and Fiji have signed an MOU on visa exemption for holders of diplomatic and official passports.
13. Central Water Commission and the IIT-Roorkee have signed an MOU for establishing an international Centre of Excellence on dam safety.
14. Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports and Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education & Research, Hyderabad (NIPER Hyderabad) have signed a tripartite MoU to address the doping issues in sports.
15. Union Cabinet, chaired by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved the signing of an MOU between the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW).
16. Union Cabinet has approved the signing of an MoU between India and Chile for cooperation in the field of Agriculture and Allied sectors.
17. USA has passed a resolution on Arunachal Pradesh Line of Actual Control (LAC) condemning China.
18. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the UN Security Council’s first-ever debate about the global implications of sea level rise.
19. Spain’s Parliament has given final approval to a law allowing people over 16 years of age to change their legally recognised gender without medical evaluation.
20. According to the Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI) conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for the year 2022, India stood at 47th position (up from the 48th position).
21. RBI has granted in-principle approval to 32 payment aggregators including Amazon Pay, Google India, Reliance Payment Solutions among others.
22. India’s overall exports is estimated to exhibit a growth rate of 33% during April to January 2022-23.
23. Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL) has gone live with UPI LITE, a feature enabled by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for multiple small-value UPI transactions.
24. Competition Commission of India approved the acquisition of certain assets of Jaiprakash Associates Ltd and its associate by Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd.
25. National Stock Exchange (NSE) has signed a data licensing agreement with CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, allowing NSE to list, trade and settle rupee denominated NYMEX WTI Crude Oil and Natural Gas (Henry Hub) derivatives contracts for Indian market participants.
26. Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has launched the facility of issuance of e-BG (Electronic Bank Guarantee) in association with the National e Governance Services limited (NeSL).
27. SEBI has issued Issue Summary Document (ISD) for filing IPO (Initial Public Offer) and for further issue of securities in XBRL format (eXentisble Business Reporting Language).
28. President Colour has been given to the Haryana Police.
29. Union Minister for Culture, Tourism and DoNER, Shri G. Kishan Reddy presented the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for 2019, 2020 and 2021, at Meghdoot Theatre Complex, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi.
30. The 2nd edition of the Annual Anthem Awards was announced.
31. Thwaites Glacier, nicknamed the Doomsday Glacier, is an unusually broad and vast Antarctic glacier.
32. Tulsidas Balaram (Indian footballer) has passed away.

National News

1. IIT-Kanpur has developed an energy-efficient compressed air-based pipeline system for transporting coal and minerals, offering round-the-clock monitoring with considerable savings in time and costs.
2. Textile Advisory Group for Manmade Fibre, led by the Association of Man-Made Fibre Industry of India and the Association of the Synthetic Fibre Industry, held its first meeting with Minister of Textiles Shri Piyush Goyal.
3. 23rd edition of the India International Seafood Show (IISS-2023) was held in Kolkata, West Bengal.
   • Organizers – Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) and the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI)
4. Indian Railways and India Post have launched Rail Post Gati Shakti Express Cargo Service, a joint parcel service of Indian Railways and India Post.
   • It has been started on four routes – Delhi to Kolkata; Bangalore to Guwahati, Surat to Muzaffarpur, and Hyderabad to Hazrat Nizamuddin.
5. Ministry of Tourism will organise the 1st Global Tourism Investors’ Summit in New Delhi from the 17th to 19th of May to showcase opportunities in the Tourism and hospitality sector.
6. Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has launched a new AI backed up chatbot named ‘Aadhaar Mitra’ to help people with their Aadhaar-related queries.
   • This AI/ML-based chatbot will take up Aadhaar-based queries like tracking Aadhaar PVC status, registering and tracking grievances etc and is aimed to offer a ‘better resident experience’.
   • The AI chatbot is currently available in both English and Hindi languages.

State News

1. Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) has launched the “Green Bonds” for setting up solar power plants.
   • IMC had floated green bonds to raise a total of Rs 244 crore for setting up a 60 MW solar power plant.
   • It is the first of its kind offering by any civic body in the country in the capital market.

Defence News

1. 4th edition of joint military exercise, “EX DHARMA GUARDIAN”, between India and Japan conducted at Camp Imazu in Shiga province of Japan.
2. Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell, AICTE, Bureau of Police Research and Development (under Ministry of Home Affairs) and Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C, under Ministry of Home Affairs) have launched KAVACH-2023 – a national level hackathon.
   • KAVACH-2023 was launched to identify innovative ideas and technological solutions for addressing the cyber security and cybercrime challenges of the 21st century.
3. Indian Army organised a Women’s Snow Cricket tournament in Panzgam village of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
   • The event was a first-of-its-kind in Kupwara, wherein young girls played cricket on a snowy field.
4. Indian Navy’s all-women car expedition titled as “Nari Shakti” sets off from National War Memorial in Delhi to cover 2,300 km.

Memorandum Of Understanding

1. India and Fiji have signed an MOU on visa exemption for holders of diplomatic and official passports.
   • Under this agreement, diplomatic and official passport holders will be able to enter, transit, and stay in each other territories without a visa for a period not exceeding 90 days.
2. Central Water Commission and the IIT-Roorkee have signed an MOU for establishing an international Centre of Excellence on dam safety.
   • The centre will be developed at the IIT-R for which it has received a grant of Rs 108.99 crore from the Ministry of Jal Shakti.
   • The International Center of Excellence will focus on different safety and rehabilitation aspects of dams, like hydrological, hydraulic, structural, geotechnical, seismic safety evaluation, and reservoir sedimentation and silt control.
3. Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports and Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education & Research, Hyderabad (NIPER Hyderabad) have signed a tripartite MoU to address the doping issues in sports.
   • The MOU will create nutritional supplement testing capacity in India, provide information & build awareness about the risks associated with use of nutritional supplements, increase research opportunities in the clean sport & anti-doping domain and provide options for safe and dope-free nutritional supplements for sportspersons.
4. Union Cabinet, chaired by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved the signing of an MOU between the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW).
   • Purpose – to provide recognition of the qualification, training of each other members and admit the members in good standing by prescribing a bridging mechanism on the prevailing terms and conditions
5. Union Cabinet has approved the signing of an MoU between India and Chile for cooperation in the field of Agriculture and Allied sectors.
   • Under the MoU, a Chile-India Agricultural Working Group is to be constituted which will be responsible for the supervision, review and assessment of the implementation of this MoU as well as for establishing frequent communication and coordination.

International News

1. USA has passed a resolution on Arunachal Pradesh Line of Actual Control (LAC) condemning China.
   • The resolution reaffirms Arunachal Pradesh as an integral part of India.
2. United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres addressed the UN Security Council’s first-ever debate about the global implications of sea level rise.
   • The council stressed on the risks posed by sea level rise.
3. Spain’s Parliament has given final approval to a law allowing people over 16 years of age to change their legally recognised gender without medical evaluation.
   • Now, they can identify as another gender and confirm it three months later. Those aged 12 to 13 will need a judge’s approval while people aged 14 and 15 will need parental permission.
   • Another law passed by Spain Parliament includes paid menstrual leave for women suffering severe period pain.

Reports and Indices

1. According to the Services Trade Restrictiveness Index (STRI) conducted by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for the year 2022, India stood at 47^th position (up from the 48^th position).
   • Total – 50 countries
   • Parameters – The STRI indices takes into consideration the government policies in several sectors that define the ease of trading in those sectors and industries.
   • Based on these factors, STRI indices assign value to countries between zero and one.
   • As per the index, zero shows least restriction and one show no restriction. The database also records details based on a Most Favoured Nation basis.

Banking and Economy

1. RBI has granted in-principle approval to 32 payment aggregators including Amazon Pay, Google India, Reliance Payment Solutions among others.
   • RBI is considering 18 other applications including PhonePe and BhartiPay Services. RBI has returned applications of four aggregators including Axis Bank led FreeCharge, PayTM Payments and PayU Payments.
   • Infibeam Avenues, Innoviti Payment Solutions, Lyra Network, NSDL Database Management, Open Financial Technologies, Pine Labs and Razorpay Software Private Limited are among other entities who have received the approval.

2. India’s overall exports is estimated to exhibit a growth rate of 33% during April to January 2022-23.
3. Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL) has gone live with UPI LITE, a feature enabled by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for multiple small-value UPI transactions.
   • It will enable faster real-time transactions with a single click through Paytm. With UPI LITE, the Bank aims to drive the adoption of digital payments across the country.
   • Once loaded, a UPI LITE wallet allows a user to do instant transactions of up to Rs 200 in a seamless way.
   • A maximum of Rs 2,000 can be added twice in a day to UPI LITE, making the cumulative daily usage up to Rs 4,000.
   • UPI LITE was launched by the RBI in September 2022. It also de-clutters the bank passbook of small value transactions, as these payments would now only show in the Paytm balance and history section, and not in the bank passbook.
4. Competition Commission of India approved the acquisition of certain assets of Jaiprakash Associates Ltd and its associate by Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd.
5. National Stock Exchange (NSE) has signed a data licensing agreement with CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, allowing NSE to list, trade and settle rupee denominated NYMEX WTI Crude Oil and Natural Gas (Henry Hub) derivatives contracts for Indian market participants.
6. Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has launched the facility of issuance of e-BG (Electronic Bank Guarantee) in association with the National e Governance Services limited (NeSL).
   • NeSL’s Digital Document Execution platform, which provides e-Stamping and e-Sign functions, will facilitate the e-Bank Guarantee process.
   • Beneficiaries will instantly receive an e-Bank Guarantee on NeSL’s platform without further verification.
7. SEBI has issued Issue Summary Document (ISD) for filing IPO (Initial Public Offer) and for further issue of securities in XBRL format (eXentisble Business Reporting Language).
   • ISD will be implemented w.e.f., March 1, 2023.

Awards

1. President Colour has been given to the Haryana Police.
   • President Colour is the highest award presented to military units, federal forces, and state police forces. The award has an emblem.
2. Union Minister for Culture, Tourism and DoNER, Shri G. Kishan Reddy presented the Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for 2019, 2020 and 2021, at Meghdoot Theatre Complex, Rabindra Bhavan, New Delhi.
   • A total of 102 artists (including three joint awards) have been given the awards.

3. The 2nd edition of the Annual Anthem Awards was announced.
   • UN Development Program’s anthem “Don’t Choose Extinction” received two awards – gold and silver – in different categories.
   • Gold award in Sustainability, Environment, and Climate-Non-Profit Campaign category and the Silver Award in Sustainability, Environment, and Climate-Global Awareness Campaign category were given to UNDP.

Miscellaneous

1. Thwaites Glacier, nicknamed the Doomsday Glacier, is an unusually broad and vast Antarctic glacier.
2. Tulsidas Balaram (Indian footballer) has passed away.

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