29th February, 2024

1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has dedicated 5 All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to the nation.
2. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated ‘Sudarshan Setu‘, the longest cable-stayed bridge in the country at 2.32 km, over the Arabian Sea.
3. Prime minister inaugurated multiple projects.
4. Union Minister of Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan has launched ‘SWAYAM Plus’ platform in Delhi.
5. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced the names of 4 pilots who are undergoing training for India’s 1st human space flight mission ‘Gaganyaan’.
6. RBL Bank and Innoviti Technologies Pvt. Ltd. have collaborated to establish Omnium, an omnichannel payments platform for progressive merchants.
7. Amazon Pay (fintech arm of e-commerce major Amazon India), has received a payment aggregator licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
8. Reserve Bank of India has issued directions to bring clarity, brevity and harmonisation to the instructions issued to various supervised entities for submission of returns.
9. 13th Ministerial Conference (MCA 13) of the World Trade Organization has announced new rules to streamline the international trade in services.
10. Reserve Bank of India has issued a master direction to reduce the burden of compliance on regulated entities (REs).
11. Adani Defence and Aerospace has inaugurated two facilities for the manufacture of ammunition and missiles in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
12. Indian Navy has inaugurated a museum featuring the decommissioned aircraft TU-142M in Kakinada.
13. Indian Army has inducted a 46-metre modular bridge into its force, improving its engineers’ bridging capabilities.
14. National Science Day
15. Indian Army team has won the Khelo India Winter Games 2024 title, winning 10 gold, five silver and six bronze.
16. National Institute of Ayurveda, Jaipur, and the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine of the Ministry of Public Health of the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
17. Ministry of Ayush and Research and Information System for Developing Countries, (RIS) New Delhi signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in New Delhi.
18. Citigroup Inc. hired Viswas Raghavan as head of banking and executive vice chair.
19. Book written by Goa Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai titled ‘Basic Structure and Republic’ has been unveiled.
20. Renowned ghazal singer and Padma Shri awardee Pankaj Udhas has passed away.

National News

1. Prime Minister Narendra Modi Dedicates 5 AIIMS in Gujarat.
   • What ? Prime Minister Narendra Modi has dedicated 5 All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to the nation.
   • Key points:
     • These are located in Rajkot (Gujarat), Bathinda (Punjab), Raebareli (Uttar Pradesh), Kalyani (West Bengal), and Mangalagiri (Andhra Pradesh).
     • Prime Minister inaugurated and laid the foundation stone for 202 healthcare infrastructure projects across 23 states and union territories.
     • These projects are valued at over Rs. 11,700 crores, and constructed for Rs. 6315.23 crore, indicating a significant investment in healthcare infrastructure.
       Source: PIB
2. PM Modi has inaugurated the cable-stayed ‘Sudarshan Setu’ bridge in Gujarat.
   • What ? Prime Minister Narendra Modi has inaugurated ‘Sudarshan Setu‘, the longest cable-stayed bridge in the country at 2.32 km, over the Arabian Sea.
   • Key points:
     • The bridge links Beyt Dwarka island to mainland Okha in Gujarat’s Devbhumi Dwarka district.
     • Sudarshan Setu has a total length of 2.32 km, which includes a 900-meter central double-span cable-stayed portion and an additional 2.45 km of approach road.
     • Earlier it was known as the ‘Signature Bridge,’ it was built at a cost of ₹979 crore.
       Source: livemint
3. Prime minister inaugurated multiple projects.
   • Key projects:
     • National Health Mission (NHM) and PM-ABHIM:
       • The inauguration and foundation stone laying of 115 projects under NHM and PM-ABHIM have occurred.
       • These projects include Critical Care Blocks, Integrated Public Health Labs, and Block Public Health Units.
     • Naturopathy and Yoga Institutes:
       • Prime Minister inaugurated the National Institute of Naturopathy called ‘Nisarg Gram‘ in Pune, as well as the Central Research Institute of Yoga & Naturopathy in Jhajjar, Haryana.
       • These institutes will promote alternative medicine and wellness.
     • Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) Projects:
       • 21 ESIC projects have been inaugurated.
       • These projects consist of medical colleges, hospitals, and dispensaries in various states.
     • Mundra-Panipat Pipeline:
       • The foundation stone for the New Mundra-Panipat pipeline project has been laid.
       • Valued at over Rs. 9000 crore, this project intends to transport crude oil from Mundra on the Gujarat coast to the Indian oil refinery in Panipat, Haryana.

4. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan launches ‘SWAYAM Plus’ platform to be operated by IIT Madras.
   • What ? Union Minister of Education and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Dharmendra Pradhan has launched ‘SWAYAM Plus’ platform in Delhi.
   • Objective:
     • To offer employability and professional development-focused courses developed collaboratively with industry leaders like L&T, Microsoft, and CISCO.
   • More about SWAYAM Plus:
     • The platform will be operated by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras).
     • SWAYAM Plus aims to enhance the employability of college students and lifelong learners by offering courses in sectors such as Manufacturing and Energy.
     • The platform offers lifelong learners the opportunity to upskill or reskill in response to evolving industry needs, thus ensuring alignment with workforce demands.
     • The platform will support multiple languages, encouraging a diverse audience to choose SWAYAM Plus.
     • An AI-enabled chatbot will assist students in choosing the right courses based on their needs.
     • Credit equivalency will be established for courses offered by industry players.
     • The platform also enables students of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to earn credits for their degree requirements, providing academic flexibility.

5. Prime Minister has announced the names of four astronauts for Gaganyaan Mission.
   • What ? Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced the names of 4 pilots who are undergoing training for India’s 1st human space flight mission ‘Gaganyaan’.
   • Key points:
     • The pilots are:
       • Group Captain P Balakrishnan Nair
       • Group Captain Ajit Krishnan
       • Group Captain Angad Pratap
       • Wing Commander S Shukla
     • Prime Minister awarded “astronaut wings” to the 4 astronaut-designates.

Source: HT

Banking and Economy

1. Innoviti and RBL Bank partner to set up a true omnichannel payments platform for progressive retailers.
   • What ? RBL Bank and Innoviti Technologies Pvt. Ltd. have collaborated to establish Omnium, an omnichannel payments platform for progressive merchants.
   • Objective:
     • To leverage retailer data and business processes to facilitate faster growth with minimal effort.
   • More about Omnium:
     • Omnium enables retailers to integrate their business processes across various platforms such as HR, ERP, and marketing, allowing precise measurement of their impact and benchmarking performance with peers.
     • Important features of Omnium include:
       • Product-specific payment promotions
       • Price and promotion benchmarking
       • Real-time attribution of transactions to promotions
       • Collaborative and targeted promotion budget sharing

2. Amazon Pay gets final approval from RBI to operate as payment aggregator.
   • What ? Amazon Pay (fintech arm of e-commerce major Amazon India), has received a payment aggregator licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
   • More about Payment Aggregators:
     • Reserve Bank of India (RBI) defines Payment Aggregators as:
       • Entities that facilitate e-commerce sites and merchants to accept various payment instruments from customers for completing their payment obligations without requiring merchants to create a separate payment integration system.
     • These companies act as intermediaries between the merchant and the customer.
       Source: BS
3. RBI tweaks norms to standardise filing of supervisory returns by banks, NBFCs.
   • What ? Reserve Bank of India has issued directions to bring clarity, brevity and harmonisation to the instructions issued to various supervised entities for submission of returns.
   • Objective:
     • To reduce the burden of compliance on the regulated entities based on the recommendations of the Regulations Review Authority and an Internal Working Group of the central bank.
   • This directive applies to a wide range of financial institutions, including commercial banks (Public Sector Banks (PSBs), private sector banks, Small Finance Banks (SFBs), payment banks, and foreign banks), etc.
   • Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) and Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) have been exempted from these norms.
   • Public Sector Banks are mandated to submit half-yearly and quarterly reviews of accounts within 21 days from the date of receipt of the statutory central auditor (SCA) report
     Source: livemint
4. WTO enforces new rule for simplifying services trade.
   • What ? 13th Ministerial Conference (MCA 13) of the World Trade Organization has announced new rules to streamline the international trade in services.
   • Objective:
     • To make authorization processes more transparent and accessible, with commitments to gender equality.
   • Key points:
     • These regulations apply on a Most Favored Nation (MFN) basis.
     • Only 72 out of the WTO’s 164 members are a party to the agreement.
     • India and South Africa were among countries that did not sign this agreement.

5. RBI consolidates reporting norms for REs, and eases compliance burden.
   • What ? Reserve Bank of India has issued a master direction to reduce the burden of compliance on regulated entities (REs).
   • Key points:
     • It removed obsolete instructions and consolidated 20 existing instructions, including one for finance companies.
     • Objective of the directive:
       • It was issued to make reporting rules clearer and more uniform for different financial institutions.

Source: BS

Defence News

1. Adani Group unveils country’s 1st ammunition-missile manufacturing complex in U.P.
   • What ? Adani Defence and Aerospace has inaugurated two facilities for the manufacture of ammunition and missiles in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh.
   • Key points:
     • This marks the first instance of such facilities in the private sector.
     • The twin-facility complex spread over 500 acres, is set to become one of the largest integrated ammunition manufacturing complexes in South Asia.
       Source: The Hindu
2. Museum displaying Indian Navy’s TU-142M aircraft inaugurated at Kakinada.
   • What ? Indian Navy has inaugurated a museum featuring the decommissioned aircraft TU-142M in Kakinada.
     Source: The Hindu
3. Indian Army inducted indigenously designed and manufactured modular bridges.
   • What ? Indian Army has inducted a 46-metre modular bridge into its force, improving its engineers’ bridging capabilities.
   • More about modular bridge:
     • Designed by- Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)
     • Produced by- Larsen & Toubro (L&T)
     • It is a mechanically-launched single-span assault bridge, which is designed for quick deployment and retrieval, aligning with the fast-paced nature of mechanized operations.
       Source: ET

Important Days

1. February 28– National Science Day; Theme- ‘Indigenous Technologies for Viksit Bharat’
   • National Science Day is observed to honour the discovery of the ‘Raman Effect‘ by Indian scientist and physician C V Raman.
   • Raman Effect, discovered on February 28, 1928, is when a light beam passing through a transparent material scatters in a way that reveals details about the material’s molecular structure.
     Source: India Today

Sports

1. Khelo India Winter Games 2024.
   • What ? Indian Army team has won the Khelo India Winter Games 2024 title, winning 10 gold, five silver and six bronze.
   • More about KIWG 2024:
     • Karnataka has won the silver with nine gold medals and two silvers.
     • Khelo India Winter Games 2024 was conducted in two phases.
     • The 1st, from February 2 to 6, was held in Leh, Ladakh while the second was scheduled from February 21 to 25, in Gulmarg, Jammu and Kashmir.
     • Mascot: Sheen-e She’ (Shan), a snow leopard
     • The logo of the Games prominently features the Indian tricolor, symbolizing the uniqueness of the picturesque land and the diversity of sports showcased during the event.
     • Khelo India Winter Games 2024 medal tally: ‘

Source: Olympics.com

Memorandum of Understanding

1. NIA signs MoU with Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine of Government of Thailand.
   • What ? National Institute of Ayurveda, Jaipur, and the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine of the Ministry of Public Health of the Government of the Kingdom of Thailand signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
   • Objective:
     • To establish an Academic Collaboration in Ayurveda and Thai Traditional Medicine between the two countries.
       Source: PIB
2. Ministry of Ayush signed MoU with Research and Information System (RIS).
   • What ? Ministry of Ayush and Research and Information System for Developing Countries, (RIS) New Delhi signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in New Delhi.
   • Objective:
     • To strengthen academic cooperation and collaboration between the Ministry of Ayush and RIS for research, policy dialogue, publications, and capacity building in the field of Indian Traditional Medicine.
       Source: PIB

   
   

Appointments

1. Citigroup hires JPMorgan’s Viswas Raghavan as head of banking, exec VC.
   • What ? Citigroup Inc. hired Viswas Raghavan as head of banking and executive vice chair.

Miscellaneous

1. Goa Governor’s book ‘Basic Structure and Republic’ released at Raj Bhavan.
   • What ? Book written by Goa Governor PS Sreedharan Pillai titled ‘Basic Structure and Republic’ has been unveiled.
     Source: bnn
2. Ghazal singer Pankaj Udhas passes away.
   • What ? Renowned ghazal singer and Padma Shri awardee Pankaj Udhas has passed away.

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