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Mascot
of the 35th National Games, Ammu, in Limca Book of World Records
Sports
> 35th
National Games
The mascot for the 35th
national games, Ammu, the horn-bill, was included in the Limca Book
of World Records for its lead role in Kalikkunna Kuttikalkkayi
Bharatham Kathirikkunnu (India Awaits Children Who Play), which was
staged in 147 schools across 7 districts in Kerala. The play aims to
promote sports among children and encourages school children to take
up sports with academics.
The horn-bill was
chosen as a mascot to highlight Kerela's concern for its conservation
as an endangered species. Also the mascot was given a feminine name
to showcase the role of women in Kerala, which is the only Indian
state to have a female population higher than the male population.
Sunil
Chettri awarded with 2014 AIFF Player of the year
Sports
> AIFF
Player of the year
Indian football captain
Sunil Chhetri was awarded All India Football Federation’s 2014
Player of the Year award. This is the fourth time that he had been
awarded. The footballer had previously won the award thrice in 2007,
2011 and 2013. He also surpassed IM Vijayan's record of winning the
award thrice. Chhetri was chosen as the winner by top coaches across
the country. Besides Chhetri, national women’s team striker Bala
Devi was presented with the 2014 AIFF Women’s Footballer of the
Year and FIFA Referee Santosh Kumar from Kerala was presented the
2014 AIFF Award for Best Referee.
At
750MW, Madhya Pradesh to get world’s largest solar power plant
Science
and Technology > World’s
largest solar power plant
Next year on 15th
August, the world’s largest solar power plant of 750-megawatt
capacity will be established in Rewa Madhya Pradesh. The plant will
be much bigger than America’s 550-megawatt Desert Sunlight solar
project in California, commissioned four days ago. Acquisition of
1,500 hectares of land for the Rs 4000 crore project is close to
completion and government agencies are likely to invite tenders from
developers by April. The state government is setting up the plant in
a joint venture with Solar Energy Corporation of India. The expected
cost of power production is pegged at Rs 5 per/unit which would be
lower than production costs in any solar project in the country,
including the one at Neemuch in MP and Mehsana and Patan in Gujarat.
Civil
nuclear pact signed by Sri Lanka and India
Politics
and government > Civil
nuclear pact
A bilateral agreement
on civil nuclear cooperation was made between India and Sri Lanka
besides deciding to expand defence and security cooperation. At the
meeting attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sri Lankan
President Maithripala Sirisena, a commitment was made to find a
solution to the fishermen issue by adopting a constructive and
humanitarian approach. Apart from nuclear pacts, three other pacts
pertaining to the field of agriculture and Sri Lanka's participation
in the Nalanda University Project were signed too. Narendra Modi said
that India was honoured that Sirisena had chosen the country for his
first overseas destination after assuming charge. Expressing
satisfaction with the results of the talks between the two countries,
Modi said that the two countries are committed on exploring the
potential of economic cooperation.
Others
Ratnakar
Bank invests in IBM's platform for mobile applications
In a bid to offer its
customers flexible mobile applications, Ratnakar Bank Ltd. (RBL) has
signed a deal with IT giant IBM, in order to build, deploy and manage
its applications on IBM's MobileFirst Platform. This new integration
will open doors to a completely new mobile banking space for the
customers of RBL, with introduction of user specific and transaction
specific mobile apps for credit and debit cards. It will also provide
secure transactions to its customers and financial transactions
across banks 24X7. With the expertise of IBM's MobileFirst Platform,
RBL is planning to build a set of internal apps for employees to
improve workplace productivity and an app that will combine the
social media capability targeted towards the younger generation. The
bank is also looking forward to reach financial inclusion customers
through their applications by enabling them for payments.
Rashtriya
Khel Protsahan Puruskar Scheme revised by Union Ministry of Youth
Affairs and Sports
Sports
> Rashtriya
Khel Protsahan Puruskar Scheme
The Union Ministry of
Youth Affairs and Sports has revised the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan
Puruskar Scheme. It will be given in four categories as per the
revision. The four categories are – identification and nurturing of
young talent, encouraging sports through corporate social
responsibility, employment of sports-persons and sports welfare
measures and development of sports. The revised scheme has also
prescribed eligibility criteria for the four categories, a new
category for encouragement of sports through Corporate Social
Responsibility has been provided in the revised Scheme, which has
been included in the Schedule VII of the Companies Act 2013. A
special provision to recognise NGOs working towards sports
development has also been added.
Rashtriya Khel
Protsahan Puruskar Scheme was introduced in 2009 to encourage and
promote involvement of corporates, sports promotion boards and others
in the promotion and development of sports in the country.
Web-based
tool launched to keep atrocities on dalits in check
Science
and Technology > Dalits
The National Dalit
Movement for Justice (NDMJ) has launched a Web-based tool called
Atrocity Tracking and Monitoring (ATM) system, under the aegis of the
National Coalition for strengthening SC&ST PoA Act (NCSPOA). This
tool is launched to track the crimes happening in the most vulnerable
sections(the dalits and adivasis) of the societies and help them
avail timely justice. It will also enable dalit human rights
activists and organisations to create and maintain a repository of
cases, track records, and facilitate information exchange for timely
action. This initiative was taken due to rising crimes against the
SCs/STs between 2001 and 2012; women being affected the most. About
100 atrocity cases have already been reported through this system and
e-mails and SMS notifications have been sent to the officials
concerned. Training workshops are being held to teach the operations
of the ATM system.
Editor
Unplugged: Media, Magnates, Netas and Me - book by Vinod Mehta
launched
Books
> Editor
Unplugged
The book Editor
Unplugged: Media, Magnates, Netas and Me written by Vinod Mehta was a
popular topic of the media in first week of February 2015. The book,
published on 15 December 2014 by Penguin India, revolves around a
young Lucknow boy and gives an account of his experiences in the
corridors of power in Delhi. The book gives the author's take on
Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal and the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty and their
coalition politics. The author also discusses the significant changes
that were witnessed in the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, through his
characteristic sharp insights, wit and wisdom.
The book examines the
lack of humour in our political leaders and changing perspective of
the Indian middle class and along with the sweeping changes that took
place in the print and TV media. Personalities such as Ratan Tata,
Nira Radia, Khushwant Singh, Sachin Tendulkar and Arundhati Roy have
also been discussed in the book.
ICC
World Cup 2015 begins in New Zealand
Sports
> Cricket
World Cup
ICC world cup 2015
opened with a lavish ceremony at Hagley Park, Christchurch,New
Zealand. It will be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand .The
participating countries in this World Cup are New Zealand, Sri Lanka,
South Africa, Zimbabwe,India,Pakistan, Bangladesh,Australia,
Afghanistan, West Indies, U.A.E., Scotland, Ireland and England. The
11th edition of Cricket World Cup is a 49-match schedule and fixtures
will be played over the span of one and half months, starting from
February 14 February to March 29 2015.
World
Radio Day observed on 13th February
Days
> World
Radio Day
World Radio Day was
observed on the 13th of February, 2015 with the theme of Youth and
Radio. The day is celebrated every year in order to commemorate radio
as an information and entertainment forum, as a bridge of
communication for remote communities and as a tool to empower people.
The day is celebrated by the UNESCO by planning activities with
broadcasters, organisations and communities the world over.
The UNESCO officially
declared 13th February as the World Radio Day on 3rd November, 2011,
as it marked the anniversary of the United Nation's first radio
broadcast, which occurred on 13th February, 1946.
Bank
ATMs to enable card-less withdrawals by year-end
Bank
specific > Card-less
withdrawals
Customers of around 1
lakh bank ATMs will be able to perform card-less cash withdrawals by
the end of the current year. This system will also be made available
at lakhs of point of sale terminals at shops which provide cash-out
facilities. While Kotak Mahindra Bank and Bank of India are already
providing the facility of sending money via mobile phones, State Bank
of India and Punjab National Bank are set to extend card-less
withdrawal. This convenient facility has been made possible by the
IMT Payment System, conceptualized and built by EMpays Payment System
founded by Ravi Rajagopalan, a former executive with French
telecommunications firm Alcatel-Lucent. IMT is gearing up to build a
combined network of banks wherein withdrawals will be made possible
within the network. For this, the banks will have to become the
member of the multi-bank IMT system.
National
Games ends on a colourful note
Sports
> 35th
National Games
The 35th edition of the
National games, held in Kerala, ended with Services Sports Control
Board (SSCB) winning the overall championship. Analysis of the final
National Games Medal Table, summarized by Sports Rediscovered, showed
that the SSCB secured the first position by winning 91 gold medals,
33 Silver medals and 35 bronze medals. Kerala came second with 54
gold medals, followed by Haryana with 40, Maharashtra with 30 and
Punjab with 27 gold medals. While Bihar and Daman and Diu did not win
any gold medals, Goa, Chandigarh, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal
Pradesh, Mizoram and
Meghalaya won one each.
Two
women scientists to get Nayudamma award
Awards
> Nayudamma
award
Dr.Y. Nayudamma
Memorial Award 2014 will be jointly presented to two women scientists
for their remarkable contributions in defence research development
and space research. One of the recipients, Tessy Thomas is the
Director of Advanced Systems Laboratory of the Defence Research and
Development Organisation, Hyderabad and Project Director of (Mission)
Agni V. The other recipient, Geeta Varadan is the Director of
Advanced Data Processing Research Institute of ISRO. This is the
first time that two women have become the joint winners of the
prestigious award. The award was instituted in 1986 in memory of
global leather scientist and former director general of CSIR,
Yelavarthy Nayudamma.
EC
to launch electoral authentication mission
India
> Election
Commission
Chief Election
Commissioner (CEC) HS Brahma has announced that the Election
Commission (EC) will launch the Mission of Electoral Roll
Authentication and Purification drive by linking Aadhaar and
Electoral Roll Database. The EC will launch the drive on the 1st of
March and has requested all officers to come up with suitable plans
in order to complete the mission by 15th August, 2015. The Director
General and Mission Director of Unique Identification Authority of
India (UIDAI), Dr Vijay S Madan, assured all necessary support to
link Aadhar with the Electoral Roll Database.
Supersonic
BrahMos cruise missile successfully test fired
India
> Defence
The Indian Navy
successfully test fired supersonic cruise missile, BrahMos from INS
Kolkatta, the biggest warship in India on Saturday, 14th February,
2015. The missile has a range of 290 km and was fired through a
vertical launch from the warship; it hit its target with pinpoint
accuracy. The missile was fired as a part of the Theatre Readiness
Operational Level Exercise (TROPEX) 2015. The Brahmos missiles have
already been inducted in the army and navy and the missile's
air-launched version is slated to be tested from a Sukhoi-30MKI
fighter soon.
RR
Patil, former Maharashtra home minister, passes away
India
> RR Patil
Senior Nationalist
Congress Party (NCP) leader and former Maharashtra Home Minister, RR
Patil, died yesterday in Mumbai. He was 57. Patil was undergoing
treatment for oral cancer for the past three months and had reached
the advanced stage of the disease. RR Patil was best known for his
work as the Home Minister during the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. He
was one of the very few leaders of the NCP who were never accused of
any scam during his 15-year tenure as minister. Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and other political leaders paid condolences to the
family of Mr. Patil.
First
National Tribal Festival – Vanaj, 2015 held
India
> Vanaj
The Union Minister of
Tribal Affairs Jual Oram inaugurated India's first National Tribal
Festival, Vanaj, on 13th February 2015 at the the Indira Gandhi
National Center for Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi. It is a week-long
festival and will showcase the culture of the tribal people across
the country, through various events and activities. It will also
showcase tribal art, music, dance, painting, medicine and tribal
cuisine. The festival will end on the 18th of February.
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