Source: Cick Here

• As US lawmakers approved a government-funding bill to prevent another shutdown, US President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency in an attempt to fund his US-Mexico border wall without congressional approval.


• Trump's demand of $5.7 billion for the wall was rejected by the opposition Democrats. The rejection led to a 35-day government shutdown, the longest in US history.

Source: Cick Here

• China has banned tourists from accessing its Mount Everest base camp in Tibet amid an ongoing campaign to clean up waste in the region.


• The ban does not apply to those with climbing permits. Clean-up sessions last year had collected over eight tonnes of waste, including human faeces and mountaineering equipment left behind by climbers.

Source: Cick Here

• Spain's prime minister has called an early general election for April 28 that will likely highlight the deep political divisions in the country.


• The news that Spaniards are having to go to the polls for the third in less than four years came after the minority Socialist government, led by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, lost a budget vote in Parliament.

Source: Cick Here

• The International Labour Organization released World Employment and Social Outlook Trends 2019 report. The report says unemployment rates will fall to 4.9% in 2019 and remains steady in 2020.


• The report says that it took 9 years to recover from the shock of 2007-08 global financial crisis during which the unemployment rate was fallen to 5.6 per cent.


• Progress on closing the gender gap in participation rates has stopped after a period of rapid improvement which tasted to 2003.


• In the global labour market 2 billion out of 3.3 billion people worked keeping their economic security at risk in informal employment.


• Among the age group 15-24 the global unemployment stood at 11.8% which is much higher than it among other age groups.

Source: Cick Here

• Government of India has made a series of amendments in e-visa regime, liberalizing it further and making it more tourists friendly. This step has been taken into consideration by Ministry of Tourism with Ministry of Home Affairs to ease the Visa regime in the country over the period of time.


• Duration of stay in India of e-tourists and e-business visas will be from 60 days to 1 year with multiple entry subjects.


• There has been removal of restriction of allowing foreigner for a maximum of 3 times.


• On e-tourist visa, continuous stay during visit will not exceed 90 days in case of nationals eligible for grant of e-visa except US, UK, Japan and Canada.

Source: Cick Here

• An expert committee appointed by government suggested Rs. 9,750 per month or Rs. 375 per day as National Minimum Wage (NMW) for a worker. The Present NMW is Rs. 4,576.


• National minimum wage gas been proposed at various regional level in the range of Rs.8,892 to Rs. 11,622 per month, with supplementary house rent allowance of Rs. 1,430 per month for urban workers.


• The recommendations could form the basis for a national minimum wage covering all workers irrespective of skills, sectors, occupations and rural-urban areas.


• According to Committee’s formula, a family with 3.2 units of consumption requires food of Rs.2400, minimum 50 gm of protein and 30 gm of fat every day.


• The Labour ministry has proposed a statutory minimal wage which will be calculated by NMW calculator to address varying economic conditions at state and regional levels through a Code on Wages Bill.

Source: Cick Here

• The semi-high-speed Train 18 or Vande Bharat Express was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15th February 2019, from the New Delhi railway station.


• Vande Bharat Express will travel from Delhi to Varanasi in 9 hours and 45 minutes, with stoppage points at Kanpur and Allahbad (now Prayagraj).

Source: Cick Here

• Finance minister has implemented the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan Yojana which is primarily a pension scheme for the labours, associated in the unorganized sector. It was announced in Budget 2019.


• Under this scheme, workers of unorganized sectors whose monthly income is less than Rs. 15,000 may avail the benefits by contributing Rs. 100 per month to further get Rs. 3000 per month after 60 year of age. An 18 years old worker has to contribute Rs. 55 per month to avail the benefit.


• The scheme will facilitate the benefits up to 10 crore workers which include lower class workers, labor, plumber, mechanic, sweeper, construction workers, etc.


• An amount of Rs. 500 crore has been allocated for the scheme. The benefits of the scheme will be availed within 5 years.

Source: Cick Here

• Union Minister of Mines, Narendra Singh Tomar inaugurated 58th meetings of Central Geological Programming Board (CGPB) held at Pusa in New Delhi. CGPB is under the nodal department of Geological Survey of India (GSI).


• During the season 20 mineral exploration reports worth Rs.79560 crore handed over to Odisha, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.


• GSI declared the launch of its freely downloadable base line data (geological, geochemical and geophysical) from their web portal from March 1, 2019.


• For search of mineral deposits GSI launched 2nd round of multi – sensor National Aero-geophysical data acquisition in 4 sectors within obvious Geological Potential (OGP) zones.


• Under National Landslide Susceptibility Mapping (NLSM) programme, 3.22 lakh Km shall be checked for landslide susceptibility by March 2019. The total target is 4.27 lakh Km by 2020.

Source: Cick Here

• The Madhya Pradesh government has announced compensation of ₹1 crore to the family of Ashwini Kumar Kachhi, a CRPF jawan from the state who was martyred in the Pulwama attack.


• Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath also announced that one family member will be offered a government job and the family will receive a house.

Source: Cick Here

• A loan agreement of $40 million (4 crore INR) was signed between the Government of India, Himachal Pradesh Government and World Bank, to help bring clean and reliable drinking water to the citizens of Greater Shimla area, who have been facing severe shortages of water and water-borne epidemics in the last few years.


• Shimla Water Supply and Sewage Service Delivery Reform Programmatic Development Policy Loan is expected to improve Water Supply & Sanitation (WSS) services in and around Shimla.


• Loan agreement was signed by Mr. Sameer Kumar Khare, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the Government of India and Mr. Junaid Kamal Ahmad, Country Director, World Bank India, on behalf of the World Bank.


• Project Agreement was signed by Mr. Prabodh Saxena, Principal Secretary, Urban Development Department, on behalf of the Government of Himachal Pradesh and Mr. Junaid Kamal Ahmad, Country Director, World Bank India, on behalf of the World Bank.

Source: Cick Here

• India should kick-start private investment via policy measures or tax breaks if it does not want to stay stuck at a 7 percent growth rate, Uday Kotak, managing director and chief executive of Kotak Mahindra Bank.


• He said India has the fundamental capacity and we need to create a situation where the ground capacity will be growing at somewhere between 8 and 9 percent".

Source: Cick Here

• India captain Virat Kohli announced 'Indian Sports Honours', award ceremony organised by RP-Sanjiv Goenka and Virat Kohli Foundation, has been postponed due to the Pulwama attack, in which 40 CRPF jawans were martyred.


• The ceremony was supposed to take place today, Kohli was criticised for tweeting about the ceremony hours after the attack took place.

Source: Cick Here

• Andhra batsman Hanuma Vihari has become the first ever batsman to score hundreds in three consecutive innings in Irani Cup.


• The 25-year-old smashed 114(211) and 180*(300) in the first and the second innings respectively for Rest of India against Vidarbha in this year's Irani Cup. Vihari had slammed 183 in Rest of India's only innings in Irani Cup last year.

Source: Cick Here

• She has completed the Flight Engineers’ course at 112 Helicopter Unit and placed at the Air Force Station, Yelahanka, Bangalore.


• She has served as the Chief of firing team and battery commander in a front line Surface to Air Missile squadron, before being selected for the the prestigious Flight Engineers’ Course. The flight engineer branch was opened to woman officers in 2018.

Source: Cick Here

• Union Minister Arun Jaitley has assumed charge as Finance Minister. The charge of Ministry of Finance was given on a temporary basis to Union Minister Piyush Goyal.


• The Finance and Cooperate Affairs Portfolios will be assigned to Union Minister Arun Jaitley by President Ram Nath Kovind as adviced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.


• Arun Jaitley was in US undergoing medical treatment. During the period from January 23 to February 14 in his absence Railway and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal was given charge of Finance Ministry.


• Piyush Goyal also presented the 6th and final budget of NDA government on February 1,2019.

Source: Cick Here

• Slovenian Member of Parliament Darij Krajcic has resigned after stealing a sandwich from a supermarket in Ljubljana where he says he was ignored by staff, who "treated (him) like air".


• Apologising for the theft, Krajcic said he regretted his "social experiment" and later returned to pay. He quit office after serving as an MP only for around five months.

Source: Cick Here

• Sukhjit Pasricha has quit as the chief of human resource of Bajaj Finance and will be joining Kotak Mahindra Bank as its group chief human resources officer (CHRO) soon.


• Pasricha had joined Bajaja Finance (Bajaj Finserv) early last year after serving in IndiGo for five years where he shepherded rapid expansion. This included aircraft numbers growing from 60 to 160 even as employee count rose 6000 to 16,000.

Source: Cick Here

• Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) launched a new portal ‘LADIS’ for real time data on available depth on stretches of National Waterways.


• Least Available Depth Information System (LADIS) will ensure real time data on ship and cargo owners on which they can undertake transportation on National Waterways (NW) in a more planned way.


• It is a step towards ensuring optimum use of National waterways. For smooth movement of vessels is required for an assured depth of waterways.


• Real time information on least available depth will also help transporters by guiding them on the suitability on time of movement.

Source: Cick Here

• NASA’s next SPHEREx mission will aim to understand how our universe evolved and the prevalence of ingredients for life in galaxy. For this mission, Epoch of Reionization and ICES explorer ‘SPHEREx’ program is slated to launch in 2023.


• For 2 years, SPHEREx will contemplate the sky in optical and near-infrared light, gathering data on more than 300 million galaxies and 100 million stars in our galaxy.


• The spacecraft’s two fold target is to canvas galaxies near and far and regions where stars are born from gas and dust.


• This mission will convey an unmatched galactic map containing ‘fingerprints’ from the first moment in the universe’s history.

Source: Cick Here

• World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) hall of famer, Pedro Morales, passed away at the age of 76.


• He hailed from Puerto Rico and died after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.


• He had a career lasting more than 30 years and was inducted in the WWE Hall of Fame in 1995.

A. Chennai,TamilNadu B. Kolkata,WestBengal C. Greater Noida,NewDelhi D. Gandhinagar,Gujarat Answer: C

A. Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas B. Ministry of Commerce and Industry C. Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises D. Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Answer: A

A. Theme-India Vision 2020: Issues, Challenges, Opportunities and Progress. B. Theme-Values and Ethics: Conceptual Framework from Different Perspectives C. Theme-The Next Economic Miracle, manuscripts that seek to focus D. Theme-Shaping the New Energy World through Innovation & Collaboration Answer: D

A. Narendra Modi B. Dharmendra Pradhan C. Ram Nath Kovind D. Piyush Goyal Answer: B

A. Tanzania B. Madagascar C. Mongolia D. Uganda Answer: C

A. 3 months B. 6 months C. 9 months D. 1 year Answer: D

A. Rs.8750 per month B. Rs.9750 per month C. Rs.7550 per month D. Rs.8550 per month Answer: B

A. Greater Noida,NewDelhi B. Mumbai,Maharashtra C. Kolkata,WestBengal D. Dharwad, Karnataka Answer: D

A. Pradhan Mantri Adarsh Gram Yojana B. Pradhan Mantri Matritva Vandana Yojana C. Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Mandhan Yojana D. Pradhan Mantri Gramin Awaas Yojana Answer: C

A. Rupees 55 per month B. Rupees 100 per month C. Rupees 50 per month D. Rupees 150 per month Answer: A

A. Delhi to Varanasi B. Kalka to Shimla C. Delhi to Jalpaiguri D. Jalpaiguri to Darjeeling Answer: C

A. Bikaner district of Rajasthan B. Banaskantha district of Gujarat C. Gurdaspur district of Punjab D. Kathua district of Jammu and Kashmir Answer: C

A. Water Challenge B. Health and Sanitation C. Education and Skills D. Urbanization Answer: A

A. Washington, D.C. B. New York C. NewDelhi D. Maharashtra Answer: C

A. Theme-Reconstructing Sociological Discourse in India: Perspectives from the Margins B. Theme-Attaining the 2030 Agenda: delivering on our promise C. Theme-International Migration, Indian Diaspora and Development D. Theme-Cyber4All: An Inclusive, Sustainable, Developmental, Safe and Secure Cyberspace Answer: B

A. Bangladesh B. United States C. Japan D. Russia Answer: A

A. Sitiveni Rabuka B. Frank Bainimarama C. Waisale Serevi D. Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum Answer: B

A. Guwahati,Assam B. Dhaka,Bangladesh C. NewDelhi,India D. Chittagong,Bangladesh Answer: C

A. 5th B. 4th C. 3rd D. 6th Answer: A

A. African Development Bank B. Asian Development Bank C. European Investment Bank D. World Bank Answer: D