Source: Cick Here

• Every year, Girl Scouts and Girl Guides celebrate the World Thinking Day on [latex]22^{nd}[/latex] February.


• The theme of World Thinking Day 2019 is ‘Leadership’. The aim is to learn the different ways to be a leader and develop the power to bring the change a person wants to see in the world.


• The day is significant as it was the birthday of Scouting and Guiding founder Lord Robert Baden-Powell and of Lady Olave Baden-Powell, his wife and World Chief Guide.

Source: Cick Here

• External Affairs Minister, Smt. Sushma Swaraj undertook a 4-day visit to Bulgaria, Morocco and Spain from 16th to 19th February 2019 as part of India’s efforts to strengthen ties with these countries and expand avenues of cooperation.


• She paid floral tribute at the statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the South Park in Sofia, which was unveiled last year by President of India along with President of Bulgaria to mark the celebrations of 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.


• Smt. Sushma Swaraj visited the Kingdom of Morocco. There 4 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)s were signed which included setting up of Joint Working Group on Counter Terrorism, Cooperation in Housing and Human Settlement, Reciprocal facilitation of procedures for issue of Business Visa and Cooperation in Youth Matters.


• The Spanish Government conferred upon her the prestigious Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit for India’s swift response through Operation Maitri in rescuing 71 Spanish nationals from Nepal in April 2015, in the wake of the disastrous earthquake.

Source: Cick Here

• Financial Action Task Force (FATF)condemned the Pulwama terror attack in Kashmir, which led to death of 40 CRPF jawans and decided to keep Pakistan in the ‘grey’ list owing to continued funding of terrorist groups such as Jaish-e-Mohammad, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jamat-ud-Dawa.


• It stressed on the fact that Pakistan should work continuously to formulate an action plan and work to reduce its strategic deficiencies, analyse the terror financing risks posed by the terrorist groups and conduct supervision on the basis of risk-sensitivity.

Source: Cick Here

• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada for next 10 years to explore opportunities for collaborations in the field of Forestry Science and to work on various environmental issues like Climate Change, Forest Resource Management and Wildlife.


• The opportunities will be explored by organizations like Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education(ICFRE), Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Forest Survey of India (FSI), Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy and Directorate of Forest Education, Uttarakhand, and UBC, Canada.

• The National Aids Research Institute (NARI) has decided to drop its focus on research into the Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and to undergo a name change in the coming months.


• It will no longer serve as a single disease centre,after observing a major drop in number of HIV positive cases in the last few years in the country.


• It will address other areas of public health too and apply the same knowledge and expertise to other fields of public health as well.

Source: Cick Here

• The Ministry of Home Affairs, following the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama which killed 40 personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force, approved free air travel of all personnel of the Central Armed Paramilitary Forces (CAPF) moving between Delhi and Srinagar, and Jammu and Srinagar on official duty, transfer, or on leave.


• About 7,80,000 personnel of the CAPF in the ranks of constable, head constable and ASI, who were previously ineligible, will be benefitted by this step. Previously, only officers were given air travel facility.

Source: Cick Here

• After Pune University allegedly backed out, the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh has decided to host the 79th Indian History Congress (IHC) in Bhopal beginning February 26. The 79th session was earlier supposed to be held at Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) from December 28.


• Over 1,000 delegates including prominent historians are expected to participate in the IHC in Bhopal.

Source: Cick Here

• Srei Equipment Finance, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Srei Infrastructure Finance, has collaborated with Syndicate Bank to provide equipment financing under co-lending arrangement for various equipment categories like construction, mining, material handling, commercial vehicles, medical and farm equipment.


• The arrangement requires Syndicate Bank to utilise its low-cost funds and co-lend equipment loans with Srei at a rate which has been mutually agreed on.


• It has been done under the aegis of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) circular dated September 21, 2018 that allows banks to collaborate with non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) to co-originate loans for the creation of assets for priority sector.


• Loans under this programme will be sourced by iQuippo a Kanoria Foundation initiative- India’s first digital marketplace for construction equipment, machinery and services.

• Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has recommended to increase the interest rate on Employees’ Provident Fund for 2018-19 to 8.65% from 8.55% benefitting 6 crore EPFO subscribers.


• All members of the Central Board of Trustees (CBT),EPFO of have agreed to the increase the interest rate and the proposal would now go to the Finance Ministry for approval.


• The EPFO provided a five-year-low rate of interest of 8.55% for FY18. The interest rate was 8.65% in FY17, 8.8% in FY16 and 8.75% interest in FY14 and FY15. The rate of interest was 8.5% in FY13.

Source: Cick Here

• Shreyas Iyer slammed a 55-ball 147 in Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy 2019 Group C match against Sikkim in Indore. This is the highest ever T20 score by an Indian cricketer. It comprises of 7 boundaries and 15 sixes.


• It is the 12th highest score in the cricket history of T20.


• With this score, he has broken his Delhi Capital’s teammate Rishabh Pant‘s record of 128*(63) as the highest T20 score by an Indian.

Source: Cick Here

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to congratulate Apurvi Chandela on winning the 10m Air Rifle event gold medal at the International Shooting Sport Federation's Shooting World Cup.


• "A historic accomplishment by a stellar athlete! Her success makes every Indian proud and motivates more youngsters to excel in various sports".

Source: Cick Here

• Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has been ranked by the Top Employers Institute as global Top Employer for the fourth year in a row. TCS the only firm among the top 10 IT services brands which has received this certification.


• TCS has the most employee-friendly workplace policies, good work culture and has done large investments for the skill development of its 4.17 lakh employees globally.


• It has also been tagged as the number one top employer in four regions- North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East and as a top employer in 29 other nations.


• TCS provides mentorship to various famous global firms by its Business 4.0 transformation journeys which are a result of the talented and updated workforce.

Source: Cick Here

• The PM administration gave Secretary of Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Tarun Shridhar the additional charge of Secretary of Department of Fisheries. Department of Fisheries is a newly created department under Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.


• Tarun Shridhar is an IAS officer from 1984 batch Himachal Pradesh cadre.


• Also, J Balaji, an IAS officer from 2001 batch of Assam-Meghalaya cadre was appointed as the Joint Secretary of Department of Fisheries.Earlier, he was serving as Joint Secretary of Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries.


• These appointments follow the Cabinet approval of creation of one post of Secretary and one post of Joint Secretary in the new department.

Source: Cick Here

• The Supreme Court appointed its former judge, Justice D K Jain as the first ombudsman for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).


• Bench comprising Justices SA Bobde and A. M. Sapre appointed Justice D. K. Jain as the ombudsman after getting a consent of the parties and their suggestions to do so.


• The ombudsman will be resolving any issue that comes with regards to the players, as also financial issues.

• Kerala Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, inaugurated India’s first Humanoid Police Robot named KP-BOT, ranked as Sub-Inspector (SI), at the Police Headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala With this, the Kerala State Police Headquarters has become the first police department in the country to use a robot for police work.


• The robot’s gender is declared female keeping in mind women empowerment and gender equality.


• She will perform Front Office duties of the police headquarters like receiving visitors and direct them as required.


• Visitors can directly interact with her and she is capable of tasks like fixing appointments with officers, provide ID cards and open new files based on the grievances. She can also identify higher officials and greet them with a salute.


• In 2018’s Cocoon Cyber Conference it was announced that robots will be included in the police force, after which, the work on the project was started by state police Cyberdome and a Kochi based start-up, Asimov.

Source: Cick Here

• Popular Bollywood film producer Rajkumar Barjatya passed away in Mumbai, Maharashtra.


• He was the producer of popular films like Prem Ratan Dhan Paayo (2015), Hum Saath Saath Hain (1999), Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994) and Maine Pyar Kiya (1989) etc. He owned a production house- Rajshri Films.


• He was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra.