The first-ever Skill Saathi Youth Conclave has inaugurated by Union Skill Development Minister Dharmendra Pradhan at Rail Auditorium in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The program aims to create a mass movement around skill development in the state and inspire youth to make the most of various skill development opportunities in the country. The conclave was aired live across 427 locations in Odisha, where more than 2 lakh candidates were mobilized for career counseling under Skill Saathi initiative. The initiative provides information on vocational training programs under Skill India mission, conduct psychometric test and provide face-to-face counselling interventions to guide aspirants to make the right choice of based on their interest and aptitude.

US President Donald Trump has said he will extend a deadline to escalate tariffs on Chinese imports that were scheduled to go into effect from March 1. The US President said he will be planning a summit with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago to finalise the trade agreement. US and Chinese negotiators met through the weekend as they seek to resolve a trade war that rattled financial markets.

The Delhi government presented a 60,000 crore rupee budget for 2019-20 in the state assembly on February 26, 2019. Presenting the budget, Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Manish Sisodia said that 26 per cent of total budget have been earmarked for education.

Member of Parliament Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has been elected third time unopposed as the President of Wrestling Federation of India.

The GST on affordable housing properties without input tax credit(ITC) has been reduced to 1 percent, while effective GST of 5 per cent shall be applicable without ITC on residential properties outside affordable segment, as was decided by the GST Council at its 33rd meeting.

Vermin means wild animals that are believed to be harmful to crops, farm animals, or game, or which carry disease, Himachal Pradesh Govt has declared monkey as vermin in 11 districts of the state for a period of one year.

State-run news agency of China, Xinhua has launched the world’s first FEMALE AI News Anchor “Xin Xiaomeng”.

Zimbabwe started to trade its new currency, the RTGS dollar, two days after the central bank announced measures to try and resolve a chronic monetary crisis.

Women’s Livelihood Bonds (WLBs) will enable individual women entrepreneurs in sectors like food processing, agriculture, services, and small units to borrow around Rs 50,000 to Rs 3 lakh at an annual interest rate of around 13% to 14% or less and have a tenure of 5 years.

Titled “Empowering Women Entrepreneurs 2019, Financing & Enabling Women from Marginalised Sections”, MSME Ministry will organize this conclave in Mumbai. The conclave is being organized under MSME ministry’s initiative: National SC-ST Hub which is targeted towards developing a supportive ecosystem towards SC/ST entrepreneurs. Issues of access to financing, assessing risks and growth mantras would be discussed during the day long programme.

In 1988, Norman Myers created the concept of “Biodiversity Hotspots”. With significant levels of biodiversity, it is a biogeographic region. To qualify as a biodiversity hotspot, a region must have at least 1,500 vascular plants as endemics or have 30% or less of its original natural vegetation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 25, 2019 dedicated the National War Memorial to the nation in a solemn ceremonial function in New Delhi. The National War Memorial complex includes a central obelisk (pillar), an eternal flame, and six bronze murals depicting famous battles fought by Indian Army, Air Force and Navy.

The 91st Academy Awards, popularly known as Oscar Awards, were conferred on February 24, 2019 (February 25 as per Indian time). The ‘Green Book’ won in the Best Picture category; while ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, nominated for five Oscars, won the most Oscars at the award show.

Dr Divya Karnad has become the second Indian and the first women to receive the “Global Future of Nature Award” for her work on marine conservation.

Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti inaugurated Sikaria Mega Food Park Pvt Ltd at village Tulakona in Agartala.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has recently launched the supercomputer ‘Param of 833 teraflop capacity built at the IIT-BHU. 40% of the total computer power will be used by the students of Navodaya Vidyalaya.

The LOFAR telescope is operated by ASTRON in the Netherlands. An international team of more than 200 astronomers from 18 countries has published the first phase of a major new radio sky survey at unprecedented sensitivity using the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) telescope in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Australia’s wicketkeeper-batter Alyssa Healy voted ICC Women’s T20I Player of the Year.

The Future For Nature Award is an international award. It celebrates tangible achievements in protecting wild animal & plant species. With this achievement, she has become the 1st woman and the second Indian to receive the honour, the only other Indian being Dr Charudutt Mishra. It is handed out to 3 people every year, and besides Karnad, Olivier Nsengimana and Fernanda Abra have also received it.

The memorandum relates to establishing a business centre for ICT incubators in Jaffna. India’s overall development assistance to Sri Lanka stands at a total of around 3 billion US$, out of which around 560 million US$ is pure grant assistance. The centre would provide opportunities and enhance the enabling environment for ICT and other professional services in the Northern region which is inhabited by minority Tamils. Notably, Jaffna is in the Northern Province of the island nation.

On 24th February, the Apollomedics Super Speciality Hospital in Lucknow has been inaugurated by The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind. He emphasised the importance of quality healthcare in the country, while speaking on the occasion and particularly in UP. He pointed to the successes in meeting the challenges of traditional infectious diseases, and also to the changing disease patterns in the country that are giving rise to greater cases to non-communicable or lifestyle diseases.