K Dhanya Sanal, a spokesperson for the defence ministry in Thiruvananthapuram, has created history by becoming the first woman to climb the peak of 1,868-metre-high Agasthyarkoodam in January 2019 after the High court removed traditional restrictions on women from scaling the peak. Agasthyarkoodam is a part of the Agasthyamala Biosphere Reserve which lies on the border between the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Kani tribe that lives on the foothills opposes women attempting the trek. The mountain range is considered the holy abode of celibate sage Agastya Muni. The tribe has protested against letting women climb the peak, but has not stopped anyone. Over 100 of them sang folk songs as a mark of protest.

Abdul Aziz Muhamat, a Sudanese refugee detained on Manus Island, has won the prestigious 2019 Martin Ennals human rights prize for exposing the very cruel refugee policy of the Australian government. Recognized as a true leader, human rights and humanitarian advocate, Muhamat has tirelessly cared for fellow refugees, and eloquently drawn the world’s attention to their plight. It is the first time that the major prize has been awarded to an individual focused on refugee issues and who has been a victim of human rights violations by a Western democracy. Muhamat was stuck in an Australia’s notorious offshore detention centre on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea for over 5 years after his boat was intercepted by Australian authorities in 2013. Mr Muhamat has been permitted to leave the island since being granted a Swiss visa, but hopes to return to Manus to continue his advocacy work. The annual Martin Ennals Awards are named after a Nobel Peace Prize-winning British human rights activist.

Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu on February 19, 2019 cleared proposals to encourage investments in Start-Ups, aiming at simplifying the process of exemptions for Start-ups from the ‘Angel Tax’. As per the new norms, registered startups will be exempted from tax on funding of up to Rs 25 crore compared with the existing limit of Rs 10 crore.

The rural housing scheme Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana – Gramin (PMAY-G) in Phase-ll will be continued beyond 2019-20 up to 2021-22 as per the existing norms of PMAY-G Phase-l, with a target of 60 lakh houses involving financial implication of Rs 76,500 crore.

According to a biennial report released by the government, the Centre has identified 106 Coastal and Marine sites as Conservation Reserves under its National Wildlife Action plan for the period of 2017-2031. This was the 2nd biennial updated report which was made by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and was submitted to UN body on Climate change in December 2018. According to report, India has been successful to sustain the ecosystem when it is at its edge of disappearing at an alarming rate. Also it will further conserve the coastal and marine ecosystems from the impact of climate change. Both the coastal and marine areas facilitate with food baskets and fish protein to population, and also provide valuable foreign exchange in turn.

The first-ever Mallakhamb World Championship at Shivaji Park in central Mumbai on February 17. Fifteen countries participated in the tournament.

Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmer’s Welfare, Radha Mohan Singh, inaugurated the 4th Agri Leadership Summit 2019 at the India International Horticulture Market (IIHM) in Ganaur, Sonipat district, Haryana.

Jharkhand based NGO Yuwa won the Laureus Sports for Good Award. Yuwa works for girl empowerment and became the third Indian entry to receive this honour.

Additional Director General of West Bengal Police (law and order) Anuj Sharma was appointed as the new Kolkata Police Commissioner after his predecessor Rajeev Kumar was transferred as ADG & IGP of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). Mr. Kumar recently faced CBI interrogation at Shillong over chit fund scam in West Bengal. He headed the probe instituted by the State Government on the scam.

India’s second-largest IT services firm, Infosys has launched a digital platform ‘InfyTQ’ to offer learning and engagement experiences to engineering students in the country. InfyTQ is a free platform open to all engineering students in their 3rd and 4th years across India. The platform encourages holistic development by imparting technical as well as professional skills, helping them become industry-ready. InfyTQ, available on both mobile and desktop, includes content, courses, and news as well as online assessments and certification. Through app, students will benefit from the always-on, anytime, anywhere learning, catered through a continuous transfer of digital skills and expertise from the Infosys innovation ecosystem. In addition, the platform also offers courses on professional skills to help students navigate the art of effective contextual response, inter-personal relationships, communication and e-mail, and etiquette, among others.

Union Home Minister inaugurated Cyber Crime Unit of Delhi Police and National Cyber Forensic Lab on February 18, 2019 in New Delhi. The Home Minister also inaugurated a Delhi Police Residential Block comprising 56 flats. The Delhi Police built 312 dwelling units last year and another 969 units are under construction this year.

The 40th International Annual Desert Festival held on the sand dune in Jaisalmer with thousands of tourists participating in the colourful event.

Indiamoneyinsurance.com, a subsidiary of the Indiamoney.com Group has acquired a broking license from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India(IRDAI) of India’s to enter Insurance Business. The company will come to process within next few days and projects to hire 2000 employees before the year ends.The brokerage also projects to institute 500 purchase centres of insurance across India with an investment of Rs. 4 billion.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh recently inaugurated the National Cyber Forensic Lab (NCFL) and Cyber Prevention, Awareness & Detection Centre 9CyPAD) as a part of the Union Home Ministry’s Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C)

US space agency NASA has recently unveiled a new space telescope ‘SPHEREx’ that would begin a two-year mission in 2023 to map the entire sky in order to understand the origins of the universe. The acronym SPHEREx stands for ‘Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer’. The spacecraft’s objective is to learn about how our universe evolved and how common the essential ingredients for life in our galaxy’s planetary systems. It will survey the sky in optical as well as near-infrared light which, though not visible to the human eye, serves as a powerful tool for answering cosmic questions. It will map the entire sky every six months to create a map in 96 color bands, and will be searching for water and organic molecules like methanol or acetone in regions where stars and being born and new planets are forming. Astronomers will use the mission to gather data on more than 300 million galaxies, as well as more than 100 million stars in our own Milky Way.

The Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) is a pan-India single number (112) based response system for persons in distress. The citizens can access emergency services by dialing 112 number. They can also press the power button on a smartphone thrice quickly to activate a panic call to ERC. In case of a feature phone, the citizen can long press on number 5 or 9 on the phone keypad to activate the panic call.

The Government established Small Farmers’ Agri-Business Consortium (SFAC) as a Society in 1994 to facilitate agri-business ventures by catalyzing private investment through Venture Capital Assistance (VCA) Scheme in close association with financial institutions.  The setting up of State level SFAC as counterpart agency of Central SFAC for agribusiness projects was part of the Scheme.

The main functions of SFAC are:

(i)         Promotion of development of small agribusiness through VCA scheme;

(ii)       Helping formation and growth of Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) / Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs);

(iii)     Improving availability of working capital and development of business activities of FPOs/FPCs through Equity Grant and Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme;

(iv)    Implementation of National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) Electronic Trading platform.

India has raised the basic customs duty to 200 per cent on all goods imported from Pakistan with immediate effect following withdrawal the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status in the aftermath of the Pulwama terror attack.

Sushil Chandra on February 15, 2019 assumed charge as the new Election Commissioner (EC) of India. He would be working along with Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa in the Election Commission.

Chandramouli Ramanathan from India has been appointed by the United Nations as Controller & Assistant Secretary-General (ASG) for Programme Planning, Budget and Finance in the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance (DMSPC). He succeeded Bettina Tucci Bartsiotas of Uruguay. DMSPC, launched on 1st January 2019, provides strategic policy leadership in all areas of management through a clear, integrated global management strategy and policy framework. It will champion, drive and support a results-oriented and risk-aware culture of continuous learning and accountability and promote innovation in business models throughout the Secretariat, with a strong focus on the field.

The 40th edition of International Annual Desert Festival 2019 has started in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan on February 17. Thousands of tourists are participating in the colourful event. The 3-day festival, which exhibits rich cultural heritage of the desert state, commenced with a colourful procession from Gadsisar lake fort. It will have interesting events like Mr Desert and Ms Moomal competitions, moustache competitions, turban tying, tug of war, musical and cultural performances, among others. The Border Security Force presented a camel tattoo show on the opening day of the festival. Before the inaugural ceremony of the festival, organisers kept a two-minute silence in respect of the 40 CRPF personnel who lost their lives in the Pulwama terror attack on 14th Feb.

The country’s second-largest IT services firm Infosys on Saturday announced the launch of ‘InfyTQ’, a digital platform to offer learning and engagement experiences to engineering students in the country. InfyTQ is a free platform open to all engineering students in their third and fourth years across India, Infosys said in a statement.

Sunil Chhetri, the all-time leading scorer for India in international football, has been conferred the first ever Football Ratna honor by Football Delhi, the association governing the sport in Delhi.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) based international cooling provider, National Central Cooling Company PJSC (Tabreed) entered into a 30-year concession with Andhra Pradesh Capital Region Development Authority (APCRDA) to build India’s first district cooling system in Amaravati.

Abdul Aziz Muhamat,a Sudanese refugee who has been held in Australia’s notorious offshore Manus Island Processing Centre for over five years, has won the prestigious Martin Ennals Human Rights Prize,the UN refugee Agency UNHCR has said.

A total of 229,068 cases of measles were reported in 2018,nearly double the number of infections contracted in the previous year, the WHO has said.