North East Small Finance Bank (NESFB) which is the first small bank of North India has started its services on 16 February.

The Ranveer Singh bagged Best Actor’s trophy for his performance in Gully Boy, while Alia Bhatt won the Best Actor in a Leading Role (Female) for the same film.

The Election Commission of India was awarded ‘Silver’ award for ‘Excellence in Government Process re-engineering for Digital transformation’ from the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG), during the 23rd National Conference on e-Governance held at Mumbai.
The award is presented to ECI for its portal ERO-NET. The portal uses a mechanism to effectively enter an applicant in E-roll. It is used for various functions like processing of forms, easy handling of the databases and maintenance of E-Rolls.

The unofficial holiday of World Pangolin Day falls on third Saturday of February which was on February 15 this year and comes at an interesting as the animal has been linked to the ongoing coronavirus.

India will host the 2021 Junior Men’s Hockey World Cup.
The International Hockey Federation (FIH) announced this at Lausanne in Switzerland on 17 Feb 2020.
In all, 16 teams will compete for the title in the Junior Men’s World Cup, out of which six will be from Europe, four from Asia, including hosts India, two from Africa, two from Oceania and two from Pan America.

Bhawna Jat became the second Indian race walker to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics after setting a new national record in 20km race walk at the National Championships in Ranchi on February 15. The athlete from Rajasthan clocked 1:29.54, which is inside the Olympic qualification time of 1:31.00.

Uttar Pradesh government had launched the ambitious scheme ‘One District, One Product’ (ODOP) in which one craft per district was identified.

Former Bengali actor and Trinmool Congress (TMC) MP Tapas Pal passed away on February 18, 2020, in Mumbai. He was 61. He made his debut in the Bengali movie industry with Tarun Majumdar’s film Dadar Kirti.

Prime Minister Modi flagged off the IRCTC’s (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation) Maha Kaal Express through video link. The train will connect 3 Jyotirling Pilgrim Centres – Varanasi, Ujjain and Omkareshwar. This would be first overnight journey private train in the country. Every passenger travelling on the train will be covered with complimentary travel insurance of Rs 10 lakh. Facilities like security services, quality vegetarian food, bedrolls, and housekeeping services will also be available onboard. The Kashi Mahakal Express will run between Varanasi and Indore.

India became the first country in the entire world to make the entire Haj 2020 process digital.

The first Bird-ringing station of the country, set up with support of a state government, is to be built in the state of Bihar. This is the fourth such facility in the country. The station, whose main centre is to be built at Bhagalpur, is dedicated for observation, monitoring and research on migratory birds. Rings with chips to track source and origin of birds are placed on their legs.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was exchanged between representatives of the Bihar government and the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), during the COP-13 CMS summit.

The two-day ‘4th National Conference’ on ‘Review of Implementation of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY)’ began in Udaipur (Rajasthan) on 17th February 2020. It is being organised by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare (MoAFW). Previous three editions of ‘National Conference’ were organised in Lucknow, Bangalore, and Guwahati respectively by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

‘United by Emotion’ was revealed as the motto for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics on 17 Feb 2020.
Tennis player Naomi Osaka narrated the motto’s promotional video.
The motto will be displayed on the Tokyo Skytree, the Japanese capital’s tallest landmark.
Some 10,000 athletes from over 200 countries will gather in Tokyo for the Olympics, which will run from 24 July to 9 August 2020.

Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) was established in 1985 under Article 323-A of the Constitution. CAT has 17 Benches and 21 Circuit Benches. It is headed by Chairman Sh. Justice L. Narasimha Reddy, former Chief Justice of High Court of Patna.

Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda has made a new record by completing the five km road race in 12 minutes 51 seconds. He broke Kenya’s Rhonex Kipruto (13.18 seconds) record by 27 seconds which he made in Valencia last month.

The 15th Finance Commission has set up a five-member group led by 15th Finance Commission Chairman, Nand Kishore (NK) Singh to investigate the need for separate arrangements for funding defense and internal security.

The 65th Filmfare Awards were held on 15 Feb 2020 at Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium, Guwahati, Assam.
Gully Boy, directed by Zoya Akhtar, was awarded the Best Film.

Launching ‘Anganphou Hunba’ (Early Paddy Crop) programme at Arapti Mayai Leikai in Imphal East this morning, the Chief Minister stated, the government has planned to provide irrigation water by the Minor Irrigation Department to places having adequate arable land and large number of farmers.

The Squash Rackets Federation of India (SRFI)-77th Senior National squash championships was recently held at Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
Ace Indian squash player Joshna Chinappa clinched the women’s title by beating Tanvi Khanna, while another top-rated player Saurav Ghosal bagged the men’s title by defeating Abhishek Pradhan in straight sets. The champions were awarded a prize money of Rs. 1,25,000 each.

The ‘65th Filmfare Awards’ 2020 was held on February 15 in Guwahati, Assam. This was the first ‘Filmfare Awards were held outside Mumbai.

Indian Railways will operate a new train based on Ramayana theme which will take pilgrims to locations associated with Lord Rama.
The new Ramayana circuit train will start operating from the last week of March 2020.
The train will give a feel to passengers of a temple on wheels with themes and pictures related to Ramayana.
Bhajans will also be played on board.

India’s reinsurance company, General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC Re) has received the license from Central Bank of the Russian Federation (Bank of Russia) to commence reinsurance business in Russia.

Government of India and the World Bank signed a $450 million loan agreement on 17 February. The agreement aims to support the national programme to arrest the depleting groundwater levels and strengthen groundwater institutions in India.

The Government of Telangana is organizing the Bio-Asia Summit 2020 in Hyderabad from 17-19 February 2020. The summit will focus on biology companies and their investment capabilities.

The Madhya Pradesh (MP) forest department & Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT) has radio-tagged an Indian Pangolin (Manis crassicaudata) for the first time in order to know its ecology and develop an effective conservation plan.

DIGIT Financial Accounting System will empower the ULBs with a comprehensive set of capabilities that includes expenditure management, receivables management, bank reconciliation, revenue management, an extensive list of reports per the need of the accounting system, state-level dashboards for assets, liabilities, income-expenditure tracking and financial ratios.

‘GulFood 2020’, the world’s largest annual food and beverage trade exhibition is being held in the Dubai World Trade Centre city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), form February 16 to 20.
In the 25th edition of the exhibition, more than 5000 exhibitors are to participate. The Indian pavilion at the exhibition was recently inaugurated by the Union Minister for Food Processing Industries-Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

Bajaj Finance Ltd replaced SBI to become India’s tenth most-valued firm by market capitalisation on the BSE.
Bajaj Finance’s market capitalization stood at ₹2.87 trillion, with its shares trading at ₹4,773.85 on the BSE.
The finance company’s shares have risen nearly 12% so far in the year 2020.
State Bank of India has a market cap of ₹2.81 trillion.

Bengaluru gets South India’s first currency museum. Rezwan Razack’s Museum of Indian Paper Money displays one of the finest collections of Indian Paper Money and related material is drawn from the Indian subcontinent. Museums will make the people learn the history of Indian Paper Money from the early barter systems and the use of coins as currency. It was established by Rezwan Razack’s who is also the Co-Founder and  Joint MD, Prestige Group. This is the second currency museum in the country; the first was opened by RBI in the financial capital of the country i.e. Mumbai.

The Gandhinagar railway station is being completely redeveloped under Indian Railways.
One unique feature that will set apart the newly revamped Gandhinagar station in Gujarat is that it will be the first in India to have a 5-star hotel above the railway tracks.
The 5-star hotel, which will be run by the Leela Group, is expected to be completed by December 2020.