• National

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attends Gita Aradhana Mahotsav at ISKCON in Delhi

• Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the Gita Aradhana Mahotsav at ISKCON, East of Kailash in New Delhi.
• At the event, Mr. Modi turns a page of the Bhagwad Gita which has been prepared by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) devotees.
• It is measuring over 2.8 meters and over 800 kilograms the Bhagwad Gita is one of this kind in the world.
• It will have the original verses of Bhagwad Gita along with commentary.

• National

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal Launches 'Rail Drishti Dashboard'

• Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has launched a dashboard for passengers to keep track of train punctuality as well as other such information from anywhere in the country.
• The ‘eDrishti‘ dashboard has been developed by the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) and can be accessed at ‘www.raildrishti.cris.org.in’.
• Now, people can now track any information related to Indian Railways in a swipe-even while on the move.
• The dashboard has been linked to the base kitchens of the Indian Rail Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) to allow monitoring of the goings-on in IRCTC kitchens through live video.
• The dashboard will also provide the live status of reserved and unreserved passengers travelling on trains besides providing the exact location of trains at any point of time.

• International

Iran Foreign Minister Zarif Announces The Resignation

• Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (59-years) announced his resignation.
• His reputation in Iran’s political establishment took a hit when the US withdrew from the nuclear deal in May 2018.
• Zarif was blamed by ultra-conservatives for negotiating a bad deal that had not gained anything meaningful for Iran.
• President Hassan Rouhani has not accepted the resignation so far.

• Sports

Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta Lifts Cannes International Open Trophy

• Indian Grandmaster ‘Abhijeet Gupta’ lifted the Cannes International Open Chess trophy.
• Abhijeet won the tournament with 7.5 points.
• Then two more wins and three draws happened on the way to his first solo International tournament victory.

• Awards

President Presents Gandhi Peace Prize for 2018

• The 2018 Gandhi Peace Prize was conferred on Yohei Sasakawa, who is at the forefront of many philanthropic initiatives. His compassionate nature can be seen in the manner in which he has worked to eliminate leprosy in India.

• Appointments

Indra Nooyi joins Amazon’s Board of Directors

• India-born former PepsiCo’s CEO Indra Nooyi has joined the online retail giant Amazon’s board of directors.
• She is the second woman of colour to be added on Amazon’s board of Directors.
• Ms. Nooyi stepped down as CEO of Pepsico in October 2018.
• She was Pepsico CEO from October 2006 to October 2018, where she also served as the Chairman of its board of directors from May 2007 to February 2019.

• Appointments

Brij Bhushan Sharan Elected As WFI President

• Brijbhushan Sharan Singh (62-years) has been elected unopposed as President of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).
• This marked the third time that Singh had assumed the post of WFI’s president.
• He was the chef-de-mission of the Indian contingent for the Asian Games 2018 held in Jakarta and Palembang.
• Mr. Sharan is also a Member of Parliament from the Kaiserganj constituency of Uttar Pradesh.

• States

Madhya Pradesh Government launched ‘Mukhyamantri Yuva Swabhiman Yojana’

• Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath has launched the state Government’s flagship scheme ‘Mukhyamantri Yuva Swabhiman Yojana’ to urban youths (21-30 years) from economically weaker sections.
• Under the scheme, Rs 4,000 stipend per month will be given for 100 days of employment every year.
• They will also be given skill development training in order to become independent.
• Only those youths, whose family’s annual income is less than Rs 2 lakh are eligible for the scheme.

• States

National Institute of Design at Bhopal And Jorhat Inaugurated

• Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, inaugurated National Institutes of Design (NID) at Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh and Jorhat in Assam through video conference from New Delhi on 22nd February 2019.
• Both institutes are autonomous institutions under the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and industry.

• States

Skill Development Minister inaugurates Skill Saathi Youth Conclave in Odisha

• The Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has inaugurated a “Skill Saathi Youth Conclave” to create awareness about various programmes under Skill India Mission in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha.
• The Skill Saathi model was created to impart information on vocational education and available market opportunities to the youth.
• Currently, Ten Counselling Implementing Organisations (CIO) are empanelled under the ‘Skill Saathi’ initiative in Odisha, who mobilise candidates and provide career counselling to them.
• All blocks and urban local bodies in Odisha have been divided among these empanelled CIOs.

• Economy and Business

GST Council Cuts Tax On Under Construction Residential Houses to 5%

• The GST Council slashed tax rates on under-construction housing properties to5% (existing 12%).
• The Council also cut GST rates on affordable housing to 1% (current 8%).
• The council altered the definition of affordable housing, any house built on an area of 60 square metres or less in the metro cities of India will be categorised as affordable housing.
• The new tax rates will come into effect from 1^st April 2019.