• National

PM Narendra Modi confers National Youth Parliament Festival 2019 Awards

• Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given away the National Youth Parliament Festival 2019 awards in New Delhi.
• Earlier, Youth in the age bracket of 18-25 years were invited to participate in the District, State and National level Youth Parliaments.
• More than 50 thousand youth participated through Youth Parliaments at all levels.
• The best three speakers at the National Youth Parliament 2019 has been awarded 2 Lakh rupees, 1.5 Lakh rupees and 1 Lakh rupees respectively in order of merit along with a certificate.
• On 12th January 2019, the Union Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore had launched the festival to encourage the youth to engage with public issues & understand the common man’s point of view.

• Awards

National e-Governance Awards 2019 Presented in Delhi

• Today, Minister of State in Prime Minister’s Office, Dr Jitendra Singh has presented National e-Governance Awards, 2019 in six categories at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi.
• The awards are given every year to recognise and promote excellence in the implementation of e-Governance initiatives.
• The initiative seeks to disseminate knowledge on effective methods of designing and implementing sustainable e-Governance initiatives.
• It also recognizes initiatives in Startups, Academic Research Institutions as well as initiatives in adopting emerging technologies.
• Railway’s ticket booking mobile application ‘Rail Connect mobile’ and the Chhattisgarh government’s ‘Khanij online’ are among 14 such IT projects that have been chosen for this year’s National e-Governance Awards.

• National

Civil Aviation Ministry Organised 'flying for all' Conclave

• The Union Minister for Civil Aviation Suresh Prabhu has inaugurated the Aviation Conclave 2019 with an overarching theme of “Flying for All” in New Delhi.
• It brings together industry leaders, government and regulators for setting the tone and propelling us to realize our Vision-2040.
• Over 200 delegates are taking part in the discussions.
• Aviation Conclave 2019 has been organized by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, in association with Airports Authority of India, AAICLAS and Confederation of Indian Industry.

• Economy and Business

Britannia to replace Hindustan Petroleum in Nifty 50

• Britannia Industries will replace Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) in the National Stock Exchange Fifty (NIFTY) 50 index (from 29th March 2019).
• Britannia Industries hand gained 1.43% to settle at Rs 3,056 on the bourse, on the other hand HPCL share dropped 1.54% to Rs 227.40 on NSE
• The NIFTY 50 index is the National Stock Exchange of India’s benchmark broad.
• It represents the weighted average of 50 Indian company stocks.

• Sports

Hungary's Veronika Major Wins The Gold Medal at ISSF World Cup

• Hungary’s Veronika Major has won a gold medal in 10-metre air pistol event at the ongoing ISSF World Cup at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi.
• She bagged the medal with 245.1 points in the tournament.
• Taipei’s Chia Ying Wu won a silver medal, with 238.4 points Korean Bomi Kim came third, with 218.3 points.

• Sports

Sanath Jayasuriya Banned From Cricket For Two Years

• Former Sri Lankan Cricket Captain Sanath Jayasuriya (49-years) has been banned from Cricket for two years after he failed to co-operate in a corruption investigation.
• According to the ICC statement, Jayasuriya admitted to breaching two counts of the ICC Anti-Corruption Code.
• He served as chair of the selection committee during 2016-17 during which team performance dipped and has remained uneven since then.
• Sri Lankan cricket has been under investigation by ICC for last few years and Jayasurya was served a notice a few months back.

• Awards

First Indian-Origin Woman To Get Blue Plaque in the UK

• Britain’s World War II spy Noor Inayat Khan was confirmed as the first Indian-origin woman to be honoured with a Blue Plaque at her former London home.
• The Blue Plaque scheme run by English Heritage honours notable people who lived or worked in particular building across London.
• Khan’s plaque is set to go up at 4 Taviton Street in Bloomsbury, where she lived as a secret agent during the war.
• Khan was the daughter of Indian Sufi saint Hazrat Inayat Khan.
• She was an agent for Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) during World War II and was captured and killed by the Nazis in 1944 at just 30 years of age.

• International

Muhammadu Buhari re-elected Nigerian President

• According to Electoral Commission (INEC), Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari (76-years) has secured a second four-year term in office.
• Buhari defeated his main challenger Atiku Abubakar by a margin of nearly four million votes.
• Mr Buhari first came to power in 2015 after defeating then-incumbent Goodluck Jonathan.
• Mr Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) won in 19 of the 36 states while the PDP was victorious in 17 states.

• Miscellaneous

Global Health Leaders Adopt ‘Delhi Declaration’ on Digital Health

• Global health leaders and experts on 26 Feb adopted ‘Delhi Declaration’ on digital health for sustainable development, which called for the WHO to establish a specific mechanism to centrally coordinate digital health to assist its member states.
• Ministers and government officials from over 34 countries attended the event to discuss the impact of digital technologies on health.
• The global intergovernmental meeting on digital health was hosted by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Global Digital Health Partnership (GDHP).

• Defence

Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air Missile Successfully Test-Fired

• India successfully test-fired short-range Quick Reaction Surface to Air Missile (QRSAM) off Odisha coast on 26 Feb 2019.
• The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) test-fired two missiles from a test facility at Chandipur in Balasore district.
• The missile, which has a strike range of about 30 km, is capable of killing aerial targets, tanks and bunkers.