• National

Railways Start Displaying Vacant Seats Online

• The Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal has launched the ‘Online Platform for Display and Booking’ of vacant berths after chart preparation in New Delhi.
• It will enhance travel experience and bring greater transparency for Indian Railway passengers.
• The user-friendly interface will give a graphical representation of the train coaches and berth-wise accommodation status on www.irctc.co.in.
• The new feature in the ticketing system is a dynamic system which will keep upgrading itself as the train proceeds for the destination and passengers can see the real-time availability of berths.

• National

Jual Oram launches MSP for Minor Forest Produce, Value Addition Component of Van Dhan scheme

• Today, The Union Trible Affairs Minister Jual Oram has launched ‘Minimum Support Price’ (MSP) for Minor Forest Produce and Value Addition Component of Van Dhan Scheme at Dr Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi.
• Now, The Ministry of Tribal Affairs is scaling up the “Van Dhan Scheme” and extend it to all tribal Districts of the Country in phases starting with the Aspirational Districts with substantial tribal population.
• The Ministry also expanded the coverage of the Minimum Support Price for Minor Forest Produce Scheme to 50 Minor Forest Produce.
• The MSP has also been raised between 30% and 40% in case of each of the Commodities.
• The procurement of the Minor Forest Produce will commence in Haat Bazaars, where tribals bring their produce through the facilitation of the State Government Agencies and District Collectors of the concerned Districts.

• National

Rail Minister Announces “South Coast Railway (SCoR)” a New Zone of Indian Railways

• According to Railways Minister Piyush Goyal, Southern Coast Railway ((SCoR)will be a new zone of the Indian Railways.
• This new 18th railway zone of the country will be headquartered at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
• The new zone will comprise the existing Guntakal, Guntur and Vijayawada divisions that currently fall under the South-Central Railway.
• The South-Central Railway will then consist of the Hyderabad, Secunderabad and Nanded divisions.
• The cost of creating infrastructure for a new zone, according to an internal assessment of the Railways, is more than 205 crore rupees.

• Economy and Business

HRD Ministry Launches SHREYAS for Industry Apprenticeship

• HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar launched the SHREYAS scheme on 27 Feb to provide industry-specific apprenticeship opportunities to fresh graduates.
• SHREYAS – Scheme for Higher Education Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills.
• The initiative will help graduates polish their skills directly from industry experts and could bring India closer to its aim of skilling its youth population to make them more employable.

• Sports

ISSF World Cup: Manu, Saurabh Clinch 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team Gold

• Indian duo Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker won the Gold medal in 10-metre air pistol mixed team event at the ISSF world cup Shooting in New Delhi.
• They shot a total of 483.5 points to finish on top of the podium.
• The Chinese duo of Ranxin Jiang and Bowen Zhang won the Silver with 477.7 points.
• While the bronze went to the Korean pair of Minjung Kim and Daehun Park who scored 418.8 points.
• The tournament offered 14 quota places for the 2020 Tokyo Games.
• India jointly topped the standings with Hungary in the ISSF World Cup claiming three gold medals but managed to secure only one Olympic quota.

• Appointments

NBT Appoints Govind Prasad Sharma as Chairman

• The National Book Trust (NBT) has appointed educationist and author Govind Prasad Sharma as its new Chairman.
• Sharma has served as the Principal of Government P.G. College, Madhya Pradesh.
• Sharma also served as Vice Chairman of Madhya Pradesh Board of Secondary Education.
• He is the author of more than six academic books and several research papers and has edited a few collected works.

• Awards

Mahesh Elkunchwar to be Honoured With META Lifetime Achievement Award

• Eminent Indian playwright Mahesh Elkunchwar has been chosen for this year’s META Lifetime Achievement Award.
• The playwright will be conferred upon with the award on 12th March, along with the winners of the 14th Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) festival.
• Elkunchwar is critically-acclaimed and widely-known for having experimented with a wide range of drama and is considered a powerful force in both Indian and Marathi theatre scene.

• Important Days

National Science Day Being Observed Today

• India celebrates National Science Day on 28th February of every year to commemorate the discovery of the Raman effect (in 1928) by Indian physicist Sir C.V. Raman.
• The objective of the day is to spread the message of the importance of science and its application among the people.
• The theme of National Science Day 2019 was “Science for the People and the People for Science”.
• Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conferred the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology for the years 2016, 2017 and 2018 to the awardees at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.
• The prize comprises a citation, a plaque, and a cash award of Rs 5 lakhs, recipients also get Rs. 15,000 per month up to the age of 65 years.

• Science and Tech

India’s First Indigenous Semiconductor Chips for 4G/LTE, 5G NR Modems Unveiled

• Bangalore based fab-less Semiconductor Company, Signalchip launched India’s first Indigenous Semiconductor Chips for 4G/LTE and 5G NR MODEMs in New Delhi.
• Aruna Sundararajan, India’s Telecom Secretary and Chairman of the Telecom Commission, unveiled four chips designed by Signalchip.

• States

Assam CM inaugurates PRANAM Commission

• Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has inaugurated the Assam Employees Parents Responsibility and Norms for Accountability and Monitoring (PRANAM) Commission.
• PRANAM bill is an effort from the state government to protect the old parents and divyang siblings in their times of need and give them financial security.
• It will benefit 8 lakh parents of 4 lakh state government employees.
• PRANAM bill makes mandatory for the employees of the State government to look after their parents and unmarried divyang siblings who do not have their own source of income.

• Miscellaneous

2nd Edition of ISL Dictionary’ for Hearing Impaired Persons Launched

• Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Thaawarchand Gehlot on February 27, 2019 launched the ‘2nd Edition of Indian Sign Language (ISL) Dictionary’.
• The dictionary is prepared by the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC) under Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD) of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
• The second edition of dictionary includes total 6000 words. The first edition of the dictionary was launched on March 23, 2018 with 3000 words.
• The Dictionary includes total 6000 words under the categories of academic, legal, medical, technical and everyday terms.

• National

Children Can Exit Aadhaar on Turning 18, Cabinet Passes Ordinance

• The Cabinet on Thursday approved the promulgation of an ordinance which allows children to exit Aadhaar on attaining 18 years of age.
• The Lok Sabha had passed a bill for the purpose on January 4 but it’s pending in Rajya Sabha. The ordinance also allows voluntary use of Aadhaar as identity proof for opening bank accounts and obtaining SIM cards.