10th February: World Pulses Day
World Pulses Day proclaimed on February 10 of each year since 2019. World Pulses Day is a designated United Nations global event to recognize the importance of pulses (chickpeas, dry beans, lentils, dry peas and lupins among others) as a global food.
World Pulses Day is a recognition of the decisive role that pulses can play in achieving the comprehensive, far-reaching and people-centred set of universal and transformative goals and targets of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a plan of action that seeks to strengthen universal peace.
11th February: International Day of Women and Girls in Science
International Day of Women and Girls in Science is observed globally on 11 February. International Day of Women and Girls in Science to recognises the critical role of women and girls play in science and technology.
In December 2015, the United Nations adopted a resolution to celebrate February 11 as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. 2016 is the first time it was celebrated.
11th February: World Unani Day
World Unani day is celebrated every year to mark the birth anniversary of great Unani scholar and social reformer Hakim Ajmal Khan. He was an eminent Indian Unani physician who was a versatile genius, a great scholar, a social reformer, a noted freedom fighter, an Unani medical educationist and founder of scientific research in Unani System of Medicine. He was one of the founders of the Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi.
The main objective of World Unani Day is to spread awareness about health care delivery through Unani system of medicine through its preventive and curative philosophy.
92nd Academy Awards
The 92nd Academy Awards took place at the Los Angeles’ Dolby Theatre. A total of 24 key categories were awarded.
Parasite won the Best Picture award. It is the first non-English film to win in that category. The film also bagged Best Original Screenplay, Best International Feature Film and Best Director. Joaquin Phoenix won ‘Best Actor’ for his role in Joker. Renee Zellweger won ‘Best Actress’ for Judy.
The film 1917 was also a big winner. It won awards for Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects and Cinematography. Brad Pitt was awarded Best Supporting Actor for Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. Laura Dern bagged ‘Best Supporting Actress’ award for her role in Marriage Story. It is the first time an actor has won an Oscar for a Netflix movie. The awards ceremony saw performances by Janelle Monae, Eminem, Idina Menzel, Cynthia Erivo, Elton John and Billie Eilish.
Aditya Mehta won the National Snooker championship
Aditya Mehta from Mumbai, Maharashtra won the National Snooker championship held at Pune. He defeated multiple time world champion Pankaj Advani. In Women’s Snooker Finals, Vidya Pillai from Madhya Pradesh won the title.
Aditya Mehta ranks 49 in the world ranking of Snooker players. He has so far won gold medals at world level and Asian level games.
Africa Union Summit held at Addis Ababa
The African Union Summit was held in Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia to tackle terrorism in the continent. The leaders met in Addis Ababa under the theme “Silencing the Guns”.
This year the chair is being assumed by South Africa. The 2020 summit has adopted following resolutions in the summit
1. Compromise with the United Nations over co-funding in peace operations
2.To support elections in Ethiopia and to mediate events of disputes
3. To deter leaders in Guinea to use Constitutional Amendments to hold on to power
4. To help to calm Burkina Faso’s insurgency
5. To push Somali Government towards regional compromise
6. To press East African heads to support South Sudan peace process
Armand Duplantis breaks Pole Vault World Record
Sweden’s Pole Vaulter, Armand Duplantis has broken the Pole Vault World Record set by Renaud Lavillenie of France in 2014. Armand Duplantis break the world record with a jump of 20 feet 2.9 inches or 6.17 metres at Copernicus Cup in Torun, Poland.
Renaud Lavillenie set the previous world record of 6.16 metres in February 2014 in Donetsk, Ukraine.
Banks to get 5-year CRR relief for lending to auto, housing, MSMEs
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said banks would not be required to maintain the cash reserve ratio (CRR) for five years on their deposits for an amount equivalent to loans given to the MSME (micro, small, and medium enterprises), housing and vehicles sectors between January 31 and July 31.
Banks currently maintain 4 per cent on their deposits as CRR.
Cauvery Delta of Tamil Nadu declared Protected Agricultural Zone
Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu announced that Cauvery Delta is to be declared as Protected Special Agricultural Zone. In 2019, the Central Government had awarded the oil and gas exploration projects in the Cauvery basin. This invoked large protests amid water crisis in the state. Extraction of hydro carbon requires excess amount of fresh water.
When a land is announced as Protected Agricultural Zone, it cannot be used for any other non-agricultural activities.
Corona Virus Ranking: India ranks 17 in importing Corona Virus
The researchers of Robert Koch institute in Germany and Humboldt University have founded mathematical model to predict global spread of novel corona virus cases. India was ranked 17th in the ranking system. So far three cases have been reported in Kerala. They are all from Kerala.
According to the ranking, the top 10 countries that are at risk due to corona virus are Japan, Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia and Cambodia.
The highest risk of importing the virus was with Thailand. It was 2.1%. The import risk of India was at 0.2% according to the study.
February 10: National Deworming Day
Every year National Deworming Day is observed twice on February 10th and August 10th. The event is observed by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The implementing agency under the ministry is National Health Mission.
On the Deworming Day, the deworming tablet Albendazole is administered to children. The event is being observed twice a day since 2015.
WHO data says that there are around 241 million children in India in the age group of 1 to 14 years that are affected due to parasitic intestinal worms. This says that India accounts to 28% of total number of children who are at the risk of parasitic intestinal infections. Worm infections lead to anemia, malnutrition, diarrhea and loss of appetite.
First Jerusalem-Mumbai festival held in Mumbai
The Jerusalem-Mumbai festival is to be held in Mumbai on February 15, 2020 to promote artistic and cultural ties between Israel and India. The festival is first of its kind.
The aim of the festival is to establish links between the cities Jerusalem and Mumbai. The idea was mooted during PM Modi’s visit to Israel in July 2019. The festival will boost cultural ties between the countries that will help to boost the partnership between them.
Israel has so far done similar cooperation with Prague, Brussels and Moscow.
India to host 13th COP of UN’s Conservation of Migratory Species
The 13th Conference of Parties (COP) of the Convention on Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals is to be held in India between February 17, 2020 and February 22, 2020. The Conference is called the CMS-COP-13 in short. The Conference is to be hosted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on behalf of India.
India has been designated as the President of the Conference for the next three years. The theme of the conference is: “Migratory species Connect the Planet and we welcome them”.
The mascot designated for the CMS COP-13 is Indian Bustard.
India’s Lalremsiami named as 2019 FIH Women’s Rising Star of Year
India forward Lalremsiami has been named as the 2019 FIH Women’s Rising Star of the Year by the International Hockey Federation.
The FIH said that 19-year-old Lalremsiami took the prize ahead of Argentina’s Julieta Jankunas and Frederique Matla of the Netherlands.
Lalremsiami first came into the wider hockey consciousness at the Hockey Women’s World Cup in 2018 when she was one of the stand-out players of the tournament. Since then she has been at the heart of the rise of the Indian women’s hockey team.
India-UK to hold joint military exercise Ajeya Warrior
India-UK hold joint exercise called Ajeya Warrior on February 13, 2020. The exercise is being held from 2005. This is the fifth edition of the exercise. The countries will hold the exercise in Salisbury Plains.
India and UK hold joint naval exercises called Konkan exercise from 2004. The countries also hold Indra Dhanush Exercise since 2006. Indra Dhanush is a joint air-to-air exercise.
Kaamya Karthikeyan: Mumbai Girl becomes the youngest to climb Mt Aconcagua
Kaamya Karthikeyan became the youngest girl to climb the highest peak in South America, Mt Aconcagua.
Kaamya Karthikeyan is a Class VII student studying in Navy Children School. She has set the record of become the youngest in the world to summit the highest peak of the Andes Mountain Range, Mt Aconcagua. She has also summited Mt Mentok Kangri II in August 2019.
NASA sends probes to map poles of the sun
NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) of the United States and the ESA (European Space Agency) will send space probes to the sun to map its poles.
The probe will use gravitational influence of the Earth and Venus to position itself at 26 million miles from the sun. It is 95% of distance between the sun and the earth. The probe will map the poles for the first time. This will help scientists to observe the solar winds. The solar winds permeate the solar system.
Tripura organises its 1st-ever “Hornbill Festival”
The 1st-ever Hornbill festival of Tripura was celebrated in Agartala. The aim to conserve the striking forest bird “Hornbill” and to boost the livelihood of the people through tourism. Chief Minister (CM) Biplab Kumar Dev inaugurated the festival at Baramura hill (in western Tripura).
The “Hornbill” festival, named after the Indian Hornbill, the large and colourful forest bird which is displayed in the folklore of most of the tribals in northeast India, usually takes place in the first week of December every year since 2000 at Naga Heritage village Kisama, about 12 km from Nagaland capital Kohima.
World’s Cheapest Gun Shot Locator developed by Indian Army
The Indian Army’s College of Military Engineering with a private firm developed the gun shot locators called “Parth”. These are much cheaper than the ones imported. The device was showcased at DefExpo 2020.
The cost of the device developed is around 3 lakhs. When these devices are replaced with the imported ones, the costs are around Rs 65 lakhs.
Gunshot Locator is the system that locates gunfire and other weapons such as sensors. These devices are used by security, military, law enforcement and businesses to identify the direction of gun fires.
