1. *PM Modi on Monday inaugurated the extension of Metro Railway from Noapara to Dakshineswar in West Bengal* and flagged off the first service on this stretch. He also inaugurated the third line between Kalaikunda and Jhargram.
2. *Gujarat municipal elections: Amit Shah terms it ‘landslide victory’* : BJP’s dominance in electoral politics continued on Tuesday as it retained power in the Municipal Corporations of Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Jamnagar. Despite being in power for over 25 years in the state, BJP vastly improved its performance by winning 483 out of the total 576 seats across the 6 civic bodies as compared to the previous election where it bagged 389 seats.
3. *Mumbai will start the first undersea tunnel of India in 2023 which is being constructed as part of Coastal Road project of Mumbai.* The tunnel will have the length of 2.07 km out of which 1 kilometre portion will be under the sea.
It is the first undersea road tunnel in India.
4. *The Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan, has launched the operational guidelines to Integrate the Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) with National Programme for Prevention & Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS).*
5. *The Horticulture Department of Karnataka will set up a flower processing centre in collaboration with the International Flower Auction Bangalore (IFAB)* The centre will be set up in order to convert the unsold flowers into its useful products.
6. *PM Modi gives Mantra of ‘Self-3’ – Self-awareness, Self-confidence and Selflessness to students of IIT- Kharagpur; Addressing the convocation of the premier institute through video conferencing,* PM says, there is a need to take IITs to the next level of ‘Institution of Indigenous Technology’.
7. *West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited her nephew and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee at his residence on Tuesday in Kolkata after CBI summoned his wife Rujira with regards to a coal smuggling case* and subsequently agreeing to record her statement at their house itself. The agency sleuths remained at the house for about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
8. *Under Agartala Smart City Limited (ASCL) project, Tripura has begun its first plastic road construction by using non-recyclable plastic waste. Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb inaugurated the road*
9. *PM Narendra Modi to visit Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, lay foundation stone of several projects on 25 Feb 2021.*
10. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is slated to meet Miss India runner-up Manya Singh and athlete Priyanka Goswami soon. While Manya Singh is the daughter of an auto driver from Deoria, Uttar Pradesh, national record holder Priyanka Goswami hails from Meerut.
11. *Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas and Steel Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday, February 23 refuted reports that claimed that the central government has stopped providing subsidies on LPG cylinders.* He says ‘LPG cylinders still comes subsidized’
12. The Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA) and the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) have signed an MoU to promote the Export-Oriented Marine Product.
13. *Republic Day violence: Delhi Court remands Deep Sidhu to judicial custody* : Sidhu, who is one of the key accused in the rioting that took place on Republic Day during the farmers’ tractor rally, was arrested by the Delhi Police on Feb 9.
14. Jammu and Kashmir: *One terrorist arrested by security forces, got connection with Pak Security forces* have foiled a plan to spread terror in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama once again. Police have arrested a terrorist before attacking. It has been revealed about this terrorist that it used to give logistic support to active terrorists.
15. *Averting a major tragedy, the 45th Batallian of Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) has recovered and diffused two Improvised Explosive Devises (IED) on the spot in Chhattisgarh’s Dhanora* . One of the two IEDs was kept in a pressure cooker while the other was fitted in a pipe sized device.
16. *Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) conducted two successful launches of Vertical Launch Short Range Surface to Air Missile (VL-SRSAM).* The launches were carried out today from a static vertical launcher from Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur off the coast of Odisha. Indigenously designed and developed by DRDO for Indian Navy,
17. *The Army’s northern commander Lt Gen Y K Joshi will present gallantry and distinguished service awards to 61 personnel and citations to 26 units for their outstanding contribution to the country and the force at an investiture ceremony on February 27.*
18. Rear Admiral Atul Anand takes over as flag officer commanding in Maharashtra Naval area
Rear Admiral Atul Anand, has assumed the office of flag officer commanding Maharashtra Naval area on Monday.
19. Two variants of SARS-CoV-2 — N440K and E484K — have been detected in Maharashtra and Kerala but there is no reason to believe presently that they are responsible for the surge in cases in some districts in these two states.
20. *Coronavirus Cases:*
11,029,326
Deaths: 156,598
Recovered: 10,724,144
*✈INTERNATIONAL NEWS*
1. *China has again become India’s top trading partner in the year 2020.* The reason was that India was still dependent on the import of heavy machines, telecom equipment and home appliances from China. The provisional data from the trade between both the countries in the year 2020 stood at $77.7 billion.
2. *India critical to US strategy in Indo-Pacific region, say experts* : As the Biden administration shapes its foreign and national security policy, a panel of experts and former diplomats have said that India is critical to the US’ strategy in the Indo-Pacific as the two countries share a common strategic vision for it to be free and open, amidst China flexing its muscles in the region.
3. *China expressed its support for India on February 22, 2021, in hosting BRICS Summit this year.* The Chinese official stated that the country will work with India for strengthening the cooperation between the 5-members grouping of emerging economies.
4. *Countering China in IOR, Indian Navy Conducts Largest War Games With a focus to counter China’s growing assertiveness in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR)* , the Indian Navy has conducted over a month-long drill, its largest military exercise ever – the Theatre Level Operational Readiness Exercise (TROPEX-21) – in Indian Ocean Region (IOR).
5. *Turkish shipbuilding firm Anadolu Shipyard will assist Visakhapatnam-based Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) with transfer of technology to build five mammoth fleet support vessels for the Indian Navy.*
6. *India and Mauritius sign Comprehensive Economic Cooperation and Partnership Agreement* . CECPA provides for an institutional mechanism to encourage and improve trade between the two countries.
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