Cabinet approves new major port at Vadhavan in Maharashtra

NATIONAL NEWS

UNESCO provides the world heritage site status for pink city.

• Jaipur received the world heritage site status from UNESCO in a gala function held at Alber hall museum.
• Rajasthan tourism minister and urban development& housing minister received the certificate from UNESCO director general.
• UNESCO had already declared Jaipur’s walled city, unique for its grid-plan based architecture and buildings constructed with a pink facade as a world heritage site last year.
• Rajasthan tourism minister: Vishwendra Singh
• Urban development and housing minister: Shanti Dhariwal
• UNESCO director general: Audrey Azoulay               

Matla abhiyaan – coastal security exercise conducted by Indian navy

• To spread awareness on coastal security, the Indian navy has conducted a coastal security exercise in Kolkata, West Bengal called “MALTA ABHIYAAN”.
• In this 5-day exercise conducted from 29^th January to 2^nd February, two boats were flagged off to move along the river Malta in the Sundarbans region.

India and south Korea defence talks

• Ministerial level defence talks were held between Indian defence minister and minister of national defence of south Korea in New Delhi
• The talks were aimed at deepening of bilateral defence cooperation between the countries.
• The ministers exchanged the Road map on Defence Industries cooperation which includes a list of possible areas of cooperation.
• Defence minister of India: Rajnath Singh
• Minister of national defence south Korea: Jeong Kyeong-doo

India art fair 2020

• The 12^th edition of India art fair 2020 was held at NSIC grounds, New Delhi.
• The four-day event was started from January 30^th to 2^nd February featuring 81 exhibitors all over the world including PHOTOINK, Vadehra Art Gallery, GALLERYSKE, David Zwirner, Gallery Tableau, and Aicon Contemporary.

Trust formed for ram temple construction

• The cabinet had approved a scheme for the construction of a grand ram temple in Ayodhya by setting up an autonomous trust announced by PM Narendra Modi in parliament.
• ‘Shri Ram Janma Bhoomi Tirtha Kshetra'- the name of the trust formed.
• The trust will constitute 15 members including a member from Dalit community.
• The trust will be headed by former attorney general K. Parasaran.

Cabinet approves new major port at Vadhavan in Maharashtra

• The union cabinet approves the country’s 13^th major port at Vadhavan near Dahanu in Maharashtra.
• The Total cost of the project is calculative to be ₹65,544.54 crores.
• Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT) is the lead partner with equity participation almost equal to 50% in implementing the project.
• JNPT is the largest in India and also ranked 28th in the world and has a traffic of 5.1 million TEUs (Twenty-Foot Equivalent Units).

Economic affairs

Direct tax Vivad Se Vishwas bill tabled in parliament.

• Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has tabled the bill to resolve disputed income tax cases in Lok Sabha.
• The bill aims to settle ₹9.32 lakh crore in cases.
• Under this scheme, taxpayers whose tax demands are locked in dispute can pay due taxes by march 31,2020 and get complete remission of interest and penalty.

Cooperative banks to come under RBI

• The union cabinet has approved the amendments to the banking regulation act to bring 1540 cooperative banks under the regulation of reserve bank of India(RBI).
• This step is mainly to strengthen the financial stability of cooperative banks and to increase the public confidence in the banking system.
• The move comes with the wake of the Punjab &Maharashtra cooperative bank(PMC) crisis.

Auto expo 2020

• India’s flagship motor show auto expo 2020 started on 5^th February, where electrical vehicles, concept cars and the new model SUVs from the major manufacturers were displayed.
• Green mobility, electric cars has become the main option n this 2020 edition of biennial India auto expo.

IOC signs term contract with Rosneft for crude supply

• Indian oil corporation(IOC) signed a term contract with Rosneft for the supply of 2 million tonnes per annum of Urals grade crude oil to India.
• Union petroleum and natural gas and steel minister: Dharmendra Pradhan.
• CEO Rosneft: Igor Sechin

SPORTS NEWS

Virat Kohli remains India’s most valuable celebrity

• Virat Kohli has remained in the top position of being the most valuable celebrity brand in the Duff & Phelps’ celebrity brand valuation report for the 3^rd consecutive year.
• He is followed by the Bollywood star Akshay Kumar in the 2^nd place and Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone in the third position of the list.
• Deepika Padukone has also retained her most valuable female celebrity status for the second consecutive year.

Rakhi Halder won gold at senior women’s national weightlifting championship

• In the 35^th edition of Senior Women's National Weightlifting Championships Rakhi Halder of West Bengal won gold in the 64kg category.
• She has won bronze medal for lifting 218 kg at the Qatar International Cup last year.
• In men’s category, Sambo Lapung won the gold medal in the 89kg category in national lifting championships at the Khudiram Anusilan Kendra. He scripted a new national record of lifting 188kg.