1.
NASA on x marks 10th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Columbia that perished
into the atmosphere of the Earth upon its re-entry. Seven astronauts were
aboard Columbia which disintegrated across southern United States. The debris
of Columbia spread across 200-mile stretch from Texas to Louisiana. NASA
decided to mark the anniversary in just the low-key ceremonies in Texas as well
as Florida in order to honour the crew members of Columbia along with those who
died in the Challenger shuttle explosion on 28 January 1986.
Mahendra
Singh Dhoni, the captain of the Indian cricket team was appointed as the
vice-president of India Cements on 1 February 2013. India Cements is headed by
BCCI President N Srinivasan.
The
Union Government of India gave the Maharatna status to two PSUs- BHEL and GAIL
on 1 February 2013. Granting Maharatna status to BHEL and GAIL will provide
them with better functional and financial freedom and will also guarantee them
with better valuation of the shares.
Shanu
Lahiri, the renowned painter of Bengal School died following a brief illness at the private
hospital in Kolkata. She was 85 years of age.
Bharti
Airtel launched an emergency alert service for the subscribers in Odisha,
Bengal and Kolkata . The service is directed towards the women primarily and
allows them to dial the Airtel helpline number known as 55100 as well as send
the messages when there is an emergency.
2.
Ayesha Haroon, the renowned Pakistani journalist died in New York following 4-year long fight with
cancer. She was 46 years old.
3.
The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee
agreed to the Criminal Law (Amendment) Ordinance, 2013 for sharpening
the laws against sexual assault. The President mandated harsher punishment such
as death penalty for the offenders in such cases where the victim either dies
or lands into the vegetative state. The amended law would come into force
almost immediately.
Glenn
McGrath and Charlie Turner, the renowned fast bowlers were unanimously chosen
to be inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame. Hall of fame chairman
David Crow declared that these two pace bowlers were inducted officially at
Allan Border Medal ceremonies on 4 February 2013.
4.
World cancer day was observed on in
order to raise awareness about this illness as well as to promote the measures,
early detection, prevention and treatment of the disease. The theme for World
Cancer Day, 2013 was Cancer - Did you know?
The theme focused on dispelling the misconceptions associated with the
disease.
The
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting constituted a panel for examining the
issues of certification under Cinematographer Act 1952. Shri Mukul Mudgal, the
retired Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana High Court was appointed the
Chairman of the Panel.
Rohinton
F Nariman, the Solicitor-General of India resigned from his office . He was
appointed at the second highest law official of India on 23 July 2011 after
Gopal Subramanium resigned from his office on 14 July 2011 following the issues
with Government in context to the 2G Spectrum Allocation Scam.
Michael
Clarke, the Australian cricket captain won the fourth Allan Border Medal in
Melbourne . 31-year old Clarke had won the medal earlier in 2005, 2009 and
2012. Apart from Clarke, the only other player to win this medal four times is
Captain Ricky Ponting.
The
Supreme Court of India directed the
Union Government of India to notify the six-year-old final award of the Cauvery
Water Disputes Tribunal by 20 February 2013. A bench headed by Justice RM Lodha
expressed displeasure over the government not notifying the award even after
the warring Tamil Nadu and Karnataka had agreed before it on 4 January 2013
that they had no objection if the award was notified. The Centre had earlier
assured the apex court that it would notify the tribunal’s award by 31 December
2013.
Nepal
started a three-month-long census of the tigers. Tigers were declared as the
endangered species by International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2010.
Britain-based
Rebecca Adlington, the Olympic champion announced retirement from all forms of
competitive swimming. Adlington, 23 is from Mansfield.
5.
Manjushree Khaitan, the youngest daughter of Birla group on 5 February 2013
took over as the top executive of the BK Birla flagship, Kesoram Industries
which is a 6000 crore Rupees company. Kesoram Industries’ board decided
inducting Manjushree as a vice-chairman as well as whole-time director at the
company.
India
and Austria inked a social security pact at Vienna, under which the Indian
professionals working in Austria would be exempted from paying the social
security contribution of the country, if such payments are already made in
India. Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi and Austrian Minister for
Labour and Social Security, Rudoulf Hundstorfer signed the pact.
Marussia
F1 team unveiled their new Formula 1 car called MR02 . The specialty of this
car is that it equips the KERS (the kinetic energy recovery system) power-boost
system which is not found in any other existing teams. KERS was legalised since
2011. The benefit of KERS is that enables 0.3 seconds per lap.
6.
UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi launched a
new health initiative called Rashtriya Bal Sawsthya Karyakram at Palghar town
in Thane district of Maharashtra. The Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram, is a
part of the National Rural Health Mission of the Union Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare.
Mukund
Govind Rajan was appointed as the group spokesperson and brand custodian of
TATA Group. Rajan will have the responsibility of looking after the corporate
communications as well as the branding activities of the group in India and
abroad.
The
Union Cabinet of India gave approval to Defence Research and Development
Organisation (DRDO) for developing an indigenous Airborne Early Warning and
Control System (AWACS) for IAF.
US
President Barack Obama nominated Sally Jewell, a retail executive and outdoor
enthusiast as the U.S. interior secretary for looking after the huge energy
reserves as well as the national parks. Obama while nominating Jewell described
her as an expert on climate issues and energy issues.
Russian
Formula1 (F1) team Marussia announced that Brazilian Luis Razia is the second
driver for the 2013 Formula One Season going to start in Melbourne (Australian
Grand Prix) on 17 March 2013. Razia, the runner up of the 2012 GP2 Series would
race alongside Max Chilton, the British teammate.
7.
First bionic man of the world called Rex
was unveiled at London's Science Museum. The bionic man was created using 1
million US dollar limbs as well as organs. Prosthetic legs and ankle came from
MIT, synthetic blood from Sheffield University, spleens, pancreas and
artificial kidneys from University College London, retinas from Oxford
University and artificial lungs came from Swansea.
The
Supreme Court of India directed Karnataka to release 2.44 thousand million cubic
feet of Cauvery water to the state of Tamil Nadu with immediate effect. The
bench of Justices R M Lodha, J Chelameswar and Madan B Lokur gave the order on
the basis of report submitted by the committee of Central Water Commission that
was appointed on the orders of the Apex Court.
The
Information and Broadcasting Minister, Manish Tewari launched the MyIndia Initiative-A Digital
Volunteer Programme to reach out the people in the social media space.
8.
The Advocate-General of West Bengal, Anindya Kumar Mitra resigned from his
office . Following his resignation, Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West
Bengal appointed Bimal Chatterjee as the new Advocate General of the state.
The
Advocate-General of West Bengal, Anindya Kumar Mitra resigned from his office
on 8 February 2013. Following his resignation, Mamata Banerjee, the Chief
Minister of West Bengal appointed Bimal Chatterjee as the new Advocate General
of the state.
Ministry
of Civil Aviation released Shubh Yatra,
an exclusive monthly bi-lingual (Hindi & English) inflight magazine of Air
India. It covers travel, lifestyle, culture and entertainment in all colour and
spice.
9.
Mohamammed Afzal Guru, the convict of 2001 Parliament attack was hanged at 8 AM in Tihar Jail, New Delhi. The Supreme
Court of India pronounced the death Sentence for Afzal Guru in 2004 for
masterminding the terrorist attack on Indian Parliament on 13 December 2001.
Operation Three Star Code name given to secret plan for executing
Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorist Afzal Guru in Tihar Jail.
Finance
Minister P Chidambaram launched the much-awaited Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings
Scheme in Mumbai. The move will encourage new investors to put their money in
the stock market. The scheme, which was announced in the Budget 2011-12, seeks
to provide tax benefits to first-time investors in stock market. Under the
scheme, an individual with an income of less than 10 lakh rupees would get tax
incentives for investing up to 50000 rupees in the stock market.
Pandit
Ravi Shankar, the sitar legend was honoured with the posthumous Lifetime
Achievement Grammy award. His daughter sitarist Anoushka Shankar accepted the
award on his behalf ahead of the
Grammy’s show that took place in Los Angeles on 10 February 2013.
10.
Zhuang Zedong, the table tennis legend died in Beijing on 10 February 2013
following lengthy fight with cancer. He was aged 72 years. Zhuang Zedong is a
three-time world table tennis champion. He won a range of events in 1960s. He
was renowned for chance meeting with Glenn Cowan, the US table tennis player
during 31st World Table Tennis Championships in 1971.
Lydia
Ko, the teenager became youngest winner of a women's European Tour golf event
by winning at New Zealand Women's Open in Christchurch on 10 February 2013.
This is her third victory of the professional title. She is aged just 15 years,
eight months and 17 days.
World
No. 73 Horacio Zeballos defeated Rafael Nadal 6-7 (2) 7-6 (6) 6-4 to win his
first ATP World Tour trophy in VTR OPEN 2013 on 10 February 2013 in Vina del
Mar, Chile in Men’s Singles.
11.
Pope Benedict XVI announced that he would resign at the end of the month. He
reasoned that he was too infirm to carry on. He is the first pontiff to do so
in nearly 600 years. The decision set the stage for the election of a new Pope
before the end of March 2013.
The
Delhi Declaration of the first South Asian Autism Network (SAAN) for Autism
Spectrum Disorders (ASD) conference concluded in New Delhi.
Pakistan
successfully test fired short range surface-to-surface missile Hatf IX (NASR).
The test fire took place with consecutive launches of two missiles from
multi-tube launcher. NASR has 60 km range with the capability of in-flight
manoeuvring. It also has the capability of carrying nuclear warheads having apt
yields, with higher efficiency.
Indian
Tennis Players Association (ITPA), a collective body of Indian Tennis players
was designed . The ITPA would be responsible to represent the concerns and professional
interests of its members. The association is being constituted as there exist
no particular structure in tennis to represent or address the issues of the
tennis players in India.
MCX-SX,
the third bourse on the equities and equity derivatives trading block debuted
on 11 February 2013. It is the third national stock exchange of India after
Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange. MCX-SX started its
trading in shared of 1116 listed companies against 1665 companies in National
Stock Exchange and 5191 companies in Bombay Stock Exchange.
12.
The Health Ministers of India and Bangladesh signed a MoU on Health in New
Delhi.The salient features of the MoU between India and Bangladesh.
The
sanctions-hit Iran called on for destruction of all atomic weapons of the
world. The decision came soon after North Korea declared that the country had
staged the most powerful nuclear test yet available with it.
The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee
appointed Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty as the chairman of Lalit Kala Akademi .
Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty is the IAS officer of 1970 batch and retired from the
designation of Secretary to Government of India.
World
Radio Day was observed on 12 February 2013 to raise awareness about the
importance of radio, facilitate access to information through it and enhance
networking among broadcasters. On the 18th of December, 2012, the United
Nations General Assembly endorsed the 2011 resolution adopted by the UNESCO
General Conference, proclaiming the 13th of February as World Radio Day, the
day United Nations Radio was established in 1946.
North
Korea announced success of its
underground Nuclear Test. The country cleared that the miniaturized nuclear
device was detonated successfully and it also announced that the test was an
act of self-defence from the US Hostility and also threatened stronger steps in
future.
Institute
of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) appointed Subodh Kumar Agrawal as its
new President and K. Raghu as its new Vice-President .
13.
Mohan Parasaran, the Additional
Solicitor General was appointed as the Solicitor General of India after senior
advocate Rohinton Nariman resigned from his designation.
The
two-day International Conference on Traditional Medicine for South-East Asian
Countries concluded with the Adoption of Delhi Declaration in New Delhi on 13
February 2013. The Delhi Declaration was made for fostering the development of
Traditional Medicine of the region.
Securities
Exchange Board of India (SEBI) the stock market regulator of India ordered
freezing of bank accounts and attachment of properties of two Sahara group
firms Sahara India Real Estate Corporation Ltd., and Sahara Housing Investment
Corporation Ltd. and its Chairman Subrata Roy as well as top executives Vandana
Bhargava, Ravi Shanker Dubey and Ashok Roy Choudhary after it failed to refund
more than 24,000 crore rupees to investors.
Asoke
Kumar Mukerji was appointed as the next Permanent Representative of India to
the United Nations . Mukerji replaced Hardeep Singh Puri who retired in
February 2013 after the tenure of two years.
14.
Angelo Mathews, the Sri Lankan all-rounder cricketer was appointed the Captain
of the test and one-day cricket team of Sri Lanka for a period of one year.
Mathews replaced Mahela Jayawardene, who announced to quit captaincy after Sri
Lanka’s tour of Australia.
Seventeenth
Convocation of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences
(NIMHANS) was held on in Bangalore.
Chief Guest of the convocation was the Union Minister of Health & Family
Welfare, Ghulam Nabi Azad.
India
and France agreed to strengthen counter terrorism and intelligence cooperation
between the two countries during the visit of French President Francois
Holllande to India. Both nations exchanged views on a number of bi-lateral,
regional and multilateral issues.
15.
Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda, the London paralympics silver-medallist and
Padma Shri awardee was appointed as the brand ambassador of nutrition company
Herbalife .
Pakistan
successfully tested the nuclear-capable Hatf-II ballistic missile This was the
second test of missile system in just four days by Pakistan. The test was
conducted in order to evaluate the capabilities of Strategic Forces.
16.
India and Bangladesh held the second Joint Consultative Commission meeting in
Dhaka. At the end of the meeting, both countries exchanged one strip map as
part of the process of the implementation of the agreement signed to resolve
land boundary issues between them.
The
Romanian film Child's Pose bagged the coveted Golden Bear prize for best film
at the 63rd Berlin film festival. The Romanian drama is about a dominating
mother using her social position to try to save her son from jail.
17.
Australia won the ICC Women’s World Cup Trophy after defeating West-Indies by
114-runs 2013 at Brabourne Stadium in
Mumbai. Australia clinched the title for the sixth time in the history of
women’s cricket World Cup it last won the title in 2005.
Viswanathan
Anand, the World Champion in Chess from India won the Grenke Chess Classic
trophy of 2013 after defeating Arkadij Naiditsch from Germany. To secure his
win in the Grenke Chess Classic, Anand also defeated Fabiano Caruana from
Italy. This was his first title of the year.
Rafael
Nadal won the finals of Brazil Open 2013 by defeating Argentinean David
Nalbandian in straight sets by 6-2, 6-3 in Sao Paolo. He won the tournament for
the second time; he won it for the first time in 2005.
Milos
Raonic won SAP Open 2013 at San Jose
defeating Tommy Haas in the championship match. Milos Raonic completed the
tournament with 6-4, 6-3 victory over Haas.
18.
A group of various banks agreed to loan 937 crore Rupees for 1000-MW NTPL power
project. NTPL power project is the joint venture of Tamil Nadu Power Generation
and Distribution Corporation as well as Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC). The
project will come up at Tuticorin. NLC Director (Finance) as well as the Bank
of India Deputy General Manager (Mumbai) signed an agreement. The estimated
cost of the project would be 4909.54 crore Rupees having debt-equity ratio of
70:30.
The
President of India Pranab Mukherjee on 18 February 2013 conferred 2011 Indira
Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development Award to Ela Ramesh Bhatt,
a renowned Women social worker. The award was given away at Rashtrapati Bhavan,
New Delhi.
The
Court of Arbitration at The Hague allowed India to go ahead with the
Construction of the Kishanganga hydro-electric project in Gurez valley near
Bandipura in North Kashmir, the court rejected the plea of Pakistan that the
construction was a violation of 1960 Indus Water Treaty.
The
Afghan government prohibited its security forces from taking any air support
from the International Forces during security operations in residential areas
of the country. The government also instructed the security forces to respect
human rights during the security operations.
19.
Radhakishan Malviya, the former Union Minister and Rajya Sabha Member from
Madhya Pradesh died at a private
hospital in Indore after suffering from a brief illness. He died at the age of
68.
Fédération
Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) confirmed the use of goal-line
technology during the 2014 FIFA World Cup to be organised in Brazil. It also
stated that the technology could be introduced in the next season’s Premier
league.
Benjamin
Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel announced a coalition deal with the
rival centrist Hatnua Party Chairwomen and the former Israeli Foreign Minister,
Tzipi Livni, at Jerusalem. Under the deal agreement, Livni will serve as the
new Justice Minister and will oversee the peace efforts with the Palestinians.
An
international treaty that legally binds the nation to limit the use of health
hazardous mercury was adopted by 140 nations in the third week of January 2013
at Geneva. The treaty would be signed in Minamata, Japan, in October 2013 to
honour the inhabitants of town who have suffered the consequences of serious
mercury contamination for decades.
Hamadi
Jebali resigned from the office of the Prime Minister of Tunisia after his
attempt to end a political standoff by formation of a Government of Technocrats
failed. Hamadi Jebali was trying to create coalition because of the political
crisis which took birth by killing of Chokri Belaid, the opposition leader.
20.
The Cabinet Committee on Investment (CCI) 2013 cleared the proposal of the
Power Ministry to set up the North Karanpura Super Thermal Power Plant (NKSTPP)
(3 x 660 MW) near Tandwa town in Chatra district of Jharkhand by the National
Thermal Power Corporation, NTPC.
21.
T. S. Vijayan, the former LIC chief took over as the Chairman of the Insurance
Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA). Vijayan will succeed J. Hari
Narayan. J. Hari Narayan completed the five-year term on 20 February 2013.
The
UTTIPEC (Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure Planning and
Engineering Centre) started efforts for developing vision as well as strategy
for successful implementation of the plans for mass-rapid transport system in
Delhi. Already, pilot projects along the four metro corridors as well as
Karkardooma have got in-principal approval for first phase of transit-oriented
development (TOD).
Ratan
Tata, the former head of Tata Group was awarded the life time achievement award
2012 by Ernst & Young . He was given away the award for displaying great
role for the Indian businessmen on global business level.
The
Union Cabinet of India approved merger of Bharat Heavy Plate & Vessels Ltd.
(BHPV) Vishakhapatnam with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL). After the
merger, BHVP will be a unit of BHEL.
22.
The Silk Route Car rally from Kolkata to Kunming organised by the Confederation
of Indian Industry (CII) and supported by the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar
Forum for Regional Cooperation (BCIM) was flagged off from Helipad Ground in Salt Lake Stadium,
West Bengal.
23.
India's Sania Mirza and her American partner Bethanie-Mattek Sands won the
Dubai Tennis Championship on 23 February 2013. The Indo-American duo defeated
the second seeded Russian-Slovenian combination of Nadia Petrova and Katarina
Srebotnik, 6-4, 2-6, 10-7. Sania bagged her second Doubles title of the season.
Hari
Shankar Singhania, the leading industrialist died at the age of 79 years. Hari Shankar
Singhania was a Padma Bhushan awardee (in 2003) and was also involved with JK
organisation since 1951.
Marina
Erakovic won her first Women's Tennis Association title, US National Indoor
Tennis Championship 2013 after beating Germany's Sabine Lisicki in Memphis.
24.
Silver Linings Playbook won four awards at the Independent Spirit Awards in
Santa Monica . The movie won best film, best screenplay, best director for
David O Russell and best actress for Jennifer Lawrence at the film awards. The
awards were presented by Daniel Radcliffe, Salma Hayek and Jeremy Renner.
Nicos
Anastasiades, the centre-right DISY (the Democratic Rally) party leader won the
presidential elections of Cyprus with 57.5 percent votes.
61st
Cavalry defeated IPG 9-5 ½ in the M3M Maharaja Jiwaji Rao Scindia Gold Cup 2013
to lift the trophy. Major Ravi Rathore scored five goals in the Jaipur Polo
Ground, New Delhi, thereby giving a comfortable lead to the Cavalry men.
The
two-day inaugural Lahore Literary Festival (LLF) 2013 which was aimed to revive
creativity and art of Lahore, the cultural capital of Pakistan, concluded. The
LLF 2013 ended with the discussions on literature, celebration of the
international and local writers as well as social discourse of past, present
and future of the literature.
The
Oscars 2013 or the 85th Academy Awards ceremony took place. The annual Academy
Awards were presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
(AMPAS) in order to honour the best films of the previous years, i.e., 2012.
The Oscars 2013 ceremony was held at Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California.
The awards were hosted by Seth MacFarlane. This is said to be the most viewed
ceremony since Academy Awards 2004.
Jelena
Jankovic, the former world no. 1 won the WTA Copa Claro Colsanitas Cup 2013 in
Bogota, Colombia . This was her first tour title in three years as well as the
13th of her career. The 27-year old Serbian defeated Argentine Paula Ormaechea
6-1 and 6-2.
25.
Six foreign micro and mini spacecrafts as well as the Indo-French oceanographic
study satellite, SARAL (Satellite for Argos-3 and Altika) were launched
successfully by ISRO's PSLV-C20 rocket from the spaceport at Sriharikota.
Arun
Tadanki, the managing director for Yahoo India and South East Asia quit
Yahoo citing reasons that he wanted to
explore fresh opportunities in the world of the Internet. However, Arun Tadanki
will remain in Yahoo at his designation till June 2013.
Park
Geun-hye sworn-in as the first woman President of South Korea. After
swearing-in, she vowed for zero tolerance against nuclearised North Korea as
well as economic prosperity of the country.
Vishwaroop,
the CEO, NTPC SAIL Power Company (NSPCL) was conferred with the Exemplary
Leader Award in Mumbai on. He was conferred with the award for his contribution
to Power sector.
26.
Delhi became the first state in India to ban the manual scavenging. The Chief
Minister of Delhi banned deployment of
the cleaning staff for the purpose of manual sewer cleaning.
The
Surrey Space Centre (SSC) of the University of Surrey announced that STRaND-1,
a nano-satellite carrying a smartphone was launched successfully into space
from India. With this launch, India became the first country to successfully
launch the first smartphone of the world.
Sugata
Mitra was awarded the million-dollar TED Prize on 26 February 2013 for pursuing
his idea for building the schools in the Internet. TED Prize is actually
awarded to the extraordinary people who have creative as well as bold ideas for
global change.
27.
The Government of India announced constitution of Joint Parliamentary Committee
(JPC) to probe into the allegations in the VVIP helicopter deal from Agusta
Westland and to identify the role of the middlemen in the purchase of the 12
helicopters.
28.
National Science Day was observed. The theme of 2013 was Genetically Modified
Crops and Food Security. The day is observed on the 28th of February every year
to popularise science and its applications among school and college students.
National Science Day is observed in honour of Nobel laureate and physicist CV
Raman’s discovery of the Raman Effect, which he announced on this day in 1928.
Vice
Admiral Anurag G Thapliyal on 28 February 2013 took over as the twentieth Director
General of the Indian Coast Guard. He is the successor of the outgoing Vice
Admiral MP Muralidharan.
