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- The Government of Odisha won the Geospatial World Excellence Award 2018 for successful IT application for tracking of mineral production, dispatch and value accrued on real-time basis through its i3MS web-based software.
- The World Wetland Day is observed every year on 2nd February to raise awareness about the value of wetlands for humanity and the planet. On this date, the Convention on Wetlands (popularly known as Ramsar Convention) was adopted in 1971 in the city of Ramsar in Iran. This year’s theme was “Wetlands for a Sustainable Urban Future”.
- The 7th India Energy Congress was held in New Delhi. This year’s theme was Energy 4.0: Energy Transition Towards 2030.
- India joined the Ashgabat Agreement which envisages facilitation of transit and transportation of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf to significantly boost up trade and investment. The agreement aims at establishing an International Transport and Transit Corridor between Iran, Oman, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Arun Jaitley - The highlights of the Budget 2018-19 as presented by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley is that the economy is on course to achieve growth rate of 8% while in the second quarter, GDP growth is estimated to be 6.3%. Apart from this, several new schemes were announced by the government of which a few mentioned below:
- Operation Green – Aims to promote farmer producers organisations, processing facilities, agri-logistics and professional management.
- Eklavya School – Established for SC and ST students by 2022 on the lines of Navodaya schools.
- Gobar Dhan Yojana – Also known as Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resource Fund scheme, solid waste of dung and fields will be changed into compost, biogas and bio-CNG.
- The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and Pfizer, the American pharmaceutical giant have inked a MoU to establish a Centre to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance’ in New Delhi.
