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- The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved ‘Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan’ (PMGDISHA) to make 6 crore rural households digitally literate. The aim is to usher in digital literacy in rural India by March 2019. PMGDISHA is expected to be one of the largest digital literacy programmes in the world.
- President Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate the first phase of a solarization project at the President’s Estate today. Under this project, 670 KW of solar power will be generated through rooftop solar panels installed on seven buildings at the President’s Estate, New Delhi.
- An Indian-origin neurosurgeon currently based in Canada has been shortlisted by NASA for its 2018 space mission under the Citizen Science Astronaut (CSA) If everything goes as per plan, 32-year old Dr. Shawna Pandya may join the league of Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.
- Nobel laureate Sir Peter Mansfield, who developed Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), has died at the age of 83 on Wednesday. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2003, along with late American chemist Paul Lauterbur, for discovering Magnetic Resonance Imaging, a technique used by medical specialists to generate images of the human body’s anatomy. MRI uses magnetic fields, radio waves, and field gradients to detect damage, such as cancer, in various parts of the body.
- In France, the Mayor of Paris has announced the erection of a 5 meter wall of bulletproof glass around the Eiffel Tower. The new security measure is meant to protect France’s most recognizable symbol in the event of a terrorist threat.
- General Jeff Sessions was today sworn in as America’s Attorney General after being narrowly approved by a bitterly divided US Senate amid the Democrats’ attempt to derail his nomination over his record on civil rights and immigration.
- The first apolitical National Women’s Parliament (NWP), a first-of-its-kind conclave in Amaravati, the new capital of Andhra Pradesh is beginning from today. The main theme of three-day conference is ‘Empowering Women for Nation Building’. Dalai Lama will attend the inaugural session along with a host of leaders from India and abroad.
- The Centre has permitted the Assam government to use drone for vigilance at the Kaziranga national park. This was done to keep a check on poaching of Rhinoceros.
- India and Austria signed a protocol to amend the existing bilateral taxation treaty for Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion. The protocol will broaden the scope of the existing framework of the exchange of tax related information. This will help to curb tax evasion and tax avoidance between the two nations as well as enable mutual assistance in relation to collecting taxes.
- For the first time, two Indian cagers – Aashay Verma and Priyanka Prabhakara – have been selected in a 67-strong international group of boys and girls for the NBA and FIBA’s third annual Basketball without Borders (BWB) Global Camp in New Orleans, USA. The camp will be held February 17 to 19 as part of NBA All-Star 2017.
- Indian National Army (INA) veteran ‘Colonel’ Nizamuddin passed away in Dhakwa village in Azamgarh district, Uttar Pradesh. He was 116. He was a close associate of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. He had served as a driver-cum-guard of Bose after the INA was formed in 1942.
