1. Centre Launches Official Website of India Toy Fair 2021
- The Government of India will organise the first-ever ‘The India Toy Fair, 2021′ from February 27, 2021 to March 02, 2021 on a virtual platform.
- The official website for India Toy Fair-2021 is theindiatoyfair.in.
- The website and online registration was inaugurated on February 11, 2021 jointly by the Union Education Minister, Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Union Minister of Textiles, Smt. Smriti Zubin Irani and Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal.
- This initiative is in line with the Prime Minister’s vision of making India a global hub for the Toy Industry.
2. ‘Hope’ probe of UAE successfully enters Mars orbit
- On February 09, 2021, the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) first mission to Mars, Hope Probe, successfully entered the orbit around the red planet.
- The Emirates Mars Mission, known as the Hope Probe, is the first-ever interplanetary mission launched by UAE.
- The Hope probe arrived at the Mars planet on February 9 and successfully entered orbit on its first attempt.
- This success has made UAE as the only fifth country in history to reach the red planet and the Arab nation’s first interplanetary mission.
- Prior to this, only United States, Soviet Union, Europe and India have achieved this feat.
- It must be noted that the HOPE probe was launched into the space in July 2020.
3. RBI Organises Financial Literacy Week from February 8-12, 2021
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has launched the Financial Literacy Week (FLW) from February 8-12, 2021, to propagate financial education.
- The theme for 2021 FLW is ”Credit Discipline and Credit from Formal Institutions”.
- RBI conducts Financial Literacy Week (FLW) every year since 2016 to propagate financial education messages on a particular theme every year across the country, through a focused campaign.
4. New Development Bank Commits $100 million in NIIF Fund of Funds
- The New Development Bank (NDB) has committed to invest USD 100 million (Rs 727.6 crore), into the NIIF Fund of Funds (FoF).
- With NDB’s investment, the total commitments secured by the FoF has reached $800 million (about Rs 5,820 crore).
- This investment marks NDB’s first equity investment into India and its first-ever investment into a Fund of Funds.
- Currently, the Government of India (GoI), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) are the investor in the FoF. Now NDB has joined in the group.
5. India Ratings Projects India’s GDP to grow 10.4% growth in FY22
- The rating agency India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) has projected India’s gross domestic product (GDP) to grow 10.4 percent growth in FY22 (2021-22).
6. Manasa Varanasi of Telangana crowned VLCC Femina Miss India World 2020
- Telangana-based Manasa Varanasi has been crowned as the winner of VLCC Femina Miss India World 2020.
- Manasa Varanasi was crowned by the winner of Miss India 2019, Suman Ratan Singh Rao from Rajasthan on 10 February 2021.
- The 23-year-old, will now represent India at the 70th Miss World pageant in December 2021.
- Born in Hyderabad, Manasa Varanasi is an engineer by profession and works as financial information exchange analyst.
Other winners
- Manika Sheokand of Haryana – Miss Grand India 2020
- Manya Singh of Uttar Pradesh – Miss India 2020 runner-up
7. Tamil Movie “Koozhangal” Wins Tiger Award at Rotterdam International Film Festival 2021
- The Tamil film “Koozhangal” has won “Tiger” award, at the 50th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2021. The Tiger award is the top honour of the festival, given for best film.
- Koozhangal (meaning Pebbles) has been Produced by Nayanthara and directed by Vinod Raj PS.
- This is the second Indian film to win this international award and the first Tamil Film. The first Indian film was “Durga” directed by the Malayalam director Shashidharan.
- The Tiger Award worth Euro 40,000 cash prize, is shared between the director and producer of the winning film.
