1- Bharti Airtel partners with UNICEF to provide education content in Africa

Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel Limited has partnered with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to provide health, education and youth-focussed content to its customers in 17 African countries. In this regard, Bharti Airtel limited and UNICEF have signed partnership agreement.

Partnership between them aims to improve African population’s access to health and education-related information from various innovative projects supported by UNICEF.

This agreement will help UNICEF to tap into Airtel’s mobile services to spread its health, education and youth-focused content to Airtel customers across the 17 African countries. Through Airtel’s improved connectivity, mobile applications and services developed by UNICEF, such as eduTrac, mTrac and U-report will be freely accessible to Africans in these 17 countries.

Thus, by improving connectivity, this partnership seeks to empower millions of African children and youth with information and opportunities to help them become agents of change in their societies.

2- Highlights of India-Myanmar 5th Joint Trade Committee Meeting

India-Myanmar 5th Joint Trade Committee Meeting

The 5th India- Myanmar Joint Trade Committee (JTC) meeting was held in Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar. The JTC meeting was co-chaired by Minister of Commerce & Industry Nirmala Sitharaman and Myanmar Union Minister of Commerce U Win Myint.

Both sides had intensive interaction and exchanged views to find ways and means to enhance the bilateral trade and investment ties.

In 5th India- Myanmar JTC meeting, both nations agreed to

• Remove the bottlenecks-Work together to remove the bottlenecks that hampers the bilateral trade and investment such as lack of good connectivity, banking arrangement both for regular and border trade. In order to remove bottlenecks, India has offered to support Myanmar to develop infrastructure at the border trade points, upgrade its trade training institutes in Yangon.
• India’s assistance to Myanmar-India to provide training to Myanmar officials on WTO and international trade related issues and supporting the subsidized direct shipping link between India and Myanmar to promote bilateral trade.
• Strengthen mutual relationship in various fields-Both nations will strengthen mutual relationship in the field of promoting two-ways investment, infrastructure development particularly to promote border trade, connectivity, agriculture, energy, skill and entrepreneurial development, pharmaceutical and people-to-people contacts.
• The next Joint Trade and Investment Forum in Chennai during which Myanmar will organize a roadshow showcasing investment opportunities in Myanmar especially in the special economic zones.
• In future, two Ministers will jointly inaugurate the land custom station in Zawkhatar, Mizoram.

3- Former Odisha minister and senior BJD leader Kalindi Charan Behera passes away

Kalindi Charan Behera

Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Vice-President and former Odisha Minister Kalindi Charan Behera passed away at Bhubaneswar. He was 71.

About Kalindi Charan Behera

• Prior joining politics Kalindi Charan Behera was a professor and also a writer of repute with keen interest in socio-cultural affairs.
• He was elected to the Odisha State Legislative Assembly for five times. For the first time, he had won from Salepur constituency in 1977 as a Janata Party candidate.
• Later, he represented the same seat for three times as a Janata Dal candidate in 1990 and as BJD candidate in 2000 and 2004. In 2009, he was elected from the Cuttack Sadar constituency on a BJD ticket.
• He also had held several important portfolios in the state council of ministers, first under the late Chief Minister (Cm) of Odhisa Biju Patnaik and then under his son and current CM of Odhisa Naveen Patnaik.

4- First National Tribal Festival Vanaj concludes in New Delhi

The first National Tribal Festival ‘Vanaj’ concluded on 18 February 2015 in New Delhi.

It was organised by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and was inaugurated by the Union Minister of Tribal Affairs Jual Oram on 13 February 2015 at the Indira Gandhi National Center for Arts (IGNCA), New Delhi.

Key facts 

• The aim of weeklong National Tribal Festival was to bridge the gaps of social divide and promote tribal culture in India.
• The purpose of the festival was to uplift the quality of tribal lives of the country in order to conserve and promote their distinctive cultures by providing them national platform.
• More than 900 folk and tribal artists from states like Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Odisha, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal participated in it.
• Maiden edition of the festival showcased the rich diversity of Tribal culture, art, painting, music, dance, tribal medicine, tribal food, and a special attraction- tribal cuisine.
• The events of this festival were held at three venues in Delhi which included Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Baba Kharak Singh Marg and Central Park in Connaught Place.
• Tribal market was also recreated at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, which provided tribals from different states platform to sell the rural crafts, herbs and medicines etc.

5- IGI Airport ranked best by Airport Council International

Airport Council International (ACI) has ranked Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport of Delhi as the world’s most performing airports in the 25-40 million passengers per annum (MPPA) category. For this achievement, IGI has won the annual ASI’s Airport Service Quality (ASQ) award for the year 2014.

This award recognises and rewards the best airports in the world based upon Geneva-based ACI’s ASQ passenger satisfaction survey.

While in this rankings, Chhatrapati Shivaji International (CSI) Airport of Mumbai was placed at Fifth position.

IGI is run by Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL), a joint venture between the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and GMR Group-led consortium.

While, the CSI is run by Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), a joint venture between the AAI and GVK group-led consortium.

ASI’s Airport Service Quality (ASQ) passenger satisfaction survey

The survey rates each airport’s performance in 34 key service areas under eight major categories. These 8 categories include access, check-in, security, airport facilities, food and beverage providers etc at more than 300 airports worldwide.

All participating airports use the same survey questions, creating an industry standard set of responses that allows participants them analyse their performance.

The results of the survey also allow airports to track and analyse their performance by comparing other airports around the globe.

6- Croatia’s first female president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic sworn-in

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic

Croatia’s first female President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic was sworn in on 15 February 2015.

She is Croatia’s fourth president since its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. The Croatian president has a largely ceremonial role and has term a five-year term.

In January 2015 election run-off, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic had narrowly defeated her left-wing predecessor Ivo Josipovic. In this election she had secured 50.5% of the votes while her predecessor Ivo Josipovic had secured 49.5% votes.

About Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic is member of Croatia’s politically conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, which had played in the country’s independence. She was also the first woman appointed as Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy at NATO and was in office from 2011 until 2014.

Prior to this Kitarovic was also the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Croatia from 2005 to 2008 and Croatia’s Ambassador to the United States from 2008 to 2011.

7- 10th Aero India show begins in Bengaluru

10th edition of Aero India show has begun at the Yelahanka Air Force Station in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

During the inaugural ceremony audience witnessed the mind-boggling performance of Sarang aerobatic team from the Indian Air Force (IAF) flying the Dhruv helicopters. Audience also witnessed the aerobatic performances of the aerobatic teams from Sweden, England, Czech Republic and Open Sky Jump team from US.

Key highlights 10th Aero India show 

• This edition of Aero Show is placing special emphasis on Union governments Make in India campaign. It is also focusing to encourage small and medium industries to invest in defence manufacturing base.
• Delegates from 109 countries are participating in the event and over 700 companies from India and abroad are taking part in the exhibition.
• In the exhibition, India is showcasing its indigenously made Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas, Advanced Light Helicopter Dhruv, radars, missiles, satellites, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Airborne early warning and control system (AWACS) .
• While the foreign military aircraft that are displayed include F-15C Eagle, Lockheed F-16C, Boeing KC-135, Boeing C-17, Rafale and Embraer EMB-145I etc.

About Aero India show

Aero India Show is a biennial air show and aviation exhibition held in Bangaluru at the Yelahanka Air Force Station.

The exhibition provides a single platform to many manufacturers and service providers from the Indian aerospace and abroad to meet the potential buyers for their products.

It is organized by Defence Exhibition Organisation under the aegis of Ministry of Defence. The first edition of the air show was held in 1996.

8- Veteran film producer and movie mogul Daggubati Ramanaidu passes away

Veteran multilingual film producer Daggubati Ramanaidu has passed away in Hyderabad, Telangana. He was 78 and was suffering from prostate cancer.

D Ramanaidu was popularly known as movie mogul and was the only Indian filmmaker to produce movies in so many languages including in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi and English.

About Daggubati Ramanaidu

• D Ramanaidu was born on 6 June 1936 in Karamchedu village of Prakasam district in Andhra Pradesh.
• Film career-In his early life before getting into film industry, he had taken several odd jobs such as rice mill business and a bus transport business in Karamchedu.
• In 1960’s he started Suresh Productions and in 1964, made debut as producer in film Raamudu Bheemudu.
• In 1980’s he had established Rama Naidu Studios in Hyderabad.
• He holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the most films produced by an individual, as he has produced more than 150 films in 13 Indian languages.
• Political career-He was a member of parliament (MP) in the 13th Lok Sabha from 1999–2004. He had represented Telugu Desam Party (TDP) from Bapatala constituency of Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh.
• Awards-He was conferred with the Dada Saheb Phalke Award (2009) and Padma Bhushan (2012) in recognition for his contribution to Telugu cinema.
• Film awards- National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Bengali- Asukh (1999), Filmfare Best Film Award (Telugu)- Jeevana Tarangalu (1973), Filmfare Best Film Award (Telugu)- Soggadu (1976), Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award- South (2000)
• His Preminchu movie has won 5 Nandi Awards during the year 2001 – 2002.

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