India to be Largest Source of Energy Demand Growth to 2040: IEA's India Energy Outlook 2021

• In accordance with the International Energy Agency's (IEA) "India Energy Outlook 2021", India will surpass European Union as the world's third-biggest energy consumer by 2030. In this regard, India energy demand growth share will be maximum at 25% in the next two decades.

• As per India's current national policy scenario, its gross domestic product (GDP) expands to an estimated $8.6 trillion by 2040 thereby the energy consumption is expected to be nearly doubled.

• An increase in India's oil demand is projected to 8.7 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2040 from about 5 million bpd in 2019

• India is world's second-biggest net oil importer after China currently imports about 76% of its crude oil needs. That reliance on overseas oil is expected to rise to 90% by 2030 and 92% by 2040. In other terms, India's oil demand could be doubled to about $181 billion by 2030 and nearly treble it to $255 billion by 2040 compared with 2019.

• India, the world's 4th largest Liquefied natural gas (LNG) importer is spending billions dollars to build infrastructure to boost use of the cleaner fuel.

• Its imports are expected to quadruple to 124 billion cubic metres (bcm), or about 61% of overall gas demand by 2040. That would be up from imports of 76 bcm, or about 58% of gas consumption by 2030.

About International Energy Agency (IEA):

• Executive Director - Dr Fatih Birol
• Headquarters - Paris, France
• Members Countries, 30 member countries and association countries

Bharti AXA General Insurance Introduced Health AdvantEDGE, an Innovative Health Insurance Plan

• Bharti AXA General Insurance introduced Health AdvantEDGE, an innovative health insurance plan. It is specifically designed to cater the healthcare and wellness needs of customers.

• The insurer has launched the Bharti AXA Wellness Cuppa portal for its customers to boost customer engagement and experience.

About Bharti AXA General Insurance:

• Established 2008

• HeadQuarters, Mumbai, Maharashtra
• Managing Director(MD) and Chief Executive Officer(CEO) Sanjeev Srinivasan
• Tagline- Suraksha ka Naya Nazariya

HDFC Bank invites start-ups to apply for SmartUp grants

• Private sector lender HDFC Bank is inviting applications from start-ups and individual entrepreneurs for its SmartUp grants.

• SmartUp grants are a part of the bank's umbrella CSR brand, and are aimed at finding and deploying long-term, sustainable solutions at scale, to address social issues, and contribute to the economic and social development the country.

India's FY21 GDP to Contract by 7% from -7.4%: SBI's Ecowrap Report

• Ecowrap report of the State Bank of India (SBI) has estimated that India's Gross domestic Product(GDP) for FY 21 will contract by 7%(-7%) from -7.4% projected earlier. The GDP growth in FY22 will remain at 11%.

• The bank has revised the GDP estimates on the basis of SBI "Nowcasting Model with 41 high frequency indicators associated with industry activity, service activity, and global economy. This model is developed by SBI and State Bank Institute of Leadership(SBIL), Kolkata.

• The GDP growth for Q3 will be around 0.3% (with upward bias) and for Q4 it will be approximately 2.5%.

FY 21:

• National Statistics Office (NSO): Real GDP is estimated at -7.7%
• Reserve Bank of India(RBI): -7.5%

• Union Budget: In Budget 2020-21, the Nominal growth of GDP for FY 21 was estimated at 10% but during the Budget

• 2021-22, the GDP for FY 21 was revised to -13%,

FY 22:

• RBI: 10.5%
• Economic Survey:11.5%
• Union Budget: In Union Budget 2021-22. The nominal GDP is estimated to grow at a rate of 14.4%.

Dharmendra Pradhan Launches Investment Corner on MoPNG's Revamped Website

• Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel launched Investment Corner under Project Development Cell (PDC) on the upgraded website of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG).

• The section will help the investor community to reach out to the MoPNG.

• It will channelize investor's interest to the MoPNG PDC Team.

Indian Navy and IIT Delhi Signs MoU for Research in Underwater Domain of Naval Electronic Systems

• Indian Navy and Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Delhi signed a Memorandum of Understanding(MoU) to further their relationship on research in the underwater domain of Naval Electronic Systems.

• Since 1970s the the Centre for Applied Research in Electronics (CARE) at IIT Delhi has been developing key technologies for Navy in the field of underwater electronics

About Indian Navy:

• Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), Admiral Karambir Singh

• Integrated Headquarters of Ministry of Defence (Navy)- New Delhi

About Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) Delhi:

• Director - Prof. V Ramgopal Rao
• Location, New Delhi, Delhi

Sri Lanka Settles $400 million Currency Swap Facility with India

• The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) repaid USD 400 million currency swap to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). RBI and Sri Lanka entered into this facility in July 2020 under the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) currency swap framework.

CREDAI, IPPB ink pact to Open Bank Accounts for Construction Workers

• On the lines of the labour welfare initiatives by the Central Government, the Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI) has inked memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Indian Payments and Postal Bank (IPPB) to facilitate opening of bank accounts for construction workers.

• This MoU will ensure accessible financial services for construction workers along with financial literacy and digital inclusion

• The aim of the pact is to cover around 10 lakh workers in a year from around current 3 crore workers engaged in construction activities across real estate projects.

• This program will be implemented in coordination with contractors.

About Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI):

• Establishment- 1999
• Chairman- Jaxay Shah
• Headquarter- New Delhi

About India Post Payments Bank (IPPB):

• Establishment- 2018
• Director and Chairman- Pradipta Kumar Bisoi
• Tagline- Aapka Bank, Aapke Dwaar

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Launched a New Savings Product

• ICICI Prudential Life Insurance launched a new goal based savings product ICICI Pru Guaranteed Income for Tomorrow (GIFT). The non-participating savings product helps customers to eliminate the uncertainty of future income streams to a large extent. It also provides financial security to the family.

• In order to help policyholders to achieve their long-term financial goals, it offers guaranteed income to policyholders

India's retail inflation at 16-month low of 4.06% in January 2021: NSO

• The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI) is released the All India Consumer Price Index (CPI) for January 2021.

• As per the index, India's retail inflation eased to a 16- month low at 4.06% in January 2021. The retail inflation was 4.59% in December 2020.

• The food inflation fell to a 20-month low of 1.89% in January 2021. The retail inflation in rural India was 3.23% and in urban India was 5.06%.

SERB announces Women Excellence Award 2021

• Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), a statutory body under Department of Science and Technology (DST) has conferred the "SERB Women Excellence Award 2021 to Four Young Women Fellows of National Science Academies for their excellence in Science and Engineering

• The awards are provided a grant of INR 15 Lakhs for a period of 3 years (INR 5 Lakhs/annum) to pursue their research ideas.

• The awards were announced on occasion of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2021 (11th February, 2021),

• The Women Excellence Awards were launched by SERB in 2013 to encourage basic research in science & engineering . It is a one-time award given to women scientists who are below the age of 40 years of age & have received recognitions from National Academies such as Young Scientist Medal, Young Associateship.

Mario Draghi Named as the New Prime Minister of Italy

• Mario Draghi former President of the European Central Bank, has been named the new Prime Minister of Italy. He accepted the request of Sergio Mattarella, President of Italy, to form a new government.

• Mario Draghi will lead the unity government replacing the centre left coalition government of Former prime minister Giuseppe Conte.

• Mario Draghi served as the President of ECB from 2011 to 2019 prior to which he served as the Governor of the Bank of Italy from 2005 to 2011.

• He served as the Vice Chairman and Managing director of Goldman Sachs International, a subsidiary of the American investment bank from 2002 to 2005.

About Italy:

• President- Sergio Mattarella
• Capital- Rome

• Currency- Euro

Marc Llistosella Appointed as New Tata Motors CEO, MD; Succeeds Guenter Butschek

• Tata Motors Ltd appointed Marc Llistosella as the Chief Executive Officer(CEO) and Managing Director(MD)of the company, effective from July 2021. He succeeds Guenter Butschek who served the position since February 15, 2016

• He is the highest paid CEO among Indian auto companies.

• Prior to joining Tata Motors, he was the Chief Operating Officer(COO) for 4years. Previous to this role he worked at Daimler AG for 25 years.

HAL to Develop first of its kind Unmanned Pseudo Satellite "CATS"

• In a first of its kind in the world, the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is developing a futuristic high altitude unmanned pseudo satellite namely Combined Air Teaming System (CATS) with a start-up company.

• Once developed the pseudo-satellite will be capable of taking information flying unmanned around 70,000 ft for 2-3 months. This project focuses on strengthening India's military strike capabilities. It's a team of unmanned aircraft and vehicles with manned jets.

• While manned aircraft will operate within the boundary and the unmanned aircraft will enter the enemy zone to carry out strikes. This tech is on the lines of the United States (US) project of skybrog.

• The system will have mother-ship carrying components and four autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles known as CATS Warrior

• It can hit the target at a distance of 700 kilometres or can go to 350 kilometres and come back. It can also carry ammunition, missiles if needed.

About Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL):

• Chairman and Managing Director (CMD)- R Madhavan
• Headquarter- Bengaluru, India

China's Tianwen-1 enters Mars Orbit, Joining UAE's Hope Probe

• Chinese Spacecraft 'Tianwen-1' (Means "Quest for Heavenly Truth") entered the Mars Orbit. It became the World's second one in two days after United Arab Emirates' 'Hope' Space Probe entered the Mars Orbit.

• The Chinese Spacecraft will probe for signs of ancient life on Mars. USA's National Aeronautics and Space Administration rover called 'Perseverance' is aiming for a landing on Mars on February 18, 2021.

Filmmaker Ashwiny lyer Tiwari to Publish her Debut Fiction Novel "Mapping Love"

• Ashwiny lyer Tiwari, the 41-year-old Filmmaker is set to publish her debut fiction Novel titled "Mapping Love" in May 2021. The book is published by Rupa Publications.

• Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari debuted as a director with the film "Nil Battey Sannata" in 2016 which was remade in Tamil as "Amma Kanakku".

• She is well known for her films 'Bareilly Ki Barfi', 'Ghar ki Murgi' and 'Panga'.

Meghna Pant Authored a New Book Titled 'The Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad Good News'

• Meghna Pant has authored a new book titled 'The Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad Good News'. The book will be published by Penguin Random House India. It will be released in April 2021, and will shortly become a major motion picture under the title Badnam Ladoo.

• This is the author's second novel.

• The book is about Ladoo, a small-town woman who offends her conservative family when she decides to use a sperm donor to have a baby, while continuing to look for Mr Right

• Apart from being an author, she is a journalist and speaker.

• Her 2nd non-fiction book titled 'How To Get Published in India' (Bloomsbury, 2019) is India's first and only guide to publishing in India.

• The other works of the author include Happy Birthday (Random House, 2013), Feminist Rani (Penguin Random House, 2018).

• Her debut novel, One & a Half Wife (Westland, 2012) won the national Muse India Young Writer Award (2014)

Bihar Becomes first Indian State to sign MoU with UNEP for development of Low-Carbon Development Pathway

• Bihar State Pollution Control Board (BSPCB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to develop a framework for achieving climate resilience & low carbon development in the state by 2040. Bihar became the first Indian State to sign such an agreement.

• As part of the Agreement, UNEP will assist Bihar

• To prepare a GreenHouse Gas(GHG) Inventory & Carbon Footprint Analyses

• To develop Climate Impact Vulnerability Assessments Increase the capacity of Bihar's Government departments to deal with climate-related issues.