• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a dedicated 24×7 Satellite channel, ‘DD Arunprabha’ for Arunachal Pradesh. Arunprabha is the Doordarshan’s second channel for the northeastern region; DD Northeast was the first one.

• The Meghalaya Cabinet has decided to rename the Dikkibandi stadium in Tura town after former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A Sangma.

• Indian historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam won the prestigious Dan David Prize 2019 for his work on inter-cultural encounters between Asians, Europeans and people of North and South America during the early modern era.

• 11 February was celebrated as International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

• Jamie Chadwick from England made history by becoming the first female driver to win the MRF challenge title after scoring a triple win in the final round in Chennai. In August, Chadwick became the first woman to win a British F3 race.

• Joint Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief Exercise `Exercise Rahat´concluded in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Representatives from Armed Forces, National Disaster Management Response Mechanism (NDMRM), SDMA Rajasthan and DLMAs participated in the exercise.

• 13 February is celebrated as World Radio Day by UNESCO all over the world. The theme of WRD 2019 is “Dialogue, Tolerance and Peace”.

• National Film Development Corporation of India has been declared winner under the Miniratna Category (Category II) by Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME).

• Union Minister of Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal commissioned Godavari Mega Aqua Food Park at Tundurru Village in Bhimavaram Mandal, West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh through video conferencing. It will be the first Mega Aqua Food Park operationalised exclusively for fish and marine products processing in the state of Andhra Pradesh.

• Indian Army showcased its artillery firepower by using ultralight Howitzers and indigenous Swathi weapon-locating radar at the annual “Exercise Topchi”.The exercise was held at Deolali Camp near Nashik.

• The country,formerly known as the Republic of Macedonia officially changed its name to the Republic of North Macedonia.  

• Siddhartha Lal, managing director and chief executive officer, Eicher Motors,has been awarded the EY Entrepreneur of the Year for 2018. Lal will now represent India at the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year Award (WEOY) in Monte Carlo from 6 – 8 June 2019. The other EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2018 winners are: 1)Lifetime Achievement Award: Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro. 2)Start-up: Byju Raveendran, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Think & Learn (BYJU’S).

• Former Vice President Hamid Ansari launched the new book of former Finance Minister P Chidambaram named “Undaunted: Saving the Idea of India”.

• The Sports and Youth Ministry has chosen the Smiling Clouded Leopard to be the Mascot for the National Games 2022. Meghalaya will host the 2022 National Games.

• Following the attack in Jammu & Kashmir’s Pulwama that left 44 CRPF personnel dead, India has withdrawn the MFN (Most Favoured Nation) status that it had granted to  India had granted the status to Pakistan in 1996, a year after WTO’s formation. India has also boosted the Customs Duty on all the goods imported from Pakistan to 200%.

• Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar announced a Universal Old Age Pension scheme, named Mukhya Mantri Vriddha Pension Yojana (MMVPY), irrespective for all caste, community, religion, except for those who are retired from government organizations. The scheme facilitates the amount of 400 monthly pension for all in the state above the age of 60 who are not getting a pension from the government. The Chief Minister also announced a pension of 6,000 rupees for journalists above 60 years of age.

• The Indian Government has signed a deal with the US under Fast Track Procurement (FTP)to avail the Indian Army with 72,400 new ‘Sig Sauer Assault Rifles’ which will overhaul the army’s inventory of frontline rifles.

• Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan (PM-SYM)was rolled out by the Ministry of Labour and Employment from 15 February 2019. The Salient Features of PM-SYM are: 1)Minimum Assured Pension: Each subscriber under the PM-SYM, shall receive minimum assured pension of Rs.3000/- per month after attaining the age of 60 years. 2)Family Pension: During the receipt of pension, if the subscriber dies, the spouse of the beneficiary shall be entitled to receive 50% of the pension received by the beneficiary as family pension. Family pension is applicable only to spouse.

• President Ram Nath Kovind appointed Sushil Chandra as an Election Commissioner. The post had fallen vacant after the appointment of the then Election Commissioner Sunil Arora as Chief Election Commissioner.

• Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC)has appointed Pramod Chandra Mody as chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). He will succeed Sushil Chandra, who was recently appointed Election Commissioner.

• The Expert Committee led byAnoop Satpathy submitted its report on “Determining the Methodology for Fixation of the National Minimum Wage” to the Government. It recommended the fixation of need-based National Minimum Wage (NMW) for India at Rs.375 per day or 9,750 per month irrespective of sectors, skills, occupations and rural-urban locations for a family comprising of 3.6 consumption units. The Present NMW is Rs.4,576.

• Union Minister for Science & Technology, Earth Sciences, Environment, Forest and Climate Change,  Harsh Vardhan, inaugurated the North Karnataka Agromet Forecasting and Research Centre (NKAFC),India’s first agromet forecast centre, at University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) in Dharwad, Karnataka. The main objective of the centre is to give accurate reports on the weather.

• NASA has announced a new space telescope mission dedicated to understanding the origins of life and the universe. It’s called the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer or SPHEREx, for short. The space agency is aiming for a 2023 launch.

• JP Morgan rolled out the first US bank cryptocurrency.  Cryptocurrencies are used successfully to move money between the bank and a client which usually runs on a blockchain technology. The cryptocurrency, called “JPM Coin,” is intended for the bank’s wholesale payments business.  

• Sunil Chhetri,the all-time leading scorer for India in international football, has been conferred the first ever Football Ratna honour by Football Delhi, the association governing the sport in Delhi. He is popularly known as Captain Fantastic. He has scored the 2nd highest number of goals in international matches among active players after Cristiano Ronaldo. 

• Eva de Goede from Netherlands and Arthur van Doren of Belgium were titled the International Hockey Federation’s Players of the Year for 2018. Eva de Goede, 29, was named the Female Player of the Year and Arthur van Doren, 24, won the Male Player of the Year award for the second year in a row.

• Vidarbha became the only 3rd team in Indian Domestic Cricket history after Bombay and Karnataka to defend their Irani cup titles at Jamtha Stadium in Nagpur by defeating rest of India.

• In badminton, Saina Nehwal won her fourth title at the Yonex-Sunrise 83rd Senior Nationals. She defeated P.V.Sindhu in the finals in Guwahati. Sourabh Verma completed a hat-trick of titles, claiming the men’s singles crown after defeating young Lakshya Sen in straight games.

• Flight Lieutenant Hina Jaiswal from Chandigarh, became the First Indian Woman Flight Engineer of the Indian Air Force (IAF).

• Indian Air Force conducted mega exercise ‘Vayu Shakti’ in Pokhran, Rajasthan. Note: Chief of Air Staff: Air Chief Marshal Birendra Singh Dhanoa.

• The Legislative Assembly of Rajasthan passed the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and the Rajasthan Municipality (Amendment) Bill, 2019 to end the minimum education criterion for panchayat and civic polls candidates.  The previous BJP government had introduced the minimum educational qualification for Zila Parishad/ Panchayat member election, and for the post of sarpanch.

• Union Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma inaugurated India’s very first ‘Fulldome 3D Digital Theatre’ at the Science City in Kolkata, West Bengal.

• Rajnath Singh launched Pan-India Number 112 for women safety.

• AntBot is the first walking robot to have navigational capabilities without GPS or mapping. It has been designed by Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Aix-Marseille University researchers at ISM, on lines similar to desert ants who use polarised lights and UV radiation to navigate.

• The Reserve Bank has announced that it will transfer an interim surplus of 28,000 crore rupees to the central government for the half-year ended 31st December 2018. With this interim transfer, the government will get a total of 68,000 crore from the central bank in the current fiscal. The RBI had transferred Rs 40,000 crore to the government in August 2018.

• Mallakhamb coach, Uday Deshpande,and batswoman, Smriti Mandhana, were awarded the Maharashtra State Government’s Shiv Chhatrapati Award by the State’s Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao at an event held in Mumbai.

• Arun Jaitley resumed charge as the finance minister after a gap of over a month, which was the second break within a year that he had to take to undergo medical treatment.

• Elise Merten,world number 21 from Belgium beat world number 3, Simona Halep to win the Qatar Open held in Doha, Qatar.

• Under ‘Make in India’ initiative, Indian Railways has created history by converting a diesel locomotive into electric locomotive for the first time in the world.

• J. Alphons, Union Minister for Tourism inaugurated the project ‘Development of Eco Circuit: Pathanamthitta – Gavi – Vagamon – Thekkady’ under the Swadesh Darshan scheme of Ministry of Tourism at Vagamon, Kerala.

• Bandicoot, a drainage-cleaning robot,has been introduced for the first time in India at the Kumbakonam city corporation as part of efforts to rid of manual scavenging in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

• The World Day of Social Justice is celebrated annually all over the world on 20 February. The theme for WDSJ 2019 is “If You Want Peace & Development, Work for Social Justice”.

• Noted Hindi writer Namvar Singh passed away in New Delhi. He has authored over dozen books including ‘Kavita Ke Naye Pratiman’, ‘Chhayavad’ and ‘Dusri Parampara Ki Khoj’ among others. He received Sahitya Academy Award for literary criticism in 1971 for ‘Kavita Ke Naye Pratiman’.