In Rajasthan, February is the time of myriad colourful festivals and fairs. The royal land enjoys folk dance, music, heritage and various cultural festivities in this month. The world-famous Jaisalmer Desert Festival is also known as Maru Mahotsav of the Golden City began at Pokaran today.

The four-day-long festival started with colourful grand procession followed by Miss Pokaran and Mister Pokran competitions.

AIR correspondent reports,Tourism department of Rajasthan associating with district administration is organising Maru Mahotsav this time after two years break due to spread of covid pandemic.

World Radio Day is being celebrated today across the globe. On the occasion, AIR-Delhi is today broadcasting a 'SEVEN HOUR TALKATHON' on its FM Rainbow Channel from 08:AM to 04:00 PM leaving one hour from 11:00 AM to 12:00 noon for Broadcast of scheduled weekly programme, Post Box No. 111.

As part of the 'TALKATHON', All India Radio organised an half an hour Open Forum this morning on FM Rainbow.

Principal Director General of All India Radio N Venudhar Reddy interacted with the Listeners on the topic - "Credibility of All India Radio".

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has paid tributes to Maharaja Surajmal on his Jayanti. In a tweet, Mr Modi said, Maharaja Surajmal was a great warrior who dedicated his life for the people.

Agricultural Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) today celebrated its 36th Foundation Day. APEDA actively supported the Government in taking the export of agricultural products to 20.67 billion dollar in 2020-21 from 0.6 billion dollar in 1986 when it was founded. Commerce and Industry Ministry said, it also helped to expand the export basket to several countries.
 
The target given to APEDA in the current financial year is 23.7 billion dollar, out of which more than 70 per cent has been achieved till January this year. The Ministry said, keeping in mind Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for vocal for local and Atmanirbhar Bharat, APEDA has been focusing on promotion of exports of locally sourced Geographical Indications tagged as well as indigenous, ethnic agricultural products.

The Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO has successfully launched the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C52 early this morning today from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has congratulated Indian space scientists on the successful launch of PSLV C52 mission. In a tweet, Mr. Modi said that EOS-04 satellite will provide high-resolution images under all weather conditions for agriculture, forestry and plantations, soil moisture and hydrology as well as flood mapping.

The PSLV-C52 mission has also injected three satellites into the orbits. The Chairman ISRO, C S Somnath has said that the launch was precise with all the four stages being perfect. He thanked the PSLV team for the successful launch.

Rail-cum-Road Bridge over Ganga River: Historic day for Bihar! Today, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has inaugurated the much-awaited 14.5 kilometre long ‘Rail-cum-Road-Bridge’ over the Ganga river approach project on NH 333B in Munger, located in the state of Bihar. Gadkari while inaugurating the infra project said the new ‘Rail-cum-Road-Bridge’ on river Ganga has been constructed at a cost of Rs 696 crore on NH 333B and approach road on both sides. Not only the ambitious infra project will reduce travel time, but will also give a boost to tourism, agriculture as well as generate employment opportunities, according to the Union Minister.

President Ramnath Kovind inaugurated the new Darbar hall in Rajbhavan in Mumbai today. The reconstructed Darbar Hall of Raj Bhavan in Mumbai stands on the same place where the Old Darbar Hall stood. However, it has a seating capacity of 750. Earlier, it had a seating capacity of 225.

Speaking on the occasion President Ramnath Kovind congratulated the people and government of Maharashtra and said the name of the state itself states that it is the great state of India.

Governor of Maharashtra Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, and PWD minister Ashok Chavan were also present on the occasion.

To mark the occasion of International Day of Women and Girls in Science, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog in collaboration with UNDP, India launched Community Innovator Fellowship (CIF).  

While launching the Fellowship, NITI Aayog CEO, Amitabh Kant said, “Creating a pre-incubation space for young and energetic innovators is a very important step in building vibrant, inspiring solutions for community problems.”

In 2015, the United Nations General Assembly declared February 11 as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science to achieve equal access and participation of women and girls in science. It also aims at achieving gender equality and women empowerment.

Veteran environmentalist Ravi Chopra has resigned as chairman of the Supreme Court’s High Powered Committee (HPC) on the Char Dham project, saying that his “belief that the HPC could protect this fragile (Himalayan) ecology has been shattered”.

In his resignation letter to the secretary general of the Supreme Court on January 27, Chopra referred to the apex court’s December 2021 order that accepted the wider road configuration to meet defence needs, instead of what the HPC had recommended and the SC accepted in its earlier order in September 2020.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday proposed to extend the Rs 50,000 crore on-tap liquidity window for emergency healthcare services till June 30.

The central bank had introduced the liquidity window at the repo rate with tenors of up to three years on May 5 last year to provide immediate capital for ramping up Covid-19 related healthcare infrastructure and services.