Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat has won the gold medal in the women's 53-kg category at XXIV Outstanding Ukrainian Wrestlers and Coaches Memorial in Kyiv, Ukraine. Vinesh Phogat defeated world number seven Vanesa Kaladzinskaya of Belarus in the finals to win the gold medal and make a winning return to her first competitive outing since the Covid-19 induced lockdown.
 
The Asian Games and Commonwealth Games gold medalist had defeated Romania's Ana A by fall in the semi-final to reach the summit clash. Vinesh has already booked a place in the Tokyo Olympics for the 53kg category. Since the coronavirus halted all competitions last year, it was the first competition for Vinesh, who is the only Indian woman wrestler to have qualified for the Tokyo Games. The 26 year old will be seen in action in the season's first ranking tournament from March 4-7 in Rome.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has assured that the Central Government will provide all possible support for the development of Puducherry. He was speaking after unveiling and laying the foundation stone for several welfare projects to the value of 3,023 crore rupees in Puducherry today.
 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for  four- laning of NH 45-A (56 kms from Sattanathapuram - Karaikal, package of Villippuram to Nagapattinam  project, covering Karaikal  at a cost of 2,426 crore rupees. The Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for the JIPMER Karaikal building to be constructed at a cost of 491 crore rupees and to be completed by August 2022.
 
Under the Sagarmala scheme, the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for developing a minor port in Puducherry at a cost of 44 crore rupees. This project will give connectivity to Chennai and facilitate Cargo movement for industries in Puducherry. Mr Modi also laid the foundation stone for a synthetic track at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex at an estimated cost of seven crore rupees.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate and lay foundation stone for several development projects in Tamil Nadu today. Prime minister in his tweet today said that he will be leaving for Puducherry and Tamil Nadu to inaugurate development works that will further ease of living and economic growth.
 
AIR correspondent reports that Tamil Nadu Governor Banwari Lal Purohit, Chief Minister Edappadi Palanisamy and the State's top officials and dignitaries are in Coimbatore to render a warm welcome to the Prime Minister who is expected to arrive in Coimbatore in a short while from now. Elaborate arrangements have been made in view of his visit. A local holiday has been declared and tight security arrangements are in place in and around the city.
 
COVID tests have been taken to ensure proper health safety of those who will attend the program at Codissia and also to all the security personnel. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will lay the foundation stone for multiple infrastructure projects worth over 12 thousand crore rupees. He will dedicate the completed projects to the Nation.

Japan's Naomi Osaka cemented her place as the outstanding star of the women's singles game by beating American Jennifer Brady in the Australian Open final to win her fourth Grand Slam title. Osaka, has remained unbeaten in major finals after today's 6-4, 6-3 win in Melbourne. Osaka edged the first set when Brady, in her first Grand Slam final, paid for some glaring errors in the final game. The third seed seized control from that point, racing 4-0 ahead in the second set before sealing a deserved victory.
 
Osaka has now won two Australian Open titles after also triumphing at Melbourne Park in 2019, with her other Grand Slam successes coming at the US Open in 2018 and 2020. She has not suffered a defeat since February 2020 after winning her past 20 matches.
 
In the Mixed Doubles final, Samantha Stosur and Matthew Ebden of Australia will clash with Barbora Krejcikova of Czech Republic and Rajeev Ram of US today.
 
The Mens' Singles final will be played tomorrow. The title will set up a blockbuster against World No.1 and defending champion Novak Djokovic as Medvedev searching for his grand slam title.

The American space agency NASA successfully landed its  fifth rover 'Perseverance' on Mars yesterday in a deep crater near the planet's equator called Jezero. It touched down the surface of Mars after successfully overcoming a risky landing phase known as the seven minutes of terror. The six-wheeled vehicle will now spend at least the next two years drilling into the local rocks, looking for evidence of past life.

About the size of an SUV, it weighs a ton, is equipped with a seven feet long robotic arm, has 19 cameras, two microphones and a suite of cutting-edge instruments to assist in its scientific goals. It has a laser spectrometer on board that will be able to examine rocks using different wavelengths of energy.

Starting from summer, it will attempt to collect around 30 rock and soil samples in sealed tubes, to be eventually sent back to Earth sometime in the 2030s for lab analysis.

The rover is only the fifth ever to set its wheels down on Mars. This feat was first accomplished in 1997 and all so far have been American.

CSIR-CDRI is celebrating its 70th Annual Day on the 17th February, 2021. On his opening remark Director CSIR-CDRI, Professor Tapas Kundu welcomed the dignitaries of the program and briefed about the achievements of institute in the reporting year.

Dr Shekhar Mande, Director General, CSIR and Professor Sandeep Verma, Secretary, SERB, DST, Government of India also congratulated the staff on Institute's 70th Annual Day.   

On this occasion, ‘Atal National Colloquium on Healthcare and Innovation’, a series of lectures from highly eminent persons, to commemorate Late Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayeeji’s vision and support for ‘Vigyan’ and CSIR-CDRI was inaugurated by Hon'ble Union Minister Health & Family Welfare, Science and Technology and Earth Sciences and Vice President CSIR, Dr. Harsh Vardhan.

Director General, CSIR inaugurated ‘Common Research and Technology Development Hub (CRTDH)' supported jointly by DSIR and CSIR online. The objectives of the CRTDH are (1) To set up and operate a Pharmaceutical Formulation Development and National Clinical Trial Batch Production Facility and (2) To establish and operate a Unit for GLP-compliant Pre-clinical and Clinical Bioanalysis (PK, BA, BE) and Drug Testing (DTL). It will be helpful for Clinical Trial Centers, Pharma Industry, MSME and Academia for advance research.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of key projects of power and urban sector in Kerala tomorrow through video conferencing. He will inaugurate the 320 KV Pugalur - Thrissur Power Transmission Project. It is a Voltage Source Inverter based High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Project and has India's first HVDC link featuring state-of-the-art VSC technology. Built at a cost of 5070 crore rupees, it will facilitate transfer of 2000 MW power from the western region and help meet the growth in load for the people of Kerala.  

The Prime Minister will also dedicate to the nation the 50 MW Kasaragod Solar Power Project. It has been developed under the National Solar Energy Mission. Mr Modi will lay the foundation stone of the Integrated Command and Control Centre at Thiruvananthapuram. Projected to be built at a cost of 94 crore rupees, it is being set up to host Smart Solutions for Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation, and will act as a common point of action during emergency situations to facilitate coordinated action.

Besides, the Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of the Smart Roads Project in Thiruvananthapuram. The project will be undertaken at an estimated cost of 427 crore rupees. A Water Treatment Plant at Aruvikkara will also be inaugurated  by him. It will boost supply of drinking water to people of Thiruvananthapuram and help avoid disruption of drinking water supply to the city in the event of maintenance work in the existing treatment plants in Aruvikkara.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the Mahabahu-Brahmaputra, lay the foundation stone of Dhubri-Phulbari Bridge and perform Bhoomi Poojan for construction of Majuli Bridge Assam today through video conferencing. In a tweet, Mr Modi said it is a landmark day for Assam’s development journey as the Mahabahu-Brahmaputra initiative will be launched.
 
Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways Mansukh Mandaviya, DoNER minister Dr. Jitendra Singh and Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal, Chief Minister of Meghalaya Conrad K Sangma will be present on the occasion. More from our Guwahati correspondent:

Today's event of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will give a  much needed boost for large numbers of people in Assam and Meghalaya in terms of better connectivity . The launch of Mahabahu-Brahmaputra will be marked by the inauguration of the Ro-Pax vessel operations between Neamatighat  and Majuli , North and South Guwahati and Dhubri-Hatsingimari . It also includes shilanyas for construction of tourist jetties at 4 locations to promote employment and river tourism. The programme is aimed at providing seamless connectivity to the Eastern parts of India and includes various development activities for the people living around River Brahmaputra and River Barak.The Ro-Pax services will help in reducing the travel time by providing connectivity between banks and thus reducing the distance to be travelled by road. The Prime Minister will lay the foundation stone of the longest river bridge of the country over the Brahmaputra between Dhubri in Assam and Phulbari in Meghalaya .  The 19 kilometer long 4 lane bridge will reduce the distance of 205 kilometer to be travelled by road to 19 kilometer only. Apart from that, the Prime Minister will perform bhumi pujan for the much awaited  8 km long  Jorhat -  Majuli bridge. This bridge will connect river island Majuli with mainland Assam

The ex-head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, will be sworn in as Italian Prime Minister today. He has secured the support of almost all the main political parties, following the collapse of the previous administration last month. He has already named his cabinet after meeting the Italian president yesterday.

Italy is still grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic and is also facing its worst economic crisis in decades. In this regard, Draghi, an economist with experience at the highest levels of the European Union and as governor of the Bank of Italy is being seen as a safe pair of hands.

World Radio Day (WRD) is being celebrated across the Globe today. The day was proclaimed by the member states of UNESCO in 2011 and subsequently adopted by the United Nations General Assembly as an International Day.  According to UNESCO, radio is a powerful medium for celebrating humanity and constitutes a platform for democratic discourse.
 
Radio has the ability to reach out to the widest audience, in the process having the ability to shape a society's experience of diversity and providing a platform for everyone to be represented and heard. The theme of World Radio Day 2021, "New World, New Radio", will highlight the services rendered by the radio medium throughout the crisis.