India’s first Biosafety Level-3 mobile laboratory inaugurated in Maharashtra’s Nashik.

• Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Bharati Pravin Pawar inaugurated India’s first Biosafety level-3 containment mobile laboratory in Nashik, Maharashtra.
• The mobile laboratory will help to investigate newly emerging and re-emerging viral infections, by specially trained scientists from ICMR.
• The newly launched lab will be able to access remote and forested areas of the country, to investigate outbreaks using samples from humans and animal sources.

Bharti Airtel joins SEA-ME-WE-6 undersea cable consortium as major investor; anchoring 20% investment.

• Telecom operator Bharti Airtel Ltd has announced that it has joined the SEA-ME-WE-6 undersea cable consortium, in a bid to scale up its high speed global network capacity and serve India’s fast growing digital economy.
• SEA-ME-WE-6 stands for South East Asia–Middle East–Western Europe 6.
• Airtel will be the major investor in the SEA-ME-WE-6. It shall be anchoring 20 percent of the overall investment in the cable system.
• Through SEA-ME-WE-6, Airtel will be able to add 100 TBps capacity to its global network.

Tata Power partners Germany’s RWE Renewables GmbH to develop offshore wind projects in India.

• Tata Power has collaborated with Germany-based RWE Renewable GmbH, to explore potential for a joint development of offshore wind projects in India.
• An Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in this regard was signed between Tata Power Renewable Energy Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Power, and RWE, one of the world’s leaders in offshore wind.
• This is in line with Government of India’s announcement of achieving 30 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind installations by 2030.

Coal India bags ‘India’s Most Trusted Public Sector Company’ award.

• State-run Maharatna Coal PSU, Coal India Limited (CIL), has been awarded the ‘India’s Most Trusted Public Sector Company’ award at the Energy Meet 2022 & Excellence Awards of ASSOCHAM (The Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry).
• The award was received by Coal India Chairman Mr. Pramod Agarwal during a ceremony held in Kolkata.
• Coal India has been honored for providing energy security to India and not allowing the situation of power crisis in the country by significantly increasing coal production and supply in the last few months to meet the increased demand for coal for the power sector.

India and Oman begins Eastern Bridge-VI Air Exercise in Jodhpur.

• The Indian Air Force (IAF) and Royal Air Force of Oman (RAFO) have organised bilateral air exercise named Eastern Bridge-VI from February 21 to 25, 2022 at Air Force Station Jodhpur in Rajasthan.
• Eastern Bridge-VI is the sixth edition of the exercise.
• The exercise will provide an opportunity to enhance operational capability and interoperability between the two Air Forces.

Winners of Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival Awards 2022.

• The Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival Awards 2022 was held in Mumbai on February 20, 2022 to honour and appreciate the creativity & talent of Indian Film and Television Industry.

Some of the winners are given below:

1. Film of the Year – Pushpa: The Rise
2. Best Film – Shershaah
3. Best Actor – Ranveer Singh for 83
4. Best Actress – Kriti Sanon for Mimi
5. Best Director – Ken Ghosh

Rabindranath Tagore’s biography ‘History of Sriniketan’ authored by historian Uma Das Gupta.

• The biography of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore titled “A History of Sriniketan: Rabindranath Tagore’s Pioneering Work in Rural Construction”, written by historian and Tagore biographer Uma Das Gupta has been released.
• It has been published under Niyogi Book’s ‘Paper Missile’ imprint.
• The book throws light on Tagore’s lesser known work for rural reconstruction by setting up ‘Sriniketan’, (a wing of his Visva Bharati International University at Santiniketan), in 1922.

Adidas ropes in table tennis player Manika Batra as brand ambassador.

• India’s top table tennis player, Manika Batra has been roped in as the brand ambassador of the sportswear brand Adidas.
• Manika has been onboarded with focus on empowering women to realise their dreams, cheering for women to break barriers and create a reverberating impact in the world of sports.
• With this partnership, Manika joins Adidas’ women athletes group consisting of players like Mirabai Chanu, Lovlina Borgohain, Hima Das, and Nikhat Zareen.

2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing concludes; Norway tops with 37 medals.

• The closing ceremony of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games was held on February 20, 2022, at National Stadium (known as the Bird’s Nest) in Beijing.
• The 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, was held from 4 to 20 February 2022.
• Norway topped medal table for the second successive Winter Olympics, winning a total of 37 medals, including 16 golds. This is a new record for the most amount of gold medals won at a single Winter Olympics.
• The Indian team at the game was represented by one male alpine skier, Arif Khan.
• India could not win any medal at the games.

World Thinking Day: 22 February.

• World Thinking Day, originally known as Thinking Day, is celebrated annually on 22 February by all Girl Guides / Girl Scouts, and World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) worldwide.
• 2022-2024 Theme of World Thinking Day is: “Our World, Our Equal Future: The Environment and Gender Equality”