 Thailand and the United States hosted the annual Cobra Gold military exercise, the biggest activity of its type in the Asia-Pacific region with 29 nations taking part as participants or observers. Apart from the 2 countries, 7 countries who participated in the exercise were India, Singapore, Japan, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea. The Indian Army participated in the military training exercise with a 14-member contingent. India participated in this exercise for the first time in the ‘Observer Plus’category in 2016 alongside China. |
| Source: The Diplomat |
 US President Donald Trump signed Space Policy Directive-4 (SPD-4), ordering the Pentagon to establish the Space Force as the 6th branch of the United States military, to go along with the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, and Coast Guard, in order to secure and extend American dominance of the space domain. |
Donald Trump signs SPD-4 to create US Space Force SPD-4, as the name suggests, is Mr. Trump’s 4th space policy directive. The initial 3 were:
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| Source: Space.Com |
 External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has been invited to deliver an address at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Abu Dhabi. This is the first time that a leader of the non-Muslim country has been invited to the OIC conference. Ms Swaraj will be the Guest of Honour and address the inaugural plenary of the 46th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of OIC on the 1st and 2nd of March. |
| Source- Press Information Bureau (PIB) |
 World Bank, United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) launched new social impact bonds exclusively for women, called Women’s Livelihood Bonds (WLBs), with an initial corpus of Rs 300 crore. It will enable individual women entrepreneurs in sectors like food processing, agriculture, services, and small units to borrow around Rs 50,000 to Rs 3 lakh at an annual interest rate of around 13% to 14% or less and have a tenure of 5 years. They will be unsecured, unlisted bonds and offer a fixed coupon rate of 3% per annum to bond investors. |
| Source: The Hindu Business Line |
 Zimbabwe started to trade its new currency, the RTGS dollar, two days after the central bank announced measures to try and resolve a chronic monetary crisis. The bank unveiled a foreign exchange trading system that effectively devalued its quasi-currency, the bond note, which was officially pegged at parity with the US dollar. The new currency replaces electronic bank savings called digital dollars and the bond notes and was named after the real-time gross settlement system that banks use to transfer money between each other. |
| Source- The Tribune |
 The Asian Hockey Federation has honored Indian skipper Manpreet Singh with the 2018 Player of the Year award. Women team’s striker Lalremsiami has bagged the Rising Player of The Year prize. Manpreet led the Indian team to an unbeaten streak at the Asian Champions Trophy in Muscat where the team was declared joint winners with Pakistan. He also contributed to the team’s silver medal win at the FIH Champions Trophy in Breda. |
| Source- News on AIR |
 J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare inaugurated the ‘4th Global Digital Health Partnership Summit’ in New Delhi, in the presence of Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad Union Minister of Law & Justice and Electronics & Information Technology and Health Ministers from several countries. The global intergovernmental meeting on digital health is being hosted by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Global Digital Health Partnership (GDHP). |
| Source- Press Information Bureau (PIB) |
 The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council met for its 33rd meeting and slashed GST rate on under-construction residential properties and the affordable housing projects. The revised rates will be applicable from April 1, 2019. |
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Here are the revised GST rates:
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| The decision was based on recommendations of a Ministerial Panel headed by Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel. |
| Source- Press Information Bureau (PIB) |
 Bihar has become the first state to deploy specially-trained dogs to check smuggling of liquor which continues to take place inspite of the total ban imposed in the state for the last 3 years. 20 liquor-tracker dogs were trained rigorously for nine months in Hyderabad, Telangana. They were trained at Hyderabad-based Integrated Intelligence Training Academy. Patna will witness deployment of 4 such dogs. This action was taken after the seizure of more than three million liters of illegal alcohol since April 2016. |
| Source: The Times Of India |
 Tamil Nadu became the first state in the country to get a second Coast Guard district headquarters – Thoothukudi. The first district headquarters is Chennai. Inaugurated by state Governor Banwarilal Purohit, the Thoothukudi district headquarters has been set up with an aim to augment security mechanism on the eastern coast and the state in particular. Coast Guard DIG Arvind Sharma has taken over charge as the first district Commander of the district headquarters (Tuticorin). |
| Source- Business Standard |
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