National

Purple Fest

• President Droupadi Murmu will inaugurate a day-long ‘Purple Fest’ at Amrit Udyaan in Rashtrapati Bhawan.
• Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is organizing the fest.

 Bharat Tex 2024

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Bharat Tex 2024 at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi.
• The 4-day textile event is considered one of the largest-ever global textile events to be organised in India with more than 100 countries participating at the event.

VGF for development of BESS

• Union Minister for Power and New & Renewable Energy, R. K. Singh, chaired a meeting in New Delhi to finalize the structure for operationalizing the scheme for Viability Gap Funding (VGF) for development of Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) with capacity of 4,000 Megawatt Hours (MWh).

 Five new AIIMS

• PM Modi launched five new AIIMS from Rajkot including the one at Rajkot in Gujarat, Bathinda in Punjab, Raebareli in Uttar Pradesh, Kalyani in West Bengal and Mangalagiri in Andhra Pradesh.

 International

GMBF Global Mahabiz 2024

• Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Nitin Gadkari outlined India's ambitious goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2070.
• He was speaking virtually at the Gulf Maharashtra Business Forum Global Mahabiz 2024 conference held in Dubai.

 Economy

Poverty down to 5 percent

• NITI Aayog CEO B V R Subrahmanyam has said that the latest consumer expenditure survey indicates that poverty has come down to five percent in the country and people are becoming prosperous both in rural and urban areas.
• National Sample Survey Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, released data on household consumption expenditure 2022-23 which shows per capita monthly household expenditure more than doubled in 2022-23 as compared to 2011-12.

 Defence

Defence Exports to touch 50000 Crore

• Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said that India will achieve the target of 50000 crore rupees export in the defence sector by 2028-29.
• Government aims to manufacture high-end systems like aero-engines and gas turbines in India in the next five years.

 Sports

Archery Asia Cup 2024

• India finished the Archery Asia Cup 2024 with 14 medals, including nine golds, four silvers and one bronze in Baghdad, Iraq.
• Deepika Kumari won the gold medal in the women’s individual recurve category.

 Goodfellow Classic squash

• Indian Squash player Abhay Singh clinched the Goodfellow Classic PSA Challenger Tour Title in Toronto, Canada.

 Awards & Honours

Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards

• Cillian Murphy got award for best male actor in leading role, Robert Downey Junior bagged best actor in supporting role and the movie Oppenheimer got the award for best film cast.
• Lily Gladstone got the best female in leading role award for Killers of the Flower Moon.
• This year's Lifetime Achievement prize was given to veteran singer and actress Barbra Streisand.

 Person in News

Veer Savarkar

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid tributes to freedom fighter Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (Veer Savarkar) on his death anniversary.
• In 1937, he was elected the president of the Hindu Mahasabha.
• Before his death on February 26, 1966, he wrote an article titled, ‘Atmahatya Nahi Atmaarpan’.

Miscellaneous

Reliance, Disney sign pact

• Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Walt Disney Co have signed a binding agreement to merge their media operations in India, according to a Bloomberg report.