National:
CSIR-CDRI, Lucknow's 70th Annual Day & CDRI Awards 2021
- CSIR-Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow celebrated its 70th Annual Day Celebrations on 17 February 2021.
Union Minister Health & Family Welfare, Science and Technology and Earth Sciences and Vice President CSIR, Dr. Harsh Vardhan addressed the celebrations through video-conferencing in New Delhi.
He also inaugurated ‘Common Research and Technology Development Hub (CRTDH)’ supported jointly by DSIR and CSIR online.
On the occasion, prestigious CDRI Awards-2021 for Excellence in Drug Research was also announced.
Selected awardees for CDRI Awards 2021 for Excellence in Drug Research:
In Chemical Sciences category:
- Dr. Vishal Rai, Associate Professor, IISER, Bhopal
In Life Sciences category:
- Dr. Siddhesh Shashikant Kamat, Associate Professor, IISER, Pune
- Dr. Chandrima Das, Associate Professor, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata
India's Largest Hockey stadium in Rourkela:
- Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on 16 February 2021 laid the foundation stone of India’s largest hockey stadium in the steel city of Rourkela.
Its construction would be finished on time before the next edition of men’s Hockey World Cup in 2023.
Naveen Patnaik announced that the proposed international hockey stadium, with a seating capacity of more than 20,000 people, would be named after freedom fighter Birsa Munda.
The Sanctuary Wildlife Service Awards 2020:
- Conservation writer, historian, naturalist and veteran activist, S. Theodore Baskaran won the Sanctuary Lifetime Service Award 2020 for his role in wildlife conservation and his continuing legacy of writings in Tamil and English to the conservation discourse. Read More About Sanctuary Wildlife Service Awards 2020
First Route of Kochi Water Metro project:
- On 15 February 2021, Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the first Vyttila-Kakkanad route and terminal buildings of the Kochi Water Metro project via video conferencing.
The Kochi Water Metro project by the Kochi Metro Rail Limited will act as a service to connect islands where the transport accessibility is limited.
International:
11th IEA-IEF-OPEC Symposium:
- Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel, participated in the 11th IEA-IEF-OPEC Symposium on Energy Outlooks, which was held virtually on 17th February 2021.
The Symposium was held under the patronage of the Minister of Energy of Saudi Arabia Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud. The symposium was attended by the heads of all the top inter-governmental energy agencies – IEF, IEA, OPEC, IRENA and the GECF.
OPEC and EIA in their near-term outlook estimate that global fuel consumption will grow by 5.6 to 6 million barrels per day in 2021, where more than half of this growth will come from India and China. Natural gas demand is also projected to increase three-fold by 2040.
Appointment of Director-general of the World Trade Organization:
- Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has been appointed as the director-general of the International trade body, World Trade Organization by representatives of the 164 member countries, on 15 February 2021.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the seventh Director-General of the WTO. She took office on 1 March 2021, becoming the first woman and the first African to serve as Director-General. Her term of office will expire on 31 August 2025.
Death:
- Retired Supreme Court judge PB Sawant passed away in Pune on 15 February 2021. He was 90. He wrote several articles and recommended many social and economic reforms in his book ‘Grammar of democracy’.