CHHATTISGARH

Raigarh was a princely state in India at the time of the British Raj. The state was ruled by a Raj Gond dynasty of Gond clan.

Raigarh estate was founded in 1625. In 1911 Raigarh estate was recognized as a state. The Rajas of Raigarh also owned the Estate of Bargarh and so held the title of Chief of Bargarh. Around 1625, the Raja of Sambalpur, created Daryo Singh as Raja of Raigarh.However, under British, it became a princely state only in 1911, during the reign of Raja Bahadur Bhup Deo Singh. Among the notable rulers of State were Deonath Singh, who assisted the British in the Mutiny of 1857. Other rulers were Raja Bahadur Bhup Deo Singh, Raja Chakradhar Singh.

Chakradhar Singh is noted for his contributions to Kathak and Hindustani music, especially for founding of Raigarh Gharana. The last ruler was Lalit Kumar Singh, his son succeeded him to the throne of Raigarh and ruled briefly before the Raigarh State was merged into Union of India on December 14, 1947. The princely states of Jashpur, Raigarh, Sakti, Sarangarh and Udaipur were united later to form the Raigarh district in present Chhattisgarh.

INTERNATIONAL

In Nepal, a month-long ‘Festival of India’ began in Kathmandu to familiarise the new generation of the country about the similarities between the two countries.

It is being held in Kathmandu and other major cities of Nepal from February 19th to March 21st.

The festival, organised by the Indian Embassy and Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre.

· Aussie rodent becomes world’s 1st mammal to go extinct due to climate change

Australia officially declared a Great Barrier Reef rodentextinct, making it the first mammal believed to have been killed off by human-induced climate change.
The small brown rat has not been seen since 2009.
It was found only on a small sand island near the coast ofPapua New Guinea.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, Australia has the third highest extinction rateof all nations, surpassed by only French Polynesia and the Republic of Mauritius.

NATIONAL

Ministry of Home Affairs has commissioned the Bureau of Police Research and Development to conduct a pan-India survey called, All India Citizens Survey of Police Services.
The survey will be conducted through the National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi.

The aim is to understand public perceptions about Police, gauge the level of non-reporting of crimes or incidents to Police, timeliness and quality of police response and action.

The survey commencing next month will cover a representative sample of 1.2 lakh households spread over 173 districts across the country.

· MHA granted power to arrest anyone to Assam Rifles in the Northeast

Assam Rifles, deployed along the Myanmar border, has been empowered by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)to arrest anyone and search a place without a warrant in the border districts of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, and Mizoram.
The Assam Rifles has been given these powers under the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Earlier, Assam Rifles was making arrests only in areas where the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act was in effect. Since, they were finding it difficult to make seizures and arrest in Mizoram, which doesn’t have AFSPA. The MHA had lifted AFSPA from some areas of Arunachal Pradesh in 2018.

The National Aids Research Institute (NARI)decided to drop its focus on research into the Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and to undergo a name change in the coming months.
It will no longer serve as a single disease centre, after observing a major drop in a number of
It will address other areas of public health too and apply the same knowledge and expertise to other fields of public health as well.

The government approved the launch of the Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthaan Mahabhiyan (KUSUM) with a central aid of Rs 34,000 crore.
The scheme will provide financial and water security to farmers through harnessing solar energy capacities of 25.75 gigawatts (GW) by 2022.

The scheme will have a substantial environmental impact in terms of savings of CO2 emissions.

10,000 megawatts (MW) of decentralised ground mounted grid-connected renewable power plants (Component-A)

Installation of 17.50 lakh standalone solar powered agriculture pumps (Component-B).

Solarisation of 10 lakh grid-connected solar powered agriculture pumps (Component-C).

Piramal Enterprises Ltd’s (PEL) pain relief tablet brand Saridon has been exempted from the list of banned fixed dose combinations(FDCs) by the Supreme Court.
In September 2018, the government had banned 328 FDCs, which were termed ‘irrational’ on the basis of safety issues and lack of therapeutic justification.