An earthquake of 4.3 magnitudes struck Sikkim in the early hours of Feb 13, according to the National Center for Seismology.

The earthquake took place around 4.15 am at a depth of 10 km, around 70 km north-west of Yuksom in West Sikkim district.

There was no report of any damage or loss of life.

Maharashtra government on  Feb 12 announced Rs 25 lakh financial help to deceased journalist Shashikant Warshie and has made an offer of a job to his family members.

The murder had rocked the state, with journalists staging a protest at the Maharashtra assembly, the Opposition alleging a conspiracy and the state ordering an SIT probe.

Industrialist Uday Samant after meeting with various journalists’ outfits took the decision to give away the Rs 25 lakh aid to the deceased’s family members and a government job to his wife or son.

Samant said that the Rs 10 lakh will be given from the chief minister's relief fund while the remaining Rs 15 lakh from other resources of the state government to Shashikant’s family members. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on  Feb 12 inaugurated a 246-km section of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway in Rajasthan's Dausa.

Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister expressed pride in dedicating the first phase of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway to the nation. He underlined that this is one of the most advanced expressways in the world which presents a grand picture of developing India.

According to PMO, "The 246 km Delhi – Dausa – Lalsot section of the Delhi Mumbai Expressway has been developed at a cost of more than Rs 12,150 crore. This operationalization of this section will reduce the travel time from Delhi to Jaipur from 5 hours to around 3.5 hours and provide a major boost to the economic development of the entire region."

It will be India’s longest expressway with a length of 1,386 km. It will reduce the travel distance between Delhi and Mumbai by 12% from 1,424 km to 1,242 Km and travel time will be reduced by 50% from 24 hrs to 12 hrs. It will pass through six states - Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra and connect major cities like Kota, Indore, Jaipur, Bhopal, Vadodara and Surat. 

Chief Justices were appointed to four high courts on Feb 12 . Law Minister Kiren Rijiju announced the fresh appointments on Twitter.

Justice Sonia Giridhar Gokani, Judge of the Gujarat High Court was appointed its chief justice.

She was appointed acting chief justice of the Gujarat High Court after its chief justice Aravind Kumar was elevated to the Supreme Court.

Justice Sandeep Mehta, Judge, Rajasthan High Court has been appointed as chief justice of the Gauhati High Court.

Justice Jaswant Singh, Judge, Orissa High Court has been elevated as chief justice of the Tripura High Court.

Justice N Kotiswar Singh, Judge, Gauhati High Court has been made chief justice of the High Court of J-K and Ladakh.

Ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Indian President Droupadi Murmu has appointed new governors in 12 states and one UT, after accepting the resignations of Bhagat Singh Koshyari as Governor of Maharashtra and Radha Krishnan Mathur as Lt. Governor of Ladakh.

According to an official statement issued by the President Secretariat , Lt. General Kaiwalya Trivikram Parnaik has been appointed as Governor of Arunachal Pradesh while Lakshman Prasad Acharya was appointed as Governor of Sikkim.

C.P Radhakrishnan has been appointed as Governor of Jharkhand and Shiv Pratap Shukla as Governor of Himachal Pradesh.

Similarly, Gulab Chand Kataria is appointed as the new Governor of Assam and Justice (Retd.) S. Abdul Nazeer will be the new Governor of Andhra Pradesh.

Murmu has also appointed Biswa Bhusan Harichandan, Governor of Andhra Pradesh as the new Governor of Chhattisgarh, while Sushri Anusuiya Uikye, Governor of Chhattisgarh will preside as the Governor of Manipur.

In the same way, La. Ganesan, Governor of Manipur was appointed as the new Governor of Nagaland and Bihar's Governor Phagu Chauhan was made Governor of Meghalaya.

Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar, Governor of Himachal Pradesh will take over as Governor of Bihar.

Ramesh Baise, Governor of Jharkhand is now the new Governor of Maharashtra and Brig. (Dr.) Shri B.D. Mishra (Retd.), Governor of Arunachal Pradesh has taken charge as the new Lt. Governor of Ladakh.

Uttar Pradesh has so far received intents of investment worth over Rs 32.92 lakh crore after inking more than 18,000 agreements at the Global Investors Summit-2023, surpassing the records of investments received by other states, including Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

With investment proposals of this magnitude coming to UP, the state government has estimated creation of 92 lakh jobs opportunities.

As per officials, the Vibrant Gujarat summits have fetched investment proposals worth a maximum of Rs 15 lakh crore. Similarly, the Invest Madhya Pradesh meet organised in January this year had logged investment proposals to the tune of Rs 15 lakh crore. The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government had promised 29 lakh jobs. Similarly, the Ashok Gehlot government in Rajasthan had received Rs 11 lakh crore investment proposals with a promise of 10 lakh jobs at the summit organised in October 2022.

In Odisha also, at the 2022 investors summit, investment intents worth Rs 10 lakh crore were received by the Naveen Patnaik government, while in the Karnataka business summit in 2022, proposals for investment worth Rs 9.8 lakh crore were submitted.

The UP government had set an initial target of Rs 11.25 crore which was revised to Rs 17.3 lakh crore after the road shows held by the ministers of the Yogi Adityanath government across 21 cities of 16 countries. Now the target has been left far behind with the incoming intents. The UP Global Investors Summit comes ahead of similar business meets in other states, including Andhra Pradesh which has planned a meet in Vishakhapatnam on March 3-4, followed by Maharashtra later this year.

External Affairs Minister, Dr S Jaishankar, and Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka will inaugurate the 12th World Hindi Conference on February 15 in Fiji.

The conference, scheduled to be held at Nadi from February 15-17, will be on the theme "Hindi – Traditional Knowledge to Artificial Intelligence."

"The conference will be spread over one plenary session and ten parallel sessions on topics such as Hindi in Girmitiya countries, Hindi in Fiji and the Pacific, Information Technology and Hindi in the 21st century, Media and the global perception of Hindi, global reference of Indian knowledge traditions and Hindi, Linguistic coordination and Hindi translation," said Saurabh Kumar, Secretary (East) Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).

Parallel sessions will be held on different forms of Hindi cinema and the global scenario, global market and Hindi, Pravasi Hindi literature in the changing scenario, and Hindi teaching in India and abroad, challenges and solutions will also be held.

MEA earmarks Rs 12 crore annually for propagating the use of Hindi. India has been working on introducing Hindi as an official language in the United Nations for some time now.

This will be Dr Jaishankars first visit to Fiji since the formation of the new government. Just a few days back, Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister, Biman Prasad, had visited Delhi for an official visit.

Bangladesh said  on Feb 11 that it had withdrawn two new school textbooks after protests from Islamist groups incensed by a curriculum overhaul to recognise transgender identities, same-sex relationships and secular science.

Thousands have demonstrated in the capital Dhaka since last month demanding that the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) scrap the changes to the books, published for students aged 11 to 13.

One section of the new history and social science book narrates the story of a child called Sharif who transitions, takes the female name Sharifa and goes to live with other transgender people.

In 2014, the Bangladeshi government allowed people to identify themselves as belonging to a third gender, and it has in recent years given “hijras” broader rights in areas such as housing and higher education.

Multiple Islamic clerics have even issued decrees declaring them part of the country’s Muslim mainstream.

Several trans people have contested and won local elections.

But the conservative Muslim-majority country’s roughly 1.5 million transgender people still face discrimination and violence and are often forced into begging or the sex trade to earn money.