Notes:
India and Japan has commenced their annual Dharma Guardian exercise in Karnataka. The exercise began from February 27 to March 10.
The 15th battalion of the Maratha Light Infantry regiment will participate for India. The exercise is being conducted annually since 2018. India and Japan are two of the four members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD).

Notes:
The Centre has approved continuation of the Immigration Visa Foreigners Registration Tracking (IVFRT) Scheme for a period of five years from 2021 to 2026.
The scheme was approved with an outlay of Rs 1,364.88 crore. The average visa processing time, which was earlier at 15-30 days, has been reduced to 72 hours, in e-visas.

Notes:
Madagascar is witnessing its fourth cyclone in five weeks as Emnati makes a severe landfall. Madagascar is hit by numerous cyclones between November and April every year.
The island nation is still recovering from the impact of another storm earlier this month named Cyclone Batsirai, which killed more than 120 people.

Notes:
Union Ministry of Education recently launched a campaign ‘Bhasha Certificate Selfie’ to encourage cultural diversity and promote Multilingualism.
The initiative aims to promote Bhasha Sangam mobile app, developed by Ministry of Education and MyGov India. Using the app, people can learn over 100 sentences of daily use in as many as 22 scheduled Indian languages. It encourages people to upload their selfie with the certificate.

Notes:
Zmiinyi Island (Snake Island) is a roughly 16-hectare rocky island owned by Ukraine that lies about 300km west of Crimea, in the Black Sea.
Ukraine has honoured 13 soldiers who were killed defending the island from Russian forces. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has awarded each of the guards the posthumous title of “Hero of Ukraine”.