Notes:
India and Russia has celebrated 70 years of bilateral relations in the field of agriculture at Suratgarh in Rajasthan on February 14, 2018. Both Indian and Russian delegations visited the Central State Farm (CSF) to commemorate the 70 years of agriculture relationship between the two countries. The CSF was set up in Suratgarh in 1956 with the assistance from erstwhile USSR. Russian scientists helped in laying the foundation of agriculture in the deserts of Thar, which brought about a change in the agriculture farming in nearby areas including fringe area of Punjab. Minister of State for Agriculture Gajender Singh Shekhawat and his Russian counterpart Sergey Beletskiy has inaugurate Russian Machinery Museum and visit a Cattle Breeding Centre.

Notes:
Dr Bolla Bulli Ramaiah (92), the former Union minister and veteran TDP leader, has passed at Tanuku in Andhra Pradesh on February 14, 2018. He began his career in 1953 as an employee in the Andhra Sugars and rose through the ranks to become its chairman and managing director. Ramaiah, who was known as a genial person, joined the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) during its inception and became an MP in 1984. He was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Eluru constituency in 1991, 1996 and 1999 and served as the Union minister of state for commerce during 1996-98 in the United Front government.

Notes:
India will host the 8th edition of Theatre Olympics in New Delhi from February 17 with theme “Flag of friendship”, which will continue till 8th of April. The event will inaugurated by Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu at Red Fort. It is being organised by National School of Drama, under the aegis of Ministry of Culture. Over 25,000 artistes from 30 countries will participate in the Theatre Olympics. The 51 day long nationwide theatre extravaganza will be held in 17 cities including Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Patna, Kolkata, Mumbai, Guwahati and Jammu. It will see 450 shows including 65 shows by international artistes, 600 ambient performances and 250 youth forum shows. It’s first time that the Theatre Olympics will be held in India that will serve to create a dialogue between Indian and global artistes.

Notes:
Muzaffar Hussain (78), the noted writer, thinker and journalist, has passed away in Mumbai, Maharashtra on February 14, 2018. Born on March 20, 1940 in Madhya Pradesh, Hussain came to Mumbai in his youth and soon became proficient in many languages. In his illustrious career, he bagged several state and national level awards in literature, besides Padma Shri in 2002. He was conferred with the Lokamanya Tilak Jeevan Gaurav award for journalism by the government of Maharashtra in 2014. He was known as a pro-Hindutva writer and was also praised by the RSS.

Notes:
Prof. Chandrashekhara Kambar, the eminent Kannada writer and Jnanpith winner, has been elected as the new president of Sahitya Akademi in the election held for the post. He is the third Kannada writer to head the country’s premier literary institution, after Vinayak Krishna Gokak (1983) and U.R. Ananthamurthy (1993). Hindi poet Madhav Koushik has been elected as vice-president. This is the second time election was held in the history of Sahitya Akademi, after Ananthamurthy’s election to the post. Prof. Kambar has served as member of the Akademi executive board for over 10 years and was vice-president for 2013-18.

Notes:
India’s first online radio station “Radio Umang” has launched on 2018 World Radio Day themed around peace, humanity and hope. It comes packed with inspirational stories, engaging talk shows and lots of soothing music. Listeners can tune in to this online radio station through web streaming or download the app. With 24 hours programming, it has found listeners in Hindi speaking regions of India and in over 60 countries worldwide.

Notes:
The 12th edition of International Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR-2018) was held in Bengaluru, Karnataka on February 9, 2018. The 2018 theme was ” Responsible CSR: a New Agenda Beyond Governance”. The 2-day conference was attended by over 400 experts and delegates from all over India and abroad. In the conference, the prestigious Golden Peacock Award 2017 was presented. The leadership award for philanthropy and social change was presented to Vineet Nayar, the chairman of Sampark Foundation.

Notes:
Noted Kannada critic T P Ashoka has bagged the 2017 Sahitya Akademi Award for Kannada language for his literary criticism work “Kathana Bharathi”. The annual Sahitya Akademi awards for 2017 were presented at a function in New Delhi on February 12, 2018. The awards were given in 24 languages. Excerpts are as follows: In Santhali, Bhujanga Tudu got the award for his poetry ‘Tahena Tangi Re’ and Jagdish Lachhani was awarded for his Sindhi essays ‘Aachhende Laja Maraan’. In Telugu, Devipriya was awarded for her poetry ‘Gaali Rangu’ and in Urdu, Baig Ehsas was honoured for her short stories ‘Dakhma’. The awardee received a casket containing an engraved copper-plaque, a shawl and a cheque of Rs 1 lakh.

Notes:
The 3-day International Conference on Operations and Maintenance “Indian Power Stations 2018” has inaugurated by R.K. Singh, Union Minister of State (IC) for Power and New and Renewable Energy, in New Delhi on February 13. The Minister exhorted the NTPC to become India’s power sector multinational by setting up power plants in other Nations and become world’s largest power producer. He also added that there was huge opportunity to export cheap power to neighbouring countries which will be beneficial for the entire region.

Notes:
The Ban Sagar Dam is a multipurpose river Valley Project built across Son River in Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh. The dam irrigate an area of 2,490 km² in Madhya Pradesh, 1,500 km²; in Uttar Pradesh and 940 km² in Bihar. The water sharing of dam take place among three states: Madhya Pradesh (2.5 km3), Uttar Pradesh (1.2 km3) and Bihar (1.2 km3). It also provides power generation of 425 MW in Madhya Pradesh.