• India’s unemployment rate rose to 7.45% in February from 7.14% in the previous month, data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).
• The urban unemployment rate declined to 7.93% in February from 8.55% in the previous month, while the rural unemployment rate rose to 7.23% from 6.48%, the data showed.

• World Wildlife Day will be celebrated in 2023 under the theme "Partnerships for wildlife conservation", honoring the people who are making a difference.
• Partnerships operate on a large scale or involve a few children or a school. For some, it could be organizing a school sale to benefit a conservation group, for others it could be posting photographs online to raise awareness of endangered species. All of them are equally valid.This upcoming year, the UN celebrates a special partnership: the 50th anniversary of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

• The International Yoga Festival 2023, organised by the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Council on March 1, 2023, was formally inaugurated by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on the banks of the Ganges in Rishikesh.
• On March 1, 2023, a grand ceremony was organised for the International Yoga Festival at Yoga Ghat near GMVN Ganga Resort located at Muni Ki Reti. In which the famous Yogacharya of the country guided the Yoga seekers.In the coming days this year, two G-20 conferences are to be held in Rishikesh.

• In first, the Irinjadappilly Sri Krishna Temple in Kerala’s Thrissur district used a mechanical, life-like elephant for performing rituals.For the first time, a Kerala temple used a ‘robotic elephant’ for performing rituals.
• This was followed by a call taken by the temple to never keep or hire elephants or any other animals for rituals, festivities, or any other purpose, so People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India came up with the robotic elephant.

• Vietnam's National Assembly elected Vo Van Thuong as the country's new President, in a reshuffle of the country's top leadership amid an anti-graft campaign. In an extraordinary session, lawmakers confirmed Thuong after the ruling Communist Party nominated him as President.
• Thuong's election follows the sudden resignation of his predecessor Nguyen Xuan Phuc in January, who the Party blamed for wrongdoing.

• Jishnu Barua has become the new chairperson of power regulator Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC). Barua has been appointed chairperson of the CERC on February 27, 2023.
• Barua was chief secretary of Assam from October 2020 to August 2022. Prior to this, he had been additional chief secretary to Assam looking after various departments of the state from August 2017 to October 2020.

• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has picked a longtime solar scientist who heads its heliophysics division, Dr Nicola Fox to become the S. space agency’s science chief – the first woman named to serve in the role.
• This will be the first time that a woman has led the space agency’s science division.Fox will succeed Mr Thomas Zurbuchen, a Swiss-American astrophysicist who had led the directorate since 2016 & he retired in December 2022. Sandra Connelly, formerly Zurbuchen’s deputy, has been leading the directorate in an acting capacity.

• India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has launched a new retail term deposit scheme called Amrit Kalash Deposit.The Amrit Kalash Deposit is valid for customers from 15 February to 31 March 2023.The scheme is launched for both domestic and Non-Resident Indian (NRI) customers.The interest rate of regular citizens is 7.10% while the interest rate of senior citizens is 7.60%.The total tenure of the deposit scheme is 400 days.

• Sashidhar Jagdishan, the managing director and CEO of HDFC Bank, has been named as the Business Standard Banker of the Year 2022, due to his successful navigation of technology-related challenges while maintaining the bank’s strong performance.
• A jury chaired by former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor S S Mundra selected Jagdishan as the winner, with other members including Keki Mistry, Vice Chairman and CEO of HDFC Limited, Anil Singhvi, Ican Investment Advisors Chairman, A Balasubramanian, MD, and CEO of Aditya Birla Sun Life Asset Management Company, and P S Jayakumar, former MD and CEO of Bank of Baroda.

• Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh has been honoured with Player-of-the-Year award by the Asian Chess Federation (ACF) for clinching the gold medal with a record-breaking score of 9/11 in the 44th Chess Olympiad at Mahabalipuram last year.
• In March last year, Gukesh became only the sixth Indian to break the 2700 Elo-rating mark, and the youngest Grandmaster from the country to be rated above 2700.

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