1. Raksha mantri Smt Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurates Air force commanders' conference

• The first bi-annual Commanders' Conference of IAF for the year 2019 began at the Air Headquarters (Vayu Bhawan).
• During the two day conference, discussions and deliberations will take place in line with the theme of the conference of 'Enhancing our operational capability in the short and long term'.
• The successful strike over Balakot and air action on 27 February will also be discussed along with the latest technologies in the aviation field to make IAF a more high tech force.

2. General Insurance Corporation (GIC) India chief awarded Freedom of the City of London

• The Chairman and Managing Director of the General Insurance Corporation (GIC) of India Alice G. Vaidyanwas nominated for the traditional honour by the Lord Mayor of London, Peter Estlin, and City of London Corporation Policy Chair Catherine McGuinness.
• The event, which delved into areas such as India's low insurance penetration and density, was aimed as a precursor to the Global InsurTech Summit in Mumbai later in the year.
• The City of London Corporation noted that companies in the UK manage 1.8 trillion pounds worth of investments, making it the third-largest insurance industry in the world.

3. Namami Gange gets global recognition at world summit

• The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) was awarded the distinction of "Public Water Agency of the Year" by Global Water Intelligence at the Global Water Summit in London.
• The awards recognise excellence across the international water industry and reward those initiatives in the water, waste water, and desalination sectors, which bring remarkable improvements in the lives of people.
• This programme is an integrated mission for Ganga rejuvenation. It has a comprehensive multi-sectoral intervention with multi-stakeholder involvement and adopts a basin based approach which includes Ganga and its tributaries.

4. RBL Bank ties up with CreditVidya for improving customer experience

• RBL Bankhas partnered with credit profiler CreditVidya to improve the lender's customer experience.
• Through this partnership, the private sector lender will be able to gain significant insights into its customer base.
• The bank had first partnered with CreditVidya in 2018 for instant and automated verification of employment details of salaried card applicants.

5. India's education technology startup 'Dost Education' bags USD 25,000 global tech prize

• India's education technology startup 'Dost Education' has bagged a USD 25,000 tech prize along with two other winners from Tanzania and Egypt.
• Dost was awarded for its ability to empower parents to take charge of their child's early education by creating short, friendly audio content that is sent to them via their mobile phones.
• Its aim is to identify, spotlight and celebrate the world's leading EdTech startups that have shown through ingenuity and innovation that they can improve learning in parts of the world.

6. Paralympics medallist Deepa Malik wins New Zealand PM's Sir Edmund Hillary Fellowship

• Rio Paralympics silver medallist Deepa Malik was named as the recipient of the New Zealand Prime Minister's Sir Edmund Hillary Fellowship for 2019 in recognition of her "inspiring achievements".
• She became the first Indian woman to win a medal at the Paralympic Games when she bagged a silver in shot put F 53 at the Rio Paralympics in 2016, scoring her personal best of 4.61m.
• She is the only Indian woman to have won medals in three consecutive Asian Para Games in 2010, 2014 and 2018. Her tally of laurels stands at 58 national and 23 international medals.

7. Google releases Anthos as part of new multi-cloud push

• Google this week took the wraps off Anthos, an open platform designed to give organizations the flexibility to run IT systems across multiple clouds without the need for manual modifications.
• Anthos is based on the Cloud Services Platform that was first announced at last year's Google Cloud Next, and launched as a beta earlier this year.
• The idea is to offer enterprises the seamless ability to manage workloads across cloud platforms without the need to learn new environments.

8. India, Sweden to provide solutions for smart cities

• India and Sweden launched a joint programme that will work towards addressing a range of challenges around smart cities and clean technologies among others.
• The programme was co-funded by Indian Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Swedish agency Vinnova.On the Indian side, conditional grant of up to 50 per cent (with a limit of Rs 1.5 crore) per project will be provided to the Indian partners.