1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Delhi Became the First State in India to Ban the Manual Scavenging Park Geun-Hye Sworn-In As the First Woman President of South Korea Mozilla Unveiled Firefox OS Smartphone at Mobile World Congress Jelena Jankovic Won WTA Copa Claro Colsanitas Cup 2013 Arun Tadanki, the Managing Director for Yahoo India Quit the Company Hari Shankar Singhania, the leading industrialist died at 79 Six foreign micro and mini spacecrafts as well as the Indo-French oceanographic study satellite, SARAL (Satellite for Argos-3 and Altika) were launched successfully by ISRO's PSLV-C20 rocket on 25 February 2013 from the spaceport at Sriharikota.The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) of Indian Space Research Organizations (ISRO) flew from first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre and was successfully put into the orbit. The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee witnessed this launch from mission control centre at Sriharikota. Satellites launched by PSLV-C20 rocket 410-kg SARAL with payloads - Argos and Altika Two micro-satellites UniBRITE and BRITE from Austria AAUSAT3 from Denmark STRaND from United Kingdom Micro-satellite (NEOSSat) Mini-satellite (SAPPHIRE) from Canada These seven satellites were launched successfully by PSLV which depicted its versatility and recorded 22nd successful flight consecutive. ISRO also has plans to launch the GeoSynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle that has indigenous cryogenic engine, along with the Indias mission to Mars, both of which are scheduled for 2013. SARAL, the unique satellite SARAL is said to be a very unique satellite which serves the research community. This satellite will assist the researchers in oceanographic studies. SARAL will study the sea surface heights and ocean currents. ARGOS-2 will help in collecting the data, while Altikameter will be responsible for measuring the height of sea surface. SARAL will also assist researchers in studying about the climatic developments. Its practical applications include study of migration of the marine animals, continental ice studies, protection of biodiversity and coastal erosion. 8. OSCARS 2013 List of the awardees of 85th Academy Awards: Best Picture: Argo Best Actor in a Leading Role: Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln Best Actress in a Leading Role: Jennifer Lawrence for Silver Linings Playbook Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Anne Hathaway for Les Misrables Best Animated Feature Film: Brave

 Best Cinematography: Claudio Miranda for Life of Pi Best Costume Design: Anna Karenina Best Directing: Ang Lee for Life of Pi Best Documentary Feature: Searching for Sugar Man Best Documentary Short: Inocente Best Film Editing: William Goldenberg for Argo Best Foreign Language Film: Amour (Austria) Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell for Les Misrables Best Music-Original Score: Mychael Danna for Life of Pi Best Music-Original Song: Skyfall from Skyfall (Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth) Best Production Design: Rick Carter (Production Design); Jim Erickson (Set Decoration) for Lincoln Best Short Film-Animated: Paperman Best Short Film-Live Action: Curfew Best Sound Editing: Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers for Skyfall Best Sound Mixing: Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes for Les Misrables Best Visual Effects: Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott for Life of Pi Best Writing-Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio for Argo Best Writing-Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained 9. Nicos Anastasiades Won Cyprus Presidential Elections With 57.5 Percent Votes 10. Assam became First Indian State to produce over 500 million kg Tea for 2 Years in a Row 11. Sania Mirza and Bethanie-Mattek Sands won the Dubai Tennis Championship 2013 12. Ratan Tata Awarded the Life Time Achievement Award 2012 by Ernst & Young 13. NASA scientists spotted the youngest black hole yet in the Milky Way galaxy called W49B, which is just 1000-years-old and only 26000 light-years away from Earth. New data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory suggested a highly distorted supernova remnant may contain the most recent black hole formed in the Milky Way galaxy.NASA explained that W49B appears to be the product of a rare explosion in which matter is ejected at high speeds along the poles of a rotating star. Laura Lopez, who led the study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said that W49B is the first of its kind to be discovered in the galaxy. Usually when a massive star runs out of fuel, the central region of the star collapses, triggering a chain of events that quickly culminate in a supernova explosion. Most of these explosions are generally symmetrical, with the stellar material blasting away more or less evenly in all directions. However, in the W49B supernova, material near the poles of the doomed rotating star was ejected at a much higher speed

than material emanating from its equator. The remnant now glows brightly in X-rays and other wavelengths, offering the evidence for a peculiar explosion. By tracing the distribution and amounts of different elements in the stellar debris field, researchers were able to compare the Chandra data to theoretical models of how a star explodes. A careful search of the Chandra data revealed no evidence for a neutron star. The lack of such evidence implies a black hole may have formed.

14. Justice Usha Mehra Commission on 22 February 2013 submitted its report to on the 16 December 2012 Delhi gang-rape incident to the Union Government of India. The report was received by the Union Minister of Law and Justice Ashwani Kumar and the Union Home Secretary R.K. Singh. 15. The Union Cabinet of India approved merger of Bharat Heavy Plate & Vessels Ltd. (BHPV) Vishakhapatnam with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) on 21 February 2013. After the merger, BHVP will be a unit of BHEL. 16. National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) tied up a term loan facility of 250 million US dollars with the State Bank of India, New York Branch as well as Singapore Branch of Mizuho Corporate Bank Limited. 17. T. S. Vijayan, the Former LIC Chief Took Over as the Chairman of IRDA 18. Hamadi Jebali, Resigned from the Post of Prime Minister of Tunisia 19. India and Sri Lanka Signed Agreements On Combating Terrorism and Avoiding DoubleTaxation 20. Retd. Justice Bhatt to Conduct Judicial Probe in Allahabad Railway Station Stampede 21. Rafael Nadal defeated David Nalbandian to Win Brazil Open 2013 22. Viswanathan Anand won Grenke Chess Classic Trophy 23. Ela Bhatt Conferred 2011 Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development Award 24. Ecuadors President Rafael Correa Re-elected for a Third Term 25. Australia clinched its ICC Womens World Cup Trophy after defeating West Indies in Final 26. The first wildlife skywalk of India will be coming up in Maenam wildlife sanctuary, Sikkim. The State Government of Sikkim proposed to construct 22 km rope-way from Maenam sanctuary to skywalk which would be built on edge of Bhalleydhunga steep face. 27. National AIDS Control Organisation(NACO), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare signed the first MoU with the Ministry of Shipping on 14 February 2013 as a part of its efforts to highlight issues relating to HIV/AIDS.

28. Pakistan Successfully Test-Fired Nuclear-Capable Hatf-II Ballistic Missile Hatf-II ballistic missile is also known as Abdali short range surface-to-surface ballistic missile. Hatf-II is capable of carrying nuclear or conventional warheads with precision and high accuracy. Hatf-II has a range of 180 km. 29. Girisha Hosanagara Nagarajegowda Appointed As Herbalife Brand Ambassador 30. Justice (Retd.) Y Bhaskar Rao, Sworn-In as the Lokayukta of Karnataka 31. India and France agreed to strengthen Cooperation on Counter Terrorism 32. Inflation goes Down to Three Years Low to 6.62 percent in January 2013 33. SEBI ordered freezing of accounts and attachment of properties of two companies of Sahara 34. Government of Haryana abolished VAT on Wheat 35. Mohan Parasaran, the Additional Solicitor General was on 13 February 2013 appointed as the Solicitor General of India after senior advocate Rohinton Nariman resigned from his designation. 36. The exports of India increased by 0.8 percent in the month of January 2013 to 25.58 billion US dollars. Comparatively, exports in January 2012 were 25.37 billion US dollars. 37. The Government of India and the World Bank on 11 February 2013 signed a 60 million US dollars credit agreement for the Karnataka Watershed Development Project II (KWDP II) to further improve watershed planning and management in project areas. The Project will improve government watershed operations in 930 micro-watersheds covering 465000 ha across 7 districts of Karnataka. 38. Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) appointed Subodh Kumar Agrawal as its new President and K. Raghu as its new Vice-President on 12 February 2013. 39. Twitter launched Pay-By-Tweet services in partnership with American Express 40. Parle-G Became the First Indian FMCG Brand to Cross 5000 Crore Rupees Mark 41. World Radio Day was observed on 12 February 2013 42. Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty Appointed As the Chairman of Lalit Kala Akademi 43. India and Japan held talks to Strengthen Cooperation in Tourism Sector 44. Lyonchhen Jigmi Y. Thinley, Prime Minister of Bhutan visited India 45. MCX-SX, the Third National Stock Exchange Made its Debut in India (SX40) 46. India and Bangladesh signed MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) on Health 47. Pakistan Successfully Test Fired Short Range Surface-To-Surface Missile Hatf IX (NASR) 48. Afzal Gurus Secret Hanging Was Called Operation Three Star 49. The Environment Ministry Constituted Committee to Examine Legal Cover for Elephant Habitats 50. Railway Revenue Earnings increased by 20.38 Per Cent During April 2012-January 2013 51. Finance Minister P Chidambaram launched Rajiv Gandhi Equity Savings Scheme in Mumbai 52. Ministry of Civil Aviation launched Monthly Bi-lingual Shubh Yatra Magazine 53. I&B Ministry launched MyIndia Initiative-A Digital Volunteer Programme to reach Citizens 54. CCI slapped a penalty of 52.24 crore on BCCI for abuse of position

55. GAIL (India) Signed MoU with EDF Trading; Increased Footprint in US 56. India Returned With 46 Medals in 2013 Pyeongchang Special Olympics World Winter Games 57. The Union Cabinet of India on 7 February 2013 approved raise in the authorized capital of National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, Nabard to 20000 crore rupees from 5000 crore rupees. The authorized capital was increased with the aim to enlarge the operations and broadening the activities of NABARD. 58. Ranchi Rhinos beat Delhi Waveriders 2-1 to win the inaugural Hockey India League (HIL) in the match at Astroturf Hockey Stadium on 10 February 2013. Apart from winning the trophy, Ranchi Rhinos took away 2.5 crore Rupees. Runners-up Delhi Waveriders on the other hand, pocketed 1.25 crore Rupees. 59. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on 8 February 2013 arranged the first of its kind Live Twitter Conference based on the theme-Community Radio: Road Travelled & Way Forward. The first ever Live Twitter Conference was chaired by the Secretary of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Uday Kumar Varma. Other senior officials of the I&B were present as well. 60. The Union Cabinet of India on 6 February 2013 gave approval to DRDO for developing an indigenous Airborne Early Warning and Control System for IAF. 61. Rajkeswur Purryag, President of Mauritius Visited India 62. India and Austria signed a Social Security Pact 63. Nepal Started Census of Endangered Species Tigers in Five Conservation Areas 64. Earthquake of magnitude 8.0 struck the Solomon Islands 65. ICICI Partnered With Aircel to Launch Mobile Banking Service, Mobile Money 66. Allan Border Medal 2013: Michael Clarke Won the Medal Fourth Time 67. Glenn McGrath and Charlie Turner Joined Australian Cricket Hall of Fame 68. Mo Yan and Jackie Chan Selected As Members of Chinese Parliament 69. Bharti Airtel Launched Emergency Alert Service for Women Subscribers 70. Shanu Lahiri, the Renowned Bengali Painter Died at 85 71. BHEL and GAIL Granted Maharatna Status by the Union Government of India 72. Asian Development Bank Gave 100 Million US Dollar Loan to Uttarakhand 73. Haryana CM Bhupinder Singh Hooda Launched DBT Scheme in Two Districts 74. P.R. Vasudeva Rao Appointed As the Director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research 75. NASA Marks 10th Anniversary of Space Shuttle Columbia Disaster 76. 4 February: World Cancer Day World cancer day was observed on 4 February 2013 in order to raise awareness about this illness as well as to promote the measures, early detection, prevention and treatment of the disease. The theme for World Cancer Day, 2013 was Cancer - Did you know? The theme focused on dispelling the misconceptions associated with the disease. 77. India dropped nine places to 140th rank in the list of 179 countries in the latest World Press Freedom Index 2013, which is the lowest since 2002. India got this lowly rank because of increasing impunity for violence against journalists and internet censorship. Netherlands, Norway and Finland topped the list. The Press Freedom Index was released by world Press Freedom index for the year 2013. China got 173rd rank. Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea were placed at the bottom of the list as has been in the last three years.