• Life Insurance Corporation Housing Finance Ltd (LICHFL) has partnered with India Mortgage Guarantee Corporation (IMGC) to offer special Loan scheme, under which borrowers can repay the amount till the age of 75 years.

• This will help increase loan quantum and reducing the burden of monthly EMIs for borrowers.

• Under this partnership, IMGC will provide LICHFL mortgage, which is a financial product that compensates financial institutions for losses that may arise from a default on a mortgage loan.

• This strategic tie-up will help the LICHFL to accommodate more home loan borrowers, increase market penetration, besides combating Non-Performing Assets (NPAs).

Important Points

LICHFL

Headquarters - Maharastra

Founder - LIC

Founded - 19 June 1989

• IDBI Bank has received government nod to handle import and export transactions with Iran.

• This has been done to boost the trade between India and Iran amidst US sanctions on Iran.

• Earlier, UCO Bank used to handle the payments during the previous sanctions, but this channel of payment to Iran in Euros was blocked from November 2018.

• Iran is the third largest supplier of oil to India, after Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

• Bilateral trade between India and Iran increased to USD 13.8 billion in 2017-18 from USD 12.9 billion in the previous fiscal. However, India's exports were only worth USD 2.5 billion to Iran.

Important Points

IDBI

Headquarters - Mumbai

Founded - 1 July 1964

Iran

Capital - Tehran

Currency - Iranian Rial

President - Hassan Rouhani

• G. Satheesh Reddy, the secretary of India's Department of Defence R&D and Chairman of the DRDO has been selected by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) as the co-winner of the 2019 Missle System Award.

• G. Satheesh Reddy is the first person to be honored with this award outside the USA in 40 years. The other co-winner is Rondell J. Wilson who is a former Principle Engineering Fellow of Raytheon Missile Systems.

Important Points

DRDO

Defence Research and Development Organisation 

Founded - 1958

• Union Minister Mahesh Sharma has inaugurated 'Azaadi Ke Diwane' museum at the Red Fort Complex in Delhi.

• The museum has been dedicated to the unsung heroes of the country's freedom struggle.

• It has been constructed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

• It is the fifth museum to be dedicated to freedom fighters of recently inaugurated ones - the other four are: Subhash Chandra Bose and INA museum, the Yaad-e-Jallian museum, the museum on 1857 (on the country's first war of Independence), the Drishyakala (a museum of Indian Art).

Important Points

Delhi

Chief Minister - Arvind Kejriwal

Governor - Anil Baijal

• Home Minister Rajnath Singh has inaugurated the project BOLD-QIT (Border Electronically Dominated QRT Interception Technique) on 61 km India-Bangladesh border in Dhubri, Assam.

• The project enables BSF (Border Security Force) to monitor Indo-Bangla borders with different kind of sensors in the unfenced area of the Brahmaputra along with its tributaries.

 • The project was brought to life by Information and Technology Wing of BSF under Comprehensive Integrated Border Management System (CIBMS).

Important Points

Assam

Capital - Dispur

Chief Minister - Sarbananda Sonowal

Governor - Jagdish Mukhi

National Park

• Kaziranga National Park
• Dibru-Saikhowa National Park
• Manas National Park
• Nameri National Park
• Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has launched 'Yuva Vigyani Karyakram', a 'Young Scientist Programme' for the School Children to be studying in the 9th standard.

• ISRO has come up with this young scientist programme to 'Catch them young' , the residential programme will be of around two weeks during summer holidays with a proposal to select 3 students from each State and Union Territory, covering CBSE, ICSE and State syllabus.

• The programme aim at imparting basic knowledge on space technology, space science and space application to the younger ones with the intent of arousing their interest in the emerging areas of space activities.

Important Points

ISRO

Headquarters - Bengaluru

Chairman - K. Sivan

• Assam's Hailakandi became the top aspirational district among 112 aspirational districts of the country according to the Delta ranking report released by NITI Aayog.

• Hailakandi in Assam has made a giant leap from 52nd position on the basis of its performance during November-December 2018 and January 2019. 

• Hailkandi will be given an allocation of Rs. 10 crores for securing the first rank as an aspirational district.

Important Points

Assam

Capital - Dispur

Chief Minister - Sarbananda Sonowal

Governor - Jagdish Mukhi

National Park

• Kaziranga National Park
• Dibru-Saikhowa National Park
• Manas National Park
• Nameri National Park
• Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park

• Gurugram in the National Capital Region (NCR) emerged as the most polluted region in the world in 2018 According to 2018 World Air Quality Report.

• As per the report, Delhi is the most polluted capital in the world. In the list of polluted cites, Delhi ranked 11th.

• Seven of the top 10 most polluted cities in the world are in India, which are Ghaziabad, Faridabad, Bhiwandi, Noida, Patna, and Lucknow. 

• The report was based on a new study by Swiss-based company IQ AirVisual and non-profit organization Greenpeace on information over 3000 cities.

• Bangladesh became the most polluted country closely followed by Pakistan and India while Iceland, Finland, Australia, Estonia and Sweden were among the least polluted countries.

• India signed a loan agreement with the World Bank for 96 million US dollars for additional financing of Uttarakhand Disaster Recovery Project.

• The additional financing of 96 million US dollars will further help in the reconstruction of bridges, road and river bank protection works in the Uttarakhand state.

Important Points

World Bank

Headquarters - Washington, D.C., US

Uttarakhand

Capital - Dehradun

Chief Minister - T.S Rawat

Governor - Baby Rani Maurya

National Park

• Rajaji National Park
• Jim Corbett National Park
• Gangotri National Park
• Valley of Flowers National Park

• Kaja Kallas has been appointed as the first female Prime Minister of Estonia. She is the leader of the Reform Party.

• Her appointment comes after the liberal Reform Party declared victory in the elections against center-left Prime Minister Juri Ratas's party.

• She will sworn in as the 18th Prime of Estonia.

• She will succeed Juri Ratas.

• The Reform Party secured 28.8% votes against Centre party votes of 23%. 

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