• Sri Lanka has decided to purchase petrol and diesel, 40,000 metric tonnes each, from the Indian Oil Corporation, according to a Cabinet note on Feb 1, as part of the government's bid to tide over the current fuel and energy crisis faced by the island nation.

• The move came weeks after Power Minister Gamini Lokuge said that Sri Lanka will hold talks with the Indian Oil Corporation's local entity amidst a severe foreign exchange crisis.

• The Lanka IOC, the Sri Lankan subsidiary of India's oil major Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), has been in operation in Sri Lanka since 2002.

• According to the Cabinet statement, the Ministry of Energy has discussed with the IOC to procure 40,000 metric tonnes of diesel and 40,000 metric tonnes of petrol.

• The Cabinet of Ministers approved the proposal tabled by the Minister of Energy to take further measures to buy the Oil consignment.

• Sri Lanka in the recent weeks has been mulling different options to facilitate measures to prevent fuel pumps from going dry as the island nation was faced with a severe foreign exchange crisis to pay for its imports.

• The twin legs of the Bengaluru Open ATP Challenger, which were under a cloud of uncertainty owing to the Covid-19 pandemic situation around the world, will be held as scheduled earlier from Feb 6 to Feb 20, the organising committee has confirmed.

• The two back-to-back Challengers -- called the Bengaluru Open 1 (from Feb 6-13) and Bengaluru Open 11 (from Feb 14-20) -- hosted by the Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association (KSLTA) and played at Bengaluru, will carry a total prize purse of US$ 107,000.

• According to the acceptance list released by the ATP, two players in the top 100 -- Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic and Stefano Travaglia of Italy -- will be headlining the mega event.

• The ATP Challenger Tour is a series of international tennis competitions -- the second-highest tier of tennis competitions after the ATP Tour and is administered by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).

• The 2022 ATP Challenger Tour calendar comprises 36 tournaments with prize money ranging from $37,520 up to $159,360.

• On a high after beating England in a T20I rubber, the visiting West Indies team arrived for its upcoming limited-overs series against India.
• The 'Men in Maroon' will be playing three ODIs at the Narendra Modi Stadium, beginning February 6, followed by three T20 Internationals at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
• The Windies Cricket also posted a video of the players arriving at the Ahmedabad airport.
• The Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA), which will be hosting the three ODIs, has already stated that the matches will be played behind closed doors due to the current COVID-19 situation.
• The West Bengal government, on the other hand, has given permission to allow 75 per crowd for the three T20I matches.
• The three T20Is will be played in Kolkata on February 16, 18 and 20, following the three-match ODI series which will be played in Ahmedabad on February 6, 9 and 11.

• West Indies recently beat England in a closely fought T20 series in the Caribbean.

• Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2022 on February 1.

•  She said that the Budget proposals for this financial year rest on health and well-being, infrastructure, inclusive development, energy transition and climate action, financing of investments and 'Minimum Government, Maximum Governance'.

• India’s economic growth estimated at 9.2% to be the highest among all large economies.

• 60 lakh new jobs to be created under the productivity linked incentive scheme in 14 sectors.

• Significant announcements include digital currency, e-passports and a slew of infrastructure projects.

• Edible oil, wearable electronics, imitation jewellery, polished diamond are to be cheaper.

• Fiscal deficit is 6.9% of GDP.

• Tax relief announced to persons with disabilities.

• No change in personal income tax rates.

Infrastructure

• PM Gati Shakti National Master Plan at a cost of ₹20,000 crore

• National Highways network to be expanded by 25,000 kms in 2022-23.

• National Master Plan on Expressways will be formulated in 2022-23

• 400 new generation Vande Bharat trains to be manufactured in next 3 years.

• 60 km of ropeway projects under the Parvat Mala project

• Metro systems, muti-model connectivity

• 100 Gati Shakti cargo terminals in the next 3 years.

Agriculture

• Procurement of wheat, paddy, kharif and rabi crops, benefiting over 1 crore farmers.

• NABARD to facilitate fund with blended capital to finance startups for agriculture & rural enterprise.

• ₹2.37 lakh crore towards direct payments for minimum support price.

• Chemical-free, natural farming to be promoted across the country.

• 2022 to be Year of Millet - support for post-harvest value addition for millet products

• Using Kisan drones for crop assessment and spraying of pesticides

• Ken-Betwa river linking project at a cost of Rs 44,000 crore, to benefit 9.0 lakh hectare of farmer land

Education

• Digital University will be established, and to be made in different Indian languages, based on networked hub model.

• One Class, One TV channel will be expanded from 12 to 200 TV Channels to provide supplementary education in all regional languages, to make up for loss of formal education due to Covid.

Defence

• 68% capital procurement budget earmarked for domestic procurement.

• Defence R&D to be opened up for start ups, private industry and academia. 25% of R&D budget to be set aside for this.

• Private industry will be encouraged to take up design and development of military platforms and equipment.

Developments on the digital front

• RBI to introduce ‘digital rupee’ using blockchain technology in 2022-23.

• Virtual digital assets to be taxed at 30%.

• Gift of virtual assets will be taxed at the receiver's end.

• 75 digital banking units to be set up across 75 districts.

Tax, economy and finance

• Green bonds will be issued for upping green infrastructure.

• Fiscal deficit is 6.9% of GDP.

• Taxpayers can file within 2 years an updated return if there is any anomaly in their filing.

• Cooperative societies pay 18.5% alternate minimum tax and companies pay 15%. From now cooperative too will have to pay only 15%.

• Surcharge has also been reduced to 7% for those cooperative having income 1 to 10 crores.

• Tax relief to persons with disabilities.

• Tax deduction limit for NPS account of state govt employees to 14%.

• Virtual digital assets will be brought under tax regime.

• Long term capital gains surcharge will be capped at 15%.

• Custom duty on cut and polished diamond reduced to 5%.

• Custom duty on imitation duty slashed.

• Duty on Sodium cyanide increased.

• Duty on umbrellas raised to 20%.

• Steel scrap duty extended for another year.

• Anti-dumping on stainless steel is being revoked.

• Duty reduced on shrimp aquaculture.

Health and Sanitation

• National Digital Health Ecosystem to be rolled out.

• National Tele Mental Health program to be set up to focus on mental health.

• 23 tele mental health centres of excellence.

• Integrated benefits to women and children through Mission Shakti, Mission Vatsalya, Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0.

• Welfare of the poor is an important aspect of the Union Budget which is full of possibilities for more investments, infrastructure and jobs, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.

• Calling the budget "people-friendly and progressive", Modi said it has brought new confidence to usher development in the midst of one the most terrible calamities in 100 years, a reference to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• In his televised remarks on the Union Budget 2022-23 presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in Parliament, Modi said this budget will create many new opportunities for the common people, besides strengthening the economy.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on jan 31  has  congratulated his Portuguese counterpart António Costa on his election win and said he looks forward to deepening the warm and time-tested relationship with Portugal.

• Costa's Socialist Party won an unexpected outright majority in the  snap general election held on jan 30 .

• In a significant achievement to strengthen the health care facilities, the railways has integrated its all the 695 hospitals and health centres with the ‘Aayushman Bharat Digital Mission’ (ABDM) on a mission mode.

• The integration of all hospitals and health centres has been done by combining the Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) the RailTel Corporation of India- one of the PSUs of the Ministry of Railways, in collaboration with the National Health Authority.

• Upon successful integration of railway’s all the 695 hospitals and health centres with the ABDM, the RailTel claimed that the integration of health wings of Indian railways will not only benefit around 80 lakhs railway employees, pensioners and their family members but also enable the general public to avail of the benefits of health care facilities available at the railway hospitals and the health centres in a seamless digital manner.

• Prior to this integration, the RailTel Corporation of India had implemented a Web-based multi-module HMIS in all the 695 hospitals and health centres of Railway across the country.

• Now, both these two systems - ABDM and the HMIS have successfully integrated for the benefit of patients and health administrations. Under the HMIS system, a mobile app- HMIS Patient Mobile AAP has also been created for easy and fast information access to patients related to their OPD registrations, doctors’ prescriptions, lab reports and others.

•  After serving at various strategic postings in the Indian Army during his career spanning 39 years, Lt Gen KJS Dhillon retired on Jan 31, with his last assignment being that of Director General Defence Intelligence Agency and Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Intelligence).

• Commissioned in the army in December 1983, the illustrious officer, popularly known as 'Tiny Dhillon', earned widespread appreciation for initiating Operation Maa' during his tenure as the head of Kashmir-based XV Corps where he approached the families especially mothers of misguided youths who had joined militancy and requested them to bring back their children into the national mainstream.

• "Do good and serve your mother, then your mother and then your father. This is the importance of the mother in the Holy Quran. This was the message I used to tell all the misguided youths," Lt Gen Dhillon had said.

• Lt Gen Dhillon came in the spotlight immediately after taking over as the Corps commander of the strategically located XV Corps when security forces eliminated Kamran alias 'Ghazi', mastermind of the February 2019 terror attack on CRPF personnel in Pulwama that left 40 jawans dead.