News in Short

• India's services sector activity surged to a seven-year high in January driven by sharp increase in new business orders, leading to job creation and business optimism.
• Fresh business orders were mainly generated domestically, as exports decreased at the start of the year. This was due to weaker demand from China, Europe and the US.
• The Composite PMI Output Index that maps both the manufacturing and services sector increased from 53.7 in December to a seven-year high of 56.3 in January.

• This year’s Medaram Jatara will be having additional facilities such as increased medical services and helicopter services, in addition to plastic free zone.
• Medaram Jatara is a festival of honouring the Hindu goddesses, celebrated in the state of Telangana. It is traditionally associated with Koya tribes.
• Medaram is a remote place in the Eturnagaram Wildlife Sanctuary, a part of Dandakaranya, the largest surviving forest belt in the Deccan.

• Karnataka state is all set to open Bidar Airport for civilian aircraft, which will be the 8th operational airport in the state.
• Developed under the Centre’s regional connectivity scheme UDAN, the airport will be commissioned, operated and maintained by GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd.
• The other civilian airports now operational in the state are in Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Mysuru, Hubballi, Belagavi, and Bellary.

• A ‘fruit train’, said to be the first of its kind in India, was flagged off from Tadipatri Railway Station in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh.
• The train will be carrying a load of 980 metric tonnes of locally grown bananas to the Jawaharlal Nehru Port in Mumbai, from where the consignment will be exported to Iran.
• This is the first time in India that an entire train is being sent to the gateway port (JNPT) for export. This helps save both time and fuel as 150 trucks would have been required to send a consignment of this size by road to JNPT.

• India defeated arch rivals Pakistan by 10 wickets to enter its 3rd successive U-19 World Cup final and 7th overall.
• With this win India equalled Win-Loss ratio with Pakistan in U-19 World Cup to 5-5.
• India will face winner of the 2nd semi-finals clash between Bangladesh and New Zealand.