FirstUp: PM to unveil Deendayal statue, Nobel nominations out... Today's news

It’s Wednesday.

And there’s a big news day ahead.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil a statue of Deendayal Upadhyaya in Maharashtra as well as launch a slew of welfare schemes.

Rahul Gandhi, who is in the UK, will deliver lectures at Cambridge University.

The Nobel Peace Prize nominations will be announced today.

Taiwan is commemorating the 1947 massacre it calls the ‘228 Incident.’

Let’s take a look at today’s big-ticket items:

PM Modi unveils statue

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil the statue of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya in Yavatmal city as he inaugurates a slew of developmental programmes.

Modi will also release benefits under the PM KISAN and other schemes during the programme.

Modi will release the 16th installment amount of more than Rs 21,000 crore under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) through direct benefits transfer to beneficiaries.

With this release, more than Rs 3 lakh crore will be transferred to more than 11 crore farmers’ families.

The PM will also disburse second and third instalments of ‘Namo Shetkari MahaSanman Nidhi’ of about Rs 3,800 crore and benefiting nearly 88 lakh farmers across Maharashtra.

Rahul Gandhi in UK

Rahul Gandhi heading to the UK to deliver lectures at Cambridge University.

The Congress leader will take a breather from his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra for five days.

The yatra will resume from 2 March.

“On February 27-28, Rahul Gandhi will go to Cambridge University (in United Kingdom), he will deliver two lectures there. We will resume the yatra from March 2 and on March 5, Rahul Gandhi will visit the Mahakaleshwar temple in Ujjain,” Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said.

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The Congress’s ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’, after the party’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, aims to cover 6,700 km through 15 states ahead of Lok Sabha polls.

This isn’t the first time Rahul has given a lecture at Cambridge.

Rahul in March 2023 claimed Indian democracy was under threat and that the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was spying on several Opposition leaders.

Nobel Peace Prize nominations out

The Nobel Peace Prize nominations will be announced today.

The prestigious prize typically attracts more than 300 entries from academics connected with peace studies, lawmakers of national parliaments, former winners and others with nomination rights.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee whittles down the list of candidates in a series of meetings before announcing the winner in October.

The wide base of individuals and organizations qualified to nominate condidates means the longlist can contain some eccentric choices: Both Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler have previously had their names put in the hat.

Imprisoned Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi won the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize for campaigning for women’s rights and democracy in her country.

Her teenage children accepted the award on her behalf.

The peace prize and the other Nobel Prizes are handed out on 10 December, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel’s death in 1896.

Taiwan commemorates ‘228 Incident’

Taiwan is marking the 77th anniversary of what is known as the ‘228 Incident’ – an uprising against Nationalist troops in 1947.

The “228 Incident”, as it is known in Taiwan, has in recent years become a rallying point for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which favours independence for the democratic, self-ruled island China claims at its own.

Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist troops put down rioting sparked on 28 February, 1947, by a dispute between tobacco agents and a cigarette vendor in Taipei.

That led to island-wide protests against the Nationalists, who two years later took refuge on Taiwan after losing a civil war to the Communists and imposed martial law on Taiwan until 1987, ruling with an iron fist and locking up dissidents.

The incident ushered in a period where tens of thousands of Taiwanese were killed or went missing and stirred the beginnings of Taiwan’s democratic movement.

The day, a national holiday in Taiwan, is marked by solemn ceremonies for the dead and affirmations from politicians and the sitting president for Taiwan’s vibrant democracy.

On this day…

The Raman Effect was discovered on 28 February, 1929, by Sir CV Raman.

The phenomenon denotes the change in the wavelength of light that occurs when a light beam is deflected by molecules, according to Britannica.

Raman was knighted in 1929 and received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 for his discovery.

National Science Day is celebrated in India every year on this day as a tribute to the physicist.

With inputs from agencies