1st March

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

• 1998 Titanic becomes the first film to gross $1 billion
• 1995 Internet giant Yahoo! is incorporated
• 1947 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is formed

NATIONAL

• SEBI chief Ajay Tyagi gets 6-month extension. The government has given a six-month extension to Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairman Ajay Tyagi whose term at the helm was ending
• Prime Minister lays foundation stone for the Bundelkhand Expressway. To supplement the nodes of the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor, announced in February 2018, the Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the 296-kilometres long Bundelkhand Expressway at Chitrakoot.

INTERNATIONAL

• Malaysia’s king appoints Muhyiddin Yassin as the new Prime Minister. The appointment of Muhyiddin, who heads Mahathir’s Bersatu party, will ironically bring back to power the United Malays National Organization, which was ousted by Mahathir’s ruling alliance in 2018 elections.
• US, Taliban sign historic peace deal for inclusive Afghanistan development. The U.S. is poised to sign a peace agreement with Taliban militants aimed at bringing an end to 18 years of bloodshed in Afghanistan and allowing U.S. troops to return home.
• US postpones ASEAN regional summit due to coronavirus. "As the international community works together to defeat the novel coronavirus, the United States, in consultation with ASEAN partners, has made the difficult decision to postpone the ASEAN leaders meeting," said a US official.

ECONOMY

• Facebook, Twitter, and Google threaten to suspend services in Pakistan over Internet law. The new set of regulations makes it compulsory for social media companies to open offices in Islamabad, build data servers to store information and take down content upon identification by authorities
• Proposed 3-day bank strike from March 11 deferred. The strike had been called by the constituents of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU),the umbrella body of the trade unions in the banking sector.

DEFENSE

• Turkey says it destroyed ‘chemical warfare facility’ in Syria. Thirty-three Turkish soldiers were killed in an air strike by Russian-backed Syrian regime forces in the Idlib region, the biggest Turkish military loss on the battlefield in recent years.

SPORTS

• Djokovic wins against Tsitsipas to claim fifth Dubai title. Both players looked solid on serve early in the opening set before Djokovic turned the screw to break in the eighth game with a searing crosscourt backhand winner