02 February - Press Trust of India established in 1949

 

The Press Trust of India Ltd., commonly known as PTI, is the largest news agency in India.It is headquartered in New Delhi and is a nonprofit cooperative among more than 500 Indian newspapers and has about 500 full-time employees as of 1 Jan 2020 including about 400 journalists and 500 part time correspondents in most of the district headquarters in the country.A few correspondents are based in major capitals and important business centers around the world. It took over the operations of the Associated Press of India from Reuters in 1948–49.It provides news coverage and information of the region in both English and Hindi.

PTI exchanges information with several other news agencies including 100 news agencies based outside India, such as Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, The New York Times and Bloomberg L.P.. Major Indian subscribers of PTI include The Hindu, The Times of India, The Indian Express, Hindustan Times, The Statesman, The Tribune, News 18, NDTV, India Today, the All India Radio, Doordarshan, and The Wire. PTI has offices in Bangkok, Beijing, Colombo, Dubai, Islamabad, Kuala Lumpur, Moscow, New York City, and Washington D.C.

02 February - World Wetlands Day

 

 

World Wetlands Day is observed every year on the 2nd of February to spread awareness on the need to conserve wetlands all over the world. The WWD was first celebrated in 1997 and every year various government organizations, students etc take part in programmes to educate people on the importance of wetlands and the necessity to raise public awareness on this issue.

What are wetlands? Wetlands are land flooded with water either permanently or seasonally inhabiting various organisms contributing to the ecosystem. Wetlands act as a natural storage reservoir, and also helps in water purification. They are also rich in biodiversity and contribute majorly to the environment. Some of the wetlands are mangroves, marshes and peat lands, floodplains and flooded forests, swamps etc....