Daily Current affairs for March 3, 2018 ( English)
Important Days:
1. March
1-Zero Discrimination Day was observed all over the world to stress
the right of everyone to be free from discrimination. Zero Discrimination
Day 2018 campaign says people to ask themselves: “What if …” and
assess their own actions.
2. March
3-World Wild Life Day was celebrated all over the world with the theme
of 2018 “Big cats: predators under threat” to create awareness about
the world’s wild animals and plants and safeguard them.
Tamil Nadu:
1. Tamil Nadu Government announced the launch of a 24-hour helpline
up at a cost of Rs two crore, claiming to be the first in India, to
offer information and guidance on education to students. Tamil Nadu
Chief Minister K Palaniswami launched the toll free number
14417 through the 24-hour Education Guidance Centre that
has been set up at the Secretariat. It will provide information and guidance
regarding school education.
National:
1. The Union Cabinet
has approved the proposal of Ministry of Commerce and Industry to give focused
attention to 12 identified Champion Services Sectors (CSS). The
identified 12 CSS are Information Technology & Information Technology
enabled Services (IT & ITeS), Medical Value Travel, Transport and Logistics
Services, Tourism and Hospitality Services, Accounting and Finance Services,
Audio Visual Services, Communication Services, Legal Services, Construction and
Related Engineering Services, Environmental Services, Financial Services and
Education Services. It aimed at promoting their development and realizing their
potential. Government will set up dedicated fund of Rs. 5000 crores to support
initiatives for sectoral Action Plans of the Champion Sectors. These
Action Plans will develop vision for each of these identified Champion Sectors
by year 2022.
2. Satara Mega Food
Park Pvt. Ltd- Maharashtra’s first Mega Food Park was
inaugurated by Minister of Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur
Badal at Degaon Village in Satara district The scheme aims to
create modern infrastructure facilities for food processing along value chain
from farm to market with strong forward and backward linkages through cluster
based approach. Projects under it are merged under comphrehensive flagship
scheme of ‘Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana’. The park will provide direct
and indirect employment to 5,000 persons and benefit about 25,000 farmers in
Primary Processing Centers (PPCs) and Collection Centers (CCs) catchment areas.
This is overall 12th Mega Food Park operationalized in country so far and 10th
operationalized during tenure of present government.
3. The Maharashtra
government has partnered with Wikipedia, to spread the Marathi language
and enhance its online usage and also aimed to spread the Marathi language across the
world. This
announcement was made on Marathi language day (27th February 2018).
4. Central Government
approved projects worth Rs 2919.55 crore under the
‘Nirbhaya Fund’ for eight major cities of India, in order to make them
safer for women. Nirbhaya Fund was set up after the brutal gangrape and murder
of a paramedical student in Delhi in 2012. It was announced in Union
Budget 2013.The projects have been approved for Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata,
Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad Ahmedabad and Lucknow. In Delhi, the projects
include, deploying latest technologies, such as video monitoring, facial
recognition analytics and tracking of people. One of the projects which
will be implemented in Mumbai is strengthening the “Police Didi” programme,
under which women police personnel interact with women living in slums.
6. The Union Ministry
of Textiles is going to conduct National Sizing Survey dubbed as Size India to
develop comprehensive size chart for ready-to-wear industry based on body
measurements of Indian population with the help of National Institute of
Fashion Technology (NIFT), New Delhi. Size India project is scientific exercise where
anthropometric data will be collected from 25,000 sample (with men and women in
equal numbers) population in age group 15 to 65 years across six major cities.
The six cities are Kolkata (east), Mumbai (west), New Delhi (north), Bengaluru
(south),
Hyderabad (centre), and Shillong (northeast).
7. The World’s largest
solar park-Sthala solar park having total capacity of 2,000 megawatts (MW) was
inaugurated in drought-prone Pavagada region of Tumkur district, Karanataka. The first
phase of the Rs. 16,500 crore park will generate 600MW power, while the balance
1,400MW will be commissioned in second phase by end year 2018. The park ties in
with the Central Government’s scheme to generate 100 gigawatts (GW) of solar
power by 2020 It is a joint venture between Karnataka Renewable Energy
Development Ltd (KREDL) and Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI).
8. 27th Technological
Conference of Indian Jute Industries’ Research Association (IJIRA) on
Shaping the Future of Jute, in Kolkata, West Bengal was attended by Union Textile Minister
Smriti Zubin Irani. She praised (IJIRA) for developing low-cost
jute-based sanitary napkins. She also added that potential entrepreneurs who wish to
start manufacturing of these jute-based sanitary napkins can benefit from the
Mudra loan scheme of the government.
9. The Union Cabinet
has approved introduction of Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill, 2018 in
Parliament. It aims to curb practice of evading criminal prosecution by
economic offenders (wilful defaulters) who flee from country to evade clutches
Indian law by remaining outside jurisdiction of Indian courts. It is applicable
in cases where total value involved in such economic offences is Rs.100 crore
or more. It defines fugitive economic offender (FEO) as any individual against
whom warrant for arrest in relation to scheduled offence (enlisted in the this
l aw) has been issued by any court in India, but he leaves or has left India to
avoid criminal prosecution or refuses to return to India to face criminal
prosecution or refuses to return to India to face criminal prosecution.
It debars fugitive economic offender from defending any civil claim at the
discretion of any court including High Court. If prior to the declaration, the
alleged FEO returns to India and submits to the appropriate jurisdictional
court, proceedings under this Act will cease by law.
10. A new train between
Naharlagun in Arunachal Pradesh and Anand Vihar Terminal in the national
capital named Arunachal Express was flagged off. This is the second direct
train for Arunachal Pradesh and overall 14th for North East to connect with the
national capital. The train will cover 2013 kilometre distance between
Naharlagun (Arunachal Pradesh) and Anand Vihar Terminal (New Delhi) in over 38
hours and will have 14 stoppages en-route. It has all air-conditioned LHB
(Linke Hofmann Busch) coaches. It will offer all comfort and facilities to the
passengers. Naharlagun-New Delhi AC Express was rechristened as Arunachal
Express.
11. Odisha government
launched ‘Khushi’, a scheme inaugurated by CM Naveen Patnaik that offers
free sanitary pads to 17 lakh girl students covering from Class 6 to 12
studying in all government and government-aided schools of Odisha. in Odisha. This scheme will
help in improving health and hygiene of adolescent girls and in higher
retention of girl students in school. The Health Minister Pratap Jena of Odisha said that the
government will also provide sanitary pads at a subsidised price to rural women
through ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers.
12. Union Minister of
State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern
Region (DoNER) Dr. Jitendra Singh said that, a food processing
centre in collaboration with Israel will be launched in Aizwal, Mizoram on
7th March 2018. The centre has been established at a cost of Rs 8-10
crore. This centre has been established through tripartite collaboration
of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, Government
of Israel and State Government of Mizoram. This centre has been set
up exclusively for processing of citrus fruits. This is the first
such centre with Israeli collaboration in the North East region.
1. India and
Jordan have signed 12 agreements during the Jordanian King’s three days visit
to India after the high-level talks between Prime Minister Narendra
Modi and Jordanian King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein in New Delhi. The covering
areas as diverse as defence, mass media, health, culture and tourism. India is
Jordan’s fourth largest trading partner.
2. Armenian
Parliament elected Armen Sarkisian as country’s next president. In
the Presidential vote by Armenia’s National Assembly, 90 members voted in
favour of Armen Sarkisian, 10 voted against and one abstained. This is
the first time in Armenia’s history, that a president has
been elected by the National Assembly instead of popular vote. Armen
Sarkisian will succeed the incumbent President Serge Sarkisian, whose term
will end on April 9, 2018.
1. Tri-service
maritime exercise Paschim Lehar conducted by Indian Navy concluded off western
coast in Arabian Sea. The three-week long exercise tested operational readiness
of Indian Navy’s Western Command and execution of its operational plans,
logistics and admi istrative plans. Over 40 naval assets including aircraft
carrier INS Vikramaditya, frontline ships of Western Fleet and Eastern Fleet,
including newly -inducted Kolkata class ones, submarines, potent missile
vessels of 22nd Killer Squadron, patrol vessels and craft of local flotilla and
Coast Guard participated in the exercise. The objective of the exercise was to
build interoperability between Indian Navy, Indian Army, Indian Air Force and
Coast Guard.
2. NASA launched
GOES-S, another of world’s most advanced weather satellites. GOES stands for
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites. GOES-S has been launched to
safeguard Western US, by monitoring, forecasting and providing crisp images of
hurricanes, wildfires, floods, mudslides and other natural calamities.
Economy/Banking:
1. The Central Board
of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has crossed an important milestone of having signed 200
Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs). It was achieved after it entered into seven more APAs in
February 2018. The scheme aims to strengthen Government’s resolve of fostering
non-adversarial tax regime. It has significantly contributed towards improving
ease of doing business in India. All the seven were Unilateral APAs. With this,
CBDT till has entered into 203 APAS (185 Unilateral and 18 Bilateral APAs).
2. In a bid to support
Indian farmers, Central Government has raised import tax on crude and
refined palm oil to the highest level in more than a decade. Import tax on crude
palm oil has been raised to 44 percent from 30 percent while for refined palm
oil ,it has been raised to 54 percent from 40 percent. India is the world’s
biggest importer of edible oils. India relies on imports for 70 percent of
its edible oil consumption.
3. The establishment
of National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) as an independent regulator
for the auditing profession was approved by the Union Cabinet. It aims to
tighten regulatory oversight over auditors and plug loopholes. It will be
independent from those it regulates for enforcement of auditing standards and
ensuring quality of audits. NFRA will be 15 members body, consisting of
Chairperson, three full-time Members and one Secretary. It will overarching
watchdog for auditing profession. It can debar an erring auditor or auditing
firm for up to 10 years besides it can also slap heavy penalties. Establishment
of NFRA will improve foreign/domestic investments, enhance of economic growth,
support globalization of business by meeting international practices and assist
in further development of audit profession.
4. Reserve Bank of
India (RBI) has allowed a limit of Rs. 5000 crore for foreign portfolio
investors (FPIs) to go long in Interest Rate Futures (IRFs). The decision to
increase the position limit has been taken to further market development and to
ensure that FPIs can access IRFs in an uninterrupted way.
5. As per Hurun Global
Rich List 2018, India has the third highest number of billionaires in the world
after China and US. Hurun Global Rich List 2018 identified 131
billionaires in India. With 31 new billionaires emerging during last
year, India has reclaimed its third spot, which it had lost to Germany a year
ago. Among
Indian billionaires, although Mukesh Ambani topped the list with USD 45
billion wealth and 19th rank, Gautam Adani (USD 14 billion wealth,
Rank – 98th) witnessed fastest growth in his wealth (109 per cent in the last
12 months). 32 years old Shradha Agarwal, of Outcome Wealth is the youngest
Indian billionaire.In India, highest numbers of billionaires (19
billionaires) are from the pharmaceuticals sector. Jeff Bezos with USD
123 billion wealth, topped the list, followed by Warren Buffet (USD 102 billion
wealth).
6. Reserve Bank of
India (RBI) has decided to remove the per borrower loan limits for Micro,
Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) involved in services, for
classification under priority sector lending in a bid to increase the
importance of services sector and to encourage banks to lend more to this
sector, As per the current norms, loans to Micro/ Small enterprises
up to Rs. 5 crore and loans to Medium Enterprises up to Rs. 10 crore were
classified as priority sector lending (PSL).
Appointments/Resignations:
1. Rangarajan
Raghavan was appointed as the director & managing director of HCL
Infosystems . He will took this charge from 1st April 2018.
Awards & Honours :
1. Indian-American
scientist Navin Vardarajan along with his fellow guy Sanghyuk Chung of
University of Houston, were granted funds by Cancer Prevention
& Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) awarded grant for cancer research. Navin Vardarajan is
an associate professor of chemical and bimolecular engineering. He was granted
USD 1,173,420 to improve effectiveness of T-cell immunotherapy. Sanghyuk Chung
is an associate professor of biology and biochemistry. He was provided with USD
811,617 to define molecular targets for cervical cancer treatment.
2. Indian
Actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha has been honoured with a lifetime achievement
award for his contribution to the fields of arts and politics at the
annual ‘Political and Public Life Awards’ presented by Britain’s Asian
Voice weekly newspaper. The award ceremony was held on March 1, 2018
at the Members’ Dining Room in the House of Commons building in UK’s Parliament
complex.
Books& Authors :
1. Union
Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Development of North
Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions,
Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh, launched the social media of “Namaste Shalom”,
a magazine on India-Israel relations.
Sports:
1. Vinesh Phogat won
silver medal in the women’s 50kg freestyle event, at the Asian Wrestling
Championships in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan by losing to by China’s Chun
Lei .India’s Sangeeta wdn a bronze medal in
the women’s 59kg freestyle event by defeating Korea’s Jieun Um. India’s Harpreet
Singh defeated Uzbekistan’s Khashimbekov 11-3 and won a bronze
medal in the 82kg Greco-Roman event. India’s Rajendra Kumar defeated
Uzbekistan’s Mirakhmedov and won bronze medal in the 55kg Greco-Roman
event.
2. India won
the inaugural IBSF Snooker Team World Cup in Doha, Qatar. In the
finals, Indian duo of Pankaj Advani and Manan Chandra staged a remarkable
recovery after being 0-2 down.
3. Navjot Kaur became
the first Indian woman wrestler to win gold in the Senior Asian Championships
by winning gold medal in the 65kg freestyle category in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan by defeating
Japan’s Miya Imai. India’s Sakshi Malik defeated Kazakhstan’s
Ayaulym Kassymova and won bronze medal in the 62kg freestyle category.
4. Indian golfer
Shubhankar Sharma secured tied second position after the opening
round of the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship at Mexico
City.
Deaths:
1. Khagendra
Jamatia, Tripura Fisheries and Cooperation minister, passed away after
being diagnosed with blood cancer recently, at a hospital in New Delhi.
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