Current Affairs – March 31, 2018

S.No Topic Page Number

1 World News 2

2 National News 3

3 State News 4

4 Banking & Economy 5 - 6

5 Sports 7

6 Appointments & Resignations 8

7 Science & Technology 9

8 Obituaries 10

World News

Google doodle celebrates 153rd birthday of India’s first female doctor Anandi Gopal Joshi

 Google on 31st March, 2018 dedicated its doodle to mark the 153rd birth anniversary of India’s first lady doctor Anandi Gopal Joshi. The doodle is created by Bangalore-based artist Kashmira Sarode, who portrayed Joshi celebrating her medical degree.  She earned her medical degree from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, now known as Drexel University College of Medicine, and returned to India with dreams of opening a medical college for women.

India and Pakistan agree to resolve matters related to the treatment of diplomats and diplomatic premises

 On 30 March 2018, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) of India said that, India and Pakistan have agreed to resolve all issues regarding treatment of their diplomats placed in the other country through talks.  MEA released a statement saying: India and Pakistan have mutually agreed to resolve matters related to the treatment of diplomats and diplomatic premises, in line with the 1992 “Code of Conduct for the treatment of diplomatic/consular personnel in India and Pakistan”.  The conflict started when Pakistani security agencies restricted work on a residential complex being built by India for its officials in Islamabad in February 2018.  India submitted over 15 notes verbale (semi-formal communications) to Pakistan’s Foreign Office on the issue of harassment of officials and their families.  Following this, Pakistan has reported 52 incidents of harassment and intimidation of their diplomats between 7 March and 22 March 2018.

National News

Power Min lays foundation stone of 60 MW project in Uttarakhand

 Power and New & Renewable Energy Minister R K Singh laid the foundation stone of the 60 MW Naitwar Mori Hydro Electric Project at Uttarkashi in Uttarakhand.  The Naitwar Mori Hydro Electric Project (NMHEP) is located on the Tons River, a tributary of the Yamuna River, in Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand.

Indus Commission meet commenced in Delhi

 India & Pakistan held the meeting on Indus water treaty. This will be the 114th meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) that looks into the sharing of the waters of the Indus since the treaty was signed by the two countries in 1960. T  he Indus water treaty covers the water distribution and sharing rights of six rivers— Beas, Ravi, Sutlej, Indus, Chenab and Jhelum.

State News

Tripura to set up Crime wing of State police

 Tripura State Government has decided to set up a well-equipped Crime Wing under the state police to prevent unlawful activities such as drug and narcotics peddling.  Tripura’s Law Minister Ratan Lal Nath has stated that the new Crime Wing under Tripura’s State Police will be modelled on lines of Delhi Police’s crime branch.  This decision was take at Tripura State Cabinet’s meeting, held on March 29, 2018.  It is to be noted that curbing crime in the state and restoring the rule of land was one of the promise made in Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) election manifesto.  BJP’s Tripura President, Biplab Kumar Deb took oath as the 10th Chief Minister of Tripura on March 9, 2018.

MP hikes retirement age for govt employees from 60 to 62 yrs

 Madhya Pradesh CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced the state has increased the retirement age for government employees from 60 to 62 years.  Chouhan said the decision has been taken to ensure that all employees receive their due promotions.  He added that several promotions are kept on hold as a case regarding reservations in promotion is pending with the SC

Chief Minister Shivraj promises Pucca house for all laborers in Madhya Pradesh by 2022

 Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan a state-wide campaign will be launched from April 1-14 for registration of unorganized laborers.  Also, Pucca houses will be constructed for all laborers registered under Chief Minister’s Unorganized Laborer Welfare Scheme by the year 2022.  The landholder laborers with less than 2.5-acre land can also get registered under the Chief Minister’s Unorganized Laborer Welfare Scheme on the condition that they are not income tax payers.  He distributed 10 thousand 313 land ownership patterns, 1856 non-intrusive land ownership certificates and pattas of ownership rights to 200 residents of Bangla Bagicha.

Banking & Economy

Nepal’s central bank permits banks to borrow from abroad

 For the first time, Nepal Rastra Bank (Nepal’s Central Bank) has permitted domestic commercial banks to borrow funds from foreign banks and financial institutions.  The permission has been granted in order to resolve liquidity crunch prevailing in Nepal’s banking system since past few months.  Following this permission, commercial banks of Nepal could now borrow loans up to 25 per cent of their core capital for the period from one year to five years.  However, loans borrowed from abroad are to be utilised for financing only productive sectors such as agriculture, tourism, hydropower and outer infrastructure projects. It cannot be used to lend to the real estate sector in Nepal.

Kotak becomes first bank to roll out AI-run voicebot

 ’Keya’ has been developed on basis of a library of millions of phone-banking conversations over the past three years.  Kotak Mahindra Bank has integrated ‘Keya’ with its phone-banking helpline.  Keya uses automatic speech recognition, text-to-speech technology and natural language understanding and can understand Hindi as well as English.  By using above stated technology, ‘Keya’ navigates the customers directly to the destination where he/she can get his/her issue resolved.  ’Keya’ is powered by Nuance (the technology behind Apple’s Siri).

RBI changes methodology for bond valuation to check manipulation

 In order to prevent the possibility of manipulation in the prices of securities, especially government securities (GSecs), on the last trading day of a quarter, Reserve Bank of India has changed the methodology used for their valuation by debt market players, including banks and primary dealers.  As per RBI’s new directive, security/bond valuation will be based on the weighted average price of the last half-an-hour of trading on the last trading day of every quarter. Earlier the valuation was based on last traded price.  This move is to normalise any aberration resulting from an attempt to manipulate the price by a cartel of banks at the last moment.  Closing price of bonds on the last day of a quarter is crucial, as it recorded to report the mark-to-market (MTM) status i.e. the current market value rather than the book value.

Fino Payments Bank to deploy MPoS devices across 10,000 banking points

 Fino Payments Bank has said it plans to deploy multi-utility Android-based mPoS (mobile point-of-sale) devices across 10,000 banking points in the country in a phased manner.  The mPoS is a portable device with an in-built fingerprint scanner, card reader, camera, printer and a tablet, the payments bank said.  The device will gradually replace the combination of devices currently used to facilitate fingerprint authentication and digital transactions.

SEBI doubles investment limit of angel funds to Rs.10 crore

 Looking to provide an impetus to early-stage start-ups, markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Wednesday decided to double the investment limit by angel funds in venture capital undertakings to Rs.10 crore.  In this fast changing ecosystem, where angels are investing much higher amounts, the increase is expected provide more opportunities to angel funds.  The SEBI board has approved amendments to Alternative Investment Funds (AIF) regulations with respect to ‘Angel Funds.

Sports

Zimbabwe Cricket sacks skipper Graeme Cremer, all coaching staff

 On 30 March 2018, Zimbabwe Cricket sacked its entire coaching staff and removed Graeme Cremer as captain after their failure to qualify for the 2019 World Cup.  It is said that, Brendan Taylor would be made the captain of Zimbabwe team. Zimbabwe Cricket had given time for the head coach and his technical staff to resign or else it said that, they would be considered dismissed at the end of the stipulated time.  Head coach Heath Streak, batting coach Lance Klusener, bowling coach Douglas Hondo, fielding coach Walter Chawaguta, fitness coach Sean Bell and team analyst Stanley Chioza , all other coaching staff, Zimbabwe A coach Wayne James and Under-19 coach Stephen Mangongo, all have been fired.

Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) appoints Irfan Pathan as coach-cum-mentor

 On 30 March 2018, Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA) appointed Irfan Pathan as the coach-cum-mentor of its senior stateside for the 2018-19 season. JKCA appoints Irfan Pathan as coach-cum-mentor:  JKCA CEO Aashiq Bukhari said that, Irfan Pathan will be the coach-cum-mentor of their team for one year.  Irfan Pathan is 33 years old. He has played 29 Tests, 120 ODIs and 24 T20 Internationals for India in the 2003 to 2012 period. He captained Baroda team for the last two domestic seasons.

Appointments & Resignations

Chandra Bhushan Kumar appointed as Deputy Election Commissioner

 On 30 March 2018, Chandra Bhushan Kumar was appointed as Deputy Election Commissioner as part of a major bureaucratic reshuffle by the government.  Chandra Bhushan Kumar is an IAS officer of 1995 batch of union territories cadre. He has been appointed as Deputy Election Commissioner for a term of 5 years.  On the whole, 13 officers were appointed as joint secretaries in various central government departments.

Vineet Joshi appointed as first Director General of National Testing Agency

 The government has appointed senior bureaucrat Vineet Joshi as the Director General of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which will conduct the entrance examinations for higher educational institutions organised by the CBSE, AICTE and other bodies.  Joshi, a 1992-batch IAS officer of the Manipur cadre, was appointed to the post for five years, an order issued by the department of personnel and training said.  Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had, in his budget speech of 2017-18, announced the setting up of the NTA "as an autonomous and self-sustained premier testing organisation to conduct all entrance examinations for higher educational institutions".

Science & Technology

Russia tests new nuclear ICBM Sarmat

 On March 30, 2018, Russia successfully tested its latest intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Sarmat.  ICBM Sarmat was launch from Plesetsk in northwestern Russia.  It will replace the Soviet-era Voyevoda, which is known as “Satan” in the West.  ’Satan’ is the world’s heaviest ICBM.  ICBM Sarmat weighs 200 metric tons and has a greater range than ‘Satan’.  On account greater range, it can even fly over the North or the South Poles and can strike targets anywhere in the world.  ICBM Sarmat not only carries an array of warheads capable of dodging missile defences, but also carries a bigger number of nuclear warheads, thus making it more powerful than ‘Satan’.

Pakistan successfully test fires Submarine launched cruise missile BABUR

 On March 29, 2018, Pakistan successfully test fired indigenously developed Submarine Launched Cruise Missile (SLCM) BABUR.  SLCM BABUR has a strike range of 450 KMs and is capable of delivering various types of payloads.  It incorporates state of the art technologies including advanced guidance and navigation features and underwater controlled propulsion.  SLCM BABUR was fired from an underwater dynamic platform and engaged its target with precise accuracy.

China launches 2 satellites to boost its BeiDou navigation system

 China today successfully launched two satellites with a single rocket to strengthen its BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), which will serve countries along the ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by the end of this year.  Xinhua report said, the Long March-3B rocket, carrying the two satellites, today lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.  The two satellites are coded as the 30th and 31st members in the BDS. They entered orbit more than three hours after the launch and will work together with six previously launched BeiDou-3 satellites once they pass a series of tests.

Obituaries

Former Manipur chief minister R K Dorendra Singh passes away at 83

 On 30 March 2018, former Manipur Chief Minister R K Dorendra Singh died at the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital in Imphal, Manipur.  R K Dorendra Singh was 83 years old. He was the chief minister of Manipur four times between 1974 and 1993.  Earlier, he was the Speaker of Manipur Assembly.