MONTHLY DIGEST- CURRENT AFFAIRS CAPSULE-MARCH 2020 .12.2018 ST ST CURRENT AFFAIRS.2018 CAPSULE -MARCH 1 - MARCH 31 2020 .11.2018SL NO TOPICS PAGE NO 1 IMPORTANT DAYS 2 2 ECONOMY 3 RBI news Other banks Financial news Merger and acquisition Loan and allocation Ratting and survey 3 COMMITTEE AND ITS HEAD 12 4 STATE NEWS 12 5 NATIONAL NEWS 17 6 INTERNATIONAL NEWS 27 7 NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL SUMMIT 28 AND CONFERENCE 8 RANKING 30 9 BILATERAL 32 10 AWARDS AND HONOURS 32 11 PERSON IN NEWS 34 12 SPORTS 36 13 DEFENCE 39 14 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 40 15 BOOKS AND AUTHORS 42 16 OBITUARIES 43 MONTHLY DIGEST- CURRENT AFFAIRS CAPSULE-MARCH 2020 IMPORTANT DAYS March 1 Zero Discrimination Day Theme: Zero Discrimination Against Women And Girls .12.2018 The Day was launched by UNAIDS in 2014 March 3 World wildlife day Theme: “Sustaining all life on Earth”. March 3 World Hearing Day.2018 Theme: Hearing for life: Don’t let hearing loss limit you. March 4 National Safety Day March 6 National Dentist’s Day st March 7 Jan Aushadhi Diwas.11.2018 Janaushadhi week is being celebrated across the country from 1 March to 7th March. March 8 International Women’s Day Theme: “I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights”. March 10 51st CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) Raising Day March 12 World Kidney Day Theme: Kidney Health for Everyone Everywhere- from Prevention to Detection and Equitable access to care. March 13 World Sleep Day Theme: “Better Sleep, Better Life, Better Planet” March 14 Pi Day Pi (Greek letter “π”) is the symbol used in mathematics to represent a constant and its value up to five decimal places 3.14159. March 14 The International Day of Action Theme:“Women, Water, and Climate Change” for Rivers March 15 World Consumer Day Theme: The Sustainable Consumer. March 16 National Vaccination Day March 18 Global Recycling Day Theme: “Recycling Heroes” March 18 Ordnance Factories Day March 20 World day of theatre for children and Young People March 20 International Day of Happiness Theme: “Happiness For All Together”. March 20 World Sparrow Day Theme: I LOVE Sparrows March 20 World Oral Health Day March 21 World Down Syndrome Day Theme: We Decide March 21 International Day of Forests Theme of the year 2020: “Forests and Biodiversity” The IDF was organized by the United Nations Forum on Forests and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). March 21 International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination March 21 World Poetry Day 2020 March 22 World Water Day Theme: “Water and Climate Change”. March 23 World Meteorological Day The theme of WMD 2020 is “Climate and Water”. World Meteorological Organization:Founded-1950 Headquarters– Geneva, Switzerland March 24 International Day for the Right The day is observed to pay tribute to Archbishop Óscar Arnulfo Romero, to the Truth Concerning Gross who was murdered on March 24, 1980. He was actively involved in Human Rights Violations and for condemning human rights violations of the most vulnerable people the Dignity of Victims March 24 World Tuberculosis Day Theme: ‘It’s time’. India is committed to eliminate the prevalence of TB by 2025. The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched a joint initiative “Find. Treat. All. #EndTB” March 24 International Day for Achievers (IDA) March 27 World Theatre Day 2 MONTHLY DIGEST- CURRENT AFFAIRS CAPSULE-MARCH 2020 March 28: Earth Hour 2020 Every year, the Earth Hour is celebrated worldwide on the last Saturday of the March month to show support for fight against.12.2018 climate change and commitment towards better planet. To mark the event, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) is encouraging everyone to switch lights off from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm. .2018 ECONOMY NEWS What Is Financial Liquidity? RBI Financial liquidity refers to how easily Highlights of Seventh Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Statement -2019-20 assets can be converted into cash. Assets like stocks and bonds are very Policy rate New Rate.11.2018 Previous Rate Change in Basis points (bps) liquid since they can be converted to Repo Rate 4.40% 5.15% 75 cash within days. However, large Reverse Repo 4% 4.90% 90 assets such as property, plant, and Rate equipment are not as easily converted Marginal 4.65% 5.40% 75 to cash. For example, your checking Standing Facility account is liquid, but if you owned land Rate(MSF) and needed to sell it, it may take Bank Rate 4.65% 5.40% 75 weeks or months to liquidate it, CRR 3% 4% 100 making it less liquid. SLR 18.25% 18.25% RBI announced that it will undertake a six-month US Dollar sell/buy swaps RBI conducted two sell-buy swap auctions to inject cumulatively US dollar liquidity into the forex market to the tune of US$ 2.71 billion on March 16 and 23. As RBI announced that it will undertake a six-month US Dollar sell/buy swaps to provide liquidity to the foreign exchange market. What is RBI’s dollar-swap window all about? RBI will provide $2 billion on March 23 to the banks that need it through a swap. The central bank will give dollars and the buyer will give rupees and the transaction will be reversed on September 25. It is a 6-month sell-buy swap from RBI. This is the second time RBI has come out with the dollar-swap window this month. How does this dollar-swap work? RBI, in this case, is trying to replenish the dollars in the market. Banks have witnessed huge outflows of dollars as foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sell their shares. Since 24 February, they have been net sellers of Indian shares in all sessions and have sold $4.7 billion worth of such shares in the period. Reserve Bank pledges Rs 1 lakh crore in the battle against coronavirus RBI announced the infusion of ₹1 lakh crore into the system in phases, through the LTRO (long-term repo operations). LTRO (long-term repo operations) ? Under LTRO, RBI will conduct term repos of one-year and three-year tenors of appropriate sizes for up to a total amount of Rs 1 lakh crore at the current repo rate. Repos that have a specified maturity date (usually the following day or week) are term repo. A dealer sells securities to a counterparty with the agreement that he will buy them back at a higher price on a specific date. While the RBI’s current windows of liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) and marginal standing facility (MSF) offer banks money for their immediate needs ranging from 1-28 days, the LTRO supplies them with liquidity for their 1- to 3-year needs. LTRO operations are intended to prevent short-term interest rates in the market from drifting a long way away from the policy rate, which is the repo rate. RBI allows banks to put EMIs on hold for three months The Reserve Bank permitted all commercial banks (including regional rural banks, small finance banks and local area banks), co-operative banks, all-India Financial Institutions, and NBFCs (including housing finance companies and micro-finance institutions) (“lending institutions") are being permitted to allow a moratorium of three months on payment of instalments in respect of all term loans outstanding as on March 1, 2020. 3 MONTHLY DIGEST- CURRENT AFFAIRS CAPSULE-MARCH 2020 RBI announces fresh purchase of Rs 30,000 crore govt securities to boost liquidity The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced additional purchase of government securities worth Rs 30,000 crore through.12.2018 open market operations (OMO) to boost liquidity and enhance investor confidence in the financial markets that remain under stress over COVID-19 related disruptions. The central bank issued.2018 a statement on March 20 saying that it will conduct purchase of government securities under OMOs for an aggregate amount of Rs 30,000 crores in two tranches of Rs 15,000 crore each in the March 24 and March 30 2020. Earlier, the RBI had conducted open market operations in the form of purchase of Rs 10,000 crores of the government securities.11.2018 through a multi-security auction using the multiple price method. What are open market operations (OMOs)? Open market operations or OMOs are conducted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by way of sale and purchase of G-Secs (government securities) to and from the market with an objective to adjust the rupee liquidity conditions in the market on a durable basis. When the Reserve Bank feels that there is excess liquidity in the market, it resorts to sale of securities thereby sucking out the rupee liquidity. Similarly, when the liquidity conditions are tight, RBI may buy securities from the market, thereby releasing liquidity into the market. RBI doubles the variable rate repo auction amount to ₹50,000 cr The Reserve Bank has doubled the amount of the 12-day variable rate term repo auction scheduled to Rs 50,000 crore. The RBI also going to conduct a 3-day variable rate term repo auction for Rs25,000 crore on March 31 As a special case, Standalone Primary Dealers (SPDs) were also allowed to participate in these auctions along with other eligible participants. RBI offers Rs 11,722 cr to banks through repo auction The Reserve Bank of India has offered Rs 11,772 crore to banks through a 12-day variable rate repo auction. Before the auction, the RBI enhanced the amount of auction to Rs 50,000 crore from Rs 25,000 crore Rs 1,340 crore to recapitalise Regional Rural Banks for next financial year The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved utilization of Rs 670 crore as Central Government share for the scheme of Recapitalisation of RRBs (i.e.