Daily Current Affairs

Switzerland: People voted in favour of banning full face coverings in public places

In Switzerland, people have voted in favour of banning full face coverings in public places. Dubbed as ‘burqa ban’ by media and campaigners, the proposal was put into referendum after years of debate in the country following similar bans in some European countries. Nearly 51.2 per cent of voters have supported the proposal. The result means nobody in the country can cover their face completely in public whether in shops or in the open across the country except in places of worship or for health and safety reasons. European countries including France, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria and Denmark have already banned full face coverings.

Libya PM urges parliament to vote for new cabinet

Libya’s Prime Minister-designate Abdulhamid Dbeibeh urged lawmakers to vote for his new unity government, a crucial step toward December elections and stability in the country. The oil-rich African nation descended into chaos after dictator Muammar Gaddafi was killed in 2011. A UN-supervised process aims to unite the country after an October ceasefire between forces loyal to two rival administrations, each backed by foreign powers, based in the east and west of the country.

Daily Current Affairs

Made in COVID vaccines reached Mozambique, Nicaragua

Under the Vaccine Maitri initiative of the Government of India, two nations have received the Made in India Covid-19 Vaccines. Planes carrying the consignments of vaccine doses landed in Mozambique and Nicaragua. Made in India vaccines are arriving in Jamaica later today. Yesterday, Guyana and Ethiopia had received the Made in India Covid-19 Vaccines.

Top American scientist says, India's vaccine rescued World from deadly corona virus

A top American scientist has said that the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines by India in collaboration with leading global institutions has rescued the world from the deadly coronavirus and New Delhi’s contributions must not be underestimated. Dr Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston told a webinar that the COVID-19 vaccine rollout is India's gift to the world in combating the virus. Dr Hotez is an internationally-recognised physician- scientist in neglected tropical diseases and vaccine development.

Daily Current Affairs

PM Modi to inaugurate ‘Maitri Setu’ connecting India and

Prime Minister will inaugurate Maitri Setu between India and Bangladesh through video conferencing. Mr Modi will also inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of multiple infrastructure projects in during the event. The bridge Maitri Setu has been built over which flows between Indian boundary in Tripura State and Bangladesh. The construction was taken up by the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited at a project cost of 133 Crore rupees. The 1.9 Kilometres long bridge joins Sabroom in India with Ramgarh in Bangladesh.

PM lists five pillars - freedom, ideas, actions, achievements and resolve to celebrate 75 years of Independence

Prime Minister Narendra Modi informed that 5 pillars have been decided for the celebration of the 75 years. These are Freedom Struggle, Ideas at 75, Achievements at 75, Actions at 75 and Resolve at 75. All these should include the ideas and feelings of the 130 crore Indians. The Prime Minister said, the country will celebrate the occasion of 75 years of Independence with grandeur and enthusiasm befitting the historic nature, glory and importance of the occasion.

Daily Current Affairs

Union Minister Sanjay Dhotre inaugurates MEMP 2021 virtually

Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, Sanjay Dhotre inaugurated the International Conference on Multifunctional Electronic Materials and Processing (MEMP 2021) virtually on the occasion of 30th foundation day of Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Dhotre said that the domestic production of electronic items has increased from over one lakh 90 thousand crore rupees in 2014-15 to over five lakh 33 thousand crore rupees in 2019-20 at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate of 23 per cent. He said, India's share in global electronics manufacturing has grown from 1.3 per cent in 2012 to 3.6 per cent in 2019, as per industry estimates.

Google to support 1 million rural women entrepreneurs in India: Sundar Pichai

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company would help one million women in villages to become entrepreneurs by providing business tutorials, mentorship and accelerator programmes. It said Google.org would provide $25 million in grants globally to enterprises that work to empower women.

Daily Current Affairs

M Venkaiah Naidu compliments Mallikarjun Kharge on becoming new Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha

Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu complimented Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on becoming the new Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. On the first day of the second part of the Budget Session, Mr. Naidu expressed confidence that the vast and diverse experience of Mallikarjun Kharge will benefit the House significantly. He said, leader of opposition plays a major role in smooth functioning of the House.

122 NACs identified under National Clean Air Programme: Govt

The Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry has said that a total of 122 non attainment cities, NACs have been identified under the National Clean Air Programme. In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha , Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change said that city specific clean air action plans have been prepared and approved for 111 NACs. He informed that the government is taking several steps to curb the air pollution level in the country by cutting down vehicular and industrial pollution. He said, more than two thousand 200 crore rupees have been released in the financial year 2020-21 to tackle the problem of air pollution.

Daily Current Affairs

Centre likely to amend telecom licence norms

The Union government is likely to amend the telecom licence norms this month to incorporate the guidelines of national security directive (NSD) on telecommunication sector that will help in controlling installation of network equipment from China and other non-friendly countries. Under the provisions of this directive, the government will declare a list of trusted sources and products for installation in the country’s telecom network.

DAC to take up deals for armed drones, submarines

Multi-billion deals for 30 armed drones from the U.S. and six advanced submarines under Project-75I are likely to be taken by the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) in April for approval. India has been looking to procure 30 armed drones, 10 for each service, from the U.S. but the process has been repeatedly delayed over the last couple of years. While the Navy has a pressing requirement for the High Altitude Long Endurance drones, there have been questions on their utility for the Army and Air Force, given the high cost. The three Services have since finalised the Qualitative Requirements and the all the processing has been completed. The case is now ready to be put up before the DAC.

Daily Current Affairs

Banks lower home loan rates to a ten year low

The interest rates on home loans have hit a decadal low as several leading banks slashed their lending rates in the past few days. Nationalized banks like State Bank of India, HDFC, ICICI and Kotak Mahindra Bank have reduced their rates to a 10-year low level. While the SBI and Kotak Mahindra were among the first ones to cut the home loan interest rates, HDFC and ICICI have followed suit in the recent past. ICICI has slashed its interest rates to 6.7 per cent in line with the SBI's March 1 move offering the starting rate of 6.7 per cent. The banks have said that the offer is valid till March 31 as of now.

WCD Ministry signs agreement with Invest India in New Delhi to enhance cooperation

An agreement was signed between the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry and Invest India to enhance cooperation in the thematic areas of nutrition, child protection and development, women empowerment and convergent capacity building in mission mode. Invest India is the National Investment Promotion and Facilitation Agency of India and acts as the single first point of reference for investors in the country.

Daily Current Affairs

Defence & Aerospace sectors receive FDI worth Rs 4191 crore till January this year

Defence and Aerospace sectors have received foreign direct investment worth of four thousand 191 crore rupees till January this year. This was stated by Minister of State for Defence, Shripad Naik in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. He said, the government has taken several steps to boost the indigenous manufacturing of defence items. He informed that out of 304 contracts, 190 contracts have been signed with Indian vendors for capital procurement of defence equipments for armed forces in the past five years. Mr. Naik informed that investments of more than one thousand crore rupees have been attracted by the Uttar Pradesh Defence Industrial Corridor and two thousand 72 crore rupees by Tamil Nadu Defence Industrial Corridor.

More than 81 % accounts under Stand Up India Scheme belong to women entrepreneurs: Govt

The Union Government has said that more than 81 percent accounts under Stand Up India Scheme and about 68 percent of loan accounts under MUDRA scheme belong to women entrepreneurs. Finance Ministry said, out of the total of over 41 crore accounts opened under Pradhan Mantri Jan- Dhan Yojana, over 23 crore accounts belong to women. The Ministry said, these Schemes have financially empowered women to lead a better life and chase their dreams of being an entrepreneur.

Daily Current Affairs

Banks wrote off Rs. 1.2 lakh cr. in 9 months

Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha that banks have written off bad loans to the tune of Rs. 1.15 lakh crore during the first three quarters of the current fiscal (FY21). As per RBI data, scheduled commercial banks (SCBs) have written off loans of Rs. 2,36,265 crore, Rs. 2,34,170 crore and Rs. 1,15,038 crore during FY2018-19, FY2019-20 and the first three-quarters of FY2020-21, respectively.

Cairn wins nod from U.S., U.K., other courts for $1.4 bn award

Courts in five countries including the U.S. and the U.K. have given recognition to an arbitration award that asked India to return $1.4 billion to Cairn Energy plc — a step that now opens the possibility of the British firm seizing Indian assets in those countries if New Delhi does not pay. Cairn Energy had moved courts in nine countries to enforce its $1.4 billion arbitral award against India, which the company won after a dispute with the country’s revenue authority over a retroactively applied capital gains tax.

Daily Current Affairs

BBB may get to select infra financier’s MDs

The Banks Board Bureau (BBB) may be entrusted with the job to select MDs and DMDs of a proposed Rs. 1-lakh crore development financial institution (DFI) being set up to accelerate infrastructure financing. The infrastructure financier, to be called the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development, is to anchor the ambitious National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP). About 7,000 projects have been identified under the NIP with a projected investment of Rs. 111 lakh crore during 2020-25.

Djokovic beats Federer’s record for most weeks at the No. 1 spot

Novak Djokovic set a new landmark of 311 weeks as world number one on Monday, one week longer than Roger Federer. Djokovic has recently won his 18th major at the Australian Open in February. Djokovic reclaimed the top ranking from Nadal in February 2020 and finished as year-end number one for the sixth time, tying the record set by Pete Sampras.

Daily Current Affairs

Manish Kaushik clinches gold at Boxam International Tournament

Manish Kaushik clinched gold as Indian boxers concluded their impressive campaign at the Boxam International Tournament with 10 medals in Castellon, Spain. He beat Denmark’s Nikolai Terteryan with a split 3-2 decision in the men’s 63kg summit bout. However, the World Championship bronze medallist Vikas Krishan went down fighting 4-1 against local favourite Ndiaye Sissokho to settle for silver medal in the men’s 69kg.

Men's Hockey: India beat Great Britain 3-2 in final match of Europe tour

India Men's Hockey team beat Great Britain 3-2 in a closely contested fourth and final match of the Europe tour at Antwerp, Belgium. Striker Mandeep Singh scored the all important goal in the last minute of the game. It was India's fourth and final match of the Europe tour.

Daily Current Affairs

West Indies takes series

All-rounder Fabian Allen clobbered three sixes off the penultimate over to lead West Indies to a three- wicket win against Sri Lanka in the final T20I. Chasing a target of 132, the two-time World champion was off to a blazing start as Evin Lewis (21) and Lendl Simmons (26) added 37 in 4.4 overs before the former was dismissed. With 20 runs needed off 12 balls, Allen smashed spinner Akila Dananjaya for sixes off the first, third and sixth deliveries to finish things in style.

ICC announces expansion of women's cricket events post 2023 cycle

On the occasion of International Women's Day, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the expansion of women's cricket events post 2023 cycle. More teams will compete in both the Women's World Cup and Women's T20 World Cup from 2026 onwards as part of the ICC's long-term commitment to grow the game globally and in a sustainable fashion. The ICC said, two 50-over World Cups will be played in 2025 and 2029 while four T20 World Cups have been scheduled for 2024, 2026, 2028, and 2030. It also announced the advent of a new tournament, called Women's T20 Champions Cup and it will be played in 2027 and 2031.