Important Monthly Current Affairs Capsule – March
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Important Monthly Current Affairs Capsule – March S. No Topics Page No. 1. Important Days 2 2. Important Banking News 3 3. Important Financial & Economy Affairs 11 4. Important Business News 12 5. ImportantCabinet Approval 12 6. Important State Wise National News 14 7. Important International News 22 8. Important Appointments 24 9. Important Awards and Honors 27 10. Important Committees 31 11. Important MoU 31 12. Important Summit & Conference 36 13. Important Mobile App and Web Portal 38 14. Important Defence News 40 15. Important Science And Technology 44 16. Important Schemes And Programs 46 17. Important Ranking and Indexes 47 18. ImportantBooks And Authors 51 19. Important Sports News 51 20. Important Obituaries 59 1 | P a g e Important Days Date Important days Theme March 1 Zero Discrimination Day Act to change laws that Discriminate March 1 World Civil Defence Day Children's safety, our responsibility March 3 World Wildlife Day Life below water: for people and planet March 3 World Hearing Day Check your hearing! Cultivate and sustain a safety culture for building March 4 National Safety Day nation March 8 International Women‘s Day "Think equal, build smart, innovate for change" March 10 CISF Raising Day - March 12 Corporation Bank‘s 114th Foundation Day - March 13 (2nd No Smoking Day - Wednesday of March) March 14 World Kidney Day ‗Kidney health for everyone, everywhere‘ March 14 International Pi Day - The 22nd annual International Day of Action ‗Celebration of the role of women in protecting and March 14 for Rivers managing our rivers‘ March 12 to 16 India Smart Utility Week - March 15 World Consumer Rights Day 'Trusted Smart Products' March 15 World Sleep Day Healthy Sleep, Healthy Aging March 18 National Ordnance Factories Day - March 18 Global Recycling Day Recycling Into The Future March 20 International Day of Happiness Happier Together March 20 World Sparrow Day - March 21 World Forestry Day Forests and Education: Learn to Love Forests March 21 World Down Syndrome Day Leave No One Behind March 21 World Poetry Day - March 21 International Day for the Elimination of Racial ‗Mitigating and countering rising nationalist populism Discrimination and extreme supremacist ideologies‘ March 22 World Water Day Leaving No One Behind March23 World Meteorological Day The Sun, the Earth and the Weather‟ March23 Marty‘s Day (Shaheed Diwas) - International Day of Remembrance of the March 25 Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave ‗Remember Slavery: The Power of the Arts for Justice‘ Trade International Day of Solidarity with Detained March 25 - and Missing Staff Members March 26 Epilepsy Awareness Day or Purple Day - March 27 World Theatre Day - 2 | P a g e ImportantBanking News RBI RBI, Bank of Japan sign Bilateral Swap Arrangement Reserve Bank of India and Bank of Japan have signed a Bilateral Swap Arrangement (BSA). The BSA provides for India to access 75 billion US dollars whereas the earlier BSA had provided for 50 billion dollars. The financial cooperation would further enhance the strong economic ties between India and Japan RBI forms task force to see overseas Rupee The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) task force would likely also suggest policy measures to strengthen the local markets, helping avoid wild swings in exchange rates for the rupee.The eight-member committee headed by Usha Thorat – former deputy governor, Ajit Ranade – chief economist of Aditya Birla group, and Sajjid Chinoy – chief economist India, JPMorgan. The committee will assess the causes behind the development of the offshore rupee market while studying the effects of the overseas market on the rupee exchange rate per dollar and liquidity in the domestic market. RBI imposed 8 crore fine on 3 banks for non compliance in SWIFT operation The Reserve Bank of India has imposed a total monetary fine of Rs. 8 crore on three banks - Karnataka Bank, United Bank of India and Karur Vysya Bank - for non-compliance of directions on Swift messaging software. While the RBI imposed Rs. 4 crore fine on Karnataka Bank, United Bank is facing a penalty of Rs. 3 crore. The regulator has levied Rs. 1 crore fine on Karur Vysya Bank. The RBI has levied an aggregate penalty of Rs 40 million on the Karnataka bank for delayed implementation of four of the Swift related operational controls Earlier, four banks -- SBI, Union Bank of India, Dena Bank and IDBI -- had informed exchanges about monetary penalty slapped on them by the regulator for non-compliance with various directions. Fine of Rs. 3 crore was imposed on Union Bank, Rs. 2 crore on Dena Bank, and Rs 1 crore each on IDBI and the SBI. RBI to infuse Rs. 12,500 crore via OMOs The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has stated that it will infuse 12,500 crore rupees into the system through open market operations (OMOs).It based on an assessment of prevailing liquidity conditions and also of the durable liquidity needs going forward, it will conduct the purchase of the government securities under open market operations. OMOs are money market tools to infuse or suck out liquidity from the system RBI identifies SBI, ICICI and HDFC Bank as Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs) The Reserve Bank of India has released the list of Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs).The Reserve Bank had issued the Framework for dealing with D-SIBs in July 22, 2014. Domestic Systemically Important Banks are those banks which if fails would have a significant impact on the economy. RBI has a various set of criteria to add a bank to this list. The basic condition is that a bank size should be more than 2% of Indian GDP.The D-SIBs banks are classified into 5 buckets. Bucket 1, Bucket 2, Bucket 3, Bucket 4 and Bucket 5. With Bucket 5 being the most important followed by rest in decreasing order. State Bank of India is in Bucket 3, while HDFC and ICICI Bank both are in Bucket 1. Rest all buckets are empty. These three banks are in the D-SIBs list since Sep 04, 2017. No new bank has been added after the revised list is released on March 14, 2019 RBI to infuse fresh liquidity worth $5 billion into the system The Reserve Bank of India announced to infuse long term liquidity worth $5 billion into the system through Foreign Exchange swap arrangement with banks for 3 years.The swap is in the nature of a simple Buy/Sell foreign exchange swap with the RBI. A bank can sell U.S. dollars to the RBI and simultaneously agree to buy the same amount of U.S. dollars at the end of the three year. Under the swap auction, minimum bid size would be USD 25 million and in multiples of USD 1 million thereafter, the eligible participants are allowed to submit multiple bids. However, the aggregate amount of bids submitted by single eligible entity should not exceed the notified amount of auction.Authorised Dealers (ADs) – category-1 banks will be the eligible entities to participate in the auction. 3 | P a g e RBI to reform Ways And Means Advance system for states Reserve Bank of India has proposed a rule-based approach in fixing new Ways and Means limits for the state governments, replacing the previous expenditure-based system. It will set up a panel to recommend parameters of the new system which is aimed at preventing automatic monetisation of deficits. The central bank which acts as debt manager for state governments provides short-term loan to them to bridge temporary liquidity mismatches. The temporary loan facility is called Ways and Means Advances.The states have also agreed to link their receipts and payment systems with RBI‘s integrated accounting system (e-Kuber) for greater system efficiency. RBI slaps Rs. 2 crore penalty on PNB The Reserve Bank of India has slapped a penalty of Rs. 2 crore on Punjab National Bank for non-compliance of regulatory directions with regard to SWIFT operations. SWIFT is a global messaging software used for sharing information on inter -bank transactions by financial entities.Earlier this year, the Reserve Bank had imposed penalties worth 71 crore rupees on 36 public, private and foreign banks for non-compliance with various directions on time-bound implementation and strengthening of SWIFT operations RBI raises FPI investment limit in G-Secs The Reserve Bank of India upped the investment limit for FY2019-20 for foreign portfolio investors (FPI) in Central government securities (G-Secs) to 6 per cent of outstanding stock of securities from 5.5 per cent in FY2018-19. The limit for FPI investment in State development loans (SDLs) and corporate bonds has been left unchanged at 2 per cent and 9 per cent of outstanding stocks. The current limit of Rs. 6,49,900 crore, the revised limit for FPI investment in debt for FY2020 has been set at Rs. 6,98,300 crore for the first half, andRs. 7,46,500 crore for the second half of the financial year. SBI SBI reports frauds worth Rs.7951 crore in Apr – Dec FY19 SBI had reported frauds amounting Rs. 7,951 crore during the first nine months of fiscal 2019, mainly due to frauds declared in some large-value accounts. All those accounts became non-performing assets "much earlier" and that most of the portfolio was already provided for with full provision. The resolution process for recovery is on via various debt recovery regulatory bodies. Hitachi arm & SBI to roll out digital payments platform State Bank of India and Hitachi Payment Services Pvt Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd launched their merchant-acquiring joint venture, SBI Payment Services Pvt Ltd (SBIPSPL), in Mumbai, for establishing a digital payments platform for India and other countries in the region.The joint venture (SBI) has a 74 percent stake, and the balance is with Hitachi Payment Services) will facilitate expansion of the digital payments landscape in India via its digital payments platform.