CURRENT AFFAIRS (March 2020 to August 2019) CURRENT AFFAIRS OF MARCH 2020 ◼ The world’s highest polling station is now in the ◼ India has established itself as the world’s 4th sleepy hamlet of Tashigang in the Buddhist- largest space super power. Till now, only three dominated Lahaul-Spiti district of Himachal countries in the world – United States of Pradesh at an altitude of 15,256 feet. Mandi Lok America, Russia and China have achieved this. Sabha seat, the second largest constituency in the country. Mandi Lok Sabha seat, the second ◼ Lalit Kala Akademi 60th National Academy largest constituency in the country. Awards • The Lalit Kala Akademi or National Academy ◼ National Company Law Appellate Tribunal of Art is India's national academy of fine arts. • The National Company Law Tribunal is a It is an autonomous organisation, established quasi-judicial body in India that adjudicates in New Delhi in 1954 by Government of India issues relating to Indian companies. The to promote and propagate understanding of tribunal was established under the Indian art, in and outside the country. Companies Act 2013 and was constituted on 1 June 2016 by the government of India and ◼ India ranks 76th on WEF Global Energy Transition is based on the recommendation of the V. Index Balakrishna Eradi committee on law relating to the insolvency and the winding up of ◼ Kazakhstan’s parliament renamed its capital companies. Astana as ‘Nursultan’ in honour of outgoing leader Nursultan Nazarbayev. Nursultan stands ◼ International Energy Agency (IEA) recently for “Sultan of Light” in the Kazakh language, released Global Energy and CO2 Status Report while, Astana means ‘capital’ in the Kazakh that highlights worldwide trends and language developments of fuels, renewable sources, energy efficiency and carbon emissions. ◼ .India’s largest Bank State Bank of India (SBI) has • The report highlights global energy announced the launch of YONO Cash through consumption in 2018 increased at nearly which customers can withdraw money from twice the average rate of growth since 2010, ATMs without using a card. • As a result of higher energy consumption, CO2 emissions rose 1.7% last year and hit a ◼ This Cardless Cash Withdrawal process works new record. with two-factor authentication and eliminates the risk of skimming and cloning. The customers ◼ President Ram Nath Kovind was honoured with have to set a 6-digit Yono PIN for withdrawing Croatia’s highest civilian order – The Grand Order cash through the Yono app. of the King of Tomislav. Croatian state order is awarded to heads of state for their important ◼ Once the process is initiated the customer will contribution towards the development of state receive a 6-digit reference code via SMS, which relations between Croatia and their respective will then have to be entered into a Yono Cash countries. Point. The cash withdrawal must be completed within the next 30 minutes at an ATM using both ◼ Public sector lender Bank of Baroda Tuesday said the PIN and the reference number. ATMs it will develop an agri-digital platform called enabled with this service will be termed as Yono ‘Baroda Kisan’ in order to provide solutions for all Cash Point. major agricultural requirements. ◼ Raghu Karnad, the son of legendary writer and the Jnanpith awardee Girish Karnad, has won the Windham-Campbell Prize of $165,000 in the non- ◼ The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) categorised the fiction category for his debut book, The Farthest IDBI Bank Limited as a ‘Private Sector Bank’ for Field: An Indian Story Of The Second World War. regulatory purposes with effect from January 21, The Windham-Campbell Prize is administered by 2019. the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University in the US and was established ◼ The move came following the acquisition of the in 2013. 51 per cent of the total paid-up equity share capital of the IDBI bank by Life Insurance ◼ India will host the U-17 Women’s World Cup in Corporation of India (LIC). The IDBI Bank was 2020. categorised in the sub-group ‘other public sector banks’ by the RBI in April 2005. ◼ West Nile Virus which is a viral infection • West Nile Virus (WNV) can cause ◼ As per the latest report of the World Gold neurological disease and death in people. Council, India has the 11th largest gold reserve • West Nile Virus (WNV) was first isolated in a and the current gold holding is pegged at 607 woman in the West Nile district of Uganda in tonnes. 1937. It was identified in birds (crows and • The World Gold Council is the market columbiformes) in Nile delta region in 1953. development organisation for the gold industry ◼ West Nile virus (WNV) is a single-stranded RNA • Headquartered in London, United Kingdom, virus that causes West Nile fever. It is a member they have offices in India ( Mumbai) , China, of the family Flaviviridae, specifically from the Singapore and the United States genus Flavivirus, which also contains the Zika • The top spot is occupied by US gold reserves virus, dengue virus, and yellow fever virus. West of 8,133.5 tonnes, followed by Germany with Nile virus is primarily transmitted by mosquitoes, 3,369.7 tonnes. mostly species of Culex. The primary hosts of WNV are birds, so that the virus remains within a ◼ Arecanut, known as supari or betel nut, made its "bird–mosquito–bird" transmission cycle. entry in the list of agricultural produce for the first time with the Geographical Indication (GI) ◼ Recently a seven-year-old in Kerala has been tag for ‘Sirsi Supari’. The GI tag was accorded by detected with the West Nile Virus which is a viral the Registrar of Geographical Indications. The infection ‘Sirsi Supari’ is grown in Sirsi, Siddapur and Yellapur taluks of Uttara Kannada district in ◼ Erode Turmeric has received GI tag from the Karnataka. The GI tag will guarantee the Geographical Indication Registry. authenticity of Arecanut grown in these talukas, • Erode is the city in the state of Tamil Nadu. and ensure a better market. • Erode Turmeric is grown in hot moist conditions prevalent in the area with ◼ Vastradan Campaign initiated by the erstwhile temperature ranging from 20 degrees to 37.9 royal family of Udaipur has set the Guinness degrees Celsius with an average of 600 to 800 World Record for the largest collection of clothes mm rainfall in a year. for donation. • Geographical Indication defines the goods as originating in the territory of a country or a ◼ India is the second largest importer of weapons region or locality in that territory, provided a in the world, as per the annual report ‘Trends in given quality reputation or other International Arms Transfers-2018 released on characteristics of the product are March 11, 2019, by the think tank Stockholm attributable to its geographical origin. International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Saudi Arabia is now the world’s largest weapons importer ◼ 30 years of World Wide Web ◼ Chameli Devi Jain Award • The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly • The bilingual correspondent with the BBC known as the Web, is an information system Priyanka Dubey has been named for the where documents and other web resources Chameli Devi Jain Award for an Outstanding are identified by Uniform Resource Locators Woman Journalist for the year 2018. (URLs, such as https://www.example.com/), • The award is given to women journalists for which may be interlinked by hypertext, and their exceptional contribution to the cause of are accessible over the Internet. journalism upholding standards of excellence • The resources of the WWW are transferred through a sustained body of work via the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) • Raghuram Rajan, former governor of RBI has and may be accessed by users by a software been chosen for the ‘Yashwantrao Chavan application called a web browser and are National Award 2018’ by Yashwantrao published by a software application called a Chavan Pratishthan for his contribution to web server. economic development. • English scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1989. He wrote the ◼ Soumya Swaminathan appointed as Chief first web browser in 1990 while employed at Scientist of WHO.She is the first Indian to hold CERN near Geneva, Switzerland . the post. • The browser was released outside CERN in 1991, first to other research institutions ◼ President Ram Nath Kovind has nominated starting in January 1991 and then to the Justice SA Bobde of the Supreme Court as general public in August 1991. The World Executive Chairman of National Legal Services Wide Web has been central to the Authority (NALSA). development of the Information Age and is • The National Legal Services Authority the primary tool billions of people use to (NALSA) is a statutory body constituted under interact on the Internet. the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 to provide free Legal Services to the weaker ◼ The Marayoor Jaggery largely produced in the sections of the society. regions of Marayur and Kanthalloor grama • The objective of NALSA is to legally empower panchayats of Kerala has got the GI tag the marginalized and excluded groups of the society by providing effective legal ◼ The Ministry of Power has announced that two representation, legal literacy and awareness more electrical appliances microwave ovens and and bridging the gap between the legally washing machines will now be assigned star available benefits and the entitled ratings based on their energy efficiency metrics. beneficiaries. • The programme of star rating of Microwave Ovens and Washing Machines will be ◼ Jalamrutha Scheme implemented on a voluntary basis and will be • Launched by Karnataka valid up to December 31, 2020. • A water conservation scheme • The star rating of Microwave Ovens and • The scheme focuses on drought-proofing Washing Machines encourage the transition measures, including protection and towards energy efficient equipment.