Current Affairs : March 2020

16^th March

1. Flipkart teamed up with AEGON life insurance to sell quick-access life insurance policies
2. On March 14, 2020 Indian journalists Arfa Khanum Sherwani, senior editor of the news website ‘The Wire’ and Bengaluru-based freelancer Rohini Mohan jointly won the “Chameli Devi Jain Award 2019” for outstanding Women media persons.
3. Sharath Kamal wins men’s singles title at ITTF challenger plus Oman Open 2020 held in Muscat.
4. Sahitya Academy awardee, Malayalam poet Puthussery Ramachandran passed away.
5. An Extraordinary Life: A biography of Manohar Parrikar” to be released in April 2020.
6. The World Consumer Day 2020 was observed on March 15, 2020Theme of the year 2020: The Sustainable Consumer.
7. Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) or Gross Enrolment Index (GEI) is a statistical measure used in the education sector, and formerly by the UN in its Education Index.

17^th March

1. Microsoft India & NASSCOM Foundation launches ‘Innovate for accessible India campaign’ to empower people with disabilities
2. Ravinder Singh Dhillon appointed as CMD of Power Finance Corporation.
3. ECI appoints Hirdesh Kumar as New Chief Electoral Officer of Jammu and Kashmir.

4.The state government of Jharkhand will launch its “Star Rating Program” on June 5, 2020, to rate industries based on the amount of pollutants generated by them.

With this, it became the 3rd state in India to launch this system for industries after Maharashtra & Odisha.

• MoCA flagged off first-ever Indore-Kishangarh flight under UDAN.
• The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has issued revised guidelines on the ‘Clinical Management of COVID-19’.
• The Ministry has recommended use of drug combinations Lopinavir and Ritonavir (sold under the brand name Kaletra) depending upon the severity of the condition of a person having coronavirus infection.
• NBCFDC is a Government of India Undertaking under the aegis of Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
• It was incorporated under Section 25 of the Companies Act 1956 in 1992 as a Company not for profit.
• On March 17, 2020, According to the Union Minister of State (Independent) for tourism and culture, Prahlad Singh Patel, the central government has included grand Konark Sun Temple, the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) world heritage site in Odisha & Statue of Unity in Gujarat in the Iconic Tourist Sites list, taking the total number of such places from 17 to 19.

9. The 7th World Cities Summit (WCS) is to be held from July 5 to 9, 2020 at Sands Expo & Convention Centre, Marina Bay Sands, in Singapore. The theme for WCS 2020 is “Liveable and Sustainable Cities: Adapting to a Disrupted World”.

10. RBI issued new guidelines for payment aggregators; MCR reduced for new PAs to Rs 15 crore from Rs 100 crore.

11. Government nominated former chief justice of India Ranjan Gogoi to Rajya Sabha On March 17, 2020

12. Scientists from the Institute of Nano Science and Technology (INST), an autonomous institute under the Department of Science & Technology, developed a starch-based ‘haemostat’ material which absorbs excess fluid by concentrating the natural clotting factors in the blood that stops the rapid blood loss.

13.NASA’s Artemis mission is the next chapter in the US agency’s space exploration program.

It aims to send first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024 and establish sustainable exploration by 2028.

18^th March

1. The government has changed the premium subsidy sharing pattern between Centre and the North Eastern States from 50:50 to 90:10 for PM- Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana and Restructured Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme (RWBCIS). Simply, Central Share in Premium Subsidy increased to 90% for North Eastern Region (NER) or the North Eastern States. For remaining States, subsidy sharing pattern will continue as 50:50.
2. RBI to infuse ₹10,000 crores via OMO to maintain liquidity in the banking system
3. Paytm Bank to issue virtual debit cards to customers.
4. On March 18, 2020, Janani Narayanan from Tamil Nadu (TN) and Vrinda Rathi from Mumbai were named in the International Panel of ICC (International Cricket Council) Development Umpires. After the inclusion of Janani and Vrinda, the count of females from India in ICC panel becomes 3 after the appointment of GS Lakshmi as the International Panel of Match Referees.

19^th March

1. SIDBI to launch a special train ‘Swavalamban express on June 5, 2020, for new entrepreneurs.
2. Indian mountaineer Satyarup Siddhanta enters ‘Limca Book of Records’. For his extraordinary achievements, as the first Indian to climb the highest volcanoes of each of the 7 continents. He also holds the record as the youngest mountaineer in the world to climb both 7 peaks and 7 volcanic summits.
3. A bulk drug also called active pharmaceutical ingredient (API), is the chemical molecule in a pharmaceutical product (medicines we buy from the chemist) that lends the product the claimed therapeutic effect.
4. YUKTI 2.0

The initiative was launched by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.

It is to help systematically assimilate technologies having commercial potential and information related to incubated start-ups in higher education institutions.

20^th March

1. Karur Vysya Bank (KVB) has launched India’s 1st prepaid wallet card ‘Enkasu’.
2. The “International Day of Happiness” is celebrated worldwide every year on 20th March.
3. World Sparrow Day (2020) is observed every year on March 20.
4. 108th Indian Science Congress 2021 will be held in Pune, Maharashtra.
5. Maharashtra Government renamed Aurangabad Airport as Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj Airport.
6. The mobile app which has been launched by the government for delivery of diesel at doorsteps of Housing societies, hotels and hospitals in the national capital region — ‘Fuel Humsafar.
7. Indore becomes the first city in India to use drones to sanitize the city.
8. . Operation Namastehas been given to the initiative launched by Indian Army to protect 1.3 million strong forces from coronavirus.
9. India’s rank 144thin the 8th World Happiness Report 2020 released by the United Nations. Finland on first rank.

10. India’s rank120th in in the 26th annual edition of Economic Freedom Index 2020.

11. Gujarat Police becomes first in India to introduce Taserguns. The Taser guns (electrical weapon) use compressed nitrogen to fire, by sending electricity through attached wires, which disrupt voluntary control of muscles.