Current Affairs - March 5, 2018 Current Affairs

Odisha government launched 'Khushi', a scheme that offers free sanitary pads to 17 lakh girl students in Odisha. Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched the scheme 'Khushi'. This will offer free sanitary pads for girl students from Class 6 to 12 studying in all government and government-aided schools of Odisha. He said that, this scheme will help in improving health and hygiene of adolescent girls and in higher retention of girl students in school.

Bharati Defence and Infrastructure Ltd (BDIL) delivered an interceptor boat, C-162 - to Indian Coast Guard (ICG) in Mangaluru, Karnataka. It is the Sixth in a series of 15 high speed interceptor boats being procured by Indian Coast Guard. C-162 is to be based at ICG's Kochi unit, where it will be used mainly for patrolling purposes. It is 28m-long and has an aluminium hull. It weighs about 60 dead-weight tonnage (DWT) and can attain speeds up to 35 knots. The vessel is propelled by two engines of 1650 KW each and can accommodate 11 crew.

For the first time in the nation's history, Saudi Arabia's women participated in an all-female marathon. The three-km-long marathon, held in the eastern province of al-Ahsa on Saturday, reportedly saw participation from 1,500 women across several categories. Earlier in January, Saudi Arabia allowed its women, for the first time, to spectate at a football match.

ASA launched GOES-S, another of world's most advanced weather satellites. Abbreviation GOES stands for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites. GOES-S has been launched to safeguard Western US, by monitoring, forecasting and providing crisp images of hurricanes, wildfires, floods, mudslides and other natural calamities. GOES-16, the first spacecraft in the series, has been monitoring the Atlantic and US East Coast for the past year for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of US. GOES-S will not only keep a watch over West Coast of US, Alaska and Hawaii, but also over Mexico and Central America.

Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) entered into seven more Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs), taking the total number of APAs to 203 so far. All seven APAs signed in February 2018 are unilateral APAs and pertain to automobile, pharmaceuticals, Financial and Food & Beverages sectors. Out of all APAs entered into by the CBDT till date, 185 are Unilateral APAs and 18 are Bilateral APAs. In the current financial year, i.e. 2017-18, CBDT has entered into 51 APAs so far, out of which, 44 are Unilateral and 7 are Bilateral. APA provisions were introduced in the Income-tax Act, 1961 in 2012. Objective of APA scheme is to provide certainty to taxpayers in the domain of transfer pricing by specifying the methods of pricing and thereby reducing litigation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang also vowed to expand bilateral cooperation in several key sectors, including defence, oil and gas, and agriculture. The three pacts signed after the talks between the two leaders would provide for cooperation in areas of nuclear energy, trade and agriculture.

Krishna Kumari Kolhi (39) from Sindh province in Pakistan became first-ever Dalit Hindu woman to get elected as Senator, member of upper house (Senate) of Muslim-majority country. She won the election for the reserved seat for women from Sindh province. She is a member of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari-led Pakistan People's Party (PPP). Her election represents major milestone for women and minority rights in Pakistan. Earlier, PPP had elected first Hindu woman named Ratna Bhagwandas Chawla as senator.

Marshall Islands in Pacific Ocean is set to become first country in world to recognize cryptocurrency as its legal tender and adopt transparent crypto monetary system. The parliament of island has passed law to create the digital currency called "Sovereign" with symbol SOV to raise some hard cash to pay bills and boost economy. The Marshall Islands is partnering with Israeli fintech startup Neema to launch its SOV. It will have equal status with US dollar as form of payment. The island country will issue 24 million SOVs in Initial Currency Offering (ICO). It will be circulated as legal tender in the country, alongside its current local currency, US dollar. SOV issued by Marshall Islands will be different from other cryptocurrencies including bitcoin because it will be officially recognized by law as legal tender and effectively backed by government. SOV is based on permissioned protocol, dubbed "'Yokwe" (meaning "hello" in local island language), which requires blockchain users of this distal currency to authenticate and identify themselves, thus avoid anonymity that has kept other cryptocurrencies from gaining support from governments.

Russia and China have agreed to set up a joint data centre for lunar and deep space projects, Russian space agency Roscosmos said. The Russian agency and China National Space Administration will look into possibilities of providing assistance to each other's lunar programmes. Last year, the two agencies had agreed on a bilateral cooperation programme, including research on the moon.

Gadchiroli book reading event created a new Guinness world record breaking the Guinness world record created in Turkey on 18th May 2017. Nearly 7,000 people participated in the book reading event conducted at Gadchiroli, Maharashtra. The event was organised by police authorities. Representatives from the Guinness Book of World Records witnessed the event. The book reading event in Turkey held on 18th May 2017 had participation from 5,754 people. Maheshwar Reddy, Superintendent of Police, Gadchiroli, said that, Gadchiroli is a Naxal dominant region and this event will project a positive image of Gadchiroli to the world.

Dr Jitendra Singh launched the social media of "Namaste Shalom", a magazine devoted to India-Israel relations. The festive occasion of Holi coincided with the Jewish festival of Purim. The magazine is edited by former MP Shri Tarun Vijay. Israeli Ambassador to India, Mr. Daniel Carmon and other dignitaries were also present.

the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) decided to proclaim 3 March, the day of the adoption of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), as World Wildlife Day, which was proposed by Thailand,[1] to celebrate and raise awareness of the world's wild fauna and flora. The 2018 theme is "Big cats - predators under threat"

The 90th Academy Awards commonly referred to as Oscars was held at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California (US). The award presented in 24 categories by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honouring best films of year 2017. The Shape of Water won the most number of awards totaling to four at the ceremony after it was nominated into highest 13 categories. It was followed by Dunkirk, nominated for eight categories and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, nominated for seven categories. Gary Oldman won the bext actor for Darkest Hour as Winston Churchill. Best Actress: Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as Mildred Hayes).