Current Affairs - March 26, 2018 Current Affairs

HDFC Bank signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Government e-Marketplace (GeM) under which, it will facilitate a host of transaction/banking related services for the portal. GeM is an online marketplace for central and state government ministries/ departments, central or state public sector undertakings, autonomous institutions and local bodies for procurement of common use goods/services. GeM brings in transparency and efficiency in the entire public procurement process. About 20 states have already signed a MoU with GeM. Role of HDFC Bank would be to ensure timely payment to the sellers.

BJP national spokesperson Anil Baluni announced that, the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar (14th April) will be celebrated as 'Social Justice Day'. Dr BR Ambedkar was born on 14 April 1891. He was the first law minister of independent India. He is the principal architect of the Indian Constitution. He is a founding father of the Republic of India.He fought against social discrimination of Dalits. He was an inspiration for the Dalit Buddhist Movement in 1956. In 1990, he was awarded the Bharat Ratna award posthumously.

Delhi government presented a 'green budget' aimed at controlling pollution and monitoring its impact on the environment. Rs. 53000 crore Budget for fiscal 2018-19 was unveiled by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia (Aam Aadmi Party). Mr. Sisodia highlighted that, under Delhi Budget 2018-19, 26 programmes and schemes of transport, power, environment and PWD will be threaded together for devising a unified system of pollution control. The 26 initiatives include procuring 1000 electric buses, subsidies to restaurants to replace coal tandoors with electricity- or gas-based tandoors and undertaking a joint study with University of Washington to explore the possibility of using technology to ascertain the source of air pollution at designated spots.

Vivaan Kapoor bagged the trap bronze medal by defeating Kun-Pi Yang of Chinese Taipei in the ISSF junior World Cup at Sydney, Australia. India so far have bagged two gold and three bronze medals in the competition and are placed second behind China, who have collected five gold, one silver and three bronze.

Pankaj Advani defended his Asian Billiards Championships title by demolishing his practice partner B Bhaskar 6-1 in the summit clash in Yangon, Myanmar. With this win, Advani remains the reigning Indian, Asian and world champion in billiards for 2017-18. This is Advani's 11th gold medal at the Asian level of cue sports. India's Amee Kamani won the Asian Women's Snooker title by blanking her Thai opponent Siripaporn Nuanthakhamjan 3-0.

Vodafone Group and Aditya Birla Group have named Balesh Sharma as the chief executive officer (CEO) of the Vodafone-Idea India merged entity. Earlier, Balesh Sharma was the chief operating officer (COO) of Vodafone India. He joined Vodafone in 2003. Earlier, he was the business head of Gujarat Circle and the CEO of Vodafone Malta. He served as the CEO of Vodafone Czech Republic. He is a director on the Vodafone India Board and a member of its executive committee.

The country's National Academy of Art, the Lalit Kala Akademi hosted the first-ever International Print Biennale in the country with a record number of 17 countries taking part in it. The first-ever International Exhibition of Graphic Prints 'Print Biennale India 2018' opened, at the Rabindra Bhavan Galleries of the Lalit Kala Akademi in New Delhi. The eminent Artist-Printmaker, Shakti Barman was the Chief Guest. The event comprising a total of 200 original prints are created by Indian and international artists of impeccable competence and is a window view into the giant strides in printmaking that is taking place in India and the world.

Martin Vizcarra was sworn in as Peru's new president after his predecessor Pedro Pablo Kuczynski abruptly resigned over a corruption scandal. He had earlier served as Peru's first vice president and his country's ambassador to Canada. Vizcarra, while taking oath, has vowed to eliminate economic corruption from the country.

The Indian Navy has decommissioned 3 Karwar-class minesweepers 'Konkan', 'Cannanore' and 'Cuddalore'. These minesweepers 'retired' as operational ships after three decades of service in the Indian Navy. Each of these minesweepers sailed nearly 30,000 nautical miles during their operational life, which is comparable to circumnavigating the globe four and a half time.

Reliance Jio Director Akash Ambani, has signed an agreement for merging the digital music service Saavn with JioMusic to create a digital media platform with global reach. The total value of the deal will be over $1 billion. As part of the deal, additionally, Reliance will be acquiring a partial stake from the existing shareholders of Saavn for $104 million

The Indian Railway has been keen on welcoming changes and revamping the railway stations that will be made feasible for the passengers. The Indian Railways sights to convert stations into world-class 'airport-like' transit hubs! The Railway Ministry has decided to redevelop 90 railway stations into world-class transit hubs.

Delhi Metro, in association with IndusInd Bank, launched a dual purpose Metro Plus' debit card that will enable customers of IndusInd bank to use it for metro train rides as well as for all other regular debit card transactions. The Metro Plus Card, developed by IndusInd bank, has an embedded Delhi Metro Transit chip along with the secured Debit Card Chip. The card can be topped-up via IndusInd Bank ATMs, IndusMobile app, net banking and SMS. The card users can also get their smart cards auto topped up at Delhi Metro's (Automatic Fare Collection) AFC Gates.

Professor J S Rajput, a former Director NCERT is selected as India's representative to the Executive Board (EXB) of UNESCO. Notably, Professor J S Rajput is an eminent educationist with rich experience in various fields including UNESCO. The EXB has a four-year term of office and 58 seats. The executive board is one of the constitutional organs of UNESCO and is elected by the General Conference. The executive board examines the work for the organization and the corresponding budget estimates. In practice, the executive board is the main organ responsible for all policies and programmes of UNESCO. The elections of Members of the EXB for the term 2017-21 took place on 8th November 2017, in which India won with 162 votes in Group IV during the 39th session of the General Conference which was held from 30th October to 14th November 2017. Being a member of the board enables us in principle to play a role in shaping and reviewing UNESCO's policies and programmes corresponding to its five major programs on education, the natural science, the social and human Sciences, Culture and Communication and Information.

As per data compiled by Institute for Criminal Policy Research, India has a significantly lower imprisonment rate and Indians are thereby the least criminal among world's major economies. With imprisonment rate of 33, India seems to be better off than all major economies of the world. Imprisonment rate refers to number of individuals behind the bars out of every one lakh individuals in the population. United States has the highest imprisonment rate (666) among major countries.

The World Tuberculosis Day (WTD) is observed every year on March 24 to help spread awareness about the disease, communicate prevention measures as well as to commemorate efforts undertaken against the disease. The 2018 theme is "Wanted: Leaders for a TB-Free World", which highlights the importance of engaging people from all across the world to put efforts to eliminate TB. Although TB is a serious disease, it is curable. It can occur in almost every part of the body - the most commonly affected areas being lungs, lymph nodes, intestine, bone and brain. Early diagnosis is crucial for the treatment of TB.