Current Affairs - March 20, 2019 Current Affairs

The 'i-help' initiative to promote digital electoral literacy in Assam has been launched in view of the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls. It is a joint initiative of the Office of the Chief Electoral Officer(CEO) and Common Service Centres (CSC) in Assam. CEO Mukesh Chandra Sahu launched the 'i-help' initiative.

3 astronauts, Nick Hague and Christina Koch from US and Alexey Ovchinin from Russia arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) on Russian Soyuz spacecraft which was launched from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome on 14th March 2019. Soyuz spacecraft carries people and supplies to and from International Space Station and it has become the sole means of transportation after the retirement of Space Shuttle in 2011.

Indian Institute of Public Health Gandhinagar, (IIPHG) in collaboration with National Mental Health Program, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of Gujarat has developed a mobile application called as 'Conquer Exam, Be a Warrior' for students to reduce the exam pressure. This application creates awareness as well as help students to analyze their weak points and overcome from the exam pressure by providing assistance.

Jammu and Kashmir's Irfan Ramzan Sheikh, who fought off three armed terrorists in 2017, when he was 14 years old, was awarded Shaurya Chakra by President Ram Nath Kovind. Sheikh fought off the terrorists who wanted to kill his father and didn't let them enter his house. The terrified terrorists left one of the terrorists' body and ran away.

Former White House economist and Princeton University professor Alan Krueger passed away. He was 58 and an American economist. Krueger served as chief economist at the Department of Labor under President Bill Clinton and chair of the Council of Economic Advisers from 2011 to 2013 under former President Barack Obama.

University of Texas professor Karen Uhlenbeck has become the first woman to win the Abel Prize, a mathematics honour first given in 2003. The 76-year-old was awarded for the impact of her work on "analysis, geometry and mathematical physics". Modelled after the Nobel Prize, the Abel Prize is presented by the King of Norway and carries a $700,000 cash award. The award was awarded by the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters in Oslo.

Exercise MITRA SHAKTI is conducted annually as part of military diplomacy and interaction between armies of India & Sri Lanka. The joint exercise for the year 2018-19 will be conducted in Sri Lanka. Troops from 1st Battalion the BIHAR Regiment of the Indian Army and Gemunu Watch Battalion of Sri Lankan Army would be jointly undertaking the exercise. The aim of the exercise is to build and promote close relations between armies of both the countries and to enhance ability of joint exercise commander to take military contingents of both nations under command.

International Day of Happiness is celebrated every year on March 20. The theme for IDH 2019 is 'Happier Together', focusing on what we have in common, rather than what divides us. Since 2013, the United Nations has celebrated the International Day of Happiness as a way to recognize the importance of happiness in the lives of people around the world.

Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan's first and only President, announced his resignation on March 19 after 29 years in power. He has been Kazakhstan's President since 1990 and was formally elected in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union. He received 98 percent of the votes. Nazarbayev would continue to chair the Security Council and remain the leader of the Nur Otan party. Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, speaker of the upper house of parliament, will take over as the country's acting president for the remainder of his term in line with the constitution.

Integral Coach Factory (ICF), the rail coach manufacturing factory at Chennai, which became famous for manufacturing Train 18, has become the single largest rail coach manufacturer in the world surpassing top Chinese manufacturers. The manufacturing facility of Indian Railways in Chennai manufactured 2,919 coaches from April 2018 to February 2019 against 2,600 coaches manufactured by top Chinese manufacturers. ICF has set a target to manufacture 3,200 coaches in this financial year 2019. The ultra-modern 'Train 18' is engine less, with self-propelled coaches like metro was indigenously made at Integral Coach Factory (ICF), Chennai.

The State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank would have to comply with additional capital requirement norms by 1st April 2019 as the banks continue to be in the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s list of Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs) for 2018. D-SIBs are required to maintain higher capital as compared to other banks. It means that these banks are too big to fail and failure of any of these banks will have cascading effect on Indian financial system. The D-SIB framework requires the RBI to disclose the names of banks designated as D-SIBs starting from 2015 and place these banks in appropriate buckets depending upon their Systemic Importance Scores (SISs). SIBs are subjected to higher levels of supervision so as to prevent disruption in financial services in the event of any failure.

The Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a 'Main Bhi Chowkidar' campaign calling everyone who was fighting corruption, social evils and working hard for the progress of India, as watchmen. Prime Minister also shared a 3.45-minute video titled "Take The Pledge", urging people to join Modi on March 31 at 6 p.m. for a video programme titled 'Main Bhi Chowkidar". BJP has also started a unique tech innovation called conversation cards on twitter for this campaign where people will get a personalized message from PM on Twitter on participating in this campaign.

The Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The IBBI and the SEBI seek effective implementation of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (Code) and its allied rules and regulations, which have redefined the debt-equity relationship and aims to promote entrepreneurship and debt market.

The Election Commission of India has appointed transgender social activist Gauri Sawant, as one of the 12 election ambassadors from Maharashtra. She is the first transgender election ambassadors. According to the Election Commission, Gauri Sawant's appointment would help in more people from this category getting registered during the final phase of voters enrollment. It stated that in the next few days, Gauri Sawant would visit every transgender and inspire them about the need for voting.

WhatsApp announced that it has tied up with NASSCOM Foundation, to tackle the challenge of misinformation. With this partnership, Whatsapp aims to reach approximately 100,000 Indians with training to spot false information and provide tips and tricks to stay safe on WhatsApp. The company said that the co-created curriculum encourages people to be mindful about forwarding rumors. The training will include real-world anecdotes, tools which can be used to verify a forward and actions users can take like reporting problematic content to fact checkers and law enforcement also the curriculum will be disseminated in multiple regional languages.

Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) researchers, in collaboration with scientists from France, have discovered the existence of a 'synchronous oscillation' of sea level across the entire Tropical Indian Ocean with a time period of 30 to 80 days during winter months of December to April. In these months, Indian Ocean routinely gains/loses 3 trillion tonnes of water from the Pacific Ocean every 30-80 days accompanied by a sea level rise/fall of 4 cm which is 30% of total sea-level change. This process is driven by intense winds hovering over a small area in the eastern Indian Ocean. This wind is associated with tropical weather phenomenon called Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO). MJOs, being a low-pressure system, is known to facilitate cyclone formation over the Indian Ocean. The study said the waves gain more relevance since MJOs are gradually getting more intense in the warming climate.

Indian psychologist, psychoanalyst and co-founder of the postcolonial theory, Prof. Ashis Nandy has been chosen for the prestigious 2019 Hans Kilian award for his efforts to adapt western traditions of thought such as psychoanalysis to non-western context. With this, he will become the first Asian to receive the prestigious award on May 9 at the Ruhr-University Bochum in Germany. The award is given to researchers whose outstanding scientific achievements provide insight into the historical and cultural existence of humankind and the constantly evolving human psyche. It was instituted by the Kohler Foundation in Germany and named after social psychologist and psychoanalyst Hans Kilian. It is awarded every two years and was first awarded in 2011. The prize includes 80,000 euros.

In marathon, India's Asian champion Gopi Thonakal has qualified for the World Athletics Championships to be held in the Qatari capital Doha in September-October this year. He achieved qualification after finishing 11th in the Seoul International Marathon, clocking his personal best time of 2 hours 13 minutes 39 seconds. Gopi's time is the second best ever by an Indian after the four-decade old national record of 2:12:00, which is held by Shivnath Singh.

A teen pianist from Chennai Lydian Nadhaswaram won a million dollars for his performance on the American reality show 'The World's Best'. The young prodigy also made his debut on The Ellen Show. Lydian Nadhaswaram is also a student of the Chennai-based KM Music Conservatory which is run by A.R. Rahman in Chennai.

Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Sunil Lanba, presided over the day long review session of largest War Game of the Indian Navy - the Theatre Level Operational Readiness Exercise (TROPEX 19) intended to examine the conduct of the exercise and to assess the operational preparedness of the Indian Navy. TROPEX 19 had commenced with Tri-services Amphibious Exercise in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands with participation of Army and Air Force and about 60 ships of the Indian Navy, 12 ships of the Indian Coast Guard and 60 aircraft were part of the exercise. It was the largest in terms of geographical spread covering the IOR and also with regard to the number of participating units.