Current Affairs - March 20, 2020 Current Affairs

Scientists of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR)-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (CSIR-IHBT), Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, has developed a new hand-sanitizer as a preventive measure against Coronavirus.

A Meeting on Research in Indian Traditional Knowledge Systems was held in Delhi on 18 March. The meeting was chaired by the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Mr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

The Ordnance Factory Day is observed on the 18 March. The Ordnance Factories are observing their 219th foundation day this year. The day marks the establishment of the first Ordnance Factory on 18 March 1801. The first factory is known as the 'Gun and Shell Factory' at Cossipore in Kolkata.

The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur and L&T Technology Services have collaborated to carry out joint research in industrial and infrastructure cybersecurity. They will jointly set up a Center of Excellence (CoE) at the IIT Kanpur campus and conduct research in the areas of Honeypot, intrusion detection systems, malware analysis, blockchain, vulnerability assessment and penetration testing and provide cybersecurity awareness and training programs.

The book titled as "Invincible - A Tribute to Manohar Parrikar", authored by Tarun Vijay was released by defence minister Rajnath Singh on 16th March 2020. Manohar Parrikar was a former Chief Minister of Goa and also served as a Defence Minister of India, who passed away on 17th March 2019.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called Coronavirus the nation's biggest since the Second World War.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has recently started the 'Chief Minister Advocate Welfare Scheme' for lawyers. The state will initiate the online registration for the scheme from March 21. The budget for the plan has been fixed at about 50 crores.

A bench of the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) has been set up in Chennai. This bench will look into the cases of southern states.

Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi took oath as a member of Rajya Sabha on 19 March 2020. He was nominated by President Ram Nath Kovind. His nomination to the upper house was made against the vacancy created due to the retirement of senior lawyer KTS Tulsi.

The Centre has proposed Rs. 1, 01,428 crore budget, highest ever budget anticipation, for the Union territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) for the 2020-21 fiscal. The budget was laid by Minister of State (MoS) for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur and presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. The proposed budget is premised on the commitment to make the J&K "a model of development".

Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal announced that Banihal to Katra railway link to be completed by 2022 which is part of the Udhampur- Srinagar-Baramulla rail link project. It is to be completed before the 75th Independence day of India.

Minister of State Independent Charge (IC) of, New & Renewable Energy, (MNRE) and Power, Minister of State of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship Raj Kumar(RK) Singh stated till March 13, 2020, the rooftop solar plants contain an aggregate capacity of 1,922 MW are installed in the country.

The Defence Acquisition Council has approved the proposal to procure 83 indigenously-made Tejas fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force. The move is expected to give a huge boost to India's 'Make in India' campaign.

State Bank of India entered into an agreement to acquire 6.825% (6,825 equity shares) stake of Zero Mass Private Limited (Pvt Ltd).The deal is to be completed by March 31, 2020.As part of the deal, the Bank sold its entire stake in A Little World Pvt Ltd to target the Zero Mass Pvt Ltd.

A resolution that seeks the removal of the phrase "socialism" from the preamble of the Constitution is to be placed in Rajya Sabha on 20 March. The resolution argued that the word is "redundant" in the current scenario, and hence it should be dropped to create space for economic thinking without a particular thought.

National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI), Lucknow has developed a pest-resistant variety of cotton against whiteflies. The field test trials will begin from April to October at the Faridkot Center of Punjab Agriculture University, Ludhiana.

Global Recycling Day is observed globally on 18th March every year. This day was first observed on March 18, 2018, by the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) and celebrated globally every year to raise awareness of the importance of recycling. The Global Recycling Foundation announces "Recycling Heroes" as the theme for third Global Recycling Day.

Google appointed Karan Bajwa as Managing Director (MD) of Google Cloud in India. He will advise Google Cloud's work with the local developer ecosystem and India-based Global System Integrators (GSIs).

The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Yogi Adithyanath has passed the 'Recovery of Damage to Public Properties Ordinance 2020'for recovery of losses due to damage to public property during violent protests.

China reported no new domestic case of COVID-19 virus on March 19, 2020. This is the first time since the virus broke out in Wuhan, China in December 2019.