Test: March 2021 Weekly Current Affair - 2 - UPSC MCQ

Ambassador of India to Thailand Suchitra Durai received the prestigious King Bhumibol World Soil Day – 2020 Award of Food and Agriculture Organization on the behalf of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

Marking the importance of “International Women’s Day”, Google India kick-started a new web platform ‘Women Will’ to empower Indian women.
This platform will provide its support to 1 million rural women in India to become entrepreneurs.

DBS Bank India announced its partnership with TRRAIN (Trust for Retailers & Retail Associates of India), a non-profit engaged in training and placement of youth in e-commerce & retail sectors.

International Women’s Day celebrated on March 8 every to honour women, salute their courage, celebrate their success and raise awareness about women’s equality.
This year, the theme for International Women’s Day is “Choose To Challenge”.

Titan-owned youth accessories brand Fastrack has partnered country’s largest public sector bank Yono-State Bank of India (SBI) to enter the smart wearable category of fitness bands with digital payment component under its sub-brand Reflex in order to strengthen the company’s foothold in the wearables category for the youth.

The India – Uzbekistan joint military exercise DUSTLIK II commenced in Foreign Training Node Chaubatia, Ranikhet in Uttarakhand.

Switzerland replaced the Netherlands at the top of UNCTAD’s Business-to-Consumer E-commerce Index 2020, which ranks 152 countries on their readiness to engage in online commerce.

Ishraq Ali Khan has taken over as executive director (ED) of state-owned UCO Bank. He joined the bank on March 10.

India has emerged as the fifth most attractive growth destination, slipping one position after being surpassed by the United Kingdom, according to a global survey of chief executive officers.

The Maharashtra government launched a women empowerment scheme to increase the participation of rural women across fields. Mahasamruddhi Mahila Sashaktikaran scheme was come into effect on March 8.

The 2020 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership has been awarded to Mahamadou Issoufou, President of Niger, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation announced.

France launched its first military exercise in space to evaluate its ability to defend its satellites and other defense equipment from an attack.
The exercise, codenamed “AsterX” in memory of the first French satellite from 1965, will be based on 18 simulated events in an operations room.

ISRO has completed development of a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) capable of producing extremely high-resolution images for a joint earth observation satellite mission with the US space agency NASA. NASA-ISRO SAR (NISAR) is a joint collaboration for a dual-frequency L and S-band SAR for earth observation.
NISAR will be the first satellite mission to use two different radar frequencies (L-band and S-band) to measure changes in our planet’s surface less than a centimeter across.
The mission is targeted to launch in early 2022 from ISRO’s Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh’s Nellore district, about 100 kms north of Chennai.

The first M K Arjunan Master award was conferred on lyricist Sreekumaran Thampi The event was organised by M K Arjunan Master Foundation in association with Medical Trust Hospital.

The Dharwad-headquartered Karnataka Vikas Grameen Bank (KVGB) has launched the ‘Vikas Asha’ loan scheme for women.

Lt. Governor of Puducherry Tamilisai Soundararajan was presented the Top 20 Global Women of Excellence Award for 2020 at a US event.
She joined a league of extraordinary women achievers across the world chosen for the award, including US Vice President Kamala Harris.

The football club Mumbai City FC defeated ATK Mohun Bagan 2-0 in the final league game to clinch the 2020-21 Indian Super League (ISL) Winners Shield.

S Srimathy has assumed charge as Executive Director of Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) with effect from March 10.

Ujjivan Small Finance Bank has announced the launch of a “Women Savings Account” catering to the financial needs of women.
‘Garima Savings Account’, as the product has been named, will offer multiple customised benefits to women, including up to a maximum of 7% rate of interest on the savings account.

Captain of the India women’s team, Mithali Raj became the first woman cricketer from the country and only the second overall to score 10000 international runs.

The Jammu and Kashmir administration distributed tablets among auxiliary nursing midwives (ANMs) and launched ANMOL, an application under the national health mission for identification and tracking of beneficiaries.

India’s premier off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin was named the ICC men’s Player for the Month of February for his stellar show against England in a four-match Test series at home which India won to qualify for the World Test Championship final.
England’s Tammy Beaumont was adjudged the women’s Player of the Month.

Markets regulator Sebi cancelled the certificate of registration of Sahara India Financial Corporation Ltd as a sub-broker citing its failure to fulfill the “fit and proper” criteria.

Singapore was the top source of foreign direct investment (FDI) into India in the first nine months of FY21 at $15.7 billion, followed by the US at $12.82 billion with Mauritius at the third position at $3.47 billion.
Gujarat garnered the highest share of FDI in the period at $21.23 billion followed by Maharashtra at $13.63 billion.

WE Hub, India’s first and only state-led incubator to foster and promote women entrepreneurship to start up, scale up and accelerate with global market access, announced ‘UPSurge’, a collaboration with the Australian government.