Test : March 2019 Weekly Current Affair - 2" - Current Affairs MCQ

Indian Bank, a Public Sector Bank (PSB), headquartered at Chennai, Tamil Nadu has been awarded the Best Bank Award by the Tamil Nadu government for successfully meeting the needs of women’s self-help groups (SHGs). The award was given to MK Bhattacharya, the executive director of Indian Bank by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu K Palaniswami at Salem, Tamil Nadu.

PM Modi launched ‘One Nation, One Card’ for transport mobility in Ahmedabad,Gujarat.It is first of this kind scheme in India.It will enable people to pay multiple kinds of transport charges including metro services and toll taxes across the country using National Common Mobility Card (NCMC). Indigenously developed NCMC is a merge of RuPay Card with the mobility card. As a result people can withdraw money using NCMC on RuPay card.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched SWAGAT – the Automatic Fare Collection Gating System by Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) as part of the inaugural of Phase I of the Ahmedabad Metro.It is an initiative by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) in collaboration with BEL and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) with the support of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) and State Bank of India (SBI) and in keeping with the spirit of Make in India, Digital India and Skill India.It is compliant with the National Common Mobility Card (NCMC) ecosystem for hassle-free commute across India and has also received EMVCo certification by FIME Lab, France.It is the first indigenous system and the first ever outside the developed world and can operate across all cities and all modes of transport to make ‘One Nation – One Card’ a reality.It is designed and developed by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), a R&D organization of the Ministry of Electronics & IT.Features of SWAGAT: Mobility cum debit / credit card. It will be implemented across all modes of transport, be it Metro, Trains or Buses. Will work across all cities. Fare collection made simple, automatic, cashless and easy. Improves the efficiency of fare collection.

In order to boost rural income across 13 states in India, World Bank shall provide $250 million support to the National Rural Economic Transformation Project (NRETP). The agreement was signed between the World Bank and Government of India. The Agreement was signed in New Delhi by Mr. Sameer Kumar Khare, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, on behalf of the Government of India and Mr. Hisham Abdo, Acting Country Director, World Bank India. Key Points: i. The loan aims to help rural women entrepreneurs in setting up their businesses related to farm and non-farm products. ii. The loan has a 5-year grace period with a final maturity of 20 years. iii. National Rural Economic Transformation Project (NRETP) is an add-on to the National Rural Livelihoods Project (NRLP) worth $500-million, which was approved by the World Bank in July 2011. iv. The National Rural Livelihoods Project (NRLP) currently spans across 13 states, 162 districts and 575 blocks. It has integrated 8.8 million women from poor rural households into 7.5 lakh self-help groups (SHGs).

President Ram Nath Kovind presented the Swachh Survekhshan 2019 Awards in New Delhi and appreciated those who are taking active part in cleanliness drive in the country.Indore bagged award for cleanest city for third straight year in Swachh Survekshan.New Delhi Municipal Council area gets cleanest small city award while Uttarakhand’s Gauchar was adjudged Best Ganga Town in the survey.Top ranked cities received a statue of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi as award for their work towards cleanliness.Swachh Survekshan 2019 covered all Urban Local Bodies in the country, making it the largest such cleanliness survey in the world.

Cabinet approved the Investment in construction of Kiru Hydroelectric Project (624MW) by M/s Chenab Valley Power Projects Private Limited (M/s CVPPL) in Jammu and Kashmir with an estimated cost of Rs.4287.59 crore.

The Union cabinet approved the MoU between India and Germany on Cooperation in the field of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) which was renewed on 13th November 2018. The collaboration has greatly helped in adopting the modern training techniques and tools on various aspects of OSH in different sectors of economic activity. Under the MoU, German Social Accident Insurance (DGUV) through the International Social Security Association (ISSA) is bringing in know how to meet the OSH challenges, especially in the construction and manufacturing sector. It will benefit the large work force by improving their safety and health, and preventing occupational injuries and diseases. The cooperation is expected to result in capacity building of Directorate General Factory Advice Service and Labour Institutes (DGFASLI), the technical arm and attached office of Ministry of Labour, India & Chief Inspector of Factories Officers (CIFs) in the field of OSH, Strengthening of Inspection system for meeting emerging challenges, upgradation of laboratories for carrying out applied research in the area of OSH, Development of OSH Standards and development in Safety Culture for enhancing the well-being of the Indian workforce.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) and National Health Authority (NHA) have formed a joint working group (JWG) in order to suggest ways for more effective implementation of the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).The group would comprise of 11 members.It will be headed by Dinesh Arora, Deputy CEO of NHA and co-headed by Suresh Mathur, Executive Director of IRDAI.The group shall prepare a report on management of hospitals under the scheme, data management and exchange, development of IT infrastructure for claims.12 months will be given to submit a report on a national repository of empanelled hospitals under insurance/government schemes. with defined standards for quality and package rates and codes.The group will get 3 months to submit a report on data standardisation and exchange.In 6 months it would have to make recommendations to detect and avoid frauds by building a common repository and through capacity-building.

The president of French space agency CNES (Centre national d’études spatiales), Jean-Yves Le Gall and K Sivan, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), signed an agreement in Bengaluru, to implement the short-term plan for the French-Indian programme to develop a space-based maritime surveillance system. The CNES-ISRO agreement, intended to supply an operational system for detecting, identifying and tracking ships in the Indian Ocean, provides for a maritime surveillance centre to be set up in India in May 2019.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launched a new scheme called Yuvashree Plan II or Yuvashree Arpan under which 50,000 youths will receive financial assistance of Rs 1 lakh for setting up an their own business initiatives.Youngsters passing out of Industrial training institute (ITI) or other polytechnic institute will be eligible to get financial support from the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) department.The Chief Minister on this occasion also laid foundation stone of various developmental projects including the first Hindi university in West Bengal in Arupara, Howrah district and Rs 1,488 crore drinking water project at Purba Medinipur that will benefit more than 12 lakh people.Foundation stone of projects worth Rs 1,071 crore including drinking water project that would benefit more than 8 lakh people inaugurated Bankura.She announced that the Health and Family Welfare department office would be set up on three acre land beside Nabanna.She also inaugurated nearly 217 projects worth more than Rs 1,300 crore at the programme.

Soumya Swaminathan who is currently a Deputy Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been appointed as the Chief Scientist of the World Health Organisation (WHO). She used to be one of the 3 Deputy Director-General assisting Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.The Chief Scientist is a newly created position and division.This new division is the Department of Digital Health, in the Division of the Chief Scientist. She will oversee the digital work and help the department in assessing digital technologies, and help countries in deciding as to how to to prioritise, integrate and regulate them.

On 7th March 2019, Hardeep S Puri, Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs launched e-Dharti App to make all the three modules – Conversion, Substitution and Mutation online.e-Dharti GeoPortal was also launched by Hardeep Puri to allow the lessee of the property to see the basic details of property along with its location on map.Government will be able to know the actual status of its vacant properties through the App.The Payment system in Land and Development Office (L&DO) has been digitized and now, public can submit their application online through L&DO website.

The International Women’s Day was observed on 8th March 2019. The theme for this year is Think equal, build smart, innovate for change. On this occasion, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed the Women and Child Development Ministry and the Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Ministry, which aims to impart skill-training and employment to women.The WCD Ministry will involve RMK (Rashtriya Mahila Kosh) to get majority of women to join the Mahila e haat- a digital platform for selling products that are made by women.The MoU shall be valid for 3 years and will be jointly implemented by Rashtriya Mahila Kosh and the National Skill Development Council.Nari Shakti Puraskar 2018 was presented by President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind in New Delhi.It has been awarded to a One Stop Centre (OSC) and to a state which has shown exceptional progress in improving child sex ratio at birth under the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme.

President Ram Nath Kovind approved Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teacher’s Cadre) Ordinance 2019 which will restore 200-point roster system for faculty recruitment.The decision will allow filling up of more than 5000 vacancies by direct recruitment in Teachers’ cadre duly ensuring that the Constitutional provisions of Articles 14, 16 and 21 are complied with and reservation criteria for the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and Socially and Economically backward classes are met with.It is expected to improve the teaching standards in the higher educational institutions to attract all eligible talented candidates.

A 5-member committee to examine issues related to framing of a proper and structured scheme for providing of insurance cover to the advocates and to suggest modalities for the implementation of such a scheme has been set up by the Union Minister for Law & Justice, Ravi Shankar Prasad under the chairmanship of Secretary Legal Affairs, Dr Alok Srivastava.Other members of the committee will include a senior representative from the Department of Financial Services and representative of the Department of legal affairs. The committee will also have one representative each from Bar Council of India and State Bar Councils.The committee has to submit its reports within 3 months.The committee shall also suggest the modalities of administration of the insurance scheme under a high powered body with adequate representatives of all stakeholders.