Test : March 2019 Weekly Current Affair - 3" - Current Affairs MCQ

On 7th March 2019, India entered into a deal with Russia for leasing of a nuclear – powered attack submarine for Indian Navy worth USD 3 billion for a period of 10 years. Under the pact, Russia will deliver Chakra III, a Akula class submarine to the Indian Navy by 2025. It will be the 3rd Russian submarine to be leased to Indian Navy.India earlier leased christened INS Chakra which is the first Russian nuclear powered submarine in 1988 under a 3 year lease. The second lease was INS Chakra in 2012 for a period of 10 years.The lease period as per the agreement for Chakra II will expire in 2022 and the Indian government is looking at extending the lease period.

On 7th March 2019, Maharashtra government launched a special scheme ‘Atal Aahar Yojna’ for construction workers in the state which will provide good quality food at a highly subsidised rate. The target is set to cover 20000 workers and provide them with good quality food at a nominal cost of Rs.5 is the first phase of the scheme.The government is already providing a Subsidy of Rs.4.5 lakh to labourers for house construction and is planning to provide help in education, income and health as well.Maharashtra government also launched Shramev Jayate Yojana under which a pension of Rs.3000 is given to construction workers above the age of 60 years. If the worker died, the pension will be given to his widow.

For improving drainage infrastructure in Dibrugarh town of Assam, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Government of India signed a loan agreement of USD 26-million in New Delhi. It was signed by Sameer Kumar Khare, Additional Secretary in Department of Economic Affairs and Hoe Yun Jeong, India Resident Mission of ADB.The loan provided is additional financing under the ongoing loan of USD 51 million under Assam Urban Infrastructure Investment Program (AUIIP) which is helping to improve water supply infrastructure in major cities of Assam like Guwahati and Dibrugarh.ADB approved the Multi-tranche Financing Facility (MFF) for the AUIIP for an amount of USD 200 million comprising of two Tranches on 30 September 2011.The ADB’s ongoing India portfolio comprises of 80 projects worth USD 4.3 billion in the public sector and USD 1.6 billion in the private sector.

For the amicable settlement of Ayodhya’s Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute case, the five-judge bench, headed by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi, constituted a three-member mediation panel headed by former Supreme Court (SC) judge Justice F. M. Kalifullah to resolve the issue.The other members of the panel include spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and Senior Advocate Sriram Panchu.The proceedings in the case will be held in Faizabad.The panel of mediators will file a progress report of the mediation proceedings within 4 weeks and the process will be completed within 8 weeks.They may co-opt more members and in case of any difficulty, inform the Supreme Court registry.14 appeals have been filed in the Supreme Court against the 2010 Allahabad High Court judgment, delivered in 4 civil suits, that the 2.77-acre land in Ayodhya be partitioned equally among the 3 parties – the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lala.

On 8th March 2019, the State Bank of India (SBI) became the first bank to link its interest rate on savings account with balance above Rs. 1 lakh and short-term loans to the repo rate of the Reserve Bank of India. This shall be effective from 1st May 2019.The current repo rate of RBI is 6.25%.The bank will link savings accounts with balance greater than Rs. 1 lakh to repo rate at current effective rate of 3.5% (2.75 percentage points lower than the current repo rate of 6.25%).All cash credit accounts and overdrafts having limits greater than Rs. 1 lakh shall also be linked to the benchmark policy rate, plus a spread of 2.25%—amounting to 8.5%.A risk premium, above 8.5%, will be charged on these loans on the basis of the risk profile of the borrower.The interest rate on home loans will continue to be determined by MCLR (marginal cost of funds-based lending rate).

On 9th March 2019, Subhash Chandra Garg, the Economic Affairs Secretary was appointed as the Finance Secretary by the Personnel Ministry. His appointment was approved the by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet which is led by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is an IAS officer from the 1983 batch and belongs to the Rajasthan cadre. He has succeeded Ajay Narayan Jha, the former Finance Secretary who retired on February 28, 2019 and is a member of the 15th Finance Commission.

On 10th March 2019, China lifted its broadband communication system by launching a Long March – 3B carrier rocket with ‘ChinaSat 6C’ into a geostationary orbit in Sichuan province. Key Points i. The‘ChinaSat 6C’ was launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province. It is a 19 story tall rocket which is expected to provide high quality radio and television transmission services. ii. It marked 300th launch of the Long March carrier rocket series which was developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and will be operated by China Satellite Communications Co. Ltd. iii. The satellite will cover China, Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific Island Countries. Nearly 97% of China’s total launch missions was on Long March rocket series. iv. China has built 17 types of Long March rocket with five of them being retired. The first carrier rocket A Long March-1 with first satellite Dong fanghong 1 launched by China in 1970.

Finland’s Prime Minister Juha Sipila, along with his cabinet, resigned after failing to push through parliament plans to overhaul health services and social care in the face of an aging population, just a few weeks before the general elections.He tendered his resignation to President Sauli Niinisto, who asked him to stay on as caretaker until the elections in April 2019.Statistics Finland has estimated that more than a quarter of the population will be aged over 65 by 2030, making a more cost-effective welfare state a top priority.The Prime Minister’s proposed solutions included creating regional authorities for health and welfare services, rather than the local municipalities that currently manage the system, and offering including private companies in the healthcare system to a greater extent to offer “freedom of choice”.The plan involved a drastic reorganization of the way health care is administered at a local level as well as a greater role for the private sector.

The President of Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas appointed Mohammad Shtayyeh as the Palestinian Prime Minister. Mohammad Shtayyeh succeeds Rami al-Hamdallah who resigned from this post 6 weeks ago.He is 61 years old and is a member of the central committee of the president’s Fatah party.He is a former minister who had earlier participated in numerous negotiating teams of Palestine during United States-brokered talks with Israel.

Bank of Baroda has become one of the first public sector banks to launch a crèche/child day-care facility for children of its employees.The day-care facility has been launched at its Mumbai corporate office in Bandra Kurla Complex and is being mulled further on being implemented at the head office in Vadodara, Gujarat.The bank will bear 60% of the cost incurred every month and rest 40% will be borne by the parents.The bank has tied up with Klay Prep Schools and Daycare for launching this facility.

Defence Research and Defence Organisation (DRDO) successfully test fired the Guided Pinaka weapons system from Pokhran ranges in Rajasthan. The two rockets, which were tested using the guided Pinaka system, succeeded in hitting the 90-km mark signalling a boost in the efficiency, as the rockets had touched the 70-km mark in their last trials, held in May, 2018.The weapon system is equipped with state-of-the-art guidance kit comprising of an advanced navigation and control system.The Telemetry Systems tracked and monitored the vehicle all through the flight path.The indigenously developed Guided Pinaka by DRDO will significantly boost the capability of the artillery to make precision hits.

On 9th March 2019, The Indian Sundarban was accorded with the status of ‘Wetland of International Importance’ in the Ramsar Convention. Indian Sundarban which is also a UNESCO (The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) world heritage site, is home to the Royal Bengal Tiger.Indian Sundarban met four out of nine criteria required for the status, which are presence of rare species and threatened ecological communities, biological diversity, significant and representative fish and fish spawning ground and migration path.Ramsar status will help to highlight conservation issues of the Sundarbans at the international level at the time when concerns have been raised about natural ecosystems being changed for cultivation of shrimp, crab, molluscs and fish.International Importance also called Ramsar Convention, is an international agreement promoting the conservation and wise use of wetlands. It is the only global treaty which focus on a single ecosystem.

The first-ever International Beach Volleyball Tournament is creating a buzz on the windswept shores of Visakhapatnam. Ramakrishna Beach is now equipped with floodlights, white sand filling (on the court), a seating capacity of 5,000 , and shower facility for players besides other supporting infrastructure. The tournament is promoted by Leisure Sports Management in collaboration with International Volleyball Federation, Volleyball Federation of India and AP and Vizag Volleyball Association. Fifty-six teams from different countries are vying for the title as they will battle wind, sun, rain and each other. Czech Republic’s Martina Bonnerova and Martina Maixnerova concluded their FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Vizag Open campaign with a gold medal. Armin Dollinger and Simon Kulzer of Germany claimed their first ever FIVB World Tour gold medal.

The 3rd edition of the series of bilateral joint exercise between the armies of India and Oman, called Exercise Al Nagah III, commenced on 12th March 2019 and will continue till 25th March 2019 at Jabel Al Akhdar Mountains in Oman where both the armies will be exchanging expertise in tactics, weapon handling and firing, in order to enhance inter operability in counter-terrorist operations in semi urban mountainous terrain.The Indian Army contingent will be represented by 4 Officers, 9 Junior Commissioned Officers and 47 other ranks of 10th Battalion of the Garhwal Rifles and a similar strength will be showcased by Jabel Regiment of Royal Army of Oman (RAO).The first two joint exercises were held in Oman in January 2015 and India in March 2017 respectively.

Corp Ease– which is a mobile banking app in 10regional languages, was launched by P.V Bharathi. Under its CSR scheme, the bank declared that it would provide funds to the Shivamogga Institute of Medical Sciences for buying three haemodialysis machines.A Walkathon from the bank’s Centenary Library to the head office was organised for the bank employees, articulating the bank’s motto, “Prosperity for all”.

On 12th March 2019, Rakesh Makhija was appointed as the non-executive chairman of Axis Bank. He would start serving on this post from 18th July 2019 and will do so for a period of 3 years.He succeeds Sanjiv Misra.He has been appointed on the basis of recommendations from Nomination and Remuneration Committee of Directors and the board of directors of the bank.His appointment is subject to the approval of the Reserve Bank of India and the bank’s shareholders.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to use a new tool for the first time to enhance liquidity in the system using which it will buy $5 billion from the banks in a swap deal that is capable of injecting around Rs. 35,000 crores into the system.Banks will have to deposit dollar funds with RBI with the condition of buying them back from RBI after 3 years.The first-ever auction of this kind involving US dollar buy/sell swap will happen on 26th March 2019.Minimum bid size for the auction has been fixed at $25 million and multiple bids submission by banks will be allowed. However, the aggregate amount of bids submitted by single eligible entity should not exceed the notified amount of auction.

Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) successfully test fired indigenously developed, low weight, fire and forget Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile (MPATGM) for the second time in the Pokhran ranges of Rajasthan desert.MPATGM is incorporated with advanced features including state-of-the-art Imaging Infrared Radar (IIR) Seeker with integrated avionics.The first test was conducted on 13th March 2019.

On 13th March 2019, Australia beat India by 35 runs to win their first bilateral One Day International (ODI) series against India since 2016. It was India’s 1st ODI series defeat at home since 2015.Usman Khawaja won the player of the series.