Test: March 2020 Weekly Current Affair - 1 - UPSC MCQ

Indian Air Force (IAF) and Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) signed a MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) to establish a Chair of Excellence named “Marshal of the Air Force Arjan Singh Chair of Excellence” at Department of Defense & Strategic Studies at Pune, Maharashtra.

The Muhyiddin bin Haji Muhammad Yassin (former deputy PM) took oath of office as Malaysia’s 8th Prime Minister(PM) at National Palace in Kuala Lumpur. He is from Malaysian United Indigenous Party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM). He succeeds 94-year-old Mahathir bin Mohamad, who abruptly resigned & was in office since the general elections 2018.

Assam’s Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal was honoured with Swarajya Awards 2020 under the category, Dr. Syama Prasad Mukherjee Award for Politics at the 6th India Ideas Conclave at Tent City Narmada in Gujarat. The award is instituted by India Foundation & Indic Academy. He received the award for his work in integrating the nation, & to take Mukherjee’s vision & philosophy forward.
Winners List

The 2020 Mexican Open (27th edition) officially known as Abierto Mexicano Telcel (AMT) presentado por HSBC (Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation), a lawn tennis tournament was held at Acapulco, Mexico between 24 and 29 February 2020. It was played on Outdoor Hard Court Surface. Rafael Nadal wins the Mexican open tournament for the 3rd time and it is his 85th ATP title overall (Men’s singles category).

Senior athletics coach & Dronacharya awardee Joginder Singh Saini, who trained some of India’s finest track and field stars, passed away at the age of 90, in Patiala, Punjab, due to age related problems. He served as the chief national athletics coach for many years from the year 1970 to 1990.

Zero Discrimination is celebrated annually on March 1 to challenge the discrimination faced by women & girls, to raise awareness & mobilize action to promote equality & empowerment for women & girls. The theme for 2020 is “Zero Discrimination aganist Women & Girls”. The symbol for this day is Butterfly.

Indian digital payments platform Paytm’s subsidiary, Paytm Insurance Broking, has received the brokerage licence from the Insurance Regulatory and Authority of India (IRDAI).

State Bank of India (SBI) has switched to “Cash Budget Based Assessment (CBBA)” from “Projected Balance Sheet (PBS)” method of Fund Based Working Capital (FBWC) limits for assessment of the working capital requirement for corporates or large advances. CBBA of limits has been initiated for assessment of the FBWC limits for units with total FBWC exposure of more than 50 crores from the banking system.

Global agency Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in its report titled “OECD Interim Economic Assessment Coronavirus: The world economy at risk” has trimmed India’s real GDP (Gross Domestic Product) growth forecast to 5.1% from the earlier projection of 6.2% for 2020 due to the impact of deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) on the domestic as well as the global economy. For 2021, India’s real GDP growth is projected at 5.6% from the earlier forcast of 6.4%. Fitch has lowered the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India for the Fiscal Year 20 (FY20) from 5.1% to 4.9%.

The Indian Science Congress association (ISCA) announced that Pune will host the annual session of 108th Indian Science Congress on January 3-7, 2021 at Symbiosis International University’s Lavale campus with the theme,” Science and Technology for Sustainable Development with Women Empowerment”.

The Minister of State (MoS) for Tourism & Culture, Shri Prahlad Singh Patel has launched the multilingual version of ‘Incredible India’ website and mobile app in New Delhi with the aim to provide more information about India’s tourist destinations, attractions, experiences, and where the value lies. The website was earlier hosted only in English & Hindi and now it has been launched in 3 new languages i.e. Chinese, Arabic and Spanish.

During the India tour of New Zealand (Between January – March 2020), Ross Taylor became the 1st New Zealand male cricketer to play 100 matches in all three formats of cricket.

The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (MoPP&P) has issued a format for filing complaints of corruption against public servants with the Lokpal or anti-corruption ombudsman under Lokpal (Complaint) Rules, 2020. The Lokpal rules has been laid down under the Section 59 of the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act 2013. Any false and vexatious complaint is punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year and with fine which may extend to Rs 1 Lakh.

Luxembourg, the 7th smallest country in Europe, has become the 1st country in the world to make public transport free from February 29, 2020 inorder to reduce traffic pressure on the road.

According to the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), an Apex Development Financial Institution in India, it has granted Rs 1.46 lakh crore in the rural banking system during the current fiscal-FY (2019-20) with the aim to help them get their resources effectively for handling the credit needs of rural people, including farmers.

The Ministry of Finance has released figures related to various schemes having special provisions for empowerment of women. As per the data, more than 81% account holders under Stand Up India Scheme are women (As on 17 Feb 2020).

Jadav Payeng, an environmental activist of Assam also known as the “Forest man of India” named as 128th winner of Commonwealth Points of Light Award. He earned the name Forest man of India by spending 30 years of his life planting trees. He was honored by the Head of Common Wealth the Queen Elizabeth II for his exceptional volunteer service in environmental conservation.

According to the Uber ‘s recent regulatory filings, Zomato, an Indian restaurant aggregator and food delivery startup has acquired Uber’s food delivery business in India, Uber Eats for $206 million, where the investment was priced at $171 million, the balance $35 million was received as a reimbursement of goods and services tax (GST) receivable from Zomato.

According to the International Cricket Council (ICC) T20I (Twenty-twenty International) rankings 2020 for Women players, the 16-year-old Indian opener Shafali Verma climbed 19 places to reach the top with 761 points. She replaced New Zealand’s Suzie Bates down a notch, who now have 750 points.
Here’s the list of top3 & Indian players in ICC T20 ranking 2020:

The Union Cabinet has approved the mega consolidation of following ten PSBs into four which would be effective from 1.4.2020.

The above amalgamation will be in addition to State Bank of India (SBI), Bank of Baroda (BoB), and Bank of India (BoI) comprises of 7 Big PSBs. There were 27 PSBs in 2017 and now there would be 12 (7 big PSB + 5 Small PSB). The five smaller PSBs are Central Bank of India (CBI), Indian Overseas Bank (IOB), UCO Bank, Bank of Maharashtra (BOM), and Punjab and Sind Bank.

Chief Minister (CM) of Uttarakhand Trivendra Singh Rawat announced Gairsain (Chamoli District) as the summer capital of the state, on the 3rd day of the budget session held in Gairsain, Uttarakhand. The Dehradun will act as Winter Capital now.

Supreme Court (SC) has lifted ban on trading in virtual currency, cryptocurrency and bitcoins by cancelling the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) 2018 circular that barred banks from serving companies dealing in cryptocurrency exchanges. The decision in this regard has been taken by the three-judge Bench headed by Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman. Cryptocurrency is used to move money between bank and a client which usually runs on a blockchain technology. Blockchain is a type of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has introduced a scheme namely “LLP Settlement Scheme, 2020” for limited liability partnership (LLPs) by allowing a one-time condonation of delay in filing statutorily required documents with the Registrar of Office (ROC). In simplified language, it means the scheme is providing a three-month window from 16th March, 2020 to 13th June, 2020 to LLPs for completing overdue or delayed filings of four forms which were due for filing till 31st October, 2019. Also, the additional fee on these forms is reduced to Rs. 10 from Rs. 100 per day of delay with upper cap of Rs. 5,000 per form.

The Department of Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers (C&F), in association with Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry- FICCI is organising India Pharma 2020 & India Medical Device 2020 Conference & Exhibition at Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat from March 5-7, 2020. The was inaugurated by the Chemicals & Fertilizers Minister Sadananda Gowda MoS (C&F) & Mansukh Mandviya (C&F Minister).
Theme of the conference: “India Pharma: Meeting Challenges of Affordable and Quality Healthcare and India Medical Device: Promoting Affordable responsible and Quality Medical Device for Universal Health Care”.

The Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) has consituted a committee headed by Naresh Chandra Saxena, former member of the Planning Commission of India and of the National Advisory Council (NAC), to examine and recommend Community Forest Resources (CFR) Guidelines under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 (FRA).