DAILY CURRENT
AFFAIRS: 21ST MAR 2017
1. GOVERNMENT APPROVES SOLAR ENERGY
SCHEME FOR SMALL POWERLOOM UNITS
i. Shri Ajay Tamta, The Minister of
State for Textiles, informed the Lok Sabha that the Government has approved a
new scheme, Solar Energy Scheme, to provide financial assistance/capital
subsidy to small powerloom units, for installation of Solar Photo Voltaic plant.
ii. Its aim is to mitigate the
problem of power cut/ shortage faced by decentralized powerloom units in the
country so as to improve efficiency, utilization, productivity to face both the
domestic and international markets competitively.
iii. The Scheme is meant for Units
having 04, 06 & 08 powerlooms and subsidies for different SPV plants will
be given in the range of Rs 2,25,000 to Rs 8,55,000 depending upon the capacity
of the SPV plant.
iv. The Scheme will come into force
with effect from April 1, 2017.
v. Under the Solar Energy Scheme, the
Solar Photo Voltaic (SPV) plant will be implemented in two modes:On-Grid Solar
Power Plant and Off-Grid Solar Power Plant.
2. INDIA’S LONGEST ROAD TUNNEL,
CHENENI-NASHIRI TUNNEL READY FOR OPENING
i. The longest road tunnel of India
built at Cheneni in Jammu’s Udhampur district has successfully completed its
trail run and is ready for public opening.
ii. The longest tunnel connecting
Chenani and Nashiri town is likely to be inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi by the
end of March.
iii. The trial run was successfully
carried out between March 9-15 during both peak and non peak hours.
iv. The 9-km-long tunnel passes
through the Himalayas and is a part of the 286-km-long four-lane project on
Jammu- Srinagar National Highway.
v. The tunnel is 1st in India to be
equipped with world class integrated tunnel control system through which
ventilation, signals, fire control, communication and electrical systems will
be automatically actuated.
3. UNION CABINET CLEARS 4 GST
SUPPLEMENTARY LEGISLATIONS FOR INTRODUCTION TO PARLIAMENT
i. The Union Cabinet chaired by PM
Shri Narendra Modi has approved the 4 supporting GST legislations on March 20.
ii. The 4 supporting legislations are
the Compensation Law, the Central-GST, Integrated-GST and Union Territory-GST.
iii. Once the Parliament approves the
Bill, the states would start taking their SGST bill for discussion and passage
in the respective state assemblies.
iv. Once the new GST regime is into
effect it will subsume central taxes like excise and service tax and state
levies like VAT.
v. A composite GST will be charged on
sale of goods or rendering of services while the revenue would be shared
between the Centre and the states in almost equal proportion.
4. FIVE INDIANS NAMED IN WEF’S 100
YOUNG GLOBAL LEADERS LIST 2017
i. The annual World Economic Forum’s
100 Young Global Leaders list released for the year 2017 have given place to
five Indians for their innovative approaches.
ii. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder
& CEO PayTm, Shruti Shibulal, The Tamara Hospitality,Ambarish Mitra,
Founder and CEO of Blippar, a mobile phone app.
iii. Hindol Sengupta and Rwitwika
Bhattacharya-Agarwal, Editor-at-large, Fortune India and Founder and CEO of
Swaniti Initiative.
5. ITALY RANKED WORLD’S HEALTHIEST
COUNTRY BY BLOOMBERG 2017 INDEX
i. According to the 2017 Bloomberg
Global Health Index of 163 countries released, Italy has been ranked as the
healthiest country on Earth with a health score of 97.44 out of 100.
ii. The reason behind the healthy
citizens of Italy is cited to lot of dependence on leafy diets drizzled with
extra virgin olive oil. Besides, Italy also has excess of Doctors in the
country.
iii. The least healthiest states
comprised of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and West Virginia and were
considered that more than 35% of their populations faced obese.
iv. Each country in the index was
graded based on variables such as life expectancy, causes of death and health
risks ranging from high blood pressure and tobacco use to malnutrition and the
availability of clean water.
6. HAZIRA’S FIRST PRIVATE SECTOR
TOWNSHIP TO GO CASHLESS
i. Essar Steel’s Nand Niketan
township at Hazira, Gujarat has become the 1st private township to go cashless
with the help of Mumbai-based financial technology company, The Hazira's 1st
private sector township to go cashless Mobile Wallet.
ii. TMW will provide smartphone based
application for mastercard-enabled mobile wallets and the wallet is powered by
RBL Bank Ltd.
iii. All Essar employees got a
nominal part of their salary as a credit into their TMW wallets. Essar
employees and their families residing, merchants and shop owners in this
township now using mobile wallet for their daily needs.
iv. Rs 2 lakh digital transactions
are being executed every day through TMW.
7. ICICI BANK LAUNCHES NEW APP ‘MERA
IMOBILE’,FOR RURAL CUSTOMERS
i. Mumbai based ICICI Bank launched
1st banking mobile application ‘Mera iMobile’ to provide agricultural
information in 11 Indian languages for rural people without internet
connection.
ii. Its Purpose is to access banking
services and get information on agricultural services
iii. Mera iMobile app provides
services include Gold Loan, Kisan Credit Card, Farm Equipment Loan and loans to
Self-Help Groups.
iv. It will provide agriculture
related information like crop-wise mandi prices of nearly 230 crop varieties
across 460 mandis.
v. ICICI bank planned to introduce
Wifi hostpots at its 700 rural and semi urban branches.
8. SNAPDEAL NAMES JASON KOTHARI AS
NEW FREECHARGE CEO
i. Jason Kothari was appointed as
Chief Executive Officer of Freecharge by Indian e-commerce company Snapdeal
CEO, Kunal Bahl.
ii. Kothari is succeedor of Govind
Rajan and currently working as the Chief
Strategy Officer of snapdeal since January 2017.
9. GOVERNMENT SWAPS CHIEF EXECUTIVES
OF IDBI BANK, INDIAN BANK
i. For the 1st time, the central
government has swapped the CEO of state-owned Indian Bank and IDBI Bank. It
will be effective from the beginning of the next fiscal year.
ii. MD & CEO of Indian Bank,
Mahesh Kumar Jain was shifted to IDBI Bank’s MD & CEO.
iv. Kishore Piraji Kharat has been
appointed as Managing Director and CEO of Indian Bank.
10. INTERNATIONAL DAY OF HAPPINESS:
MARCH 20, 2017
i. The International Day of Happiness
is celebrated worldwide on March 20 since 2013 to educate and increase public
awareness of the benefits of happiness.
ii. According to the 2017 World
Happiness Report, released by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network,
Norway has been ranked as the happiest country of the world among 155 nations.
India was placed at 122nd position in the World Happiness Report.
11. WORLD SPARROW DAY: MARCH 20, 2017
i. World Sparrow Day is celebrated
every year on March 20 across the world since 2010 to raise awareness about the
importance of birds dwelling in urban areas.
ii. Its aim is to educate the public
about the threat of polluted urban environments and non-caring humans to the
house sparrow population, as well as to other common bird species.
iii. This day was initiated by the
Nature Forever Society of India in collaboration with the Eco-Sys Action
Foundation (France).
OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS BASED ON TODAY’S NEWS
Q1. HOW MANY INDIAN HAS BEEN NAMED IN
THE 2017 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM’S 100 YOUNG GLOBAL LEADERS LIST?
a)
Five
b)
Four
c)
Six
d)
Seven
Q2. WHEN IS THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF
HAPPINESS OBSERVED?
a)
March 21
b)
March 19
c)
March 20
d)
March 18
Q3. THE SOLAR ENERGY SCHEME APPROVED
BY THE GOVERNMENT FOR SMALL POWERLOOM UNITS WILL COME INTO EFFECT FROM WHICH
DATE?
a)
May 1, 2017
b)
April 30, 2017
c)
March 31, 2017
d)
April 1, 2017
Q4. WHO HAS BEEN APPOINTED AS THE NEW
MD & CEO OF THE INDIAN BANK?
a)
P Srinivasan
b)
Kishore Piraji Kharat
c)
Ravindra Prabhakar Marathe
d) Mahesh Kumar
Jain
Q5. THE NAND NIKETAN TOWNSHIP WHICH
BECAME INDIA’S FIRST PRIVATE SECTOR TOWNSHIP TO GO FULLY CASHLESS IS LOCATED IN
WHICH STATE?
a)
Madhya Pradesh
b)
Bihar
c)
Gujarat
d)
Rajasthan
ANSWERS:
1 - A 2 - C 3 - D 4
- B 5 - C
