Current Affairs Update – 12th to 14th March, 2016

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs from 12th to 14th March, 2016.

• Country’s largest private sector
  lender ICICI Bank today said it has tied up with marquee sports car maker
  Ferrari to launch co-branded credit card.
• “The ‘Ferrari Credit Card’ comes
  in two variants on the Visa platform and offers customers a host of offers
  including an all-expenses-paid trip for top spenders to Italy and also includes
  a Scuderia Ferrari watch as a joining gift,” the bank said in a statement here.
• Details of the fees, if any, were
  not immediately shared by the bank. ICICI bank’s General Manager Kusal Roy said
  this is the first-ever Ferrari range of credit cards in the country.
• The bank had over 34.69 lakh
  outstanding credit cards as of November, that saw transactions of over Rs 2,393
  crore at ATMs and POS terminals.
• Other benefits which come with
  the card include discount on Ferrari branded products at the Ferrari Store in
  Maranello, Italy, and merchandise sold online at the Ferrari Store and Myntra.com,
  the statement said.
• The cardholder also gets
  complementary access to domestic airport lounges in the country and a ‘buy one,
  get one free’ offer on bookings done through bookmyshow.com, it added.

• In the run-up to the next BRICS
  Summit to be held here this year, Yes Bank today inked a pact with the India
  Brazil Chamber of Commerce for cooperation in knowledge sharing, consultancy,
  skill and technology.
• Yes Bank has signed a strategic
  Memorandum of Understanding with India Brazil Chamber of Commerce (IBCC) to
  enable significant cooperation in terms of knowledge partnerships, project
  consultancy, B2B opportunities, skill and technology initiatives.
• The core sectors covered in the
  MoU will be sports, media and entertainment with special focus on IT,
  infrastructure, broadcast driven business opportunities.
• The MoU also seeks for building
  ground for innovative business integrations for businesses from India and Brazil.
• Yes Bank said the MoU signing
  comes in the run up to the 8th Annual BRICS Summit, to be held in New Delhi
  this year.
• Further, Yes Bank and IBCC will
  jointly endeavour to explore exchange of best practices in sports goods
  manufacturing, CSR in sports, SM&E talent management.
• IBCC will also recommend Yes Bank
  as the preferred bank to Brazilian companies looking to do business in India,
  it said.

• Global software major Wipro on
  Monday announced winning a multi-year contract to develop a new IT platform for
  Danish energy firm NRGi’s operations.
• The Northern European state is
  opening up its energy sector and tweaking its regulatory policy to ensure transparency
  for consumers, energy suppliers and utility firms in a competitive market.
• As a strategic IT partner, the
  outsourcing major will design, build, host and deploy a customer information
  system (CIS) for the utility provider in a platform as a service (PaaS) model.

• India Inc. on 12 March 2016
  formally adopted the United Nations’ (UN) agenda for the world’s sustainable
  development and the 17 goals identified for its implementation in Mumbai.
• The 11th National Convention on
  Sustainable Development Goals organized by the Global Compact Network in
  Mumbai, which was inaugurated by Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar,
  assumed significance as this is for the first time the UN is involving private
  and public sector corporates globally to drive its development agenda. This was
  the first such meeting which was held globally.

• India and the International
  Monetary Fund (IMF) on 12 March 2016 signed an agreement to set up a South Asia
  Regional Training and Technical Assistance Center (SARTTAC) for training
  officials in dealing with macro-economic and financial issues.
• A memorandum of understanding
  (MoU) to set up the centre was signed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and IMF
  Managing Director Christine Lagarde in New Delhi in the presence of Prime
  Minister Narendra Modi.
• The SARTTAC will become the focal
  point for planning, co-ordinating and implementing IMF’s capacity development
  activity in the region on a wide range of issues.

• ACC, Wipro, Reliance Industries,
  Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Power are among India’s most sustainable
  companies, a new survey by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) said.
• The industry chamber on Monday
  announced ‘Sustainable Plus’ labels for 100 largest companies by market capitalisation
  across 20 sectors.
• Awarded across three levels
  (platinum, gold and bronze), corporate sustainability label ‘Sustainable Plus’
  is based on a comprehensive analysis of companies across environment, social
  and governance dimensions of business, CII said in a release.
• ACC, Wipro, Reliance Industries,
  Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Power, Tata Motors, Tata Chemicals, Hindustan
  Zinc, Vedanta and ITC were given Sustainable Plus Platinum.
• Seven companies got Sustainable
  Plus Gold, and the remaining 83 got Sustainable Plus Bronze, the survey said.

• Union Minister for Health &
  Family Welfare JP Nadda on 13 March 2016 launched Project ‘Clean Street Food’.
  The project of Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) aims at to
  raise the safety standards of foods sold on streets across the capital city of
  New Delhi.
• In the first phase of the
  project, about 20000 roadside vendors will be trained on aspects of health and
  hygiene.

• FSSAI will partner with the
  Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship to train street food
  vendors at more than 40 centres across Delhi
• The food vendors will receive
  training under the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) category of the
  Government’s flagship skills training scheme – Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas
  Yojana (PMKVY).
• Under the Delhi Project, 20000
  food street vendors would be trained, assessed and certified by seven training
  partners over the next four weeks at 40 training centres set up for the purpose
  across Delhi.
• The Tourism and Hospitality
  Sector Skill Council (THSC), an affiliate of the National Skill Development
  Corporation, Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship will be the
  training provider under the Project.

• India on 14 March 2016 successfully
  test-fired indigenously built nuclear-capable intermediate range Agni-I
  ballistic missile. It was launched from launch pad-4 of the Integrated Test
  Range (ITR) at Abdul Kalam Island (Wheeler Island) on the Odisha coast.
• The trial was as part of training
  exercise by the Strategic Forces Command (SFC) of Indian Army.
• The sophisticated missile covered
  700 km distance within 9 minutes and 36 seconds.
• The latest trial of Agni-I
  followed the first successful test-fire that was conducted on 27 November 2015
  from the same base.

• Maharashtra Cabinet on 1 March
  2016 approved the Maharashtra Prohibition of Social Boycott Bill, 2016. The
  bill provides for the prohibition of social boycott of a person or group of
  persons including their family members by an individual or a group like Caste
  Panchayat.
• Once the bill is approved by the
  State legislature, Maharashtra will become the first State in the country to
  enact a law against social boycott.

• The social boycott is prohibited
  and its commission shall be an offence.
• The maximum punishment for social
  boycotting will be 7 years in prison or fine up to 5 lakh rupees or both.
• The maximum punishment for
  extending aid in relation to the commission of offence will be 3 years or 3
  lakh rupees or both.
• The victim or any member of his
  family may file a complaint either through the police or directly to the
  Magistrate.
• To ensure speedy justice, the
  trial shall be completed within a period of six months from the date of filing
  of the charge sheet.

• A 250 km-long protest march
  against plans to build Rampal Power Station, Indo-Bangladesh coal-fired power
  plant near the Sundarbans, was kick-started on 10 March 2016.
• The protest march calls for
  scrapping the project that supposedly will harm the ecosystem of the world’s
  largest mangrove forest.
• Environmentalists, cultural and
  political activists, and eminent individuals began the four-day march from
  Jatiya Press Club in Dhaka to persuade the Bangladeshi Government to drop its
  backing for construction of the plants near the Sundarbans, an area of rice
  paddies, shrimp farms and vast mangrove forests.

• RITES (Public Sector Enterprise
  under Ministry of Railways) signed a contract to supply 18 Meter Gauge 1350 HP
  Diesel Electric Locomotives to Myanmar Railways. This supply will help Myanmar
  to meet increasing demand for passenger and freight traffic.
• This contract was signed at Naypyitaw,
  Myanmar on 4 March 2016.
• The supply contract of
  locomotives is a vital project being funded under an existing line of credit
  extended to Myanmar by Union Government. These locomotives will be manufactured
  by Diesel Locomotive Works, Varanasi with several modern features like
  microprocessor controls, fuel-efficient engine and ergonomic cab design etc.

• India and the US on 11 March 2016
  launched the Fulbright – Kalam Climate Fellowship. The fellowship programme
  will enable Indian research scholars to work with American institutions in the
  field of climate change.
• Under the fellowship will 6
  Indian PhD students and post-doctoral researchers will be sponsored to work
  with US institutions for a period up to one year.
• The first call for applicants was
  announced for the fellowship jointly funded by both the governments. The
  fellowship will be operated by the bi-national US-India Educational Foundation
  (USIEF) under the umbrella of the prestigious Fulbright programme.

• Union Minister of State (IC) for
  Power, Coal and New & Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal on 11 March 2016
  announced the name ‘UJALA’ for the LED based Domestic Efficient Lighting
  Programme (DELP).
• DELP is currently running
  successfully in over 120 cities across India.
• UJALA, an acronym for Unnat Jyoti
  by Affordable LEDs for All, is being implemented by Energy Efficiency Services
  Limited (EESL).
• The National LED programme was
  launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 2015 with a target of
  replacing 77 crore incandescent lamps with LED bulbs.
• UJALA is successfully running
  across 12 states in India namely Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala,
  Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Puducherry, Jharkhand,
  Bihar and Uttarakhand. While more states are expected to join the initiative
  very soon.

• Maritime India Summit 2016 (MIS
  2016), the maiden flagship initiative of the Union Ministry of Shipping, will
  be organised from 14 to 16 April 2016 at Bombay Convention and Exhibition
  Centre, Mumbai. Republic of Korea is the partner country for MIS 2016.
• The summit will provide a unique
  global platform for investors to explore potential business opportunities in
  the Indian Maritime Sector.
• The conference aims to foster
  interaction between stakeholders through B2B and G2B meetings. It will have
  special sessions on factors and services related to Indian Maritime Sector.
• The conference will also
  highlight investment opportunities in the Indian Maritime States and Union
  Territories.

• Kerala Tourism’s campaign on
  responsible tourism on 11 March 2016 bagged the prestigious Golden City Gate
  Award at the world’s leading travel trade show Internationale Tourismus-Borse
  Berlin (ITB-Berlin) 2016.
• The multimedia campaign, titled
  New Worlds, won the silver prize of 2016 Das Golden Stadttor or Golden City
  Gate, also known as the Oscar of tourism communication, at the ITB-Berlin 2016.
• The winning campaign that contained
  three short films was directed by Malayalam filmmaker Anwar Rasheed.
• Wolfgang Jo Huschert, President,
  Jury of the Golden City Gate Award presented the award to Abraham George,
  President, Kerala Travel Mart.
• Kerala Tourism had earlier won
  the Ulysses Prize of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) for
  its contribution as a global leader to sustainable tourism.

• A Palestinian primary school
  teacher from a refugee camp, Hanan Al Hroub, on 13 March 2016 won one million
  dollar Global Teacher Prize. She was awarded for her outstanding contribution
  to the profession.
• Hroub, who runs the Samiha Khalil
  High School in Al-Bireh, Palestine, defeated nine other finalists from around
  the world, including India’s Robin Chaurasiya to win the award.
• The 2016 Winner of the Global
  Teacher Prize was announced by Pope Francis in a ceremony held at the Atlantis
  Palm Hotel in Dubai.
• Hroub uses a specialist approach
  in her school, which she developed, detailed in her book ‘We Play and Learn’ to
  overcome tense environments of the region under the shadow of the
  Israel-Palestine conflict.

• UNESCO on 12 March 2016 signed an
  agreement with CJ Welfare Foundation to start a pre-school animation series
  Rainbow Ruby to support girls’ education globally. The agreement was signed
  during the 2016 Global Education and Skills Forum, hosted by the Varkey
  Foundation in partnership with UNESCO.
• UNESCO joined a global
  partnership centered on an animation based character for its key initiative for
  the first time.
• The partnership builds between
  UNESCO and CJ E&M builds on the Better Life for Girls campaign which was
  launched in November 2014. It aims to help address the lack of access to
  quality education faced by girls in developing regions.

• Europe and Russia on 14 March
  2016 launched an unmanned spacecraft, named ExoMars 2016, to smell Mars’
  atmosphere for gassy evidence that life once existed on the Red Planet, or may
  still be.
• ExoMars 2016, the first of a
  two-phase Mars exploration, was hoisted from Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan
  on a Russian Proton rocket.
• With its suite of high-tech
  instruments, the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) shall arrive at the Red Planet on 19
  October 2016 after completing a seven month long journey of 496 million
  kilometers through space.
• A key goal of the mission is to
  analyse methane, a gas which on Earth is created in large part by living
  microbes, and traces of which were observed by previous Mars missions.

• The 13th meeting of Broadband
  Commission for Sustainable Development was held on 14 March 2016 in Dubai,
  United Arab Emirates (UAE). The meeting was held to promote the power of
  broadband networks and services for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
  Development.
• It brought the leaders from the
  public, private and social sectors together to seek the solutions to achieving
  education, equity and employment for all. The Broadband Commission also
  discussed among other issues like how to innovate in education through
  technology.
• The full meeting of the
  Commission revisited the issue of new broadband targets to help achieve Sustainable
  Development Goals (SDGs).

• 4th World Congress of Biosphere
  Reserves was inaugurated on 14 March 2016 at Lima in Peru. The event will be
  held from 14 March to 17 March 2016 to address different issues related to the
  Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Post 2015 Development Agenda.
• It is a world meeting of the
  Committees of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Program (MAB) and experts directly
  involved in the practical implementation of biosphere reserves including
  representatives of governments, biosphere reserves, local communities, UN
  agencies, NGOs, academic institutions, and organizations and institutions from
  all over the world working with the MAB Programme.

• Services on 13 March 2016 won the
  Santosh Trophy National Football Championships title. In the summit clash at
  SEC Railway Stadium in Nagpur, Services defeated host Maharashtra 2-1.
• Arjun Tudu, a national camper for
  the SAFF Cup in 2015, scored twice in the space of 11 minutes (26th and 37th)
  to help Services clinch their fifth title overall.
• Services took away 5 lakh rupees
  for winning the tournament while Maharashtra got 3 lakh rupees for finishing
  runners-up.

• China’s Lin Dan on 13 March 2016
  earned his sixth All England badminton title. In the summit clash in
  Birmingham, Dan defeated compatriot Tian Houwei 21-9, 21-10.
• Dan, also a five times world
  champion and double Olympic champion, secured his sixth championship 12 years
  after his first and four years after his last.
• Lin, nicknamed Super Dan by his
  fans, added the title to his collection of wins in 2004, 2006, 2007, 2009 and
  2012.
• In the women’s final later,
  Nozomi Okuhara of Japan defeated two-time champion Wang Shixian of China 21-11,
  16-21, 21-19.

• Noted plant physiologist and
  alumnus of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, H Deep Saini, has been
  appointed the next vice-chancellor of the prestigious University of Canberra.
• Saini, 60, currently the
  vice-president of the University of Toronto and principal of the University of
  Toronto Mississauga campus in Canada, will succeed vice-chancellor Stephen
  Parker in September who steps down from the post in July after over nine years.
• Chancellor and chair of
  university council Tom Calma AO said the university’s governing body was
  delighted that the internationally experienced university leader and
  academician has agreed to become the University of Canberra’s fifth
  vice-chancellor.

• Lloyd Stowell Shapley, an
  American mathematician and Nobel Prize-winning economist, died on 12 March
  2016. He was 92.
• Shapley, who contributed to the
  fields of mathematical economics and especially game theory, won the Nobel
  Prize for economics in 2012.

• Internationally renowned Jazz
  vocalist Ernestine Anderson died on 10 March 2016 in Seattle. She was 87.
• Over the course of a six-decade
  career, she received four Grammy nominations and released more than 30 albums.
• She sang along with music legends
  Russell Jacquet, Eddie Heywood, Shifty Henry and Johnny Otis and gained
  notoriety in the early 1940’s. She also performed with a Seattle contemporary
  and fellow Garfield High School graduate Quincy Jones, another famous black
  American musician.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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