Current Affairs Update – 16th March, 2016

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the important Current Affairs of 16th March, 2016.

Current Affairs at a Glance – 16th
March, 2016
  1.  Country’s largest lender State Bank of India will extend vehicle loans to driver-partners of
    Uber
    , the on-demand transport aggregation company. All these loans are
    collateral free and carry a very competitive interest rate and will get covered
    under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana.
  2. Union Government on 15 March 2016
    imposed anti-dumping duty of up to 44.7
    percent on import of plastic-processing machines for five years
    . It will be
    implemented on the imports from Chinese Taipei, Malaysia, the Philippines and
    Vietnam.
  3. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Pawan Hans Limited (PHL) signed
    an MoU to set up a joint venture at Rohini
    in Delhi to carry-out the
    maintenance work related to all types of helicopters and address the needs of
    defence and civil markets in India and other countries at India Aviation-2016
    on Wednesday.
  4. Pune-based Maharashtra Institute
    of Technology (MIT) in the second week of March 2016 set up India’s first education technology
    accelerator called
    Edugild. The
    accelerator will be the first one in the country to focus only on the education
    sector.
  5. World Kidney Day (WKD) was observed globally on 10 March 2016 with the
    theme Kidney Disease & Children. Act Early to Prevent It!
  6. The World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) 2016 was observed on 15 March 2016
  7. India-based software engineer Abdulqadir Rashik on 15 March 2016 won the Unite Ideas #LinksSDGs Data
    Visualization Challenge. 
  8. Priyanka Kakodkar and Raksha Kumar on 15 March 2016 were named as joint
    winners of the 2015-16 Chameli Devi Jain Award.
  9. Denmark overtook Switzerland as the world’s happiest place, according
    to a report on Wednesday
    that urged nations regardless of wealth to tackle
    inequality and protect the environment. The report, prepared by the Sustainable
    Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Earth Institute at Columbia
    University, showed Syria, Afghanistan and eight sub-Saharan countries as the 10
    least happy places on earth to live.
  10. The United Nations Development
    Programme (UNDP) on 15 March 2016 suspended
    Maria Sharapova as a goodwill ambassador.
  11. Hollywood actress Ashley Judd has been appointed a goodwill ambassador
    for the U.N. Population
    Fund
    (UNFPA).

Finance/Industry –
SBI to finance Uber’s driver-partners

  • Country’s largest lender State
    Bank of India will extend vehicle loans to driver-partners of Uber, the
    on-demand transport aggregation company.
  • All these loans are collateral
    free and carry a very competitive interest rate and will get covered under the
    Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana.
  • The loans will be sanctioned
    instantly using an inbuilt digital offering.
  • This new product will enable
    thousands of skilled drivers to overcome liquidity crunch and excess
    documentation requirements, to become an entrepreneur, SBI said in statement.
  • Access to quick and easy finance
    will provide necessary push to the growth of SME segment. The boom of on-demand
    transportation business will also provide impetus to the MSME sector.

Union Government imposed anti-dumping duty on plastic-processing
imports
  • Union Government on 15 March 2016
    imposed anti-dumping duty of up to 44.7 percent on import of plastic-processing
    machines for five years. It will be implemented on the imports from Chinese
    Taipei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
  • The duty will be levied on all
    kinds of plastic-processing or injection-moulding machines, also known as
    injection presses.

Country wise levied charges
  • Anti-dumping duty of 27.98
    percent has been imposed on plastic-processing machines imported from Chinese
    Taipei.
  • Safeguard duty of 44.74 percent
    and 30.85 percent has been imposed for the same products imported from Malaysia
    and the Philippines.
  • Imports from Vietnam will attract
    a levy of 23.15 percent.

HAL, PHL sign MoU to set up maintenance work JV

  • Hindustan Aeronautics Limited
    (HAL) and Pawan Hans Limited (PHL) signed an MoU to set up a joint venture at
    Rohini in Delhi to carry-out the maintenance work related to all types of
    helicopters and address the needs of defence and civil markets in India and
    other countries at India Aviation-2016 on Wednesday.
  • Union Civil Aviation Minister
    Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation Rajiv Nayan
    Choubey and CMDs of HAL and PHL T Svarna Raju, and B P Sharma respectively were
    present on the occasion.
  • According to the minister, both
    the companies will form a joint working team and conduct detailed studies, work
    on business plan, time line and other required documents for the success of the
    venture.
  • HAL has been manufacturing and
    overhauling its Cheetah/Chetak and Dhruv helicopters besides providing support
    for Speaking helicopter.The PHL is the largest civil helicopter operator in the
    country.

India –
India’s first education focused accelerator programme Edugild started
at MIT, Pune

  • Pune-based Maharashtra Institute
    of Technology (MIT) in the second week of March 2016 set up India’s first
    education technology accelerator called Edugild. The accelerator will be the
    first one in the country to focus only on the education sector.
  • The programme, in its first year,
    received applications from 300 entrepreneurs focused on the education sector
    from all over the country. Of these, four companies were selected by Edugild
    for its accelerator programme.

The shortlisted start-ups are:
  • Classboat: It helps students to
    find and select classes in the city.
  • Instafeez: It is a Bengaluru
    based start-up which has developed a payment solution. Their services also
    provide a seamless fee reconciliation platform.
  • Simulanis: It is a Delhi-based
    start-up that uses 3D gaming and augmented reality based tools for engineering
    learning.
  • Gradopedia: It is a start-up
    dedicated for graduates to experience simulated job profiles of their
    aspirations and then make a wise choice of the career paths to pursue.

Career Guidance Counselling Centres launched in Delhi to improve
employment opportunities for
women
  • Career Guidance Counselling
    Centres were launched on 14 March 2016 in Delhi-NCR. The centres were set-up to
    provide dedicated career services to young women seeking employment in the region.
  • The career counselling centres
    are set up as part of a collaboration between United Nations Development
    Programme (UNDP), the IKEA Foundation, Xyntéo, and the India Development
    Foundation.
  • The aim of these centres is to
    impact the lives of women in India through training, entrepreneurial skill
    development and employment.
  • The Counselling Centres, which is
    first of its kind for women, is built on the findings of a United Nations
    Development Programme (UNDP) commissioned study.

7th Governing Board meeting of Indo-German Science and Technology
Centre held in New Delhi
  • 7th meeting of the Governing
    Board of the Indo-German Science and Technology Centre (IGSTC) was held on 15
    March 2016 in New Delhi. The meeting was chaired by the Union Science &
    Technology and Earth Sciences Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan.
  • During the meeting, Dr. Vardhan
    highlighted the achievements and progress of IGSTC in accelerating the
    bilateral Science & Technology collaboration.

Main achievements under IGSTC
  • India is investing approximately
    14 million euro for the construction of an India focussed beam line and access
    to the synchrotron facility at PETRA-III in DESY at Hamburg, which will be
    ready for inauguration later in 2016.
  • India is also an equity share
    holder with investment of 36 million euro in the construction of the
    international Facility for Antiproton-Ion Research (FAIR) at Darmstadt.

Days –
World Kidney Day 2016 observed with theme Kidney Disease &
Children. Act Early to Prevent It!

  • World Kidney Day (WKD) was
    observed globally on 10 March 2016 with the theme Kidney Disease &
    Children. Act Early to Prevent It!
  • The theme was taken up to inform
    parents, caregivers, young patients, policy makers and the general public of
    the importance of identifying and treating childhood kidney diseases.
  • The World Kidney Day is annually
    observed on the second Thursday in March.

World Consumer Rights Day 2016 observed with theme Antibiotics off the
Menu

  • The World Consumer Rights Day
    (WCRD) 2016 was observed on 15 March 2016. The day was celebrated by the
    Consumers International (CI) across the world with the theme Antibiotics off
    the Menu.
  • The theme was taken up to ensure
    that fast food companies make a global commitment to stop the sale of meat
    raised with the routine use of antibiotics important to human medicine.

Awards & Honors –
India-based software engineer Abdulqadir Rashik won First Prize in UN
#LinksSDGs Data Visualization
Challenge

  • India-based software engineer
    Abdulqadir Rashik on 15 March 2016 won the Unite Ideas #LinksSDGs Data
    Visualization Challenge. 
  • Rashik, entrepreneur and founder
    of India-based Miavy Systems, was awarded the Challenge’s top prize for his
    submission Links to Sustainable Cities, an interactive visualization that
    identifies and maps the links between Sustainable Development Goal 11,
    Sustainable Cities and Communities, and the other 16 Goals.
  • The project was a collaboration
    between the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ Division
    for Sustainable Development and the Office of Information and Communications
    Technology. 

Priyanka Kakodkar and Raksha Kumar won Chameli Devi Jain Award

  • Priyanka Kakodkar and Raksha
    Kumar on 15 March 2016 were named as joint winners of the 2015-16 Chameli Devi
    Jain Award. They were awarded for their work that clubs social concern and
    compassion with pioneering reportage and analytical skills.
  • Kakodkar’s reports, which
    targeted on the acute farming crisis in Maharashtra, were published on the
    front page of The Times of India in the year 2015. More than 50 of her reports
    were published in a year by the paper.
  • Independent journalist Raksha
    Kumar won the honour as her reports focused on the perilous features of the
    Union Government’s proposal to amend the Land Acquisition Act, the Forest
    Rights Act and the Coal Act.

Lists/Reports –
Denmark world’s happiest country, Burundi least: report

  • Denmark overtook Switzerland as
    the world’s happiest place, according to a report on Wednesday that urged
    nations regardless of wealth to tackle inequality and protect the environment.
  • The report, prepared by the
    Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Earth Institute at
    Columbia University, showed Syria, Afghanistan and eight sub-Saharan countries
    as the 10 least happy places on earth to live.
  • The top 10 this year were
    Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Canada, Netherlands, New
    Zealand, Australia, and Sweden. Denmark was in third place last year, behind
    Switzerland and Iceland.
  • The bottom 10 were Madagascar,
    Tanzania, Liberia, Guinea, Rwanda, Benin, Afghanistan, Togo, Syria and Burundi.
  • The United States came in at 13,
    the United Kingdom at 23, France at 32, and Italy at 50.

Appointments/Resignations –
UN suspended Maria Sharapova as goodwill ambassador after doping
allegations
  • The United Nations Development
    Programme (UNDP) on 15 March 2016 suspended Maria Sharapova as a goodwill
    ambassador.
  • The five-time grand slam winner
    who became a goodwill ambassador in February 2007 was suspended after she
    tested positive for the banned substance meldonium at 2016 Australian Open.
  • The New York based UNDP in a
    statement said that it was suspending Sharapova, who worked as a goodwill
    Ambassador, until the outcome of the investigation into her case is known.

Ashley Judd appointed U.N. Goodwill Ambassador

  • Hollywood actress Ashley Judd has
    been appointed a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA).
  • In a press conference, the
    “Divergent” and “Double Jeopardy” actress said she was honoured to be an
    advocate for women’s rights.
  • Other celebrity UN Ambassadors
    include: David Beckham, Emma Watson, and Angelina Jolie.

Books & Authors –
Gandhi: An Illustrated Biography authored by Pramod Kapoor
  • Gandhi: An Illustrated Biography
    authored by Pramod Kapoor was in news in the second week of March 2016.  It is a biography of Mahatma Gandhi who
    played a key role in Indian independence movement.
  • The book is an intimate study
    into the evolution of a mischievous, fun-loving boy, into the Mahatma. It also
    seeks to decode Gandhi for modern generation.
  • The chronological text and
    accompanying photographs in the book bring out Gandhi’s unique complexities –
    his failures and successes, the intimate relations he shared with his
    contemporaries, and the difficult one he shared with his own family.

:: DOWNLOAD TODAY’S PDF ::

Regards

Team ExamPundit

Sponsored

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});