Current Affairs Update – 19th March, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the current affairs for 19th March 2015.

• To encourage investment in research and entrepreneurial activities in the biotechnology field, the government has asked the RBI to declare it as a priority sector to make lending easy for start-ups, Union Minister Y S Chowdary said.
• The Minister of State for Science and Technology said his ministry is also working with the Finance Ministry to boost spending in the sector.
• The minister was speaking on the sidelines of a function organised by the Biotechnology Industry Research and Assistance Council (BIRAC) -- a PSU under the Department of the Biotechnology under the Ministry of Science and Technology.
• Pushing for a greater assistance under the newly announced MUDRA Bank in the Union Budget, the minister said that the biotechnology sector should take advantage this newly announced bank.
• Micro Units Development Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Bank, with a corpus of Rs 20,000 crore and credit guarantee corpus of Rs 3,000 crore will help in lending money to small and medium size industries and start-ups.

• In keeping with his Budget announcement, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday constituted the ‘Kayakalp’ Council and appointed industrialist Ratan Tata as its head.
• In, perhaps, a first, the Minister also included two key employee representatives in the council. The Railways has about 1.55 million employees and is considered one of the world’s largest employers.
• The purpose of the council is to recommend innovative methods and processes for the improvement, betterment and transformation of the Indian Railways, the Ministry said in a statement.
• The other members of the Council will be announced in due course.
• This setting up of the council was announced by Prabhu while presenting the Railway Budget 2015-16 in Parliament on February 26. “Every dynamic and thriving organisation needs to innovate and re-invent its practices. In accordance with the vision of Prime Minister for Innovation, Technology Development and Manufacturing, the Indian Railways intend to set up an innovation council called “Kayakalp” for the purpose of business re-engineering and introducing a spirit of innovative in Railways” , he had said.

• Wildlife Management of Palvancha on 18 March 2014 announced eco-restoration project for Kinnersani Sanctuary in Telangana.
• The project will be implemented in 716 hectares of land under the Kinnerasani Wildlife Sanctuary limits in Kothagudem Mandal with an estimated cost of 60 lakh rupees.
• The objective of the project is to reverse the damage caused to ecology due to human intervention and restore the degraded ecosystem in the sanctuary.
• In order to restore the ecology of Kinnersani Sanctuary, a total of 26 deer had been shifted from three different deer parks to the eco-restoration project site and are being released into the wild in a phased manner in strict adherence to the safety precautions and rules in force.
• Also, a plan is on the anvil to shift a few more deer from Kinnerasani Deer Park to the project site at Chintonichelka in view of the excess population of deer in the park beyond its stipulated capacity.

• National Green Tribunal (NGT) on 18 March 2015 directed the Indian Railways to impose a fine of 5000 rupees on individuals spotted littering or throwing waste on the railway platforms and railway tracks.
• The order was given with an aim to implement the genesis of Swacch Bharat Abhiyan and was passed by a bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar.
• The Bench said that maintaining clean environment and hygiene at the stations and tracks is the prime duty of the Railway authorities and it cannot shift the burden in this regard to any other department.
• The bench passed a slew of directions to Railways and other authorities for maintaining cleanliness on railway tracks. The directions are as follows:
• Place dustbins after identifying exact locations for collection of garbage in 46 slum clusters adjoining railway tracks.
• For collection and disposal of municipal solid wastes, it directed the Railways to collect, transport and treat the waste at the treatment plants instead of directly releasing the garbage into sewer system.
• Install mobile toilets near slum clusters in order to control pollution caused by plastic products and human defecation around railway tracks.

• Indigenously developed Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air-to-air missile, Astra, was successfully test fired at the Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur in Odisha on 18 March 2015. It was test-fired aboard a Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft.
• The present test was a part of the series of tests planned to test the missile’s subsystems like propulsion, navigation and guidance and the smooth separation of the missile from the aircraft, etc. 
• Further, the test was intended to prove the missile’s manoeuvring capability against a simulated target and also to validate various subsystems.
• The previous test was conducted on 04 May 2014 from a Naval Range in the Western Sector.
• Astra is a beyond visual range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) that is capable of engaging its target at ranges of 37 km or beyond. Astra missile has operational range of 60km.

• It is India’s first BVR air-to-air missile. The all-weather missile was indigeniously designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
• It is a state-of-the-art missile in the sense that it travels at supersonic speed (4780 km/h), possesses Single Shot Kill Probability (SSKP) with active radar terminal guidance, uses smokeless propulsion system to evade enemy radars and has the capacity to engage in multi-target scenario.

• Maharashtra Government on 18 March 2015 announced to rename Girgaum Chowpatty as Swaraj Bhoomi to honour veteran freedom fighter Bal Gangadhar Tilak.
• Girgaum Chowpatty is the oldest and most famous beach of Mumbai, Maharashtra. It remains one of the best spots from which to see the sunset in Mumbai.
• The demand was raised by the Lokmanya Tilak Gaurav Samiti. They demanded that the spot at Chowpatty where Lokmanya Tilak was cremated, and where a garden stands now, should be called Swaraj Bhoomi. He died on 1 August 1920.

• India, growing in confidence with every match, thrashed Bangladesh by 109 runs on Thursday in the quarter-finals of the World Cup.
• The defending world champions made light work of their clash at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, outclassing their Asian neighbours to stretch their unbeaten run at the tournament to seven games.
• India has bowled out its opponents in all seven matches it has played at the World Cup, another ominous warning for its remaining challengers.
• India will now play either against Australia or Pakistan in the semi-finals in Sydney next week and on current form, they will be hard to beat.

• Mahendra Singh Dhoni on Thursday achieved the memorable milestone of recording 100 ODI wins as captain after leading India to a resounding victory against Bangladesh in the cricket World Cup quarterfinals, here on Thursday.
• Dhoni is the first non-Australian captain to achieve the feat — in his 178th ODI — as he got past South Africa’s Hansie Cronje, who won 99 ODIs for his side. Ricky Ponting, with 165 ODI wins as captain, and Allan Border (107) are the two Australian greats leading the chart in the 50-overs format.
• Dhoni, who remains the only captain to win all three ICC tournaments — World T20 (2007), World Cup (2011) and Champions Trophy (2013), has also recorded 11 straight wins, including 4 in the last edition, in the showpiece event and is second only to Australia’s winning streak of 24 games under Ponting (21) and Steve Waugh (3).
• The Jharkhand hero has also registered the highest number of knockout wins (9) in ICC tournaments. He has gone past Ponting’s 8 wins.

• Indian recurve mixed team of Sanjay Boro and Madhu Vedwan beat Indonesia 20-19 in a shoot off to win the gold at Asia Cup Stage 2 archery competition here today.
• The Indian duo edged out Philippines 5-1 in semifinals and Chinese Taipei 6-2 in the quarters.
• In the compound mixed team event, Vikas Rajan and V Jyothi Surekha lost to Philippines 153-155 to settle for silver.

• Five middle-income countries (MICs) which displayed strong economic growth in 2014 – India, Brazil, China, Mexico and Indonesia – account for 363 million, or a half, of the world’s hungry, according to a report released on Wednesday by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
• The 2014–2015 Global Food Policy Report (GFPR) called on Governments of these middle income countries to reshape their food systems to focus on nutrition and health, close the gender gap in agriculture, and improve rural infrastructure to ensure food security for all.
• The study noted that distribution specifics needed to be ironed out for India’s National Food Security Act that aims to provide subsidised food to 67 per cent of the population, while it also praised the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana scheme that aimed to open 7.5 crore bank accounts for poor households.
• The report highlighted the link between sanitation and nutrition, using findings from Bangladesh to show reduction in open defecation helped reduce the number of stunted children who were taller than those living in comparable areas with similar economic standing in West Bengal.
• Of the five countries highlighted in the IFPRI study, India measured poorest in terms of stunted children at 47.9 per cent, as compared to 35.6 per cent in Indonesia, 14 per cent in Mexico, 9.4 per cent in China and 7.1 per cent in Brazil.
• Only 8 per cent of young respondents – those under 30 – believed that global hunger could be eliminated by 2025. Nearly 70 per cent of respondents were dissatisfied with food policies in their own countries and a significant perception gap existed between sexes with only 23 per cent of women satisfied with prevalent food security measures as compared to 44 per cent of men.

• The first global conference on Dalit rights will be held here to increase awareness about injustices faced by nearly 260 million people across the globe including in India due to caste-based discrimination.
• The three-day conference on 'Defending Dalit Rights' entitled 'Establishing Justice, Dignity, Equality and Humanity' is being organised by the International Commission for Dalit Rights (ICDR) and Global Conference Organizing Committee (GCOC) from today at Trinity Washington University.
• At the conclusion of the conference, GCOC will announce its strategy and the Declaration of Dalit Rights during a human chain demonstration in front of the White House, a statement has said.
• The demonstration will implore US President Barack Obama and Congress members to support Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton's House Resolution that calls for Congress to condemn discrimination against Dalit people.

• As gender discussions increasingly take centre stage in and outside the country, Kerala is gearing up to host a global conference on gender equality with the participation of thinkers, scholars, field experts, professionals and policymakers from around the world.
• The Gender Park, an institution under the state department of Social Justice, is organising the three-day International Conference on Gender Equality (ICGE -I) here with the support of UN Women from November 12-14. It is envisaged to be the country's first such large-scale exercise in creating a space to share knowledge and global experiences in reducing gender inequalities, said officials of Gender Park, which has already made a notable social impact with the women-run 'She Taxi' initiative.
• "Gender, Governance and Inclusion" is the core theme of the conference that will discuss issues ranging from citizenship, globalisation, work, governance, health and education to masculinities, disability and the role of media.
• Gender Park CEO Dr P TM Sunish said the conference would build on the success of initiatives such as the all-women taxi cab 'She Taxi', which is being adopted by other states as a powerful model for women's entrepreneurship and a means to ensuring their social and financial security.

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