Current Affairs Update – 20th March, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Current Affairs Update for 20th March, 2015.

• Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (NUS) on 19 March 2015 to improve India’s rating on ease of doing business.
• The MoU aimed to enhance the ease of doing business and bring the rating of India amongst the top 50 countries from the present 142nd slot as per World Bank Report.
• The MoU was signed during the CII Conference on Make in India: Focus North oragnised by CII as part of CII Northern Region’s Annual Regional Meeting.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will shortly put into circulation Rs. 5 coins minted by the Government of India to commemorate 125th birth anniversary of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.
• Observe of the coin shall bear the Lion Capitol of Ashoka Pillar in the centre with Satyamev Jayate inscribed below, along with the word Bharat in Devnagri script and INDIA in English. It will also bear the Rupee symbol and denominational value Rs. 125 in the international numerals below the Lion Capitol.
• The reverse of the coin shall bear the portrait of Jawaharlal Nehru and bear the inscription 125 the birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru in English with the year’s figure “1889-2014″ written below the portrait in international numeral.
• These coins are legal tender as provided in The Coinage Act 2011.The existing coins in this denomination shall also continue to be legal tender.

• In a first, the country's largest border guarding force-- BSF-- will have a woman IPS officer.
• The officer, who has broken the proverbial glass ceiling in the paramilitary force tasked to secure two of the most important Indian borders with Bangladesh and Pakistan, is 1996-batch Himachal Pradesh cadre Satwant Atwal Trivedi.
• Trivedi, who has been posted as the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) in the 50 year-old force, is at present serving as IG (crime and cyber security) in Himachal Pradesh.
• She also holds the distinction of being the first women IPS officer in the hill state.

• The Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA) in Hyderabad clocked 10 million passengers in the financial year 2014-15. Bhanu Khannan who arrived at the airport from a Chennai bound flight emerged as the 10 millionth passenger at the airport.
• This was informed through a press statement issued by the airport authorities on 19 March 2015. The press statement also mentioned the airport’s impressive growth in the passenger traffic and freight volumes.

• Union Ministry of Environment on 19 March 2015 announced to launch National Air Quality Index in April 2015.
• The National Air Quality Index is a simple, composite, and easy to understand measure of air quality.
• The index will measure the eight major pollutants that impact health - particulate matter (PM 10 and PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, ammonia and lead - and disseminate information on associated health risks through a colour-coded easy to identify format.

• The world's first hydrogen-powered tramcar has rolled off the assembly line in China's eastern Shandong Province.
• Liang Jianying, chief engineer of Sifang Co, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China South Rail Corporation, said yesterday the new tram is the only hydrogen powered vehicle in the field and makes China the only country in the world to have mastered the technology.
• Hydrogen fuel cells are a new clean energy source, widely used in the automobile industry, but lagging behind in the field of rail transit.

• The world could suffer a 40 percent shortfall in water in 15 years unless countries dramatically change their use of the resource, a U.N. report warned Friday.
• Many underground water reserves are already running low, while rainfall patterns are predicted to become more erratic with climate change. As the world’s population grows to an expected 9 billion by 2050, more groundwater will be needed for farming, industry and personal consumption.
• The report predicts global water demand will increase by 55 percent by 2050, while reserves dwindle. If current usage trends don’t change, the world will have only 60 percent of the water it needs in 2030, it said.
• The report, released in New Delhi two days before World Water Day, urges policymakers and communities to rethink water policies and calls for more conservation and recycling of wastewater as is done in Singapore. Countries may also want to consider raising the price for water, as well as searching for ways to make water-intensive sectors more efficient and less polluting, it said.

• Nobel laureate Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan on 18 March 2015 was named as the President of Britain's prestigious Royal Society, a communion of the many of the world's most distinguished scientists.
• Ramakrishnan, who will take up the post on the 1 December 2015, will succeed geneticist Sir Paul Nurse, also a Nobel Laureate.
• Nicknamed as Venky, the scientist is based at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge.

• An Indian-American biotechnologist has been named on the Fulbright Specialist Roster -- a prestigious list of experts who provide assistance on projects requiring specialised knowledge
• The endorsement for Rupa Iyer, the Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies of the College of Technology at the University of Houston, was received from the US Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and the Institute of International Education's Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES).
• The Specialist Roster is a prestigious list of experts who provide assistance with projects requiring their specialised knowledge, skills or research.
• The Roster includes a list of all candidates who are eligible to be matched with incoming project requests from overseas academic institutions for Fulbright Specialists.
• Originally from Mumbai, Rupa has been part of the College of Technology since 2005.

• Misbah-ul-Haq and Shaid Afridi left behind many unfulfilled dreams in their successful careers as they bowed out of one-day international cricket after Pakistan crashed to a six-wicket loss to Australia in the quarterfinals of the World Cup, here on Friday.
• The duo had called time on their respective ODI careers before the 50-over showpiece event and if Misbah continues to play in Tests, Afridi will feature only in T20 cricket.
• The 40-year-old Misbah served Pakistan cricket for long but failed to register a single ODI ton in 162 matches since making his international debut in 2001 in a Test match against New Zealand.
• An unflappable middle-order mainstay, Misbah has 42 ODI half-centuries to his credit but doesn’t have a single 50-over ton under his belt. He has accumulated 5,122 runs — the most runs by any player in ODIs without a ton.
• The captain managed 34 in Pakistan’s disappointing 213 all out against Australia in the last-eight game at the Adelaide Oval.
• Afridi, who shot to fame with a then fastest 37-ball hundred against Sri Lanka in his debut ODI series in 1996, became famous as ‘boom boom’ who blew away any opposition with his attacking batting.

• A Book Indian Parliamentary Diplomacy- Speaker’s Perspective written by Meira Kumar was released on 19 March 2015.  Meira Kumar is a former Speaker of Lok Sabha.
• President of India Pranab Mukherjee received first copy of the book from Sumitra Mahajan, Speaker, Lok Sabha who formally released it.
• The book contains number of lessons from the observations of former Speaker Meira Kumar.
• The book is an account of the role of parliamentary diplomacy in furthering foreign policy and strengthening international relations. The volume is a collection of reports and select speeches of Lok Sabha Speaker and leader of Indian Parliamentary Delegations delivered at international conferences and during her visits abroad.

• Former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser died on 20 March 2015 due to a brief illness. He was 84.
• He was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia and the Leader of the Liberal Party from 1975 to 1983.
• He won the largest majority in two subsequent Elections of 1977 and 1980 in Australian political history. He came to power after the dismissal of Gough Whitlam’s Labor government – having first triggered a constitutional crisis by engineering deadlock in the Senate.

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