Current Affairs Update – 30th March, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the current affairs update for 30th March, 2015.

• Corporation Bank and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Mangaluru on Monday for implementing ‘Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana’ (PMJJBY), the central government’s scheme to bring the entire nation under the ambit of insurance coverage.
• Under PMJJBY, Corporation Bank’s Aadhar-linked savings account holders will be eligible for life insurance up to ₹2 lakh for a premium of ₹330 (plus service tax) per annum.
• According to the press release, a master policy under ‘Group Insurance Scheme’, which is voluntary for the customers, will be issued by LIC. The eligible age of the customer shall be between 18 years and 50 years. Enrolment period will be from first June to August 31 2015 or as extended by the Govt, it said.
• SK Roy, Chairman of LIC of India, awarded a trophy to Corporation Bank. The bank release said that the trophy was awarded to the bank for becoming number one in premium collection under bancassurance business.
• The bank’s premium collection for the current year has crossed ₹170 crore. The release said that the bank is targeting to collect premium of more than ₹500 crore in 2015-16.
• SK Roy, Chairman of LIC of India, and SR Bansal, Chairman and Managing Director of Corporation Bank, attended the programme in Mangaluru on Monday.

• Max Life Insurance and Lakshmi Vilas Bank have entered into a 5 year bancassurance tie-up for distribution of the former’s life insurance products through the 400 branches of the private sector bank.
• Under this alliance, Lakshmi Vilas Bank has become a corporate agent for Max Life Insurance and will offer a complete bouquet of life insurance solutions and post sales services to its customers.
• The tie up will help Max Life Insurance reach out to an additional 25 lakh customers of the Karur-headquartered bank and strengthen its multi-channel distribution channel, primarily in the southern region, where Lakshmi Vilas Bank has a strong presence. Currently, over 20% of the new business for Max Life comes from South India. Of the total 400 branches of Lakshmi Vilas Bank, as many as 320 are located in South India.
• Lakshmi Vilas Bank, which started distributing financial products from 2002-03 to increase its fee-based income, is looking at the alliance to enhance the insurance product bouquet.

• A late surge among top European countries, including Germany, France, Britain, and now Russia along with Australia to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), has imparted a new sense of realism to Beijing’s Silk Road plans.
• If implemented, they are likely to shift the global balance of economic power towards Eurasia.
• On Saturday, Russia, Australia and the Netherlands, announced its decision to join the China-led AIIB. The decision of key European powers along with South Korea to join the bank, overriding strong objections from the United States, has split the Atlantic Alliance on this issue.
• The AIIB’s apparent success has now brought into sharper focus China’s ‘One belt One Road’ initiative which requires massive investment, including finance from the $40 billion Silk Road fund, which the Chinese have separately established.
• In order to ensure that there are no funding shortfalls, an action plan released on Saturday by the Chinese government has asked countries along the Belt and Road to ensure that currency swap arrangements for payments are encouraged, and a bond market in Asia is fully developed.

• Noted educationist and freedom fighter Madan Mohan Malviya was on Monday posthumously conferred Bharat Ratna, country’s highest civilian award, by President Pranab Mukherjee.
• A host of other other personalities, including veteran BJP leader L.K. Advani and Punjab Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Parkash Singh Badal, were honoured with Padma awards by Mr. Mukherjee at a glittering ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
• Members of Malviya’s family received the award from Mr. Mukherjee at the historic Durbar Hall with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice-President Hamid Ansari, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and other senior Cabinet members in attendance.
• The prominent personalities who were awarded Padma Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award, included Mr. Advani and Mr. Badal, while Padma Bhushan was awarded to lawyer Harish Salve and journalists Swapan Dasgupta and Rajat Sharma.

• Aditi Arya of Delhi won the fbb Femina Miss India 2015 title on 28 March 2015 at the 52nd edition of the beauty contest held at Yash Raj Studio in Mumbai. She was crowned with the title by Koyal Rana, Femina Miss India 2014.
• The first runner-up was Aafreen Rachel Vaz of Mangaluru, Karnataka and the second runner-up was Vartika Singh of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
• Aditi Arya will represent India at Miss World 2015; Aafreen Rachel will participate at Miss International 2015, while Vartika Singh will take part at the Miss Grand International beauty pageants.
• The trio was selected from the five finalists by a panel of judges that included Anil Kapoor and John Abraham among others.

• Reliance Power on Monday commissioned the sixth and final 660-Mw unit of the 3,960-Mw Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP).
• With this, all of Sasan UMPP units have successfully been commissioned, 12 months ahead of the power-purchase agreement (PPA) schedule. The first five units of 660 Mw each, totalling 3,300 Mw, had been commissioned in about 12 months.
• The Sasan UMPP is the largest integrated power-plant-cum-coal-mining project at a single location in the world. It involves an investment of over Rs 27,000 crore, the largest for a project at a single location in Madhya Pradesh. Coal production has already commenced from the 20-million-tonne Moher and Moher-Amlohri coal mines associated with the project.
• With the sixth unit, Reliance Power’s generation capacity has increased to 5,945 Mw — 5,760 Mw of thermal capacity and 185 Mw of renewable energy-based capacity.

• Not a single Indian cricketer found a place in the ICC’s World Cup XI which was dominated by runners-up New Zealand rather than champions Australia with Black Caps skipper Brendon McCullum as its captain.
• The ICC team features five New Zealanders, including McCullum, despite their seven-wicket loss to Australia in the summit clash on Sunday. India, the defending champions, had bowed out after a semifinal loss to Australia.

1. Martin Guptill (New Zealand),
2. Brendon McCullum (New Zealand, captain),
3. Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka, wicketkeeper),
4. Steven Smith (Australia),
5. AB de Villiers (South Africa),
6. Glenn Maxwell (Australia),
7. Corey Anderson (New Zealand),
8. Daniel Vettori (New Zealand),
9. Mitchell Starc (Australia),
10. Trent Boult (New Zealand),
11. Morne Morkel (South Africa),
12. Brendan Taylor (Zimbabwe, 12th man).

• Hockey India on 28 March 2015 conferred the inaugural Hockey India Annual Awards. The awards were conferred to recognise the dedication and hard work of hockey players, coaches and administrators on the field to build the sport on the national and international arena.
• The awards of over 2.80 Crore rupees were presented in a ceremony at New Delhi in the presence of Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, Sarbananda Sonowal.
• Hockey India conferred the awards in the categories of Major Dhyan Chand Lifetime Achievement Award to Balbir Singh Sr. with a cash prize of 3000000 rupees.

1. The Dhruv Batra Award for Player of the Year (Men and Women) awarded to Birendra Lakra and Vandana Katariya.
2. Jaman Lal Sharma Award for Invaluable Contribution (for coaches and support staff) awarded to Harendra Singh.
3. Hockey India President Award for Outstanding Achievement conferred to One Thousand Hockey Legs for its exceptional contribution towards the sport.

• Police said a blogger has been hacked to death in Dhaka by three men and that two of the suspected attackers have been caught near the scene.
• Dhaka Metropolitan Police official Biplob Kumar Sarker said that Monday’s attack on Washiqur Rahman Babu took place in Dhaka’s Tejgaon area and that doctors declared him dead as he was taken to a government hospital shortly after the attack.
• Mr. Sarker said two suspects were captured and that three meat cleavers were recovered. He said the captured suspects were students at separate Islamic schools. The third suspect fled the scene.
• Mr. Sarker said it was not immediately known what sort of blogging Babu did. He said the suspects told police them that they targeted him for his anti-Islamic writings.
• The killing took place nearly one month after Avijit Roy, a prominent Bangladeshi-American blogger, known for speaking out against religious extremism was hacked to death in Dhaka by unidentified assailants.
• Roy died after he was attacked on Dhaka University campus when he was leaving a book fair with his wife.

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