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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