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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