Current Affairs Update – 20th March, 2015

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


        Today’s Topics


 •  Business
 • India
 • World
 • Appointments
 • Sports
 • Books
 • Obituaries



Business
CII signed agreement
with NUS to improve India’s rating on ease of doing business
  • 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.

India

RBI to issue Rs. 5
coins to mark 125th Nehru anniversary
  • 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.

BSF to Get Its First
Woman IPS Officer

  • 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.

Hyderabad
International Airport handled record 10 million passengers in 2014-15

  • 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 to launch National Air Quality Index in April 2015
  • 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.

World
China Rolls Out
World’s First Hydrogen-Powered Tramcar
  • 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.

World will have only
60 pc of water it needs by 2030: UN

  • 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.

Appointments

Sir Venkatraman
Ramakrishnan named as President of Britain’s Royal Society

  • 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.

Indian American
Professor Chosen As Fulbright Specialist
  • 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.

Sports

Misbah, Afridi bid
adieu to ODI cricket

  • 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.

Books
Indian Parliamentary
Diplomacy- Speaker’s Perspective written by Meira Kumar released

  • 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.

Obituaries

Former Australian
Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser died
  • 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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This post was last modified on July 20, 2019 12:10 pm