Current Affairs Update – 22nd March, 2016

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the important Current Affairs of 22nd March, 2016

• Terming agriculture as
  “absolutely critical to the country’s economy”, Union Finance
  Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday launched the “Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima
  Yojana” and “Unified Package Insurance Scheme” here.
• He said the revamped insurance
  schemes now launched have the potential to reduce distress in the farm sector
  and would be rolled out in a “mission mode” from April 1 to cover
  Kharif crops.
• Though the country had crop
  insurance schemes in the past, they were partially successful as they were
  mainly linked to crop loans, Jaitley pointed out.
• While the farmers’ premium would
  be 2 percent for Kharif food grain and oilseeds, it would be 1.5 percent for
  Rabi crops, and in the event of a crop failure, the farmers would be paid more.
• The government plans to cover 50
  percent of the farmers in the country, mostly those dependent on rain-fed
  agriculture, and this would be a significant step to making India an
  “insured and pensioned society”, Jaitley said.
• Noting that agriculture will have
  to grow faster for the country to get rid of poverty and push the overall GDP,
  Jaitley said after two successive monsoons, poor rainfall this year (2016)
  could put the systems to test.

• The government has further
  relaxed the norms for the Atal Pension Yojana to give an option to the spouse
  to continue to contribute for the balance period on premature death of the
  subscriber.
• The spouse of the subscriber will
  receive the same pension amount as that of the subscriber until the death of
  the spouse. After the death of both the subscriber and the spouse, the nominee
  of the subscriber will receive the pension wealth, as accumulated till the age
  of 60 years of the subscriber.
• Under current provisions of the
  scheme, the spouse is handed over the lumpsum amount accumulated in case of
  death of the subscriber before he or she reaches 60 years of age.

• A Committee on Taxation of
  e-commerce constituted by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to examine
  the business models for e-commerce submitted its report on 21 March 2016.
• The Report of the Committee was
  received by the Government of India and taken into consideration in the
  preparation of Finance Bill, 2016.
• The Report provides the view of
  the Committee on issues related to taxation of e-commerce and recent
  international developments in this area.
• The Committee included officers
  of the CBDT, representatives from the industry, the Institute of Chartered
  Accountants of India and tax experts. The 8-member committee was headed by
  Akhilesh Ranjan, Joint Secretary (FT&TR-I), CBDT, Department of Revenue, Ministry
  of Finance.

• Equalization Levy may be imposed
  on payments to non-residents for specified services by a separate chapter in
  the Finance Act, 2016.
• The Equalization Levy should be
  chargeable on any sum that is received by a non resident from a resident in
  India or a permanent establishment in India as a consideration for the
  specified digital services.
• The rate of Equalization Levy may
  be between 6 to 8 percent of the gross sum received.
• Equalization Levy should not be
  charged unless the consideration received for specified services in a year from
  a person in India is more than one lakh rupees.

• Ashok Leyland Defence Systems
  (ALDS), a division of Hinduja Group flagship company Ashok Leyland, today said
  it has selected US-based Lockheed Martin to develop light specialist vehicle
  and light armoured multi-purpose defence vehicles for armed forces.
• Ashok Leyland would serve as the
  prime contractor and provide “cost effective” manufacturing hub for global
  requirements of the vehicles, it said.
• As a licensed manufacturer of
  CVNG, the association with Lockheed Martin opens up a huge opportunity towards
  exports of vehicle platform as a Made in India product, it added.

• The Union Ministry of Finance on
  21 March 2016 constituted a Sub-Committee under the aegis of the High Level
  Committee (HLC) to review issues related to excise duty.
• The committee will be headed by
  former Chief Economic Advisor Dr Ashok Lahiri and will review excise duty
  imposed on different jewellery articles in Budget 2016-17.
• Before finalising its report the
  committee will interact with trade and industry on tax laws.

• The Government of Telangana on 20
  March 2016 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Aero Campus
  Aquitaine and Bordeaux Metropole to set up aviation training institute in
  Hyderabad.
• The MoU was signed on the
  sidelines of the India Aviation Show 2016 and in the presence of Jupally
  Krishna Rao, Minister for Industries and the representatives of the two
  companies.

• As part of the MoU, the two
  French firms will set up an aviation training institute at the Begumpet Airport
  in Hyderabad.
• The facility will be used to
  train in aviation and aerospace sectors. The training modules will also include
  the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) segment.
• In a year, at least 1000 students
  will be offered courses that will be of various durations from few weeks to one
  year. The students will be offered residential facilities also.

• India will host the eighth annual
  Summit of BRICS from October 15-16 in Goa in its capacity as chair of the
  influential bloc comprising five countries with 42 per cent of the world
  population and combined GDP of over USD 16 trillion.
• External Affairs Minister Sushma
  Swaraj made the announcement today during a function where she also unveiled a
  logo and a website of the Summit.
• India assumed chairmanship of
  BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) from Russia on February 15 and
  it will last till December 31.
• The External Affairs Minister
  said India’s core-theme during BRICS chairmanship will be building responsive,
  inclusive and collective solutions for the grouping.
• The logo for the Summit is a
  lotus having colours from all the five member countries and a traditional
  ‘namaste’ in the centre.

• World Water Day (WWD) 2016 was
  globally observed on 22 March 2016 with the theme Water and Jobs. The theme for
  the WWD 2016 talks about how water links to jobs as three out of four of the
  jobs worldwide are water-dependent.
• In fact, water shortages and lack
  of access may limit economic growth in the years to come.
• On the occasion of the WWD, the
  report titled 2016 United Nations World Water Development Report, Water and
  Jobs, was launched in Geneva.

• US Defence Secretary Ash Carter
  announced on 18 March 2016 that President Barack Obama has nominated General
  Lori Robinson to lead the United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM) and
  NORAD. This will make her the first woman to command a major Unified Combatant Command.
• The position is one of the most
  senior in the US military and must be confirmed by the Senate. If approved by
  the Senate, US Air Force General Lori Robinson will be the new North command
  chief and will be responsible for any missile threats against the homeland.

• Zanzibar Electoral Commission
  (ZEC) on 21 March 2016 declared the incumbent President Ali Mohamed Shein of
  Tanzania ruling party Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) as winner of the presidential
  elections. He won with 91.4 percent of the votes.
• The presidential elections held
  on 20 March 2016 was the re-run of the elections held in October 2015, which
  were cancelled by the ZEC on grounds of fraud.

• Renowned Malayalam writer M
  Sukumaran in the third week of March 2016 was chosen for the CV Kunhiraman
  Literary Prize.
• The prize consists of 10001
  rupees in cash, a citation, and a statuette designed by artist BD Dathan.
• The themes of all of his writings
  deal with the plight of the dispossessed and advocate an armed struggle for the
  liberation of the oppressed.

• The Union Minister for Finance,
  Corporate Affairs and Information & Broadcasting Arun Jailey on 21 March
  2016 presented 5th National Photography Awards in New Delhi.
• The annual awards are meant to
  honour and recognize those creative professionals who defined moments in
  history through their creative pictorial mastery.

1. Bhawan Singh – Life Time
   Achievement Award
2. Javed Ahmed Dar – Professional Photographer
   Award
3. Himanshu Thakur – Amateur
   Photographer

• World No 1 Novak Djokovic of
  Serbia and Victoria Azarenka of Belarusia on 20 March 2016 won men’s and
  women’s singles titles of the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis
  Garden in Southern California.
• Novak Djokovic defeated Milos
  Raonic of Canada 6-2, 6-0 in the men’s final while Victoria Azarenka defeated
  top seed Serena Williams 6-4, 6-4.
• Djokovic won his fifth Indian
  Wells title and third in a row. He equaled Rafael Nadal’s 27 ATP Masters
  titles.
• On the other hand, Victoria
  Azarenka lifted her second BNP Paribas Open crown and her 19th singles title.

• Indian wrestler Hardeep Singh on
  20 March 2016 won silver medal in the Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament
  held in Astana, Kazakhstan.
• Even before the win, by virtue of
  reaching the final in the 98 kg category, he was qualified for participation in
  the Rio Olympics 2016 in Greco-Roman category and joined other two Indian
  wrestlers.
• Earlier, Yogeshwra Dutt and
  Narsingh Yadav qualified for the Olympics in men’s freestyle category.
• With this win, Hardeep became the
  first Indian in 12 years to get an Olympic berth in the Greco-Roman category.
  The previous participation was that of Mausam Khatri in 2004 Athens Games.

• The Hinduja Brothers, G P Hinduja
  and S P Hinduja topped the Asian Rich List 2016, which was released on 18 March
  2016 in London.
• The Hinduja Brothers emerged as
  the richest Asian-origin entrepreneurs in Britain for the fourth consecutive
  year with an estimated personal fortune of 16.5 billion pounds.
• Steel tycoon Lakshmi Niwas Mittal
  was ranked second in the list, which was released by the Indian high
  commissioner to the UK Navtej Sarna.
• Sri Prakash Lohia, chairman of
  the Indorama Corporation, was listed 3rd richest with fortune worth 3 billion
  pounds.
• The Arora Brothers, Simon, Bobby
  and Robin, owners of discount retail chain were listed as the 4th richest with
  a fortune worth 2.1 billion pounds.
• Cyrus Vandrevala, with 2 billion
  pounds, stood at number five in the list.

• Andrew Grove, former Chairman and
  CEO of Intel, passed away on 21 March 2016. He was 79.
• Grove became Intel’s President in
  1979 and CEO in 1987. He served as Chairman of the Board from 1997 to 2005.

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