Current Affairs Update – 2nd March, 2016

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the Important Current Affairs of 2nd March, 2016.

• Bullish on India, the
  International Monetary Fund has projected a robust growth rate of 7.3 per cent
  for the country this fiscal, picking up to 7.5 per cent next year.
• The multilateral lending agency
  welcomed recent measures aimed at increasing public infrastructure spending,
  rationalising subsidies, creating more flexible labour and product markets as
  well as enhancing financial inclusion.
• “India has a very good
  outlook at the present time. India certainly benefited from low oil and energy
  prices, one of the world’s largest oil importers and that’s raised the real
  income of all Indians,” said Paul Cashin, India Mission Chief for the
  International Monetary Fund.
• The agency’s protections are
  lower than the government’s estimate of 7.6 per cent growth in 2015-16 while
  Reserve Bank sees economy expanding by 7.4 per cent this fiscal.

• The National Association of
  Software & Services (NASSCOM) today announced the inauguration of its first
  warehouse in Chennai today.
• The MoU in this regard was signed
  between Department of Information Technology, Tamil Nadu, acting through the
  Electronics Corporation of Tamilnadu and NASSCOM in presence of Chief Minister
  of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalitha over video conferencing.
• The warehouse will spread across
  8,000 sq ft and can house up to 50 startups allowing them to learn, work, and
  accelerate their companies. It will nurture nearly 200 entrepreneurs to foster
  innovation under one roof. A co-working space like this is necessary in order
  to boost the startup ecosphere of the city.

• In line with the Petroleum
  Ministry’s decision to open skill development institutes in different parts of
  the country, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd will set up one such institute in
  Kerala.
• The company has signed an
  agreement with Kerala Government for setting up the institute at Ettumanoor for
  which the government had allotted 8 acres vacant land at the ITI campus.
• The Petroleum Ministry’s move to
  set up such institutes in various parts is to bring out the best of the youth
  and to enhance their employability in the oil and gas industry and other sectors.
  Accordingly, each major Oil & Gas PSU’s such as IOCL, ONGC, BPCL, HPCL, OIL
  and GAIL volunteered to set up one skill development institute and BPCL
  selected Kerala.
• A society of the PSUs will be
  formed to run the Institute and the cost will be shared among oil companies, a
  press release said.

• The Zoji La tunnel was in news in
  the first week of March 2016. It was in news because the Union Government has
  ordered rebidding of the strategic 10050-crore rupees tunnel contract in Jammu
  and Kashmir, which was earlier given to IRB Infrastructure.
• The decision to rebid the tunnel
  project was taken at a meeting, presided by Road Transport and Highways
  Minister Nitin Gadkari.
• As some doubts were raised in
  respect of the project, rebidding was ordered to maintain complete transparency
  and uphold probity in public life.
• Zoji La is 9 km from Sonamarg and
  provides a vital link between Ladakh and Kashmir. It runs at an elevation of
  approximately 3528 metres, and is the second highest pass after Fotu La on the
  Srinagar-Leh National Highway.

• The Telangana Government on 1
  March 2016 decided to illuminate 25 municipalities in the state with Light
  Emitting Diode (LED) bulbs in 100 days.
• A high level meeting by a group
  of ministers with the officials from the Energy Efficient Services Limited
  (EESL) decided that 90 lakh households in the state will be provided LED bulbs
  at reduced price.

• During the first phase of the
  programme, 12 lakh households in Medak, Nalgonda and Nizamabad districts will
  be supplied LED bulbs.
• The EESL will supply these bulbs
  to illuminate 12 lakh households in 25 municipalities.
• The government will bear the
  expenditure to supply two such LED bulbs to every household.
• In the second phase, the street
  lights in 25 municipalities will be replaced with LED bulbs.

• Haryana government renamed
  village Mustafabad in Yamuna Nagar district to Saraswati Nagar. A notification
  to this effect was issued by Haryana Revenue and Disaster Management
  Department.
• A paleo channel claimed as River
  Saraswati identified in Muglawali village of Haryana
• The village is located about 20
  kilometers from the district headquarters and officials say an old dried-up
  riverbed of Saraswati River exists near the village. Revenue records
  substantiate the claim.

• Japanese car maker Toyota has
  announced appointment of new managing director for India.
• The world’s largest car maker has
  appointed Akito Tachibana as the managing director of Toyota Kirloskar Motor
  with effect from April 2016 to replace Naomi Ishii.
• Tachibana has spent three decades
  at Toyota. His experience in Toyota Motor Corporation spans across various
  functions like domestic and overseas planning, used car and product management.
  He currently heads the Technical, Purchase and Quality Assurance functions in
  India.
• Ishii has been appointed as the
  General Manager of Corporate Planning Division-Toyota, Japan from April. Ishii
  was made India head in January 2014. This appointment is a part of the
  organisation changes at Toyota Motor Corporation, the company said.

• Portugal Government on 29
  February 2016 nominated former Portuguese Prime Minister and head of the UN
  Refugee Agency (UNHCR) Antonio Guterres as a candidate for General Secretary at
  United Nations.
• Guterres served as Prime Minister
  in 1995-2002 and as UN Refugee Agency High Commissioner in 2005-2015.
• With this, Guterres joined a list
  of six mostly Eastern and Central European candidates to succeed Ban Ki-moon on
  1 January 2017. Ban took the office in January 2007.

• India has been ranked at the 90th
  place in a list of 126 countries compiled by WEF on the basis of their ability
  to deliver secure, affordable and sustainable energy, which was topped by
  Switzerland.
• The latest Global Energy
  Architecture Performance Index Report, explored the energy architecture of 126
  countries based on their ability to provide energy access across three dimensions
  of the “energy triangle” — affordability, environmental sustainability,
  security and access.
• The list was topped by
  Switzerland followed by Norway and Sweden in the second and third place, respectively.
• Others in the top 10 include
  France (4th), Denmark (5th), Austria (6th), Spain (7th), Colombia (8th), New Zealand
  (9th) and Uruguay (10th).
• Among the BRIC nations, Brazil
  was the top performer as it was ranked at the 25th place, followed by Russia (52nd),
  India (90th), China (94).

• Five Indian women have made it to
  the Forbes list of world’s richest people in the world, which saw 190 women
  billionaires — a little over 10 per cent of the total count.
• Globally the number of women in
  the coveted rich list declined from last year. Of the total 1,810 billionaires
  this year, 190 are women, down from 197 in 2015. Moreover, women still account
  for just a small percentage — a little over 10 per cent of the total richie
  rich population.
• Among the Indian women on the
  list Savitri Jindal and family was ranked at the 453rd place on the list with a
  net worth of USD 3.5 billion.
• On Jindal, Forbes said, in the
  past five years, matriarch Savitri Jindal’s fortune has declined by close to
  USD 10 billion due to a downward slide in shares of her O P Jindal group
  companies.
• Indu Jain who chairs media
  conglomerate Bennett, Coleman & Co, was placed at the 549 rank globally.
  Her net worth stood at USD 3.1 billion.
• Others on the list include, Smita
  Crishna-Godrej ranked 810 on the list with a net worth of USD 2.2 billion. This
  is her maiden appearance on the billionaires list by virtue of a one-fifth stake
  in the family assets.
• Meanwhile, low profile heiress
  Leena Tewari debuted on the billionaires list. She chairs and owns privately
  held Indian generics maker USV, known for its drugs for diabetes and
  cardiovascular diseases, among much else. Leena Tiwari was placed at 1067
  position with a net wealth of USD 1.7 billion.
• Vinod Gupta ranked 1577 with
  assets of USD 1.1 billion, is the wife of Qimat Rai Gupta, who died in November
  2014. She inherited her husband’s shares in electrical firm Havells India,
  though she doesn’t hold an executive or board position.
• Globally, the grand dame of L’Or,
  Liliane Bettencourt and her children were ranked at the top among the richest
  women in the world. She was placed at the 11th position with a net worth of USD
  36.1 billion, followed by Alice Walton ranked 16th with assets of USD 32.3
  billion and Jacqueline Mars (27, USD 23.4 billion).

• Columnist and author Jerry Pinto
  on 1 March 2016 was chosen for the 2016 Windham-Campbell Prize. Pinto, an
  Indian, won the award for his novel Em and The Big Hoom (published in 2012) in
  the fiction category.
• Em and the Big Hoom was Pinto’s
  first work of fiction that tells the story of an unnamed narrator’s slow,
  painful attempt to come to terms with his mother’s bipolar disorder and
  suicidal tendencies.
• Apart from Pinto, eight other
  writers were chosen for the award in three categories, namely fiction,
  non-fiction and drama. The winners will each receive 150000 dollar to support
  their work.

• Three British scientists, Tim
  Bliss, Graham Collingridge and Richard Morris, on 1 March 2016 won the Grete
  Lundbeck European Brain Research Prize, largest prize for neuroscience in the
  world.
• The trio have won the award for
  their seminal work on understanding what happens in the brain when humans make
  and lose memories.
• This is the first time the Brain
  Prize has been won by an entirely UK team.
• The award ceremony will take
  place in Copenhagen on 1 July 2016, where the prize will be presented by Crown
  Prince Frederik of Denmark.

• Veteran playwright and director
  Ratan Thiyam was on 1 March 2016 named for Lifetime Achievement Award of the
  11th edition of the Mahindra Excellence Theatre Awards (META).
• He was selected for the award for
  creating a new language in theatre and enriching the art form in various roles
  as writer, director, designer, composer and choreographer. He is the current
  chairman of the National School of Drama.
• In the past, this award has been given to
  theatre greats such as Zohra Sehgal, Badal Sarkar, Khaled Chowdhury, Ebrahim
  Alkazi, Girish Karnad and Heisnam Kanhailal.

• Olympian Basanta Bahadur Singh
  Rana on 28 February 2016 won the gold medal in men’s 50km race walk event on
  the final day of the National Championships in Jaipur.
• Rana clocked 4 hours 7 minutes 24
  seconds to finish first on a fast Jaipur course.
• Uttarakhand’s Chandan Singh, who
  has already achieved Rio qualification mark in men’s 20km event, finished
  second with a time of 4:09:50 while Jitender Singh Rathore of Rajasthan grabbed
  the bronze medal in 4:12:10.

• International Cricket Council
  (ICC) on 1 March 2016 banned South Africa left-arm spinner Aaron Phangiso from
  bowling. He was banned after his bowling action, which exceeded 15-degree level
  of tolerance permitted under the regulations, was found illegal.
• Phangiso was reported by umpires
  after helping Highveld Lions reach the final of South Africa’s domestic 50-over
  competition. He was reported for suspect action on 25 February 2016 while
  playing for Highveld Lions against Warriors at Wanderers.

• Zero Discrimination Day was
  observed across the world on 1 March 2016. The day was observed with the theme
  – Stand Out.
• Zero Discrimination Day is an
  opportunity to join together against discrimination and celebrate everyone’s
  right to live a full and productive life with dignity. It calls for fair and
  just societies and urges people to value, embrace diversity and recognize the
  diverse set of talents and skills that each person brings.

• Malayalam film director
  Mohanroop, who created magic through his debut film Vettah in 1984, was interred
  in his parish church near Thrissur in Kerala on Wednesday (March 2), his family
  member said.
• Mohanroop, who breathed his last
  on Tuesday (March 1), was bid a final goodbye by his family and friends, with
  hardly anyone turning up from the film industry. He was 56.
• Mohanroop’s Vettah was one film
  which featured present-day superstars Mammootty and Mohanlal together, and it
  received a warm reception upon its release.

Regards

Team ExamPundit

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