Current Affairs Update – 30th March, 2015

Hello and welcome to ExamPundit. Here are the current affairs update for 30th March, 2015.

• Corporation Bank and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of
  India signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Mangaluru on Monday for
  implementing ‘Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana’ (PMJJBY), the central
  government’s scheme to bring the entire nation under the ambit of insurance
  coverage.
• Under PMJJBY, Corporation Bank’s Aadhar-linked savings
  account holders will be eligible for life insurance up to ₹2 lakh for a premium of ₹330 (plus service tax) per
  annum.
• According to the press release, a master policy under ‘Group
  Insurance Scheme’, which is voluntary for the customers, will be issued by LIC.
  The eligible age of the customer shall be between 18 years and 50 years.
  Enrolment period will be from first June to August 31 2015 or as extended by
  the Govt, it said.
• SK Roy, Chairman of LIC of India, awarded a trophy to
  Corporation Bank. The bank release said that the trophy was awarded to the bank
  for becoming number one in premium collection under bancassurance business.
• The bank’s premium collection for the current year has
  crossed ₹170 crore. The
  release said that the bank is targeting to collect premium of more than ₹500 crore in 2015-16.
• SK Roy, Chairman of LIC of India, and SR Bansal, Chairman
  and Managing Director of Corporation Bank, attended the programme in Mangaluru
  on Monday.

• Max Life Insurance and Lakshmi Vilas Bank have entered into
  a 5 year bancassurance tie-up for distribution of the former’s life insurance
  products through the 400 branches of the private sector bank.
• Under this alliance, Lakshmi Vilas Bank has become a
  corporate agent for Max Life Insurance and will offer a complete bouquet of
  life insurance solutions and post sales services to its customers.
• The tie up will help Max Life Insurance reach out to an
  additional 25 lakh customers of the Karur-headquartered bank and strengthen its
  multi-channel distribution channel, primarily in the southern region, where
  Lakshmi Vilas Bank has a strong presence. Currently, over 20% of the new
  business for Max Life comes from South India. Of the total 400 branches of
  Lakshmi Vilas Bank, as many as 320 are located in South India.
• Lakshmi Vilas Bank, which started distributing financial
  products from 2002-03 to increase its fee-based income, is looking at the
  alliance to enhance the insurance product bouquet.

• A late surge among top European countries, including
  Germany, France, Britain, and now Russia along with Australia to join the
  China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), has imparted a new sense
  of realism to Beijing’s Silk Road plans.
• If implemented, they are likely to shift the global balance
  of economic power towards Eurasia.
• On Saturday, Russia, Australia and the Netherlands,
  announced its decision to join the China-led AIIB. The decision of key European
  powers along with South Korea to join the bank, overriding strong objections
  from the United States, has split the Atlantic Alliance on this issue.
• The AIIB’s apparent success has now brought into sharper
  focus China’s ‘One belt One Road’ initiative which requires massive investment,
  including finance from the $40 billion Silk Road fund, which the Chinese have
  separately established.
• In order to ensure that there are no funding shortfalls, an
  action plan released on Saturday by the Chinese government has asked countries
  along the Belt and Road to ensure that currency swap arrangements for payments
  are encouraged, and a bond market in Asia is fully developed.

• Noted educationist and freedom fighter Madan Mohan Malviya
  was on Monday posthumously conferred Bharat Ratna, country’s highest civilian
  award, by President Pranab Mukherjee.
• A host of other other personalities, including veteran BJP
  leader L.K. Advani and Punjab Chief Minister and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)
  leader Parkash Singh Badal, were honoured with Padma awards by Mr. Mukherjee at
  a glittering ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
• Members of Malviya’s family received the award from Mr.
  Mukherjee at the historic Durbar Hall with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Vice-President
  Hamid Ansari, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and
  other senior Cabinet members in attendance.
• The prominent personalities who were awarded Padma
  Vibhushan, the second highest civilian award, included Mr. Advani and Mr. Badal,
  while Padma Bhushan was awarded to lawyer Harish Salve and journalists Swapan
  Dasgupta and Rajat Sharma.

• Aditi Arya of Delhi won the fbb Femina Miss India 2015 title
  on 28 March 2015 at the 52nd edition of the beauty contest held at Yash Raj
  Studio in Mumbai. She was crowned with the title by Koyal Rana, Femina Miss
  India 2014.
• The first runner-up was Aafreen Rachel Vaz of Mangaluru,
  Karnataka and the second runner-up was Vartika Singh of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.
• Aditi Arya will represent India at Miss World 2015; Aafreen
  Rachel will participate at Miss International 2015, while Vartika Singh will
  take part at the Miss Grand International beauty pageants.
• The trio was selected from the five finalists by a panel of
  judges that included Anil Kapoor and John Abraham among others.

• Reliance Power on Monday commissioned the sixth and final
  660-Mw unit of the 3,960-Mw Sasan Ultra Mega Power Project (UMPP).
• With this, all of Sasan UMPP units have successfully been
  commissioned, 12 months ahead of the power-purchase agreement (PPA) schedule.
  The first five units of 660 Mw each, totalling 3,300 Mw, had been commissioned
  in about 12 months.
• The Sasan UMPP is the largest integrated
  power-plant-cum-coal-mining project at a single location in the world. It
  involves an investment of over Rs 27,000 crore, the largest for a project at a
  single location in Madhya Pradesh. Coal production has already commenced from
  the 20-million-tonne Moher and Moher-Amlohri coal mines associated with the
  project.
• With the sixth unit, Reliance Power’s generation capacity
  has increased to 5,945 Mw — 5,760 Mw of thermal capacity and 185 Mw of
  renewable energy-based capacity.

• Not a single Indian cricketer found a place in the ICC’s World Cup XI which was dominated by runners-up New Zealand rather than
  champions Australia with Black Caps skipper Brendon McCullum as its captain.
• The ICC team features five New Zealanders, including
  McCullum, despite their seven-wicket loss to Australia in the summit clash on
  Sunday. India, the defending champions, had bowed out after a semifinal loss to
  Australia.

1. Martin Guptill (New Zealand),
2. Brendon McCullum (New Zealand, captain),
3. Kumar Sangakkara (Sri Lanka, wicketkeeper),
4. Steven Smith (Australia),
5. AB de Villiers (South Africa),
6. Glenn Maxwell (Australia),
7. Corey Anderson (New Zealand),
8. Daniel Vettori (New Zealand),
9. Mitchell Starc (Australia),
10. Trent Boult (New Zealand),
11. Morne Morkel (South Africa),
12. Brendan Taylor (Zimbabwe, 12th man).

• Hockey India on 28 March 2015 conferred the inaugural Hockey
  India Annual Awards. The awards were conferred to recognise the dedication and
  hard work of hockey players, coaches and administrators on the field to build
  the sport on the national and international arena.
• The awards of over 2.80 Crore rupees were presented in a
  ceremony at New Delhi in the presence of Union Minister of Youth Affairs and
  Sports, Sarbananda Sonowal.
• Hockey India conferred the awards in the categories of Major
  Dhyan Chand Lifetime Achievement Award to Balbir Singh Sr. with a cash prize of
  3000000 rupees.

1. The Dhruv Batra Award for Player of the Year (Men and Women)
   awarded to Birendra Lakra and Vandana Katariya.
2. Jaman Lal Sharma Award for Invaluable Contribution (for
   coaches and support staff) awarded to Harendra Singh.
3. Hockey India President Award for Outstanding Achievement
   conferred to One Thousand Hockey Legs for its exceptional contribution towards
   the sport.

• Police said a blogger has been hacked to death in Dhaka by
  three men and that two of the suspected attackers have been caught near the
  scene.
• Dhaka Metropolitan Police official Biplob Kumar Sarker said
  that Monday’s attack on Washiqur Rahman Babu took place in Dhaka’s Tejgaon area
  and that doctors declared him dead as he was taken to a government hospital
  shortly after the attack.
• Mr. Sarker said two suspects were captured and that three
  meat cleavers were recovered. He said the captured suspects were students at
  separate Islamic schools. The third suspect fled the scene.
• Mr. Sarker said it was not immediately known what sort of
  blogging Babu did. He said the suspects told police them that they targeted him
  for his anti-Islamic writings.
• The killing took place nearly one month after Avijit Roy, a
  prominent Bangladeshi-American blogger, known for speaking out against
  religious extremism was hacked to death in Dhaka by unidentified assailants.
• Roy died after he was attacked on Dhaka University campus
  when he was leaving a book fair with his wife.

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