• National

Govt. extends PAN-Aadhaar linking deadline to 30th September

• The Union government has announced that the deadline for the linking of Aadhaar with PAN has been extended to 30th September 2019.
• Those looking to file their income tax returns on or after 1st April 2019 will still have to quote their PAN while doing so.
• This is the sixth time the government has extended the Aadhaar-PAN linking deadline.

• International

Zuzana Caputova becomes Slovakia's first female President

• Anti-corruption activist ‘Zuzana Caputova’ has been confirmed as the first female President of Slovakia.
• She defeated Maros Sefcovic, a candidate nominated by Slovakia’s ruling party.
• According to Xinhua News Agency reported, Caputova received 58.40% of votes, while Sefcovic got 41.59% of votes.

• Economy and Business

Vijaya Bank, Dena Bank merge with Bank of Baroda today

• Today, Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank merged with Bank of Baroda (BoB) to create the third-largest lender of the country after State Bank of India and HDFC Bank.
• According to BoB chief PS Jayakumar, the new unified entity will work for the success of the amalgamation by effective execution of all the activities to build a stronger organisation and collectively deliver more to the stakeholders than that of the sum of individual entities.
• All customers of Dena Bank, which is under prompt corrective action (PCA) framework of the RBI, will have renewed access to credit facilities immediately.
• This is the second merger of state-run banks in recent years in the banking sector after State Bank had merged five of its associate banks from April 2017.

• Economy and Business

Tesla builds its 'largest energy storage system in Asia'

• Tesla has developed its ‘largest power storage system in Asia’ at Osaka train station in Japan to reduce energy demand and provide emergency backup power to trains in Japan.
• It was Launched in partnership with Kintetsu, a railway operator in Japan’s Osaka.
• The 42 Powerpack battery system will also help reduce energy demand on the Osaka grid during peak hours.
• Tesla stated that 7 megawatt-hours (MWh) system is its largest energy storage project in Asia and the fourth largest in the greater Asia-Pacific (APAC) region.
• The system contains 16 individual battery pods, each with an isolated DC-DC converter.

• Economy and Business

RBI Sets NBFC-MFIs’ Average Base Rate At 9.21% For April-June

• The Reserve Bank set the average base rate to be charged from borrowers by non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and micro-finance institutions (MFIs) at 9.21% for the first quarter of the next fiscal (April-June).
• The regulator in February 2014 had issued directions to NBFC-MFIs regarding pricing of credit.
• RBI, on the last working day of every quarter, comes out with the average of the base rates of the five largest commercial banks for the purpose of arriving at the interest rates to be charged by NBFC-MFIs to its borrowers in the ensuing quarter.

• Sports

Roger Federer lifts Men's Singles trophy of Miami Open 2019

• Switzerland’s Roger Federer has won Miami open 2019, defeating American John Isner (defending champion) in the final 6-1, 6-4 at Dolphins’ NFL stadium in Miami.
• It was Federer’s 4th Miami title and 28th Masters 1000 title.
• Now, Federer (101-title) is behind only America’s Jimmy Connors with 109 career singles titles.

• Sports

Manu Sawhney Takes Over as Chief Executive of ICC

• Manu Sawhney took over as the International Cricket Council (ICC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
• Sawhney has been working alongside the outgoing CEO David Richardson for the last six weeks to ensure a smooth transition within the organisation.
• Richardson will remain with the ICC until July as originally planned to oversee the delivery of the upcoming Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019.

• Awards

South Korea Won Azlan Shah Hockey Cup

• South Korea defeated India in the penalty shootout in the final of Sultan Azlan Shah Cup 2019.
• 17th Ranked South Korea defeated World number 5, India to win the Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Cup which was held at Azlan Shah Stadium in Ipoh, Malaysia.
• India lost the match by 4-2 in the penalty shootout after regulation time ended 1-1.

• Appointments

Vijay Chandok Appointed as MD and CEO Of ICICI Securities

• Executive Director of ICICI Bank, Vijay Chandok has been appointed as MD and CEO of ICICI Securities, a subsidiary of ICICI bank.
• He will succeed Shilpa Naval Kumar. He joined the ICICI Group in 1993.
• At present, he is on the boards of ICICI Bank UK PLC and ICICI Bank Canada and is the Chairman of ICICI Investment Management Company.

• Important Days

Earth Hour 2019 celebrated worldwide

• Earth Hour 2019 was celebrated in 188 countries worldwide
• To mark this day, cities worldwide turned their lights off for one hour from 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm local time.
• It was the 13th edition of Earth hour and the campaign of Earth Hour 2019 was ‘Connect2Earth’
• It was aimed at building mass awareness on the importance of nature and create an unstoppable movement for nature.

• Science and Tech

ISRO launches observation satellite EMISAT today

• Today, The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully launched 29 satellites including the primary payload EMISAT from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, India.
• The main satellite EMISAT and the 28 customer satellites will be ed into two different orbits.
• The foreign satellites include 24 from the United States, two from Lithuania and one each from Switzerland and Spain.
• An ISRO release says EMISAT (weighing 436 kg) is intended for electromagnetic spectrum measurement, developed for monitoring radar network by India.
• Indian Institute of Space Science (IISc) and the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation are the other two institutions that will have their devices on the experimental platform.

• Defence

GRSE Becomes ‘First’ Indian Shipyard to Deliver 100 Warships

• Garden Reach Ship Builders and Engineers Ltd (GRSE) became the ‘first Indian shipyard’ to build and deliver 100 warships.
• GRSE Chairman and Managing Director, Rear Admiral (Retd) V K Saxena, formally handed over the 100th warship ‘IN LCU L-56’ to the Indian Navy.