Weekly Current Affairs (11th March 2019 – 16th March 2019)
National
1. The Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora has announced, India’s 17th Lok Sabha elections (largest festival of democracy) will begin from 11th of April this year.
2. The Union Minister for Commerce and Industry ‘Suresh Prabhu’ has inaugurated the International Food and Hospitality fair ‘AAHAR’ (34th edition) at Pragati Maidan (Hall 7-12A) in New Delhi.
3. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sheikh Hasina (Bangladesh Prime Minister) jointly unveiled e-plaques for development projects in Bangladesh (through video conference).
4. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has decided to ground Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft with immediate effect.
5. A recent study published in PLOS Biology found that human impacts on species occur across 84% of the earth’s surface and India ranks 16th in such impacts, with 35 species impacted on an average.
6. The Dialogue and Development Commission (DDC) has set-up a 17-member high-level committee on reforming higher education in Delhi.
International
1. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has chosen Dr. Mohammad Shtayyeh (60-years) as the new prime minister of Palestinian.
2. The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India has won the First Prize in the category of TV Cinema Spot at the prestigious international Golden City Gate Tourism Awards 2019.
3. United Nations Environment Assembly 2019 was held in Kenya’s capital Nairobi.
4. The Austrian capital Vienna topped the new Mercer Quality of Living Survey.
Economy and Business
1. Punjab National Bank (PNB) has sanctioned loans worth Rs 689 crore to over 1,600 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
2. Private sector lender Axis Bank has named ‘Rakesh Makhija’ (67-years) as its new Non-Executive (Part-Time) Chairman for a period of three years.
3. According to the data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Retail inflation rose to a four-month high of 2.57% in February this year.
4. State Bank of India (SBI) has launched doorstep banking service for senior citizens over 70 years of age and differently-abled customers.
5. As per RBI notification, IDBI Bank has been categorized as a private sector lender following the acquisition of majority stake by Life Insurance Corporation.
6. India (world’s largest consumer of gold) has the 11th largest gold reserve, with the current holding pegged at 607 tonnes, as per the latest report by the World Gold Council (WGC).
Sports
1. P. Iniyan (16-year) has become the 61st Grandmaster of India (the highest title a chess player) after crossing 2,500 points during the Noisiel Open 2019, held in Paris.
2. Kavinder Singh Bisht (56kg) struck gold at the 38th GeeBee Boxing Tournament in Helsinki, Finland on 10 March 2019.
3. The 2019 SAFF (South Asian Football Federation) Women’s Championship (5th edition) was scheduled to be held from in Biratnagar. Nepal (from 12–22 March 2019).
4. Former French football player ‘Zinedine Zidane’ (46-year) has been re-appointed as the coach of Spanish football club Real Madrid (highest-earning football club) till 2022.
5. Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar (25-year) has been selected as Barbie role model, as the company celebrates its 60th anniversary.
6. Special Olympics World Games 2019 begin at Abu Dhabi in UAE this evening.
7. The Supreme Court has set aside the life ban on cricketer S Sreesanth, imposed by the BCCI.
8. South African all-rounder JP Duminy announced that he would retire from ODIs after the ICC World Cup in England.
Awards
1. BBC journalist ‘Priyanka Dubey’ has won the ‘Chameli Devi Jain Award-2018’ for an Outstanding Woman Journalist for the year 2018 at a function in Delhi.
2. Megha Engineering Infrastructure Limited (MEIL) has found a place in the Limca Book of National Records and Asia Book of Records for completing a power sub-station in seven months (normally it takes 15-18 months).
3. Indian Oil retained their Bombay Gold Cup Hockey crown on 13 March 2019.
4. The President and Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces Ram Nath Kovind conferred 3 Kirti Chakras and 15 Shaurya Chakras to Armed Forces Personnel for displaying conspicuous gallantry, indomitable courage and extreme devotion to duty at a solemn ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.
5. Padmanaban Gopalan, the founder of No Food Waste, was named the winner of the Commonwealth Youth Award for the Asian region in London.
6. Kent RO Systems Pvt. Ltd. has received the Best Domestic Water Purifier Award 2018-19 for its RO+UV+UF technology at the Water Digest Water Awards function that was held in New Delhi.
7. Swati Shingade of Pune, Maharashtra has bagged the first prize of DD Mahila Kisan Award for 2018-19.
8. Film director and novelist Ved Rahi was selected for prestigious ‘Kusumagraj’ national award for literature.
Appointments
1. Senior bureaucrats Anup Kumar Dubey and Sushil Kumar were appointed special directors in the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on 10 March 2019.
2. BBC journalist ‘Priyanka Dubey’ has won the ‘Chameli Devi Jain Award-2018’ for an Outstanding Woman Journalist for the year 2018 at a function in Delhi.
3. The Union government appointed M R Kumar as the Chairman of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC).
4. Bajaj Finserv’s Chairman and Non-Executive Director Rahul Bajaj has resigned and will take over as the Chairman Emeritus from May 2019.
5. The Supreme Court appointed senior advocate PS Narasimha as a mediator for resolving various disputes related to cricket administration within the cricket body, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
6. Santosh Jha presently Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of India, Washington, has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Uzbekistan.
7. Aditya Kumar Misra, a veterinary professor and former Vice Chancellor of GB University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, has been appointed as the new Chairman of Agricultural Scientific Recruitment Board (ASRB).
Important Days
1. World Kidney Day is observed annually on the second Thursday in March.
2. The World Consumer Rights Day is celebrated globally on 15th March to promote basic rights of all consumers.
3. The world sleep day 2019 observed on 15th March to celebrate healthy sleep and draw attention towards its related issues including medicine, education and social aspects.
Science and Tech
1. Indian scientists have developed a common framework for the assessment of climate change vulnerability in all the states in the Himalayan region.
Defence
1. Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) successfully test fired the PINAKA guided WEAPON rocket system from Pokhran range in Rajasthan.
2. Indo Oman Joint Exercise Al Nagah III 2019, a joint military exercise between Indian and Royal Army of Oman (RAO), commenced on 13 March 2019 at Nizwa, Oman.
3. The United States Special Forces Group stationed in Japan involved in a joint exercise with India’s National Security Guard (NSG) in Hyderabad.
Obituaries
1. America’s finest and most remarkable cyclists ‘Kelly Catlin’(23-year) passed away in the USA.
2. Veteran Hindi Newsreader Vinod Kashyap (88-years) passed away following a prolonged illness.
3. Formula One race director Charlie Whiting (66-years) has died from a pulmonary embolism three days before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
States
1. West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced a grant of 1 lakh to graduates of the state’s 214 polytechnics and Industrial Training Institutes (ITI), to set up small businesses.
2. The Madhya Pradesh government issued an ordinance increasing reservation quota for the Other Backward Classes (OBC) to 27% from the current 14%.
3. The Mizoram state Cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Zoramthanga has approved the proposed liquor prohibition bill, 2019 in the state.
Miscellaneous
1. A 116-year-old Japanese woman who loves playing the board game Othello is being honored as the world’s oldest living person by Guinness World Records.
2. On the 30th anniversary of the birth of the World Wide Web, Google is celebrating it with a doodle that is reminder of how things were like in its early years.
3. The Delhi government’s Dialogue and Development Commission (DDC) has set up a 17-member high-level committee chaired by DDC vice-chairperson ‘Jasmine Shah’ to “reform higher education” in the capital.
4. The Registrar of Geographical Indications, Government of India, accorded a GI tag, ‘Sirsi Supari’, to arecanut grown in Sirsi, Siddpaur and Yellapur taluks of Uttara Kannada district in Karnataka.
5. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), Andhra Pradesh IT minister ‘Nara Lokesh’ has been recognised as the Young Global Leader.
Agreements
1. The new visa agreement between India and Maldives, providing a liberal visa policy for Maldivian citizens seeking medical treatment as well as education and business opportunities in India, came into force.
2. Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has partnered with Microsoft India to use the platform Project Sangam of Microsoft on its Swachh Bharat e-Learning Portal.
3. On 15 March 2019, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced Dream11, Indias biggest sports game, as the official partner for the Indian Premier League (IPL).