CURRENT AFFAIRS DAILY DIGEST

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1. M P Veerendra Kumar presented Moortidevi award

• Eminent Malayalam author and journalist M P Veerendra Kumar was presented the 30th Moortidevi award by Bharatiya Jnanpith organisation.
• Kumar was chosen for the prestigious award for his Malayalam travelogue ‘Hymavathabhoovil’, which dwells upon ancient trails of Indian culture, myth, literature and people strewn in the plains, valleys and mountains of India”.

2. Dr K Srinath Reddy appointed as adviser to the Odisha Govt

• Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has announced appointment of Prof Dr K Srinath Reddy as the adviser to the Odisha government.
• The eminent cardiologist, epidemiologist and president of the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) would be accorded the rank of a cabinet minister in the state.
• Reddy, a Padma Bhusan awardee, was the former head of the Department of Cardiology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi

3. PM Narendra Modi to dedicate to nation, a Petrochemicals Complex

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will dedicate to the nation a Petrochemical Complex of ONGC Petro Additions Limited at Dahej, Gujrat.
• During his two day visit to Gujarat he will also dedicate a four-lane bridge over the Narmada at Bharuch on NH-8.
• The Prime Minister will also lay the foundation stone of Bharuch Bus Port. In a tweet, Mr. Modi stated that these projects will benefit the people of the state immensely.

4. Govt nod for strategic sale of 3 SAIL plants

• The government has approved outright sale of state-owned SAIL’s three special steel units, including Salem and Alloy Steel plants.
• SAIL has now sought advisors, including legal and merchant bankers, to carry out the strategic sale along with transfer of management control in the three steel plants — Alloy Steels Plant (ASP), Salem Steel Plant (SSP) and Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Plant (VISP).
• The strategic sale of these three units is likely to happen only in the next financial year. The government has budgeted to raise ₹15,000 crore from strategic disinvestment in 2017-18.

5. India’s longest cable-bridge inaugurated in Gujarat

• The Prime Minister has inaugurated the 1.4 extra dose cable bridge on the Ahmedabad-Mumbai National Highway.
• The Four-Lane Extradoses Bridge over the Narmada at Bharuch on the National Highway 8, and Petrochemicals Complex of OPAL at Dahej to the nation. The 1.4 km bridge is reported to be the longest in the country.

6. PM Narendra Modi to release Special Commemorative Postage Stamp

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi will release a special commemorative postage stamp on 100 years of Yogoda Satsang Math.
• Yogoda Satsanga Society of India (YSS) celebrated its 100 years journey. In this regard, the organisation announced its celebratory plans.
• One major aim of YSS is to reveal the complete harmony, basic oneness, and common foundations of all true religions.

7. IISc 1st Indian university to be ranked among world’s top 10

• The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore has become the first Indian educational institution to make it to the top 10 of a global ranking for universities.
• IISc has been ranked eighth in the Times Higher Education or THE Rankings, 2017 in the “best small universities” category, joining the elite list that includes California Institute of Technology (Caltech) from the US, Ecole Normale Superieure from France and Pohang University of Science and Technology, South Korea.
• IISc, a public university for scientific research and higher education, was established in 1909 with active support from Jamsetji Tata and Sir Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, the Maharaja of Mysore.

8. Hydrabad airport ranks 1st in world in service quality

• GMR’s Hyderabad International Airport has secured first position in the world in the prestigious Airports Council International (ACI)-Airport Service Quality (ASQ) survey in the 5-15 million passengers per annum (MPPA) category for the year 2016.
• The survey shows that Hyderabad Airport has steadily improved its score from 4.4 in 2009 to 4.9 in 2016 (measured on scale of 1 to 5), according to a GHIAL statement.

9. National Conference on Jal Kranti Abhiyan to be held

• Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation has organized a national conference on Jal Kranti Abhiyan in New Delhi on March 07,2017.
• Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sushri Uma Bharti will inaugurate the conference.
• Union Ministers of State for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Dr. Sanjeev Kumar Baliyan and Shri Vijay Goel will also attend the conference.
• About 700 participants representing various stakeholder groups such as farmers, Panchayat members, officials, NGOs and students will be attending the daylong conference.

10. Indo-Oman joint military exercise ‘Al-Nagah-II’ begins

• A 14-day joint defence exercise Al-Nagah-II between the armies of India and Oman will begin in Himachal Pradesh from March 6.
• Indo-Oman Joint Army Exercise AL NAGAH-II 2017 will be conducted between the Indian and Oman Army from 6 to 19 March in the Dhauladhar Ranges at Bakloh in Himachal Pradesh.
• This is the second joint military exercise between the two countries which have a history of extensive cooperation in the defence arena, the first one was held in Oman in January 2015.

11. Cabinet approves India-Portugal MoU on renewable energy

• The Indian cabinet has gaven post facto approval to the memorandum of understanding (MoU) on renewable energy between India and Portugal.
• The MoU was signed on January 6, 2017. The MoU aims to promote bilateral technical cooperation on new and renewable issues.
• The MoU envisages constitution of a Joint Working Group which can co-opt other members from Scientific Institutions, Research Centres, Universities, or any other entity, as and when considered essential.

12. Cabinet approves MoU with UN Women

• The Union Cabinet has approved the signing of agreement between India and UN Women to strengthen gender equality in governance institutions.
• The MoU between India and the United Nations Entity of Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) seeks to provide technical support to the Ministry of Panchayati Raj to improve the opportunities for gender equality through legislation, policies and programmes in ministry’s institutions.

13. HDFC Bank launched chatbot Eva for customer services

• HDFC Bank announced the launch of an electronic virtual assistant (EVA), an artificial intelligence-driven chatbot, for customer services.
• Eva is India’s first AI-based banking chatbot and can answer millions of customer queries across multiple channels instantly.

14. OPPO wins Indian cricket team sponsorship rights for five years

• The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced that mobile manufacturing company Oppo Mobiles India Private Limited will be the new team sponsor of the Indian cricket team from April 1, 2017 for a period of five years.
• The team sponsorship rights include the the title of official team sponsor and the right to display a commercial logo in the kits of the India men’s, women’s, A and Under-19 teams.

15. Bengali folk singer Kalikaprasad dies

• Popular Bengali folk music singer Kalikaprasad Bhattacharya died in a road accident at Hooghly, West Bengal. He was 56.
• Dohar, a widely popular folk music band, was formed nearly two decades ago and Kalika was its lead singer.
• Bhattacharya, a resident of South Kolkata, was on way to a school function in Birbhum district when the incident occurred.

16. Rabi Ray, former Lok Sabha Speaker, passes away

• Eminent socialist leader, former Union Minister and former Speaker of Lok Sabha Rabi Ray passed away after a prolonged illness. He was 91.
• In 1974, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha from the State, and was made a Cabinet Minister in 1977 by the then Prime Minister Morarji Desai, when Ray was functioning as one of the secretaries of the Janata Party.

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