Dear Friends,
Welcome to the Quick Gyan (QG) Section of D2G. QG is just a glimpse of what happened today all over the world.
Only For Serious Candidates : We strongly recommend you to read the Current Affairs in detail. For your convenience, we have provided quick links under the updates. Make use of it.
Always Keep Yourself Updated!!!
AWARDS AND HONORS
JNU receives President’s awards for excellence
Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has won two of the three Visitor’s Awards that had been instituted by President Pranab Mukherjee last year. The President of India is the visitor for all central universities. JNU received the awards for the Innovation and Research categories, while Tezpur University in Assam received the Best University award for academic excellence and overall performance. JNU professor Rakesh Bhatnagar received the Innovation award for his vaccine and antibody against anthrax. JNU’s Molecular Parasitology Group received the Research award for their work on malaria, amoeba and kala-azar parasites.
Quick Link – President’s awards
Jain Teerthankar idol enters “Guinness book of records”
A 108—feet tall idol of Lord Rishabhdeva, the first Teerthankar of Jains, carved out of a single rock, has entered the “Guinness World Records” as the world’s tallest Jain statue. The impressive statue is located atop Mangi Tungi mountain near Teharabad village of Baglan tehsil in this North Maharashtra district. The idol was consecrated last month during a grand ceremony where rituals were performed for several days. BJP President Amit Shah, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and several Ministers had visited the ceremony on different days.
Quick Link – Guinness World Records
APPOINTMENTS
MS Dhoni signed as Revital H brand ambassador
Sun Pharmaceuticals has named Indian cricket team captain MS Dhoni as brand ambassador of its health supplement brand Revital H. Earlier, actor Salman Khan was its brand ambassador for Revital H. The drug major announced that Dhoni’s association will help the company to increase market presence in West and South India and has also repositioned the brand with a focus on active lifestyle. It said Dhoni emerged as a popular choice based on consumer research conducted by the company. “The vitamin and dietary health supplement market in India is estimated to be Rs 8,828 crore and growing at 12% with top 10 brands (of which Revital H is a part) in the category contributing almost 48% of the market revenues.
Quick Link – MS Dhoni in Revital H
BANKING AND FINANCE
Capital Area Bank first to get small finance bank licence
Capital Local Area Bank, a Jalandhar-based local area bank, has emerged as the first entity to have received the Reserve Bank of India’s licence to start operations as a small finance bank. From day one, it plans to keep all its branches open for all seven days a week. Capital, which claims to be the largest local bank in the country, currently has 44 branches in five districts of Punjab and three more would be opened by March 31. During the first five years as a small finance bank, it will focus on northern region. Small finance banks are a type of niche banks in India. Banks with a small finance bank license can provide basic banking service of acceptance of deposits and lending.
Quick Link – Capital Local Area Bank
SoftBank splits into two subsidiaries
Japanese investment bank SoftBank Group Corp has announced a major reorganisation of its businesses. The firm has said that it would separate its profitable domestic mobile business from its global business, which includes a majority stake in US mobile operator Sprint Corp. SoftBank’s President Nikesh Arora will now head the overseas management company, whose holdings also include a 32 per cent share of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and a range of other Internet and technology firms. SoftBank’s Japanese telecom business and shares in domestic Internet firms such as Yahoo Japan will be managed by a separate company led by Ken Miyauchi, who now heads SoftBank’s Japanese mobile operations, the company said in a statement.
Quick Link – SoftBank in Two subsidiaries
ICICI Bank offers ‘work-from-home’ for women
ICICI Bank announced the launch of a work-from-home programme to prevent women employees from dropping out of its workforce. The company has deployed face recognition technology to facilitate women to work from home and provide access to the bank’s core banking servers under. The programme iWork@ home will enable almost every non-customer facing task to be done from home. The platform is designed not only to recognise the employees face; it also logs her out if she leaves her seat or if another face appears within range of the camera. The bank has also announced another initiative for women managers with children up to 3 years of age as managerial responsibilities at times require them to travel outside city limits, for client interactions, business reviews or training.
Quick Link – work-from-home
CBDT sets up dedicated structure for monitoring taxpayer services
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has set up a dedicated structure for delivery and monitoring of tax payer services in the income tax department. The Tax Administration Reforms Commission’s (TARC) Report had accorded considerable importance to redressal of grievances and a customer focussed approach in the Department through creation of a tax payer services vertical. The creation of this structure will fulfil some of the most significant recommendations of the TARC. With this initiative, the CBDT expects a noteworthy reduction in taxpayer grievances and enhanced taxpayer satisfaction.
Quick Link – TARC
Fitch maintains India’s growth forecast at 7.5%
Global rating agency Fitch has maintained its growth forecast for India at 7.5 per cent this fiscal and sees higher growth over the next two financial years. However, 8 per cent growth will remain elusive in the short term. The forecast is largely in line with the Finance Ministry’s growth estimates. The Economic Survey had also said achieving 8 per cent growth may not be possible in the short run. Higher real disposable income, a normal monsoon and a substantial wage increase for central government employees will support economic recovery in the next two financial years, the ratings agency said, while underlining the need for structural reforms. Fitch also pitched for monetary policy easing.
Quick Link – Fitch maintains at 7.5%
SBI Life launches SBI Life – Smart Women Advantage
To commemorate the International Women’s Day, SBI Life Insurance has launched ‘SBI Life – Smart Women Advantage’ plan that provides for life cover, savings and female-specific critical illness benefits. It’s a participating individual traditional endowment plan with health concept built into one plan, and also provides optional benefits of additional pregnancy complication, congenital anomalies and child birth related abnormalities, as also other illnesses, SBI Life said in a release. The plan carries tax benefits under section 80D and 80C of the Income Tax Act for premiums paid towards health benefits and life cover respectively under the policy.
Quick Link – SBI Life
INDIAN AFFAIRS
Digital marketing portal Mahila e-Haat launched for women entrepreneurs
In a bid to strengthen women entrepreneurs, the ministry of women and child development (WCD) launched Mahila e-Haat, an online marketing platform for women. Launched a day before the International Women’s Day on 8 March, the portal has been set up with an investment of under Rs.10 lakh from the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh—an autonomous body under the WCD ministry for the socio-economic empowerment of women—and sellers can register their products on the platform without having to pay any listing fee. On the day of the launch, about 125,000 beneficiaries under 10,000 self-help groups registered themselves on the portal.
Quick Link – Mahila e-Haat
Tata Motors partners US Firm for Rs 50 K Crore project
Tata Motors has signed a strategic agreement with Bharat Forge and US-based General Dynamics Land Systems for India’s Rs 50,000-crore Future Infantry Combat Vehicle (FICV) programme. Tata Motors, the country’s largest commercial vehicle maker, will lead the consortium with Pune-based auto component maker Bharat Forge as the partner. General Dynamics Land Systems will bring in its expertise in the combat vehicles business.The FICV is a high-mobility armoured battle vehicle for ferrying infantry men. It will replace the army’s fleet of 2,610 Russian-designed BMP-series armed vehicles in operation since 1980.
Quick Link – Tata Motors partners US Firm
Railways forms Special Purpose Vehicle for bullet train project
Gearing up to introduce trains that run at speeds of more than 300 kmph, the Indian Railways have formed a new Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to implement the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Bullet Train project. The entity has been named the National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited. The bullet train is expected to cover the 508 km between Mumbai and Ahmedabad in about two hours, running at a maximum speed of 350 kmph and operating speed of 320 kmph. Currently, Duronto takes about seven hours to cover the distance between the two financial centres of the country. Estimated to cost about Rs 97,636 crore, 81 per cent of the funding for the project would come by way of a loan from Japan.
Quick Link – SPV for BT
Germany to develop three smart cities in India
Germany is going to participate in the smart city programme of the Union government. The European country will help to develop Kochi, Bhubaneswar and Coimbatore as smart cities. The State Secretary in Germany’s Ministry for Environment, Gunther Adler, announced this in New Delhi at the second meeting of the Indo-German working group on urban development. Under the smart city programme, the three cities will use technology to monitor the use of daily facilities such as electricity, gas, oil, transport, water and even harvest. Germany had earlier set up a six-member joint committee with India to identify the cities which it could develop as smart cities.
Quick Link – Indo-German
Gujarat tops the list of states with most investment potential
Gujarat has topped the list of 21 states with most investment potential that has been drawn up by New Delhi-based think-tank National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER). Gujarat is followed by Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. The ranking of 20 states and one union territory of Delhi was based on five pillars — labour, infrastructure, economic climate, governance and political stability, perceptions — and 51 sub-indicators. The NCAER survey puts Jharkhand at the bottom of the list, just above Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. While Gujarat topped in governance and political stability, and perceptions, Delhi ranked one in infrastructure and economic climate. Kerala topped the chart in labour issues.
Quick Link – NCAER
Govt mulls policy to promote wind energy projects
In a bid to encourage optimum use of wind energy potential in India, the Centre will soon unveil a policy to give incentives including an interest rebate of 0.25 for increasing capacity of wind mills of up to 1 MW. Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has floated a draft for Repowering of Wind Power Projects in the country for comments from stakeholders by March 14, 2016. The objective of the policy is to promote optimum utilisation of wind energy resources by creating facilitative framework for repowering, as per the draft. It said most of the wind-turbines installed up to the year 2000 are of capacity below 500 kW and are at sites having high wind energy potential.
Quick Link – Wind energy projects
Bill to amend Enemy Property Act introduced
In a major move to prevent transfer of enemy property and allows state appointed custodian to sell it off, the government has introduced a Bill to amend retrospectively several provisions of the Enemy Property Act of 1968. Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju moved the Enemy Property (Amendment and Validation) Bill in Lok Sabha to replace an Ordinance that was promulgated on January 2016. The Ordinance seeks to amend the Enemy Property Act, 1968 and the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971.
Quick Link – Enemy Property Act introduced
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
World celebrating International Women’s Day
Women’s Day is celebrated around the world. The official website for the day says: “Celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievement of women. “Yet let’s also be aware progress has slowed in many places across the world, so urgent action is needed to accelerate gender parity. Leaders across the world are pledging to take action as champions of gender parity.” The International Women’s Day, celebrated on March 8, is a global event aimed at inspiring women and celebrating their achievements. Google posted a short video on its home page in which some women are seen sharing their aspirations, completing the sentence “One day I will…”
Quick Link – International Women’s Day
FOREIGN RELATIONS
Indo-Indonesia Joint Training Exercise Garuda shakti IV
Indo-Indonesia Joint Training Exercise GARUDA SHAKTI is conducted as part of military diplomacy between Indian and Indonesian Army alternatively in India and Indonesia respectively. The exercise is conducted on a reciprocal basis and its first edition was conducted in the year 2012 in India. The second edition was conducted in Indonesia in 2013 and third in India in 2014. The exercise is aimed at building and promoting positive relations between the two Armies of India and Indonesia. The fourth edition of the joint exercise will be conducted for 13 days from 10 to 23 March 16 at Magelang, Indonesia in which an Indian Army platoon strength contingent will carry out cross training with a platoon from the Airborne battalion of the Indonesian Army.
Quick Link – GARUDA SHAKTI
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Five healthcare ATMs launched in Four states
A total of five healthcare ATMs have come up in four states — Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh — under a Health Ministry pilot that combines telemedicine with a rudimentary free drugs programme. The ministry is hoping these would tide over the massive shortage of doctors in the country and also the risks of pilferage that free drugs programmes are fraught with. The MPHW will explain the dosage to the patient. And in case urgent referral is required, the 108 ambulance service will be made available at the sub-centre. India currently has 0.51 doctors per 1,000 population, half the 1:1,000 ratio recommended by World Health Organization. Rural India’s ratio is 0.63 per 10,000.
Quick Link – Five HC-ATMs
Indian scientists have developed Herbal drug to treat dengue
Indian scientists have developed a herbal medicine against dengue, which accounts for 50 per cent of the global population estimated to be at risk from the disease. Experts are now gearing for the next step, which is to hold clinical trials and toxicity studies before seeking permission from the Ministry of Ayush and the Drug Controller of India (DCI) for commercial production. The project was undertaken jointly by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), under the Ministry of Science and Technology, the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology and Ranbaxy Research Laboratory, and employed ayurveda in devising the drug. Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne tropical disease caused by the dengue virus.
Quick Link – Herbal drug to treat dengue
ISRO to launch IRNSS-1F satellite on March 10
ISRO scientists will place the sixth navigational satellite IRNSS-1F in orbit on March 10. The Mission Readiness Review Committee (MRRC) has decided to begin the count-down activities of the PSLV-C32 mission that would carry the satellite to the space. This would be the second launch for ISRO in the new year. With 33 successive successful missions, the PSLV-C32, after a flight duration of about 20 minutes, will place IRNSS-1F, the sixth satellite of the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), in the sub Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (sub GTO), with a perigee of 284 km (nearest point to earth) and an apogee of 20,657 km (farthest point to earth) with an inclination of 17.86 deg to the equatorial plane.
Quick Link – IRNSS-1F
SPORTS
Tarun Kona and Alwin Francis win Peru International doubles title
Indian men’s doubles duo of Tarun Kona and Alwin Francis (Badminton) continued their superb form to emerge victorious at the II Peru International Series 2016 in the Peruvian capital of Lima. Kona and Francis, who were seeded second at this tournament, upset the top seeds; the Mexican pair of Job Castillo and Lino Munoz 21-8, 21-12 to win the final. This is the second career title for this duo and their second of the season after triumphing at the Herbalife International Series in Guatemala just a week back. The Guatemala title win shot them up 24 places to their current ranking of 108th.
Quick Link – Peru International doubles title
Sharapova failed drugs test at Australian Open
Five-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova announced at a news conference that she failed a drug test at the Australian Open. The current world No. 7 said she was notified by the International Tennis Federation several days ago. The Tennis Anti-Doping Program confirmed that she will be “provisionally suspended” starting on March 12, “pending the determination of the case.” The drug is called meldonium, though Sharapova said she had been using it under the name of mildronate and was unaware of both the different name and the fact it is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned list until she received a letter notifying her of the positive test 10 days ago.
Quick Link – Sharapova failed drugs test
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