DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 21ST MAR 2017

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 21ST MAR 2017
(DAILY NEWS INDIA)
SHARED BY: WWW.DAILYGK.IN

1. GOVERNMENT APPROVES SOLAR ENERGY SCHEME FOR SMALL POWERLOOM UNITS
i. Shri Ajay Tamta, The Minister of State for Textiles, informed the Lok Sabha that the Government has approved a new scheme, Solar Energy Scheme, to provide financial assistance/capital subsidy to small powerloom units, for installation of Solar Photo Voltaic  plant.
ii. Its aim is to mitigate the problem of power cut/ shortage faced by decentralized powerloom units in the country so as to improve efficiency, utilization, productivity to face both the domestic and international markets competitively.
iii. The Scheme is meant for Units having 04, 06 & 08 powerlooms and subsidies for different SPV plants will be given in the range of Rs 2,25,000 to Rs 8,55,000 depending upon the capacity of the SPV plant.
iv. The Scheme will come into force with effect from April 1, 2017.
v. Under the Solar Energy Scheme, the Solar Photo Voltaic (SPV) plant will be implemented in two modes:On-Grid Solar Power Plant and Off-Grid Solar Power Plant.

2. INDIA’S LONGEST ROAD TUNNEL, CHENENI-NASHIRI TUNNEL READY FOR OPENING
i. The longest road tunnel of India built at Cheneni in Jammu’s Udhampur district has successfully completed its trail run and is ready for public opening.
ii. The longest tunnel connecting Chenani and Nashiri town is likely to be inaugurated by PM Narendra Modi by the end of March.
iii. The trial run was successfully carried out between March 9-15 during both peak and non peak hours.
iv. The 9-km-long tunnel passes through the Himalayas and is a part of the 286-km-long four-lane project on Jammu- Srinagar National Highway.
v. The tunnel is 1st in India to be equipped with world class integrated tunnel control system through which ventilation, signals, fire control, communication and electrical systems will be automatically actuated.

3. UNION CABINET CLEARS 4 GST SUPPLEMENTARY LEGISLATIONS FOR INTRODUCTION TO PARLIAMENT
i. The Union Cabinet chaired by PM Shri Narendra Modi has approved the 4 supporting GST legislations on March 20.
ii. The 4 supporting legislations are the Compensation Law, the Central-GST, Integrated-GST and Union Territory-GST.
iii. Once the Parliament approves the Bill, the states would start taking their SGST bill for discussion and passage in the respective state assemblies.
iv. Once the new GST regime is into effect it will subsume central taxes like excise and service tax and state levies like VAT.
v. A composite GST will be charged on sale of goods or rendering of services while the revenue would be shared between the Centre and the states in almost equal proportion.

4. FIVE INDIANS NAMED IN WEF’S 100 YOUNG GLOBAL LEADERS LIST 2017
i. The annual World Economic Forum’s 100 Young Global Leaders list released for the year 2017 have given place to five Indians for their innovative approaches.
ii. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder & CEO PayTm, Shruti Shibulal, The Tamara Hospitality,Ambarish Mitra, Founder and CEO of Blippar, a mobile phone app.
iii. Hindol Sengupta and Rwitwika Bhattacharya-Agarwal, Editor-at-large, Fortune India and Founder and CEO of Swaniti Initiative.


5. ITALY RANKED WORLD’S HEALTHIEST COUNTRY BY BLOOMBERG 2017 INDEX
i. According to the 2017 Bloomberg Global Health Index of 163 countries released, Italy has been ranked as the healthiest country on Earth with a health score of 97.44 out of 100.
ii. The reason behind the healthy citizens of Italy is cited to lot of dependence on leafy diets drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. Besides, Italy also has excess of Doctors in the country.
iii. The least healthiest states comprised of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and West Virginia and were considered that more than 35% of their populations faced obese.
iv. Each country in the index was graded based on variables such as life expectancy, causes of death and health risks ranging from high blood pressure and tobacco use to malnutrition and the availability of clean water.

6. HAZIRA’S FIRST PRIVATE SECTOR TOWNSHIP TO GO CASHLESS
i. Essar Steel’s Nand Niketan township at Hazira, Gujarat has become the 1st private township to go cashless with the help of Mumbai-based financial technology company, The Hazira's 1st private sector township to go cashless Mobile Wallet.
ii. TMW will provide smartphone based application for mastercard-enabled mobile wallets and the wallet is powered by RBL Bank Ltd.
iii. All Essar employees got a nominal part of their salary as a credit into their TMW wallets. Essar employees and their families residing, merchants and shop owners in this township now using mobile wallet for their daily needs.
iv. Rs 2 lakh digital transactions are being executed every day through TMW.

7. ICICI BANK LAUNCHES NEW APP ‘MERA IMOBILE’,FOR RURAL CUSTOMERS
i. Mumbai based ICICI Bank launched 1st banking mobile application ‘Mera iMobile’ to provide agricultural information in 11 Indian languages for rural people without internet connection.
ii. Its Purpose is to access banking services and get information on agricultural services
iii. Mera iMobile app provides services include Gold Loan, Kisan Credit Card, Farm Equipment Loan and loans to Self-Help Groups.
iv. It will provide agriculture related information like crop-wise mandi prices of nearly 230 crop varieties across 460 mandis.
v. ICICI bank planned to introduce Wifi hostpots at its 700 rural and semi urban branches.

8. SNAPDEAL NAMES JASON KOTHARI AS NEW FREECHARGE CEO
i. Jason Kothari was appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Freecharge by Indian e-commerce company Snapdeal CEO, Kunal Bahl.
ii. Kothari is succeedor of Govind Rajan  and currently working as the Chief Strategy Officer of snapdeal since January 2017.

9. GOVERNMENT SWAPS CHIEF EXECUTIVES OF IDBI BANK, INDIAN BANK
i. For the 1st time, the central government has swapped the CEO of state-owned Indian Bank and IDBI Bank. It will be effective from the beginning of the next fiscal year.
ii. MD & CEO of Indian Bank, Mahesh Kumar Jain was shifted to IDBI Bank’s MD & CEO.
iv. Kishore Piraji Kharat has been appointed as Managing Director and CEO of Indian Bank.

10. INTERNATIONAL DAY OF HAPPINESS: MARCH 20, 2017
i. The International Day of Happiness is celebrated worldwide on March 20 since 2013 to educate and increase public awareness of the benefits of happiness.
ii. According to the 2017 World Happiness Report, released by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Norway has been ranked as the happiest country of the world among 155 nations. India was placed at 122nd position in the World Happiness Report.

11. WORLD SPARROW DAY: MARCH 20, 2017
i. World Sparrow Day is celebrated every year on March 20 across the world since 2010 to raise awareness about the importance of birds dwelling in urban areas.
ii. Its aim is to educate the public about the threat of polluted urban environments and non-caring humans to the house sparrow population, as well as to other common bird species.
iii. This day was initiated by the Nature Forever Society of India in collaboration with the Eco-Sys Action Foundation (France).

OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS BASED ON TODAY’S NEWS

Q1. HOW MANY INDIAN HAS BEEN NAMED IN THE 2017 WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM’S 100 YOUNG GLOBAL LEADERS LIST?
a)  Five
b)  Four
c)  Six
d)  Seven
Q2. WHEN IS THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF HAPPINESS OBSERVED?
a)  March 21
b)  March 19
c)  March 20
d)  March 18
Q3. THE SOLAR ENERGY SCHEME APPROVED BY THE GOVERNMENT FOR SMALL POWERLOOM UNITS WILL COME INTO EFFECT FROM WHICH DATE?
a)  May 1, 2017
b)  April 30, 2017
c)  March 31, 2017
d)  April 1, 2017
Q4. WHO HAS BEEN APPOINTED AS THE NEW MD & CEO OF THE INDIAN BANK?
a)  P Srinivasan
b)  Kishore Piraji Kharat
c)  Ravindra Prabhakar Marathe
d)  Mahesh Kumar Jain
Q5. THE NAND NIKETAN TOWNSHIP WHICH BECAME INDIA’S FIRST PRIVATE SECTOR TOWNSHIP TO GO FULLY CASHLESS IS LOCATED IN WHICH STATE?
a)  Madhya Pradesh
b)  Bihar
c)  Gujarat
d)  Rajasthan

ANSWERS: 

1 - A    2 - C    3 - D    4 - B    5 - C