DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 23RD MAR 2017

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: 23RD MAR 2017
(DAILY NEWS INDIA)
SHARED BY: WWW.DAILYGK.IN

1. CENTRE APPROVES OVER 1.17 LAKH MORE HOUSES FOR URBAN POOR AT RS. 5,773 CR
i. The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation approved construction of new 1,17,814 affordable houses under the Prime Minister’s Awas Yojana (Urban) for the benefit of urban poor in six States namely Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Kerala and Karnataka.
ii. The total cost of the project is Rs.5,773 cr for which central assistance of Rs.1,816 cr has been approved.
iii. The construction project is being undertaken under 2 categories: Beneficiary Led Construction and Affordable Housing in Partnership component. Central assistance of Rs.1.50 lakh is provided for each beneficiary.
iv. Under BLC, beneficiaries are assisted to build own houses on the land available with them or take up improvement works for increasing living space and other amenities. Under AHP, State Government provides the land to house urban poor.
v .Thus the total number of houses being taken up for construction for the benefit of urban poor under PMAY(Urban) has gone up to 17,60,507 with total project cost of Rs.96,018 cr for which central assistance of Rs.27,714 cr has been approved.


2. ASSAM GOVERNMENT LAUNCHES INITIATIVES TO MAKE MAJULI INDIA’S FIRST CARBON NEUTRAL DISTRICT & BIODIVERSITY HERITAGE
i. Assam CM, Sarbananda Sonowal launched initiative to develop the World’s largest river island, Majuli into country’s 1st ever Carbon Neutral district by 2020 as well as a biodiversity heritage site to preserve its rich heritage and legacy.

ii. The project titled ‘Sustainable Action for Climate Resilient Development’ in Majuli’ was launched on the occasion of the International Day of Forest and has been initiated by the Assam’s department of Environment and Forest.

iii. The project, SACReD, Majuli has been initiated to combat climate change and ensure reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

3. INDIA RANKS 131 IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT INDEX 2016
i. According to the UN Development Programme’s Human Development for Everyone’ Report 2016, released in Stockholm, India has been ranked at 131 out of 188 countries in the 2016 Human Development Index.
ii. The HDI of India was 0.624 putting it in the medium HDI category. It was placed at 3rd spot among the SAARC nation with Sri Lanka and Maldives taking the 1st and 2nd spots respectively and coming under high HDI category with HDI of 0.766 and 0.701 respectively.
iii. Norway and Australia is at 1st and 2nd spot followed by Switzerland is at 3rd.

4. MOBILE PAYMENT SERVICE ‘SAMSUNG PAY’ OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED IN INDIA
i. Samsung Electronics officially launched the mobile payment service, Samsung Pay in India.
ii. With this, Samsung becomes the 1st company to launch a mobile payment service in India, ahead of Apple Pay or Android Pay.
iii. The 1st commercial transaction of the new payments service in India was carried out in the presence of NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and Samsung Southwest Asia President and CEO HC Hong.
iv. Samsung has tied up with several banks and payment gateways in India like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI, Citi Bank, Standard Chartered and American Express for the payment service.
v. Samsung has also tied up with mobile wallet Paytm for payments and will also add UPI based payment soon.

5. GOVERNMENT LOWERS CASH TRANSACTION LIMIT TO RS 2 LAKH
i .The Government of India has proposed to lower the limit of cash transaction from Rs. 3 lakh to Rs. 2 lakh per month to further tighten and discourage payments by cash as well as curb black money.
ii. Arun Jaitley, The Union Finance Minister proposed 40 amendments to the Finance Bill 2017 which was cleared by the Lok Sabha.
iii. The new limit will be effective from April 1, 2017. Any violations to the norms would be subjected to a fine equivalent to the amount of transaction.
iv. Among other amendments, the Minister proposed to make Aadhaar mandatory for filing tax returns from July 1.
vi. The government also proposed to amend the Finance Bill to ensure only cheque payments can be accepted for the purchase of electoral bonds and that RBI is empowered to authorise banks to accept them.

6. INDIA AND ADB SIGN $350 MILLION LOAN FOR UPGRADING 1,500 KMS OF DISTRICT ROADS IN STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH
i. Philippines headquartered Asian Development Bank’s Deputy Country Director  L. B. Sondjaja and Joint Secretary (Multilateral Institutions), Department of Economic Affairs in the Ministry of Finance, Raj Kumar have signed a $350 million loan agreement in New Delhi.
ii. This loan amount will be used to improve 1,500 kilometers of major district roads in India’s 2nd-largest State Madhya Pradesh.
iii. The state government of Madhya pradesh also will allocate $150 million for this project.

7. GOVERNMENT SET TO TRIPLE NUCLEAR POWER GENERATION BY 2024
i. The Government of India is set to increase the nuclear power generation capacity in India to nearly 15,000 MW by 2024.
ii. The information regarding the same was delivered by Minister of State for PMO Jitendra Singh in the Lok Sabha.
iii. The minister also informed that in 2014, India’s nuclear power generation capacity was 4,780 MW.
iv. The government is taking a number of steps to accelerate all ongoing nuclear projects and setting up of new plants in different parts of the country.

8. ABB INDIA BAGS AWARD FOR RESTORING 1,035 MW SHARAVATHI PLANT IN KARNATAKA
i. Bengaluru based ABB India has won the India Smart Grid Foundation’s “Smart Technology of the Year 2016″award for restoring the crucial power infrastructure of Sharavathi hydropower plant in Karnataka.
ii. ABB India has restored and modernised the critical 1,035 MW Sharavathi hydropower plant which will accounts for 25% of Karnataka Power Corporation’s generation.
iii. This kind of projects will be key to realising the objective of India’s National Smart Grid Mission.

9. UPENDRA TRIPATHY APPOINTED AS FULL TIME INTERIM DIRECTOR GENERAL OF ISA
i. Upendra Tripathy has been appointed as the Interim Director General of the International Solar Alliance  on a full time basis.
ii. The decision regarding Tripathy was taken by Shri Piyush Goyal, Union Minister for Power, Coal and Renewable Energy and Mines, and Minister for Environment, Energy and Marine Affairs Government of France, Ms. Sgolene Royal.
iii. The International Solar Alliance was launched  as a coalition of the solar resource rich countries jointly by PM Narendra Modi and President of France, Francois Hollande in the presence of Mr. Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations during the Paris Climate Conference or CoP21.

10. ANKUR KHANNA APPOINTED AS NEW CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER OF ICC
i. Air Asia’s Chief Financial Officer Ankur Khanna has been appointed as Chief Financial Officer of International Cricket Council. This was officially announced by ICC Chief Executive, David Richardson.
ii. Ankur has worked in senior roles at Air France / KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and ITC, an associate company of British American Tobacco.

11. 2017 WORLD WATER DAY: MARCH, 22
i. UN designated World water day is observed on March 22, in various country to raise awareness of the importance of conserving and managing water resources.
ii. 2017 Theme was “Why Waste water?”
iii. This year theme will focused to reducing and reusing waste water.

OBJECTIVE QUESTIONS BASED ON TODAY’S NEWS

Q1. WHAT IS THE THEME OF THE 2017 WORLD WATER DAY?
a)  Why Waste Water?
b)  Water and Sustainable Development
c)  Better Water, Better Jobs
d)  Water and Jobs
Q2. WHO HAS BEEN APPOINTED AS THE NEW CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRICKET COUNCIL?
a)  Gurdeep Singh
b)  Ankur Khanna
c)  Jayesh Pundit
d)  Subhash Rathore
Q3. WHO HAS BEEN APPOINTED AS THE INTERIM DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOLAR ALLIANCE ON A FULL TIME BASIS?
a)  Nripendra Puri
b)  Girish Chowdhary
c)  Ramesh Verma
d)  Upendra Tripathy
Q4. WHICH AMONG THE GIVEN MOBILE COMPANY HAS LAUNCHED THE MOBILE PAYMENT SERVICE FOR THE FIRST TIME IN INDIA?
a)  Sony Mobile
b)  Microsoft
c)  Samsung Electronics
d)  Apple Inc
Q5. ASSAM GOVERNMENT HAS SET A TARGET TO TRANSFORM MAJULI INTO INDIA’S FIRST CARBON NEUTRAL DISTRICT BY WHICH YEAR?
a)  2023
b)  2020
c)  2019
d)  2021

ANSWERS: 

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