DAILY GK 15-16 MAR 2026
1.
PRESIDENT OF CHILE
·
Jose Antonio Kast
Rist, founder and leader of the Republican Party of Chile, was sworn in as the 38th President of Chile for a four-year
term at the National Congress in ValparaÃso, Chile.
·
Jose Antonio Kast Rist
formally assumed office in the Hall of Honor, receiving the Piocha de
O’Higgins, a traditional symbol of the Chilean presidency, from outgoing President
Gabriel Boric Font.
2.
WHOLE-TIME MEMBER OF
SEBI
·
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), chaired
by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the appointment of Kompella Venkata (K.V.) Ramana Murty as
a Whole-Time Member(WTM) of Securities
and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for a period of three years.
·
Following his appointment,
the total number of WTMs on the SEBI board now reaches 4.
·
The
SEBI board comprises a chairman, 4 whole-time members and 4
part-time members, including representatives from MoCA, Ministry of
Finance(MoF), and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
·
Apart from Murty, other 3 WTM include: KamleshChandra Varshney, Sandip Pradhan and Amarjeet
Singh.
3.
WORLD’S FIRST AUTONOMOUS
MARITIME SHIPBUILDING CENTRE
·
Sagar Defence Engineering Private
Limited, a defence technology company, laid the foundation stone for the world’s
first Autonomous Maritime Shipbuilding and Systems Centre at Juvvaladinne Fishing Harbour, Nellore
district, Andhra Pradesh (AP).
·
The proposed Autonomous
Maritime Shipbuilding Centre will
operate as an advanced shipyard integrating robotics and Artificial
Intelligence (AI) into key production processes to improve shipbuilding
efficiency, workforce productivity, and sustainability.
4.
INDIA SUBMITS FIRST
REPORT ON NAGOYA PROTOCOL IMPLEMENTATION
·
The Ministry of
Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), in
partnership with the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), has
submitted India’s First National Report (NR1) on the
implementation of the Nagoya Protocol,
which is officially known as “Nagoya Protocol, on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of
Benefits Arising from their Utilization (ABS)” to the Secretariat of the
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
·
So far, India
published 3,556 Internationally
Recognised Certificates of Compliance (IRCCs) on the Access and Benefit
Sharing (ABS) Clearing-House which reflects high compliance with global
reporting standards.
·
These approvals were
granted in accordance with Article 17 of
the Nagoya Protocol, representing over 60% of the global total and
demonstrating India’s leadership in transparency and compliance.
5. FE OF 2024-25 AND FAE OF 2025-26 OF HORTICULTURE CROPS
·
Union Minister Shivraj
Singh Chouhan, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoA&FW)
released the Final Estimates (FE)
of 2024-25 and First Advance Estimate
(FAE) of 2025-26 of area and production of horticulture crops, i.e. fruits and vegetables.
·
As per the FE of 2024-25, the total
horticulture production increased from 3547.44 lakh tonnes (LT) to 3707.38
LT, reporting a 4.51%
growth.
·
The total horticulture crop area grew from 290.86 lakh
hectares (ha) in 2023-24 FE
to 301.36 lakh ha in 2024-25 FE, a 10.50 lakh ha (3.61%) increase.
·
As per the FAE of 2025-26, the total area under the horticulture production is estimated to be 301.31
lakh ha.
·
Horticulture
Production: The FAE for 2025-26
project 3708.46 LT production, exceeding 2024-25 by
1.09 LT.
·
Fruit Production: The fruit production rose from 1129.78 LT in 2023-24 to 1176.49
LT in 2024-25, registering a 4.13%
growth.
6.
‘BHAVYA SCHEME’ FOR
INDUSTRIAL PARKS
·
The Union Cabinet chaired
by the Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi approved Rs 33,660
crore Bharat AudyogikVikasYojna (BHAVYA) scheme
for developing 100 plug-and-play industrial parks across the
country.
·
This newly approved scheme aims to develop world-class industrial
infrastructure, unlocking manufacturing potential and driving India’s
growth story.
·
BHAVYA scheme, structured
on the success of Industrial Smart
Cities developed under the National Industrial Corridor Development Programme
(NICDP) framework, will be implemented in partnership with states and
private sector players.
·
Further, industrial parks
ranging from 100 to 1000 acres will be undertaken for
development.
·
The Government of India
(GoI) will provide up to Rs1 crore per acre for Core
infrastructure,Value-added infrastructure, Social infrastructure.
·
The GoI has decided to
allocate a maximum 25% of the project cost for external infrastructure, ensuring seamless connectivity
and integration with existing networks.
7.
‘SHP DEVELOPMENT
SCHEME’
·
The Union Cabinet chaired
by the Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi approved the ‘Small
Hydro Power (SHP) Development Scheme’ for a period
of 5 years (i.e. from Financial Year 2026-27(FY27) to
FY31), with total outlay of Rs.2584.60 crore.
·
This newly approved scheme
is designed to install SHP projects of an approximate capacity of 1500
MegaWatt (MW) across the country.
·
The scheme will be implemented by the Ministry of
New & Renewable Energy (MNRE).
·
The new scheme will support
small hydro projects ranging from 1 to 25 MW capacity to come
up in different states.
·
Under SHP Development
scheme, central financial assistance of Rs 3.6 crore per
MW or 30% of the project cost, whichever is
lower with an upper limit of Rs.30 crore per project will be provided to the NE states and in districts with
international borders.
·
For
other states, the government will provide financial
support of Rs.2.4 crore per MW or 20% of project cost (whichever
is lower), capped at Rs.20 crore per project.
8.
KALINJAR FORT DECLARED
NATIONAL GEO-HERITAGE SITE
·
The Geological Survey of India (GSI) declared
the hill area surrounding Kalinjar Fort in Banda district,
Uttar Pradesh (UP) as a National Geo-Heritage Site, recognising its
unique geological and historical significance.
·
The site is home to a rare geological phenomenon known as
the Eparchaean Unconformity.
·
This formation represents a
massive temporal gap of approximately
1.3 billion years in the Earth’s geological record.
·
The hill exposes Bundelkhand
granite, which is nearly 2.5 billion years old, directly overlain by Kaimur
sandstone, aged approximately 1.2 billion years.
·
Kalinjar Fort is known for temples from the Gupta period,
including the NeelkanthMahadev Temple.
9.
‘PUNJAB SIKHYA KRANTI 2.0’
SCHOOL PROGRAMME
·
the Government of Punjab in
collaboration with the World Bank (WB) launched ‘Punjab Sikhya Kranti 2.0’, an
ambitious second phase of educational reform, with an investment of Rs
3,500 crore for a period of 6 years.
·
Under this strategic collaboration,
WB will provide Rs 2,500 crore as
loan assistance and Punjab Government will contribute Rs 1,000 crore.
·
The programme
outlines 3 main pillars of
foundational learning: implementing structured assessments and enhanced
pedagogy to ensure basic literacy and numeracy; increasing access to
high-demand academic streams and upgrading vocational training.
10.
RELIEF SCHEME TO SUPPORT
INDIAN EXPORTERS AMID WEST ASIA CONFLICT
·
The Directorate General of
Foreign Trade (DGFT) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoC&I) announced
the launch of a new initiative, Resilience
and Logistics Intervention for Export Facilitation (RELIEF) scheme
to support Indian exporters impacted by the ongoing conflict in West Asia.
·
The scheme will be
implemented with a financial outlay of Rs 497 crore (Cr) under
the Export Promotion Mission (EPM).
·
The ECGC Ltd. (Formerly
Export Credit Guarantee Corporation of India Ltd.), wholly owned by Government
of India (GoI), has been designated
as the nodal and implementing agency responsible for verification, claim
processing, disbursement and monitoring.
11.
NIRYAT DATA FOR FY25
·
The Department for
Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of
Commerce and Industry (MoC&I) released the National-Import-Export Record for Yearly Analysis of Trade (NIRYAT)
data for the Financial Year 2024-25(FY25).
·
As per the report, Tamil Nadu (TN) has
emerged as India’s top state in textile
exports, registered exports worth USD 7,997.17 million (21.84%
of India’s overall exports).
·
NIRYAT is
a dedicated platform launched by Prime
Minister (PM) Narendra Modi in 2022, providing real-time
comprehensive data on foreign trade.
12.
INDIA’S 1ST LPG ATM
·
Bharat Petroleum
Corporation Limited (BPCL), a Maharatna Public Sector
Undertaking (PSU) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG),
launched India’s 1st Liquefied
Petroleum Gas (LPG) Automated Teller Machine (ATM) in Gurugram, Haryana.
·
The launch was part of
BPCL’s pilot project branded as ‘BharatGas Insta LPG’, which
aims to test automated gas distribution in urban areas of the country.
·
The LPG ATM offers lightweight composite cylinder
weighing about 15 kilogram (kg) compared to the conventional iron cylinders which weigh nearly 31 kg.
·
The newly launched LPG ATM
has the capacity to hold a maximum of 10
cylinders.
·
When stock falls below two
cylinders, the nearest gas agency will get an alert to replenish the machine.
13.
ARPITA PATRA SUMMITS
WORLD’S HIGHEST VOLCANO
·
ArpitaPatra,
Professor at the Indian Institute of Science
(IISc), Bengaluru (Karnataka), successfully summited Nevado Ojos
del Salado, the world’s highest
volcanic peak and the highest mountain in Chile, located on the
Chile–Argentina border in the Atacama
Desert.
·
With this achievement, she
became the second Indian woman to scale the peak after Arunima Sinha, who completed the
climb in 2019.
14.
ARGENTINA FORMALLY
WITHDRAWS FROM WHO
·
Argentina formally
withdrew from the World Health
Organization (WHO), completing the process one year after notifying the
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General AntónioGuterres.
·
The withdrawal was carried
out under the Vienna Convention on the
Law of Treaties (VCLT),
which permits exit after a one-year
notice period.
·
The move reflects a broader
shift toward decentralised governance, following USA, which exited the WHO in January 2026.
