Current Affairs in English – March 14, 15 2023

March 14-15, 2023

National Events:

Jammu & Kashmir:

• Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has unveiled Rs 1,18,500 crore budget for Jammu & Kashmir Union Territory for the next financial year.
• The total budget estimates for the fiscal is Rs. 1,18,500 crore, of which developmental expenditure is of the order of Rs. 41,491 crore. The capital component of the budget has increased substantially.

Forest and tree cover:

• India’s forest and tree cover has risen by 2,261 square kilometers in the year 2021. Andhra Pradesh grew the maximum forest cover of 8,276 square kilometers, according to the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021.
• The biennial report by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), Dehradun, was released by Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Ashwini Kumar Choubey.

IFC:

• Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) has got the status of Infrastructure Finance Company (IFC) from RBI.
• It was earlier classified as an ‘Investment and Credit Company (ICC)’. With the IFC status, IREDA will be able to take higher exposure in RE financing. The IFC status will also help the company to access a wider investor base for fund mobilisation.

IDFC Mutual Fund:

• IDFC Mutual Fund has rebranded itself as Bandhan Mutual Fund and its schemes are reflecting the new name from 13 March 2023. The fund house has also unveiled a new logo.
• The company, which was earlier a part of the IDFC group, was acquired by a Bandhan Financial Holdings-led consortium in April 2022. The deal was approved by the Securities and Exchange Board of India in November 2022.

SERB & STINT:

• A Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) has been signed between Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), and The Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT) Stockholm, Sweden.
• It will strengthen cooperation and promote research networking between research institutions from both countries.

Financial Assistance for Veteran Artists:

• The Ministry of Culture administers a Scheme by the name of ‘Financial Assistance for Veteran Artists’ (erstwhile ‘Scheme for Pension and Medical Aid to Artistes’) to provide financial assistance to veteran artists of the country of the age of 60 years and above in the form of monthly artists’ pension.
• It has been the endeavor of the Government to make continuous efforts to ensure that pension to the beneficiaries is disbursed in a timely manner.
• Ministry of Culture has entrusted the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) vide an MoU in 2009 for disbursing the monthly artists pension to selected beneficiaries prior to the year 2017.

Yoga Mahotsav 2023:

• The celebration of Yoga Mahotsav 2023 marks the official beginning of the 100-day countdown to International Yoga Day 2023 and to sensitize and motivate the masses to participate in Yoga centric activities to widen the horizons of Yoga.
• The three-day Yoga Mahotsav 2023 is being held in the capital’s Talkatora Stadium on 13-14 March and the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY) on 15 March.

LIC:

• Tablesh Pandey and M. Jagannath have been appointed as the managing directors of the Life Insurance Company (LIC). Tablesh Pandey will take over on April 1, 2023, and M. Jagannath will start working on March 13, 2023.
• Raj Kumar and BC Patnaik are the two managing directors that left the company this week. There are currently four managing directors at LIC.

NMDC:

• Amitava Mukherjee, NMDC Director (Finance), has been given the additional responsibility of Chairman-Cum-Managing Director. Mukherjee, an Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS) officer from the 1995 batch, has a Master’s in Commerce from Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya in Bilaspur and is also a Cost Accountant.
• His leadership enabled the timely completion of NMDC Steel Ltd’s demerger from NMDC Ltd(National Mineral Development Corporation). His areas of expertise are project management, digital initiatives, and policy formulation.

 “ Beggar-free city”:

• In Nagpur, Maharashtra, a new project known as “beggar-free city” has been launched. Amitesh Kumar, the Nagpur City commissioner of police, announced that notification 144 CrPC has been issued in this regard.
• The social welfare division of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) and the Nagpur City Police are partners in this effort. In order to accommodate homeless people in its shelters, the NMC has developed particular provisions.

 “Resham Keet Bima”:

• Ganesh Joshi, the state’s agriculture minister, said that Uttarakhand launched the country’s first “Resham Keet Bima” programme to safeguard its sericulturists. 200 sericulturists from five blocks in four districts—Dehradun, Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar, and Nainital—received insurance in the first phase of the pilot project, which started in Uttarakhand.
• This insurance protected them from the effects of climate change, water scarcity, and other dangers.

Surekha Yadav:

• The Vande Bharat Express is now being driven by Surekha Yadav, the first female locomotive pilot in Asia.
• From Solapur to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminal (CSMT) in Maharashtra, Yadav ran the Vande Bharat Express. Surekha Yadav, a native of Satara, Maharashtra, became the nation’s first female train driver in 1988.

Flower Festival:

• Connaught Plaza in Delhi will host a Flower Festival beginning from, March 11. It aims to emphasise the diversity of G20 participants and invited nations.
• The festival, which is being held at Central Park and is being organised by the New Delhi Municipal Council, was opened by Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav.
• Japan, Singapore, and the Netherlands are among the G20 nations taking part. The objective of the festival is to showcase the vibrancy and colourful display of G20 members and guest countries.

IIT Guwahati & Sri Sathya Sai Heart Hospital:

• IIT Guwahati on 13 March 2023, signed an MoU with Sri Sathya Sai Heart Hospital, Ahmedabad to foster Cardiac research.
• It was signed to provide digital transformation, degradation, and information sharing related to cardiac diseases.
• The Government of Assam has also inked an MoU with the Hospital to conduct sophisticated heart surgeries on 500 children.

IIL & CIFA:

• Indian Immunologicals Ltd (IIL) in March 2023, partnered with Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture (CIFA), Bhubaneswar for commercial development of fish vaccine. CIFA is an Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Institute.
• CIFA will develop the vaccine against Hemorrhagic Septicemia, also called Aeromonas Septicemia, ulcer disease or red-sore disease in freshwater fish.

Kotak Silver Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) Fund of Fund:

• Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Company Ltd on 13 March 2023 announced the launch of Kotak Silver Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) Fund of Fund. It is an open-ended fund of fund scheme that invests in units of the Kotak Silver ETF.
• The New Fund Offer opens for public subscription on March 13, 2023 and closes on 27 Mar 2023. The scheme offers diversification, easy liquidity and no storage costs.

Indian Railways:

• Indian Railways on 13 March 2023, announced that it has completed the electrification of Uttarakhand’s entire broad gauge network of 347 route km.
• This will result in a 2.5 times lower line haul cost, heavier haulage capacity, and reduced operating and maintenance costs of the electric loco. Indian Railway is working on a mission mode to become the largest green railway in the world.

‘The Atmanirbhar Gujarat Schemes for Assistance to Industries’:

• Gujarat government signed 16 MoUs of worth 12,703 crore rupees in a single day on 13 March 2023, under ‘The Atmanirbhar Gujarat Schemes for Assistance to Industries’.
• The scheme was launched by Gujarat government in October 2022 to support the industries in the State. As per the new MoUs, new industrial units will be set up in Dahej, Sanand, Bharuch and Saykha Industrial Colony.

Old excise policy:

• The Delhi government has extended its old excise policy for the next six months. The government had reverted to its old excise policy in September 2022, after withdrawing excise policy 2021-22.
• The excise policy 2021-22 was withdrawn by the Delhi government after LG VK Saxena recommended a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in its implementation.

VSHORAD:

• DRDO conducted two consecutive successful flight tests of Very Short Range Air Defence (VSHORAD) missiles at the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur, off the coast of Odisha on 13 March 2023.
• In another development, the maiden flight test of the Power Take off (PTO) Shaft was successfully conducted on Light Combat Aircraft (LCA Tejas) Limited Series Production (LSP)-3 aircraft in Bengaluru.

Upper age limit:

• The government has removed the upper age limit of 65 years for eligibility for registration to receive deceased donor organs. Now, a person of any age can register for receiving deceased donor organs.
• The government has also canceled the domicile requirement of the state for registration of patients requiring organ transplantation from deceased donors.

SCO:

• India will host the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Tourism Ministers’ Meeting on 17-18 March in Kashi (Varanasi), Uttar Pradesh.
• Varanasi has been designated as the first cultural capital of the SCO. During the Tourism Ministers’ (TMM) meeting, a joint action plan on the development of cooperation in tourism among SCO member countries will be adopted.

SIPRI:

• India remained the world’s top arms importer in 2022, but its imports declined by 11 per cent between 2013-17 and 2018-22, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) report 2023.
• According to report, the US was the world’s topmost military exporter in the past five years, accounting for 40% of global exports, followed by Russia (16%), France (11%).

Literacy Rate:

• Bihar (61.8 pc) has the lowest literacy, followed by Arunachal Pradesh (65.3 pc) and Rajasthan (66.1 pc) according to Ministry of Education.
• The literacy rate in rural India is 67.77 per cent as compared to 84.11 per cent in urban India. Kerala has the highest literacy rate (94 pc) followed by Lakshadweep (91.85) and Mizoram (91.33 pc).

Uttarakhand government:

• Uttarakhand government has given approval to the 10 percent horizontal reservation to the statehood activists in government job.
• The Cabinet also gave approval to the new solar policy and to the proposal of increasing MLA Local Area Development Fund from 3.75 crores to 5 crores per year.
• Government also increased the financial assistance given to Mahila Mangal Dal from 25 lakh rupees to 40 lakh rupees.

Maharashtra government:

• The Maharashtra government on 13 March set up a committee consisting of senior bureaucratic officers to look into the demand of the State government employees to implement the old pension scheme (OPS) in the State.
• Around 17 lakh government employees, including doctors, teachers, and non-teaching staff, have said they will go on strike from 14 March 2023, demanding to revert to OPS.

145(3):

• The three-judge Supreme Court bench on 13 March 2023, decided that a batch of petitions demanding legal validation for same-sex marriages will be decided by a Constitution bench.
• Article 145(3) lays down that the cases that involve a substantial question of law in the matter relating to the interpretation of the Constitution should be heard by at least five judges.

161 bird species:

• As many as 161 bird species, including a new one, were identified by bird watchers during the annual bird census held in March 2023 at the Aralam Wildlife Sanctuary and the Kottiyoor Wildlife Sanctuary in the Aralam Wildlife Division in Kerala.
• As many as 60 bird watchers participated in the three-day census, which began on March 10 and concluded on 13 March 2023.

Tamil Nadu Events:

Saraswati Samman for 2022:

• Tamil writer Sivasankari has been selected for Saraswati Samman for 2022 for her book Survya Vamsam. It is a book of memoirs in Tamil language and was published in 2019.
• Saraswati Samman instituted by the K.K. Birla Foundation in 1991 is recognized as the most prestigious and the highest literary award in the country. It carries an award money of 15 lakh rupees, a Citation and a Plaque.

International Events:

Signature Bank:

• The USA government on 13 March 2023, closed Signature Bank, making it the third largest failure in U.S. banking history. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) took control of Signature, which had $110.36 billion in assets and $88.59 in deposits.
• On 12 March, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) also shut down its operation becoming the second largest in U.S. history after Washington Mutual.

South Korea and the United States:

• South Korea and the United States kicked off their largest joint military exercises in five years on 13 March 2023. The US-South Korea exercises, called Freedom Shield, are scheduled to run for at least 10 days from 13 March and will focus on the “changing security environment”.
• On 12 March 2023, North Korea fired two “strategic cruise missiles” from a submarine in waters off its east coast.

United States, Australia, and Britain:

• The United States, Australia, and Britain have announced the plan of providing Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines.
• The deal with the United States and Britain is “the biggest single investment in Australia’s defense capability in all of our history. In the late 2030s, the UK will receive delivery of its first submarine, and Australia would take it in the early 2040s.

‘8.24 Yongung’:

• North Korea test-fired two strategic cruise missiles on 13 March 2023. The submarine ‘8.24 Yongung’ launched two strategic cruise missiles in the water off Kyongpho Bay on the East Sea of Korea. It is North Korea’s first submarine-launched cruise missile (SLCM) launch.
• The two strategic cruise missiles precisely hit the target on the East Sea of Korea after traveling 1,500km.

Shreya Ghodawat:

• Climate Entrepreneur Shreya Ghodawat was appointed as the India Ambassador of She Changes Climate on 13 March 2023.
• The global non-profit organization launched a special initiative for International Women’s Day titled ‘Embrace Equity’ that aims to amplify the voices of women around the impacts of climate change. The campaign supports the role of women in accelerating climate action.

SpaceX:

• SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station with 40 more internet satellites for rival OneWeb, followed by the landing of the rocket’s first stage booster back at the Florida spaceport.
• The two-stage Falcon 9 lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 2:13 p.m. EST (1913 GMT). The rocket’s first stage came back to Earth right on schedule, touching down on a landing pad at Cape Canaveral about 7 minutes and 50 seconds after launch.

 ‘Global Air Quality’:

• According to the ‘Global Air Quality’ study published by the Swiss company IQAir, India fell from the fifth to the eighth most polluted nation in the world in 2022. The research shows that the PM2.5 level in the most polluted Indian cities is 53.3.
• The two Indian cities that made the list of the most polluted cities in the world are Bhiwadi, which is a suburb of Delhi, and Delhi, which was not far behind at 92.6. At the same time, 39 out of 50 cities in the list of most polluted cities are from India.

International Day of Mathematics:

• Every year on March 14, the International Day of Mathematics, also known as Pi Day, is observed to honour the mathematical constant Pi, which expresses the proportion of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.
• The value for Pi is 3.14. Every year, all nations are welcome to take part in events that are open to the public and students in schools, museums, libraries, and other locations.
• At its 205th meeting, the Executive Council of UNESCO declared March 14 to be the International Day of Mathematics.

International Day To Fight Islamophobia:

• In 2022, the United Nations established the International Day To Fight Islamophobia, which is observed annually on March 15 across 140 nations.
• March 15 was selected as the date because it marks the anniversary of the Christchurch mosque massacres, which left 51 people dead.

International Consumer Rights Day:

• Every year on March 15, the International Consumer Rights Day is observed with the goal of promoting consumer protection and increasing global knowledge of consumer rights. The day is also used to raise awareness of global market inequities.
• The yearly celebration of cooperation among the global consumer movement. On this day, consumers everywhere promote their fundamental rights, call for their protection and observance, and denounce unfair trade practises.

International Day of Action for Rivers:

• Every year on March 14, people throughout the world mark the International Day of Action for Rivers to bring attention to how important rivers are to our daily lives.
• Also, the day aims to raise awareness of the disparities in access to clean water as well as the increased pollution of freshwater environments like rivers as a result of overt human activities.
• The 26th annual International Day of Action for Rivers, which is being observed this year, is a day to raise community awareness of the need to safeguard our rivers. People must cooperate and be committed to river management if rivers are to be preserved and used profitably.

Bold Kurukshetra:

• Operation Bold Kurukshetra, a bilateral armour training exercise, was held from March 6–13, 2023, in Jodhpur Military Station in India.
• It was the 13th iteration, and the Singapore Army and Indian Army both took part. Both armies participated in the first command post exercise in the series, which included computer wargaming and planning components at the battalion and brigade levels.
• Participants in the exercise, which was held by the Indian Army, included members of the 42nd Battalion, Singapore Armoured Regiment, as well as an Indian Army Armoured Brigade.

La Perouse:

• On March 13 and 14, 2023, the Indian Ocean Area will host the third edition of the multilateral exercise La Perouse.
• The Royal Australian Navy, French Navy, Indian Navy, Japanese Maritime Self Defence Force, Royal Navy, and United States Navy will all have people, ships, and essential helicopters participating in this event.
• Every two years exercise La Perouse, an exercise run by the French Navy, aims to improve maritime domain awareness and maritime cooperation among the participating navies in the Indo-Pacific region.

 “Shared Buddhist Heritage”:

• With a focus on India’s civilizational connections with the SCO states, the two-day international conference of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) on “Shared Buddhist Heritage” was launched at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.
• This historic gathering brings together Central Asian, East Asian, South Asian, and Arab nations to discuss “Shared Buddhist Heritage” and is the first of its kind. It takes place under India’s leadership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) (from September 17, 2022, to September 23, 2023) for a year.
• The SCO countries include China, Russia, and Mongolia as well as Member States, Observation States, and Conversation Partners.
• Scholars from the SCO are submitting research papers on the subject, including those from the International Theravada Buddhist Missionary University in Myanmar, the State Museum of the History of Religion in China, and Dunhuang Research Academy.

Tim Mayopoulos:

• Tim Mayopoulos, the former CEO of Fannie Mae, was appointed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to lead Silicon Valley Bank.
• He takes over after the startup-focused lender was shut down by regulators as a result of a run on its deposits, which left it with insufficient capital.
• For more than six years prior to joining fintech Blend, Mayopoulos was the CEO of mortgage financier Fannie Mae.

Sports Events:

IBA Women’s World Boxing Championship 2023:

• The Indira Gandhi Sports Complex in New Delhi will host the IBA Women’s World Boxing Championship 2023 from March 15–26. Mahindra has been named the title sponsor of this competition by the Boxing Federation of India (BFI), while MC Mary Kom and Bollywood actor Farhan Akhtar have been named as brand ambassadors.
• The third time in history, India is serving as the host country. The BFI’s goal of promoting female boxing involvement will be greatly enhanced by the appearance of Marykom and Bollywood superstar Farhan Akhtar.