DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS : MARCH 7, 2018

NATIONAL

NFAI to host Women’s Film Festival, pay tribute to Sridevi:

• To mark the International Women’s Day, a Women’s Film Festival is being organized from during March 9 – 11, 2018 at National Film Archives of India (NFAI),
• The festival is being organized jointly by NFAI, Aashay Film Club and the AAYAM Group of Women in Media.
• This will be the 9th edition of the festival. The theme of this year’s edition is “Travelling Women”.
• On 10^th March, 6 pm onwards, the festival will screen BaluMahendra’s Tamil film MoondramPirai, in remembrance of actress Sridevi.

Maharashtra

• Capital: Mumbai
• Chief Minister: DevendraFadnavis
• Governor: Vidyasagar Rao

Panaji Shigmo to follow new Carnival route:

• Following a successful Carnival parade, the Panaji Shigmotsav float parade 2018 will be held on the new route from the Science Centre, Miramar, to the Harley Davidson showroom to ensure smooth traffic flow in the heart of the city.
  • The government will spend 1.88 crore on parades at 15 locations across the state between March 3 and March 17.It also focuses on traditional folk dances and performance of mythological scenes.

Goa

• Capital: Panaji
• Chief Minister: Manohar Parrikar
• Governor: Mridula Sinha

Himachal to set up medicinal plant board centre:

• The Himachal Pradesh government approved the setting up of a regional-cum-facilitation centre of the National Medicinal Plants Board of the Ministry of Ayush in the state at an outlay of 748.30 lakh.
• The centre will be set up in Jogindernagar town in Mandi district. The central government would provide a grant of 149.60 lakh.The decision to commission the facilitation centre was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur.
• The aim of the centre is to provide inputs for conservation, cultivation, and technology upgradation, sale of medicinal plants, training and research, and development of region-specific planting material.

Himachal Pradesh

• Capital: Shimla
• Chief Minister: Jai Ram Thakur
• Governor: Acharya Dev Vrat

Punjab Inks Mou with Nilekani’s E-Gov to Provide Citizen Centric Services:

• Punjab Government has inked a Memorandum of Understanding with e-Governance Foundation (e-Gov) of NandanNilekani regarding the managing of electronic governance of Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) throughout Punjab.
• With this, a total of 67 services would be provided online within a span of one year under 12 modules that are property tax, water and sewerage management, complaints and grievance, licensing, fire service, verification, birth and death, ULB web portal, mobile application, state and ULB dashboards, payroll and financial accounting.

Punjab

• Capital:Chandigarh
• Governor: P. Singh Badnore
• Chief Minister:Captain Amarinder Singh

Indian Navy concludes two month Long War Game:

• The Indian Navy concluded a gruelling two-month long War Game on 28 Feb 18. The War Games conducted on both the Seaboards of India extended from the Northern Arabian Sea off the coast of Gujarat to the Southern Indian Ocean off the Sunda Straits near Indonesia.
• The War Game on the Eastern seaboard was codenamed“ENCORE” (Eastern Naval Command Operational Readiness Exercise) and on the Western seaboard the codename was Exercise Paschim Lehar.

Animal Welfare Board of India headquarters shifted from Chennai to Haryana:

• The headquarters of the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) has been shifted from Chennai to Haryana’s Ballabhgarh for “better coordination” between the environment ministry and the board.
• Under the Rule 3 of the Animal Welfare Board (Administrative) Rules, 1962 the Headquarter of the Board hall be at New Delhi or at such other place as the central government, may, after consultation with the Board direct said by Union minister of state for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Mahesh Sharma.

INTERNATIONAL

Washington becomes 1st state to approve net-neutrality rules:

• Washington has become the first state to enact its own net-neutrality requirements.
• This bill was signed by Goernor Jay Inslee for forbids internet service providers from blocking or slowing the flow of web content, or from charging websites for higher delivery speeds.
• It would stop state agencies from buying internet service from any company that blocks or prioritizes specific content or apps, starting in 2019.

USA

• President: Donald Trump
• Currency: United States Dollar
• Capital: Washington, D.C.

 BANKING & BUSINESS

European development bank approves India’s membership:

• India is all set to become the 69th member of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) after shareholders of the international financial institution gave their nod to the country’s candidature.
• Purchase of shares by India at an estimated cost of around €1 million.
• The move follows the Indian government’s application to seek the EBRD membership back in December 2017 and sets the stage for an increase in joint investment with Indian companies in the Bank’s regions of operation.

ABOUT EBRD

• The London-headquartered EBRD is a multilateral development bank set up in 1991 after the fall of the Berlin wall to promote private and entrepreneurial initiative in emerging Europe.
• It invests in 38 emerging economies across three continents.
• Its aim to make its countries more competitive, better governed, greener, more inclusive, more resilient and more integrated.
• It is owned by 65 countries and two EU institutions.

RBI slaps Rs3 crore penalty on Axis Bank, Rs2 crore on Indian Overseas Bank:

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it has imposed a penaltyof 3 crore on Axis Bank for violation of non-performing asset (NPA) and for non-compliance with the directions issued by RBI on Income Recognition and Asset Classification (IRAC) norms.
• And2 crore on Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) for not complying with the Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations.

Microsoft inks renewable energy deal for Bengaluru facility:

• Tech giant Microsoft said it has inked its first renewable energy deal in India for powering its new facility in Bengaluru.
• The agreement will see Microsoftpurchase 3 megawatts of solar-powered electricity from Atria Power for its new office building in Bengaluru, meeting 80% of the projected electricity needs at the facility.
• The Karnataka government is encouraging investments in local solar energy operations, in line with the country’s goal of ramping up solar powergeneration to 100 gigawatts by 2022.

Karnataka

• Capital: Bengaluru
• Chief Minister: Siddaramaiah
• Governor: VajubhaiVala

OVL signs pact for developing Susangerd oilfield in Iran:

• ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corphas signed a pact with Iran’s IDRO Oil(which is a subsidiary of state-run Iranian Development and Renovation Organisation) to jointly bid for a USD 1 billion contract for development of Susangerd oilfield in southern Iran.
  • The onlandSusangerd field in the Khuzestan province is one of the newest finds, which Iran hopes will produce around 30,000 barrels per day of oil in two development phases.
  • IDRO Oil had last month signed a similar pact with Russia’s Zarubezhneft to jointly bid for a contract to develop the Susangerd field.

Iran

• Currency: Iranian rial
• Capital: Tehran
• President:Hassan Rouhani

Forbes India names 25 women as Trailblazers:

• Ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, Forbes India has released its“W-Power Trailblazers” issue this weekend, featuring 25 women stars, on the ascendency in business.

 The 25 women stars included names like

• Chiki Sarkar-(publisher of Juggernaut Books)
• AdhunaBhabani –(founder-director of Bblunt)
• Anupriya Acharya –(CEO (India), Publicis Media)
• KavithaSairam-(co-founder of FIB-SOL Life Technologies)
• Dina Wadia and Shivpriya Nanda –(joint managing partners of J Sagar Associates).

Forbes India

• CEO: Joy Chakraborthy
• Editor: Brian Carvalho

‘SAPOSHI’ a new malware threat to the cyberspace:

• Recently cybersecurity agencies have detected a new malware called Saposhiwhich can be used for a ‘Distributed Denial of Service attack’. It was detected after Miraiand Reaper malware and it is similar in its intensity to Reaper.

About The New Malware ‘SAPOSHI’

• ‘Saposhi’ is a new malware loom and can be a big threat to the cyberspace. It is capable of taking over electronic devices and turning them into bots which can be used for multi-purpose like a DDoS attack.
• It has the capability of taking over millions of device at the rate of 10,000 devices per day.
• It is aimed at DDoS attack by creating a botnet (Network of Bots) which is used to ping a single server at the same time. The large botnet attacks to the server can crash the server and denied service to its consumer.

WTO to set up compliance panel in solar dispute between India, US:

• The World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) dispute settlement body has agreed to set up a panel to determine whether India has complied with its ruling in a case against the US regarding domestic content requirements for solar cells and modules.
• In 2016, New Delhi had lost a case against the US at the WTO after the global trade body stated that power purchase agreements signed by the Indian government with solar firms for its National Solar Mission did not meet international trade norms.

APPOINTMENTS

Japan navy appoints Ryoko Azuma as first female chief of warship unit

• Newly-appointed Commander of First Escort Division of Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) Ryoko Azuma, who is the first female commander of a navy destroyer squadron in Japan, salutes to soldiers on JMSDF’s helicopter carrier Izumo at a port in Yokohama, south of Tokyo.
• Ryoko Azuma, 44, will command four warships making up a division with a total of 1,000 crew members.

Japan

• Capital: Tokyo
• Currency: Yen
• Prime minister: Shinzō Abe

SBI appoints P K Gupta as Nominee Director on SBI Life Board:

• SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd said P K Gupta, SBI MD – Retail and Digital Banking, has been appointed by the parent firm as nominee director on its board.

 SBI Life Insurance Company

• Headquarters: Mumbai
• MD&CEO: ArijitBasu

Neiphiu Rio to take oath as Nagaland CM:

• Naga People’s Front (NPF) leader T R Zeliang resigned as chief minister of Nagaland, paving the way for Neiphiu Rio to take over Chief Minister of Nagaland.

 Nagaland

• Capital: Kohima
• Chief Minister:Neiphiu Rio
• Governor: Padmanabha Acharya

Biplab Kumar Deb to be next Tripura chief minister:

• The BJP’sBiplab Kumar Deb has been named the new chief minister of Tripura, announced Union minister Nitin Gadkari.

• Deb was unanimously elected leader of the BJP legislature party in the state, and will stake claim to form government in Tripura before Governor Tathagata Roy.

Tripura

• Capital:Agartala
• Chief Minister: Biplab Kumar Deb
• Governor: Tathagata Roy

SPORTS

Young 16 year old Manu Bhaker clinched gold, Ravi Kumar bagged bronze in ISSF World Cup

• India jumped to the top of the pecking order as young Manu Bhaker(women’s 10m Air Pistol event) clinched a gold medal while Ravi Kumar bagged a bronze (men’s 10m air rifle event) in the ISSF World Cup in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Mexico

• Capital: Mexico City
• Currency: Mexican peso
• President:Enrique Peña Nieto

OBITUARY

Former Kerala high court judge D Sreedevi passes away:

• Justice D Sreedevi, who was a social activist, judge of the Kerala high court, and chairperson of Kerala Women’s Commission, passed away.

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