Daily Current Affairs: March 3, 2021

Daily Current Affairs (March 3, 2021) like many other sections is inevitable and this also helps to score in the Banking awareness, Static GK, and Financial Awareness sections. Remember, Banking Awareness, and Static Awareness Questions are asked from the General Awareness section. This will also help you to ride your preparations for the forthcoming exams.

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Important Day

World Wildlife Day – 3 March

• World Wildlife Day is celebrated annually on 3 March. The day is celebrated to raise awareness about issues that impact wildlife. The day was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on its 68^th session on 20 December 2013.
• 2021 Theme: “Forests and Livelihoods: Sustaining People and Planet” 

World Hearing Day – 3 March

• World Hearing Day is observed globally on March 3. This day is celebrated to highlight and spread the message that timely and effective care can help people with hearing loss to achieve full potential.
• 2021 Theme: “Hearing care for ALL! Screen. Rehabilitate. Communicate”

National News

Bihar’s Nawada topped NITI Aayog’s aspirational districts ranking in January 2021

• Nawada in Bihar has topped the list of aspirational districts ranked by Government thinktank NITI Aayog in January. Kiphire (Nagaland) and Namsai (Arunachal Pradesh) are at the second and third positions, respectively. Hailakandi (Assam) and Chandel (Manipur) are at the fourth and fifth places, respectively.
• The delta rankings took into account incremental progress made by over 112 aspirational districts across six developmental areas.

Aspirational Districts Programme:

• The programme was launched in January 2018. It aims to transform districts that have shown relatively lesser progress in key social areas.

Bihar

• Capital: Patna
• Chief Minister: Nitish Kumar
• Deputy CM: Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi
• Governor: Phagu Chauhan

Karnataka launched India’s first engineering research and development policy

• Karnataka launched the country’s maiden Engineering Research & Development (ER&D) Policy to raise its contribution to the sector in the country to 45% in the next five years.
• Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS) and NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies) were involved in drafting this policy. The global engineering research and development industry is expected to reach a spend of $2 trillion by 2025.

Karnataka        

• Capital: Bengaluru
• Chief Minister: BS Yeddyurappa
• Governor: Vajubhai Vala
• National Parks: Anshi National Park, Kudremukh National Park, Bandipur National Park, Bannerghatta National Park, Rajiv Gandhi (Nagarahole) National Park

Haryana Governor approved a bill to reserve 75% of private-sector jobs for people of the state

• Haryana Governor Satyadeo Narain Arya gave his nod to a bill providing 75% reservation to local candidates applying to private-sector jobs in the state. The Haryana Assembly had passed the bill last year.
• The private sector companies must reserve 75 percent of jobs with salary up to 50,000 per month for natives of Haryana.

Haryana           

• Capital: Chandigarh
• Chief Minister: Manohar Lal Khattar
• Governor: Satyadeo Narain Arya
• National Parks: Sultanpur National Park, Kalesar National Park
• Dance: Phag, Dhamal, Loor, Khoria

Tripura Governor Ramesh Bais inaugurated the Udaipur Science Centre at Udaipur

• Udaipur Science Centre is the 22^nd Science Centre developed by the National Council of Science Museums (NCSM) of the Union Ministry of Culture under the scheme for Promotion of Culture of Science. It is dedicated to the people by the Governor of Tripura, Ramesh Bais.
• Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Culture and Tourism Prahlad Singh Patel was the Chief Guest on the occasion.

Union Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ released the study material of the Indian Knowledge Tradition Courses Programme

• Union Minister of Education Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ released the study material of Bhartiya Jnana Parampara (Indian Knowledge Tradition) courses of National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
• NIOS has been prepared for the Secondary and Senior Secondary level by NIOS based on “Indian knowledge tradition” and their study materials are available to learners in Sanskrit and Hindi

Lok Sabha TV and Rajya Sabha TV merged into Sansad TV

• Rajya Sabha (RSTV) and Lok Sabha (LSTV) — the two TV channels that broadcast the proceedings of the upper and lower Houses of the Parliament have been formally merged into a single entity called ‘Sansad Television’.
• A retired IAS officer of the 1986 batch, Ravi Capoor, has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of Sansad TV for one year.

Narottam Mishra introduced the Freedom Of Religion Bill in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly

• Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra introduced the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Bill, 2021, in the Assembly.
• The bill replaced the ordinance, cleared by the Cabinet in December and promulgated in January, which had provisions of 10 years imprisonment in some cases and a hefty fine for violators.
• The law entails imprisonment of between one year and five years and a penalty of at least 25,000 rupees.

Madhya Pradesh      

• Capital: Bhopal
• Chief Minister: Shivraj Singh Chauhan
• Governor: Anandiben Patel (Additional Charge)

International News

Indian Air Force participated in the 70th-anniversary celebration of the Sri Lanka Air Force

• Indian Air Force participated in the 70th-anniversary celebration of the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF), which is a further manifestation of the strong professional bonds that the two Air Forces share.
• Suryakirans, Sarang, and LCA Tejas participated in an air show at Galle Face, Colombo.
• The IAF Suryakiran Aerobatic Team (SKAT) had earlier toured Sri Lanka in 2001 for the 50^th anniversary celebrations of SLAF.

Union Cabinet approved an MoU between India and France on Renewable Energy Cooperation

• The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was apprised of the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and the French Republic in the field of renewable energy cooperation.
• This MoU will help in the development of technological know-how in the field of renewable energy and thereby aid the process of attaining the ambitious target of 450 GW of installed renewable energy capacity by 2030.

France:

• Capital: Paris
• Currency: Euro
• President: Emmanuel Macron
• Prime Minister: Jean Castex

Union Cabinet approved an MoU between India and Fiji for cooperation in the field of Agriculture and Allied Sectors

• The Union Government approved a pact between India and Fiji for cooperation in the field of agriculture and allied sectors. The objective of the MoU is to establish the basis for the promotion of bilateral cooperation in the field of new and renewable energy on the basis of mutual benefit, equality, and reciprocity. It covers technologies relating to solar, wind, hydrogen, and biomass energy.

Fiji

• Capital: Suva
• Currency: Fijian dollar
• President: Jioji Konrote

Indian Air Force set to participate in Exercise ‘Desert Flag VI’ in UAE for the first time

• The Indian Air Force will participate in the Exercise ‘Desert Flag-VI’ along with the air forces of the UAE, the US, France, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and Bahrain for the first time.
• The exercise is scheduled from 3 – 21 March 2021 at the Al-Dhafra airbase in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

United Arab Emirates (UAE):

• Capital: Abu Dhabi
• Currency: Dirham
• President: Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan
• Prime Minister: Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum

Pakistan signed an agreement with Qatar for Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG)

• The agreement saves Pakistan $317 million annually due to the reduced price of the gas compared to the 2015 agreement between the two countries. The new deal with Qatar for liquefied natural gas at lower rates will save Islamabad a total of about $3 billion over the next 10 years.
• Under the agreement, Pakistan will import liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar at a reduced price of about 31%, compared to the previous agreement signed in 2015 for 15 years. which comes into effect in January 2022

New passenger train service between Dhaka (Bangladesh) and New Jalpaiguri (India) set to start from 26 March

• A new passenger train service between Dhaka and New Jalpaiguri is set to start from the 26^th of March, marking the 50^th anniversary of the liberation of Bangladesh.
• The direct train between Dhaka and New Jalpaiguri will run through the Chilahati-Haldibari cross-border rail route.
• There are two passenger trains currently running between Bangladesh and India. The Maitree Express runs between Dhaka and Kolkata and Bandhan Express links Khulna with Kolkata.

Bangladesh:

• Capital: Dhaka
• Currency: Taka
• Prime Minister: Sheikh Hasina
• President: Abdul Hamid

India and Norway agreed to conduct marine spatial planning in Lakshadweep and Puducherry

• India and Norway have agreed to jointly work in the area of marine spatial planning in the oceanic space for the next five years. It aims to extend support for sustainable ocean resource utilisation to advance economic and social development in coastal areas.
• Lakshadweep and Puducherry have been identified as pilot sites for the project.

Norway:

• Capital: Oslo
• Currency: Norwegian krone
• Prime Minister: Erna Solberg

Banking and Economy

UPI registers 2.29 billion transactions worth over Rs. 4,25,000 cr in February

• As per the data released by the National Payments Corporation of India, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has registered 2.29 billion transactions worth over 4 lakh 25 thousand crore rupees in January. UPI has been able to maintain its previous record in terms of average transaction value even in 28 days for February.

NSE and SIDBI signed an MoU to test the feasibility of a debt capital platform for MSMEs

• National Stock exchange (NSE) and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for cooperation in various ongoing micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs)-related initiatives of the two institutions.
• Both the institutions run several programmes for MSMEs, and the cooperation will help increase the impact and reach of these programmes.

National Stock Exchange (NSE)

• Headquarters: Mumbai
• MD and CEO: Vikram Limaye

Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI):

• Headquarters: Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh
• Chairman & Managing Director (MD): Mohammad Mustafa

Science and Technology

Indian scientists developed a low-cost telescopic gadget “ADFOSC” to view distant celestial objects

• Indian scientists have indigenously designed and developed a low-cost optical spectrograph, “Aries–Devasthal Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (ADFOSC)” that can locate sources of faint light from distant quasars and galaxies in a very young universe, regions around supermassive black-holes around the galaxies, and cosmic explosions.
• Aries-Devasthal Faint Object Spectrograph & Camera (ADFOSC) is indigenously designed and developed by Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observational Sciences (ARIES), Nainital, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST).

Sports News

Indian boxer Deepak Kumar won silver at the Strandja Memorial Tournament in Bulgaria

• Indian boxer Deepak Kumar has won a silver medal at the 72^nd Strandja Memorial Tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria. He won silver in the 52-kilogram category.
• Deepak Kumar, an Asian silver-winner, lost to Daniel Asenov, a two-time European championships gold-medallist in the finals of men’s flyweight.
• Naveen Boora (69 kg) won a bronze medal after going down to Asian Games gold medallist Bobo-Usmon Baturov of Uzbekistan in his semifinal.

J&K topped the medals tally at the Khelo India Winter National Games in Gulmarg

• Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has topped the medals tally after bagging 11 Gold medals, 18 Silver, and 5 Bronze medals in the second edition of Khelo India Winter National Games held in Gulmarg of Baramulla district.
• The event was organised by the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in collaboration with the J&K Sports Council and the Winter Games Association of Jammu and Kashmir.

‘Road to Asian Games’ campaign introduced for the 2022 Asian Games

• The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) and Asian Electronics Sports Federation have announced ‘Road to Asian Games’ campaign for the 2022 Asian Games that is scheduled to be held in Hangzhou, China.
• The campaign will begin in Hangzhou 2022 to continue the organization of Esports through Nagoya (Japan) 2026, Doha (Qatar) 2030, and beyond. The multi-sport event is held every four years.

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Daily Current Affairs Quiz – March 3, 2021