DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: MARCH 12, 2019 -

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: MARCH 12, 2019

Dear Aspirants,

Daily Current Affairs (March 12, 2019) 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.

NATIONAL

MP Government Increases Reservation Quota of OBCs to 27% :

The Madhya Pradesh government issued an ordinance raising reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBC) to 27% from the present 14%,which was made by the Law and Legal Affairs Minister PC Sharma.
The ordinance was issued and notified after it received the assent from the state’s Governor Anandiben Patel.
The move was made to ensure that the ordinance could be issued before the Election Commission’s model code of conduct for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls came into effect.

STATIC: Madhya Pradesh

CM: Kamal Nath

Governor: Anandiben Patel.

Govt Approved a National Mission on E-Mobility To Boost EV Manufacturing :

The Centre formed National Mission on Transformative Mobility and Battery Storage to finalise the framework for a Phased Manufacturing Program (PMP).
The main aim of the framework is localising the production of electric vehicles (EV) and its components within the country and boost the adoption of clean energy vehicles.
The mission will facilitate inter-ministerial consultations, cooperative federalism and extensive stakeholder and implement end-to-end policy framework for transforming the mobility landscape.

Hardeep Puri launched the Indian Urban Observatory and Video wall at New Delhi :

Minister of State (I/C) for Housing and Urban Affairs, Hardeep S Puri, inaugurated the state-of-the-art India Urban Observatory and Video Wall at New Delhi.
The India Urban Observatory will plug into the sources of data from cities, both from real-time and archival sources.
It will help in getting up-to-date information on a meaningful set of indicators over various domains such as transport, health, environment, water, finance and so on, which will further assist in developing best practices, future strategies and policy interventions as and when required.

INTERNATIONAL

New visa agreement between Maldives & India comes into force:

The new visa agreement between Maldives and India has come into force.The agreement will provide a liberal visa policy for Maldivians seeking medical treatment as well as education and business opportunities in India.
The agreement was reached during the visit of Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih to India last December.The agreement has come into effect after all formalities including information being provided to all immigration offices, border points and customs authorities have been completed.

STATIC: Maldives

Capital: Male

Currency: Maldivian rufiyaa.

APPOINTMENTS

Dr A.K. Mohanty appointed as Director of BARC :

Dr. A.K. Mohanty, Distinguished Scientist and Director, physics group of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and Director, Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics, Kolkata took over as Director, BARC from Mr. K.N. Vyas, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission and Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Atomic Energy.

Mohammad Shtayyeh appointed as the Prime Minister of Palestine :

The President of Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas appointed Mohammad Shtayyeh as the Palestinian Prime Minister.
Mohammad Shtayyeh succeeds Rami al-Hamdallah who resigned from this post 6 weeks ago.

Anup Kumar Dubey & Sushil Kumar appointed special directors in ED :

According to a Personnel Ministry order Anup Kumar Dubey and Sushil Kumar have been appointed as the special directors in the Enforcement Directorate (ED).Both of them are Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax) officers.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

The indigenously developed Pinaka guided weapons system successfully test fired :

The indigenously developed Pinaka guided rocket system was successfully test fired at Pokhran desert in Rajasthan.The indigenously developed Guided PINAKA by DRDO will significantly boost the capability of the artillery to make precision hits.
The weapon system is equipped with state-of-the-art guidance kit comprising of an advanced navigation and control system.The weapon systems impacted the intended targets with high precision and achieved desired accuracies.

STATIC: DRDO

Chairman : Dr G. Satheesh Reddy

Headquarters : New Delhi.

BANKING & ECONOMY

PNB sanctions loans worth Rs 689 Crore to 1600 MSMEs under ’59-minute’ initiative :

Punjab National Bank has sanctioned loans worth Rs 689 crore to 1600 MSMEs under Prime Minister Narendra Modi ’59-minute’ initiative.
The loans have been sanctioned through psbloanin59minutes.com portal as part of its effort to promote micro, small, and medium enterprises.
Under the Mudra Yojana Scheme, the bank has offered loans to over 2.69 lakh small entrepreneurs till February 2019.MSMEs through this initiative can avail a loan of up to Rs 1 crore is 59 minutes or in less than an hour.

STATIC : PNB

Headquarters in: New Delhi,

CEO: Sunil Mehta.

NCLT Ahmedabad clears ArcelorMittal’s Rs 42,000 crore resolution plan for Essar Steel :

The Ahmedabad bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has approved the Rs 42,000-crore resolution plan submitted by ArcelorMittal for the debt-ridden Essar Steel Ltd.
The tribunal’s approval for the mega-deal has come 583 days after it started the insolvency proceedings, instead of the mandated 270 days.ArcelorMittal’s takeover proposal for the indebted steel-maker was approved by the Essar Steel’s Committee of Creditors last October and it was pending before the NCLT for approval since then.

RANKINGS

India became the world’s second largest arms importer :

India is the second largest importer of weapons in the world, as per the annual report ‘Trends in International Arms Transfers-2018 released by the think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
After maintaining its position of world’s largest arms importer for about 8 years, India dropped down to be the second largest importer of weapons during 2014-18. Saudi Arabia is now the world’s largest weapons importer.
India accounted for 9.5 percent of the global total imports during 2014-18, while Saudi Arabia accounted for 12 percent of the total imports during the period.

SPORTS

Bisht won gold at the 38th GeeBee Boxing Tournament, Finland :

Kavinder Singh Bisht in the 56kg-category struck gold at the 38th GeeBee Boxing Tournament in Helsinki, Finland.
Bisht defeated Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist Hussamuddin in the 56kg summit clash.
Three-time Asian medallist Shiva Thapa, Govind Sahani, Commonwealth Games bronze-medallist Mohammed Hussamuddin and Dinesh Dagar won silver medals at the Finland Boxing tournament.

Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar was selected as Barbie role model :

Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar was selected as Barbie role model & was presented with a one-of-a-kind doll by Barbie as the company celebrates its 60th anniversary.
She was part of the ‘Shero’ program launched in 2015 by the company.Dipa, who won the historic bronze medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, the first for an Indian gymnast was depicted in a Barbie doll theme by the makers.