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Quick Overview
National
Mergers
Bills
International
Appointments
MOUs
Sports
Economics
Science
Awards
Death
Dates
National – Across the India
1. Mumbai, which is home to 46,000 millionaires and 28 billionaires, is the richest Indian city with a total wealth of $ 820 billion.
Delhi and Bengaluru is at second and third place respectively.
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2. The government has framed infrastructure policy to check emerging challenges of urbanization, aims to promote living close to mass public transport corridors like metro, monorail and bus rapid transit.
3. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu flagged off the country’s first Antyodaya Express.
Antyodaya Express is a long-distance, fully unreserved, superfast train service, for the common man to be operated on dense routes.
Tejas and UDAY Express will be launched soon.
4. The CM Raghubar Das announced that his government would soon ban the use of polythene bags in the State.
The main objective behind the ban is to develop Jharkhand as “Clean Jharkhand, Green Jharkhand and Swach Jharkhand “.
5. The Haryana government has set up an online system for Panipat to monitor the sex-ratio in the district as part of the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’
6. Andaman and Nicobar Islands’, Radhanagar beach has secured 8th position among the top 10 beaches of the World and topped in Asia.
7. According to the recent data, infant mortality rate in the country has been registered at 42 deaths of kids per 1000 births, Goa ranked first.
Puducherry with 11 deaths per 1000 birth ranked second while Kerala ranked third.
8. The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare unveiled last National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4) for 2015-16.
It has shown positive trends in key health indicators, including a decline in infant mortality rate (IMR) and improvement in sex ratio at birth during 2015-16.
9. Union Minister Narender Singh Tomar launched Swachh Shakti Saptah in Haryana.
This week will culminate on 8th March at Ahmedabad where Prime Minister Modi will be the chief guest.
10. The price of non-subsidized cooking gas (LPG) was hiked by a steep Rs 86 per cylinder.
Non-subsidized LPG, bought by those who have either given up their subsidies or exhausted the quota of 12 bottles of 14.2-kg in a year at below market price, will now cost Rs 737.50.
11. The Ministry of Women and Child Development has initiated a social media campaign - #WeAreEqual – targeted at raising awareness about gender discrimination.
The campaign will culminate into the celebration of International Women’s Day on 8th March 2017.
Prominent personalities such as film actors Mr. Amitabh Bachchan, and Ms. Dia Mirza; sportspersons Ms. Mary Kom among others, have joined the campaign.
12. Indigenously developed supersonic Prithvi interceptor missile was successfully test-fired from launch complex III of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Abdul Kalam Island in Balasore, Odisha.
The missile is capable of destroying any incoming enemy ballistic missile at low altitude.
13. Former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O Panneerselvam launched Amma Kalviyagam portal, ammakalviyagam.in
The portal will be a hub of learning, interaction, opportunity, and connection.
14. According to recently published report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI) and Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB), internet users in India are expected to be in the range of 450 to 465 million by June 2017.
15. Indian Navy successfully test-fired an anti-ship missile for the first time from an indigenously built INS Kalvari submarine.
This launch is considered as significant milestone of Indian Navy in enhancing its sub-surface warfare process.
16. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) ordered a ban on camping activities within 100 m of the Ganga in Uttarakhand.
The ban will be imposed from Kaudiyala to Rishikesh in Uttarakhand.
17. The Indian Railways has made Aadhaar number mandatory for senior citizens to avail concessions in booking train tickets from 1st April, 2017.
18. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has launched four new freight sector initiatives to increase the profitability of the Indian Railways. The newly launched freight sector initiatives are:
Roll-on-Roll-off (RORO)
Long Term Tariff Contracts and Agreements
Double Stack Dwarf Containers
Indian Railway’s Business Plan 2017-18.
19. Bharat Earth Movers Limited, BEML launched solar rooftop project in Karnataka. BEML Ltd.
By this, BEML is heading towards achieving the target of using 100 per cent renewable energy for captive consumption.
20. India is organizing a three-day International Conference 10th ICEGOV 2017 in Delhi from 7th March to 9th March, 2017.
The theme of ICEGOV 2017 will be Building Knowledge Societies: From Digital Government to Digital Empowerment.
The key objective of ICEGOV2017 is to explore how Digital Government can lead to Digital Empowerment by local knowledge.
21. Vice President Hamid Ansari will attend the Summit of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) on 7th March 2017 in Jakarta, Indonesia.
The theme of Summit will be Strengthening Maritime Cooperation for a Peaceful, Stable and Prosperous Indian Ocean.
The IORA Summit is expected to provide momentum to the strengthening of cooperation in the Indian Ocean region.
22. The Railways has sanctioned projects worth Rs 13,500 crore for the North East in this year’s budget.
A bottled drinking water plant under the Rail Neer brand at Jagiroad in Assam and a high-end North East Safari Train was being envisaged.
23. Aadhar Card is made mandatory by the Union HRD Minister for the students to get served cooked meal under the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) Scheme.
The use of Aadhaar as identity document aims at improving efficiency and transparency in the scheme and simplifies government’s delivery process and subsidies.
24. Haryana government has announced a Tirtha Darshan Scheme.
Under the scheme, senior citizens belong to BPL families of any religion and of Haryana domicile would be able to go on a pilgrimage within the country at government expense.
In case of senior citizens of non-BPL families, the government would bear only 70 per cent of the cost.
25. The World Bank has offered a $1 billion loan to the Maharashtra government.
The loan was offered to improve rail services in the Mumbai metropolitan region, water conservation, smart cities and for making farming climate resistant in the state.
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International – Across the Globe
1. The world’s first robot table tennis tutor in Japan has set a new Guinness World Record for its uncanny ability of being able to play the game better than most humans.
The robot is named FORPHEUS (Future Omron Robotics Technology for Exploring Possibility of Harmonized automation with Sinic Theoretics).
2. India and Ukraine have agreed to strengthen the bilateral cooperation between the two countries through the medium of Cinema in New Delhi.
The cooperation would be helpful to showcase films through the medium of Film Festivals.
3. India and Israel are planning to hold a series of events to celebrate 25 years of establishment of their diplomatic ties.
India had established full diplomatic relationship with Israel in 1992 though it had recognized the country in 1950.
4. European Union member states have approved visa-free travel for Georgia. The proposal now requires formal signature by the 28 member states of EU and the European Parliament.
5. Russia and China have vetoed a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution that aimed to impose sanctions on Syria over chemical weapons use.
6. South Korea and United States held large-scale joint military exercise called Foal Eagle.
The exercise was held to test their defence readiness against the threat from North Korea.
7. China has announced that it will cut five lakh jobs from steel, coal and other heavy industries.
This will be done to reduce excess production capacity amid slowdown of its economy which is world’s second largest.
8. Australia will offer the world’s first university course to train intelligence analysts to fight cybercrime.
The course will be prompted by innovative methods of money transfer among organised crime and militant groups.
9. By 2050, India will be the country with the world’s largest Muslim population.
There were 1.6 billion Muslims in the world as of 2010 – roughly 23% of the global population.
Currently, Indonesia has the world’s largest Muslim population.
10. Malaysia will cancel visa-free entry for North Koreans entering the country from 6th March 2017.
North Koreans will be required to obtain a visa before entering Malaysia for national security reasons.
11. The General Staff of the Syrian Army had recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra from the extremist group Islamic State (IS).
The units led by Iranian and Russian Troops entered the city three months after IS took it over.
12. The Nepal Investment Summit 2017 concluded in Kathmandu.
The objective of the two-day long summit was to project Nepal as an attractive investment destination.
Sports & Athletics
1. Kalinga Lancers defeated Dabang Mumbai 4-1 and clinch their maiden Hockey India League (HIL) title in Chandigarh.
Uttar Pradesh Wizards register a 5-4 win over Delhi Wave riders to claim the bronze medal.
2. Indian badminton player Saina Nehwal will represent the panel in the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
Saina would join the BWF Athletes’ Commission as a representative of the IOC AC.
3. Rio Olympian Thanackal Gopi and Monika Athare won the men’s and women’s titles respectively in the second edition of the IDBI Federal Life Insurance New Delhi Marathon.
Gopi completed the race in 2 hours, 15 minutes and 37 seconds.
Monika Athare from Nashik completed the race in 2 hours 39 minutes and 08 seconds.
4. Second-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga won a second title by defeating fellow Frenchman Lucas Pouille in the Open 13 final.
He won by 6-4, 6-4 scores.
5. Jitu Rai and Heena Sidhu won gold medal in 10m pistol mixed team event at ISSF World Cup.
Jitu and Heena defeated Japan’s Yukari Konishi and Tomoyuki Matsuda by 5-3 in the final.
6. India will host the World Women’s Youth Boxing Championship in November this year, the first major international event to be held in the country since 2010.
7. Jitu Rai won the gold medal in men’s 50m free pistol event of the ISSF World Cup, with a world record score of 230.1.
India’s Amanpreet Singh wins silver with a score of 226.9
SSC CGL 2017 Notifications | Exam Date, Calendar & Posts
Awards & Recognition
1. The 89th Oscars Awards 2017 are announced. Here is the list of some winners.
Best Picture: Moonlight.
Best Director: Damien Chazelle (La La Land).
Best Actor: Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea).
Best Actress: Emma Stone (La La Land).
Best Song: City of Stars (La La Land).
2. Three poets from Maharashtra have been conferred with the Vishakha Awards during the occasion of Marathi Bhasha Gaurav Din.
The first prize of Rs 21,000 was given to Dr. Yogini Satarkar-Pande from Nanded for her book ‘Janivanche Hirve Komb’.
The second prize of Rs 15,000 was given to Mohan Kumbhar from Sindhudurg for his book ‘Jagnyache Gatha’.
The third prize of Rs 10,000 was given to Vishnu Thore of Nashik for his book ‘Dhulpera Usvata’.
3. The winners of the 10th annual ESPN cricinfo Awards are announced. Here is the list.
ODI Batting Performance of the Year: Quinton De Kock (South Africa)
ODI Bowling Performance of the Year: Sunil Narine (West Indies)
T20 Batting Performance of the Year award: Carlos Brathwaite (West Indies)
T20 Bowling Performance of the Year: Mustafizur Rahman (Bangladesh)
Debutant of the Year: Mehedi Hasan Miraz (Bangladesh)
Captain of the Year: Virat Kohli (India)
4. Former Indian women’s cricketer Shantha Rangaswamy has become the first female cricketer to be nominated for the BCCI Lifetime Achievement Award.
5. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has announced the BCCI Awards 2017. Few of the Award Winners Name.
Polly Umrigar Award: Virat Kohli.
Dilip Sardesai Award (India’s best cricketer in the West Indies series, 2016): R. Ashwin.
Lala Amarnath Award (Best all-rounder in the Ranji Trophy): Jalaj Saxena (Madhya Pradesh).
Jagmohan Dalmiya Award [(Best Woman Cricketer (junior)]: Deepti Sharma (Uttar Pradesh). (Check out for the extra brackets.)
Best Umpire in Domestic Cricket: Nitin Menon.
Best Performance in BCCI domestic tournaments: Mumbai Cricket Association.
6. Jawaharlal Nehru University has won the annual Visitor’s Award for the Best University 2017.
Deepak Pant from Central University of Himachal Pradesh won the Visitor’s Award for ‘Innovation’.
7. The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has entered the Limca Book of World Records for erecting 200 U-shaped girders in a month.
8. Former US President Barack Obama has been named as the winner of the 2017 John F. Kennedy ‘Profile in Courage’
He has been honored for his enduring commitment to democratic ideals and elevating the standard of political courage in a new century.
9. The Defence Minister Shri Manohar Parrikar presented the Raksha Mantri’s Trophy and Citation for the best Service Hospital in the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) for the year 2016 to INHS Asvini, Mumbai.
Commandant of INHS Asvini Mumbai, Surgeon Rear Admiral Ravi Kalra received the awards from the Minister on behalf of the Hospital.
10. Sri Lanka won the Most Popular Tourism Destination Award at the Guangzhou International Travel Fair (GITF) in China.
The island nation won the prestigious award for the second consecutive year.
China has been Sri Lanka’s second largest source market for tourism since 2014.
Mergers & Acquisitions
1. Apollo Munich has entered into bancassurance tie-up with Dena Bank.
Under the tie-up, the bank will distribute customized Apollo Munich Health insurance and personal accident policies to the bank’s 20 million customers nationwide.
2. Lakshmi Vilas Bank has tied-up with Centrum group, a leading financial services company, which will now manage the bank’s wealthy clients.
3. Reliance General Insurance (RGI) has entered into a bancassurance tie-up with Catholic Syrian Bank.
With this tie-up, RGI will offer its general insurance products to Catholic Syrian Bank’s 1.5 million customer base spread across its 430 branches in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.
Appointments & Resignations
1. Shri Birender Singh Yadav has been concurrently accredited as the Ambassador of India to the Republic of Togo, with residence in Accra (Ghana).
Presently he is the High Commissioner of India to the Republic of Ghana.
2. Kabir Bedi was appointed as the honorary brand ambassador of Sightsavers, a global organization working to prevent avoidable blindness.
3. Gopal Baglay, a senior diplomat was appointed as the new spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
He will be succeeding Vikas Swarup, who was appointed as India’s new High Commissioner to Canada.
4. Retired IAS officer Khursheed A Ganai was appointed as the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) of Jammu and Kashmir.
His appointment will take effect from the date he assumes charge of the post.
5. Nand Kumar Sai assumed charge as the chairman of National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) in New Delhi.
The term of office of Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson and each member is three years from the date of assumption of charge.
6. Sudeep Lakhtakia will hold additional charge of Director General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to Sudeep Lakhtakia.
The decision has been taken by the Ministry after K Durga Prasad (IPS) retired as DG CRPF.
7. R Subramaniam Kumar was given additional charge of the post of Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Indian Overseas Bank for three more months.
Kumar is at present Executive Director in the IOB.
8. Senior diplomat Ruchi Ghanashyam was appointed as the Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs.
She has been appointed in place of Sujata Mehta, who has recently taken over as a Member in Union Public Service Commission.
9. Neil Gaiman has been appointed as global goodwill ambassador for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
He had been working closely with UNHCR since 2013.
10. D R Doley Barman was appointed as the Director of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel National Police Academy (SVPNPA), Hyderabad.
At present, Barman is working as the Director of the North-East Police Academy (NEPA), Shillong, Meghalaya.
11. Sanjay Menon has been appointed as the Managing Director (MD) of Sapient India.
He will take over the new role from Rajdeep Endow.
12. Sanjiv Singh was appointed chairman of the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) for a period of five years.
Singh is at present the director of Refineries at the IOCL.
He will be assuming the charge on or after 1st June 2017.
13. Former India wrestler Kripa Shankar Bishnoi has been appointed an international match referee by United World Wrestling (UWW), the sport’s global governing body.
He had trained Bollywood star Aamir Khan and other actors for their roles in the wrestling-based film ‘Dangal’.
14. Telecom Secretary J S Deepak was appointed as India’s next Ambassador to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
He has been shifted from the Telecom Ministry and has been made Officer on Special Duty in the Commerce Department.
15. Senior IAS officer Ajay Tyagi took charge as ninth Chairman of markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
He succeeded U K Sinha, who completed his six-year tenure.
16. Luis Norton de Matos has been appointed as the head coach of the India’s Under-17 team for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup.
The World Cup is scheduled to be held in October 2017 in India.
He will replace Nicolai Adam.
17. Omar al-Bashir was sworn in as Sudan’s first prime minister since the post was scrapped in a 1989 Islamist-backed coup.
He was named prime minister by the executive bureau of the president’s National Congress Party (NCP).
18. Senior IAS officer T Jacob was appointed as Secretary, Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
He will hold the rank of an Additional Secretary in the Government of India.
He has been serving as Additional Secretary in the Department of Personnel and Training before his appointment in the UPSC.
List of National and International Meets and Summits
Economics & Banking GK
1. Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) will take control of Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL) to create an integrated public sector oil entity.
The government of India will transfer its majority shareholding (of 51.11 percent in HPCL) to ONGC.
2. Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) crossed Rs 4 trillion in market capitalization.
RIL is the second company after Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) to cross Rs 4 trillion in market cap.
Currently, TCS has a total market cap of Rs 4.88 trillion.
3. Abdul Bari Siddiqui, the finance minister of Bihar government presented the annual state budget of 2017-18 in the legislative assembly.
The size of the budget for the fiscal year 2017-18 is Rs 160085 lakh crore.
4. Paytm E-Commerce, the online marketplace arm of One97 Communications Pvt. Ltd, launched Paytm Mall, a mobile app and online shopping portal.
Paytm Mall will focus on structured categories and brand authorised stores, electronics, top fashion brands and FMCG categories.
5. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) cut its growth forecast for the Indian economy to 7 per cent from 7.4 per cent earlier due to demonetisation.
However, growth is seen picking up to 7.3 per cent in 2017-18 and further to 7.7 per cent in 2018-19.
6. The Reserve Bank of India has announced setting up of the inter—disciplinary standing committee on cyber security to review the threats inherent in the existing and emerging technology.
7. Reliance Jio has announced collaboration with networking giant Cisco to build world’s largest All-IP Digital Services Platform.
It will further expand Jio’s existing multi-terabit network capacity to offer a combination of high-speed data, VoLTE, mobile video, digital commerce, media, cloud and payment services.
8. The growth of eight core sectors slowed down to 3.4% in January 2017 due to contraction in output of refinery products, fertilizer and cement.
The eight core sectors comprise Coal, Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Petroleum Refinery, Fertilizer, Steel, Cement, Electricity generation.
9. Axis bank, ICICI bank, HDFC bank have begun charging a minimum amount of 150 per transaction for cash deposits and withdrawals beyond four free transactions in a month.
The new charges would apply to savings as well as salary accounts, leading private sector player HDFC Bank said in a circular.
These charges are for cash transactions in the branches, and not through ATMs.
State bank of India will levy a minimum amount of Rs 50 per transaction after three transactions.
10. The government has notified the law that makes holding of more than 10 scrapped notes punishable with a minimum fine of Rs 10,000.
The law also provides a minimum fine of Rs 50,000 for false declaration by persons who were abroad during the demonetisation period (November 9-December 30, 2016).
11. The Union Government has asked all banks to provide mobile banking facility to all customers by 31st March, 2017.
This is part of the government’s efforts to boost the digital payment system.
12. Justice Arijit Pasayat, said Rs 70,000 crore of black money has been detected so far.
Special Investigation Team will submit its sixth report to Supreme court in April 2017.
13. The government has asked banks to link all savings bank accounts with net banking facility by 31st March 2017, in order to encourage digital transactions, and to promote transparency.
Till now, 65% bank accounts are already linked with mobile numbers, and the remaining 35% would be seeded with mobile numbers by March 31st.