NATIONAL NEWS

Establishment of ‘BIS Standardization Chair Professor’

• On 10th March 2022, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with IIT Roorkee (IITR) for establishment of ‘BIS Standardization Chair Professor’ at IIT Roorkee.
• This would be the first Standardization Chair established by BIS in an Institute for activities on Standardization and Conformity Assessment.
• The MoU will focus on the areas of civil, electrical, mechanical, chemical, earthquake engineering, development and management of water resources and renewable energy projects, infrastructure development, medical biotechnology and nanotechnology, biotechnology, biomaterials, etc.
• This will also help in sensitizing students on how standards can encourage and facilitate innovation and will help in grooming students making them better prepared for their future professional challenges.
• Shri Pramod Kumar Tiwari, Director General of BIS, provide all the necessary support towards this initiative.

WHO’s Global Centre for Traditional Medicine at Jamnagar

• The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the proposal to establish a WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (WHO GCTM) in Jamnagar, Gujarat.

• The WHO GCTM will be established under the Ministry of Ayush.
• It would be the first and only global centre for traditional medicine across the globe.
• It would help develop norm, standards, and guidelines in relevant technical areas, tools and methodologies for collecting data undertaking analytics and assessing impact.

Tripura Government Announces Special Scheme for Tea Workers

• Tripura state government has announced a special scheme named “Mukhyamantri Chaa Srami Kalyan Prakalpa” to ensure social security of over 7,000 tea garden workers.

• The scheme assures housing, rations and financial support to the tea garden workers providing them with facilities of state and central government entitlements.
• The total outlay for the scheme costs Rs. 85 crore.
• Primary aspects of the scheme are to provide land or home to the farmers, allot land of defunct tea garden on lease basis through Cooperative, to provide drinking water, electricity, shelter, education and healthcare amenities to each and every family.
• About 75% of the 7000 tea garden workers are women and they produce nearly 90 lakh kilograms of tea through 54 tea estates & 21 tea processing factories across the state.

Vice President on 2-day visit to Sikkim

• Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu is on a 2-day visit to Gangtok, Sikkim.

• He is scheduled to lay the foundation stone of Kanchendzonga State University at Tarku in South Sikkim from Samman Bhavan virtually.

• During his visit he will interact with students from Sikkim who were evacuated from Ukraine and unveil statue of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at the Governor’s residence.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

5th India - Canada Ministerial Dialogue

• Minister of International Trade, Export Promotion, Small Business and Economic Development of Canada, Mary Ng will arrive on a four-day visit to India.

• Mary Ng and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal will co-chair the 5th India - Canada Ministerial Dialogue on Trade and Investment (MDTI).

• Bilateral trade and investment issues will be discussed during the meeting in order to further strengthen the bilateral ties and economic partnership including India-Canada Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement CEPA.
• Indian exports to Canada include drugs and pharmaceutical products, iron and steel products, marine products, cotton fabrics and readymade garments and chemicals.
• In current financial year during April 2021 to January 2022, Indian exports to Canada have increased to approximately 3 billion dollars registering a growth of almost 25 per cent over the previous year.

BANKING

ToneTag Partners with NSDL Payments Bank

• ToneTag with NSDL Payments Bank and NPCI launched its VoiceSe UPI digital payments for feature phone users.

•  ToneTag is a sound-based proximity communication and payments service provider.

• The announcement comes after the Reserve Bank of India launched its UPI 123Pay facility that enables UPI payments for feature phone users.
• ToneTag, in association with NSDL Payments Bank, has launched its Interactive Voice Response (IVR) ‘6366 200 200’ to connect the gap in accessibility of digital payments, especially in rural India
• Every user can proceed with the financial transaction through UPI PIN, to make it safe and digitally secure to which an IVR guides the financial transaction.

About ToneTag:

• HQ: Bengaluru, Karnataka.

• CEO: Kumar Abhishek.

About NSDL:

• HQ: Mumbai, Maharashtra.

• MD & CEO: Abhijit Kamalapurkar.

NaBFID as All India Financial Institution

• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced that the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID) to be regulated and supervised as an All-India Financial Institution (AIFI) under Sections 45L and 45N of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.

• It will be the fifth AIFI after EXIM Bank, NABARD, NHB and SIDBI.

• NaBFID has been set up as a Development Financial Institution (DFI) to support the development of long-term infrastructure financing in India.

BOB Financial and CreditAI

• BOB Financial Solutions Limited (BFSL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bank of Baroda (BoB), and creditAI Fintech Pvt Ltd (CAI), a Singapore and Bengaluru-based farmer digitization and credit scoring company have launched Unnati, a co-branded credit card exclusively for farmers.

• The card is contactless powered by Visa network.
• The card can be used for purchasing agricultural inputs from Farmer Producer Organisations (FPO).
• The Unnati Credit Card will work in a ‘closed-loop system’ with an ‘end-use monitoring’ feature to both enable and trace agricultural credit to its last mile.
• Unnati Credit Card was first launched in Karnataka and later scaled across Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and other states in India.

About BFSL:

• HQ: Mumbai, Maharashtra.

• MD & CEO: Shailendra Singh.

SPORTS

S Sreesanth Quits from All Forms of First-Class Cricket

• On 09 March 2022, Indian fast bowler S Sreesanth announced his retirement from all forms of domestic cricket, which includes the first-class and the format-based tournaments including the Indian Premiere League (IPL).

• Sreesanth played 27 Tests, 53 ODIs and 10 T20s for India.

• The 39-year-old was part of 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 ODI World Cup.
• Sreesanth's best performances came in India's maiden Test win in South Africa in 2006.

RANKS, INDICES & REPORT

India Ranks 2nd for Global Investment in Digital Shopping

• According to the London & Partners analysis of Dealroom.co investment data, India is the second-largest global venture capital investment hub for digital shopping companies USD 22 billion in 2021.
• This shows an increase of 175 percent from USD 8 million in 2020.
• The United States topped the list with investment of USD 51 billion.
• The analysis relating to investment into digital shopping companies is based on Dealroom. Co’s definition of online market places, which supplied the Venture Capital investment data.
• Within India, Bengaluru topped the investments in digital shopping in 2021 with USD 14 billion.

AWARDS & PRIZES

US International Women of Courage Award for 2022

• Bangladeshi environmental lawyer Rizwana Hasan has been selected for the International Women of Courage (IWOC) Award for 2022.

• Rizwana Hasan is a lawyer who showcased exceptional courage and leadership in her mission to protect the environment and defend the dignity and rights of the marginalised Bangladeshis.

• Rizwana Hasan is the Chief Executive of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association.
• She is the recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2012 for her activism.
• The International Women of Courage (IWOC) award is the honour of the US Department and was established in 2007 to praise the women of exceptional courage, strength and leadership who work to bring change to their communities.
• On 14 March 2022, US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken will host the International Women of Courage (IWOC) Award ceremony for the year 2022.
•  170 women from 80 countries have been honoured with IWOC award.

APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS

New Commandant of IAFA

• Air Marshal B Chandra Sekhar from Telangana, has been named Commandant of the Indian Air Force Academy.
• He is a recipient of the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM) in 2020 for his service. It is an Presidental Award presented by the President of India.
• Air Marshal B Chandra Sekhar was commissioned in the Indian Air Force on December 21, 1984, after attending Defence Services Staff College Wellington, Flying Instructors’ School, College of Defence Management, and National Defence College New Delhi.
• He is also a Qualified Flying Instructor and has the distinction of landing the first MLH class helicopter in the Siachen Glacier.

President of South Korea

• The leader of People Power Party, Yoon Suk-yeol won the presidential election 2022 of South Korea.

• He succeeds Moon Jae-in.

• Yoon Suk-yeol is a South Korean politician, former public prosecutor and lawyer.
• Mr Yoon is to take office as a president on 10 May 2022 for a period of five-year term.

IMPORTANT DAYS

World Kidney Day

• World Kidney Day is observed every year on the Second Thursday of March.
• This year the day will be celebrated on March 10.
• The theme of the year 2022 is “Kidney Health for All”.
• The theme was declared by the World Kidney Day (WKD) Joint Steering Committee.
• People across the globe celebrate World Kidney Day to raise awareness regarding kidney diseases.
• On this day, people across the world organise conferences and seminars to help people aware of the diseases related to Kidney.
• The day was first celebrated in 2006.The day was started by the International Society of Nephrology and the International Federation of Kidney Foundations.

No Smoking Day

• No Smoking Day is celebrated on the Second Wednesday of March every year.

• This year the day will be celebrated on March 09.

• The day is celebrated to reach out to friends or family members who suffer from nicotine addiction and to spread awareness and educate people the adverse impacts of tobacco on their health through cigarettes.
• No Smoking Day was observed for the first time in the year 1984.

BOOKS AND AUTHORS

Autobiography of Cricket Administrator Ratnakar Shetty

• Ratnakar Shetty, a Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) veteran has released a book titled ‘On Board: My Years with the BCCI’.

• He is one of India’s long served cricket administrators.

• The book was released by Sharad Pawar, the former president of the MCA, BCCI and International Cricket Council.
• The book is an autobiography of Shetty, narrating his experience as an administer in BCCI. He was a chemistry professor by profession. He began his journey as a cricket administrator in 1975.