March 20 Current Affairs

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State :

Tamilnadu :

PG teachers to boycott Plus One evaluation

  • K.P.O. Suresh, State president of the association, said the schedule for the evaluation of SSLC, Class 12 and Class 11 papers extended till May 19, which would leave them with less than two weeks of vacation.

Palaniswami rejects demand to ban rath yatra in Tamil Nadu; Stalin arrested

  • Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Tuesday rejected the demand of the DMK and Congress for banning the Ram Rajya Rath Yatra in Tamil Nadu, saying that all religions had equal rights and it was the duty of the government to protect the democratic right.

V.K. Sasikala’s husband M. Natarajan passes away

  • M. Natarajan, husband of V.K. Sasikala, died early March 21. He was 75.

Kerala :

143 species spotted in bird survey

  • A recent bird survey organised by the Forest Department and the Hume Centre for Ecology and Wildlife Biology in the South Wayanad Forest Division has recorded 143 species.

Oil sardines are back in the milieu

  • Scientists at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) said on Tuesday that the total oil sardine landings went up to 1.25 lakh tonnes in 2017, a remarkable turnaround from the 45,000-tonne level last year.

CM launches Left campaign

  • Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said only the Left could oppose the communal forces in the country. Mr. Vijayan was inaugurating the LDF campaign for the Chengannur Assembly byelection on Tuesday.

T.R. Chandradutt passes away

  • Director of COSTFORD (Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development) and social activist T.R. Chandradutt died at a private hospital in Kochi on Tuesday morning. He was 75.

Karnataka :

State leading in industrial growth, job generation: Deshpande

  • Claiming that Karnataka was at the forefront in the country as far as industrial growth and generating employment was concerned, R.V. Deshpande, Minister for Large and Medium Industries, said the Congress government was committed to build infrastructure needed for attracting investment and overall development of the State.

‘50% seats in State-run residential schools for General Merit category’

  • Students belonging to General Merit (GM) category can seek admission to government-run residential schools such as Morarji Desai, Kittur Rani Chennamma, and Atal Bihari Vajpayee schools.

Andhra Pradesh :

‘Astronomy, space research will boost India’s image’

  • India’s image will grow further by achieving success in astronomy and space research and winning laurels in the sports arena this year, asserted Asthana Sidhanti of Srisailam temple Butte Veerabhadra Daivagna in his predictions for Telugu New Year.

India :

Government used small savings funds to procure Boeing 777 aircraft for VIPs

  • Funds for procuring and modifying two Boeing 777 aircraft by Air India for use by VVIPs, including the President, the Vice-President and the Prime Minister, had been released from the National Small Savings Funds (NSSF), the government told Parliament on Tuesday.

39 Indians captured by IS dead: Sushma

  • All 39 Indians who went missing in the war-torn Iraqi city of Mosul in 2014 are dead, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj informed Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.

SC/ST Act being used for blackmail, says Supreme Court

  • The anti-atrocities law, which protects Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes from casteist slurs and discrimination, has become an instrument to “blackmail” innocent citizens and public servants, the Supreme Court observed in a judgment on Tuesday.

FCRA licence of 5,000 NGOs cancelled: govt

  • Nearly 5,000 NGOs were barred by the government from receiving foreign funding after cancellation of their licences since April 2017, the Lok Sabha was informed on March 20.

World :

Opportunity for Saudi Arabia to be key interlocutor between U.S., Pakistan’

  • The White House  said there is an opportunity for Saudi Arabia to be a key interlocutor between the U.S. and Pakistan, as President Donald Trump has expressed dissatisfaction over “bare minimum” actions taken by Islamabad against terror groups.

Indian professionals hold rallies to end green card backlog across US

  • The rallies, to urge lawmakers to support to end the per-country limit on legal permanent residency was held over the weekend in Arkansas, Kentucky and Oregon.

Former French President Sarkozy in police custody: source

  • Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy was placed in custody on Tuesday as part of an investigation that he received millions of euros in illegal financing from the regime of the late Libyan leader Muamar Qadhafi.

Business :

Facebook data security chief Alex Stamos to quit, say reports

  • British privacy regulators are seeking a warrant to search the offices of the political consultancy Cambridge Analytica late on March 19 following reports that the company may have improperly gained access to data on 50 million Facebook users, according to a Channel 4 television report.

Government launches Sand Mining Framework

  • To help states deal with the issue of sand mining, including demand-supply deficit and illegal extraction, the government on March 21 launched a framework prepared after intensive consultations with all stakeholders

Informal WTO ministerial meeting begins; 52 nations participating

  • Delegates from as many as 52 countries, including the US and China, are participating in the informal meeting of the WTO being held on Tuesday amid increasing protectionism in global trade. India has called this meeting to explore options to reinvigorate the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

Move out, move up’ approach could ease India’s farm crisis: IFPRI chief

  • Indians must adopt policies that facilitate sections of farmers to ‘move out’ of rural areas to urban areas and the remaining ones to ‘move up’ in the farming sector to tackle the current agrarian crisis, the head of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) said.

Sports :

Srikanth, Somdev receive Padma awards

  • President Ram Nath Kovind on March 21 gave away prestigious Padma awards to 89 winners at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi. Former India cricket captain Mahendra Singh and multiple world champion cueist Pankaj Advani were conferred with the country’s third-highest civilian award — the Padma Bhushan.

Mithali and India want women’s T20 World Cup

  • “It is important that before the World Cup we have our combinations right and for that we have to have a few changes in the squad, irrespective of whether the results goes our way or not,” Mithali points out. “We need to see the bigger picture preparing for the World Cup,” adds Mithali.

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