19th March 2020 Current Affairs

National Affairs

Indian Navy Sets Up Quarantine Facility at Visakhapatnam

Indian Navy has set up a Quarantine Camp at INS Vishwakarma in Eastern Naval Command (ENC) for Indian nationals being evacuated from CoViD 19 affected countries.

• The Quarantine Camp is fully equipped to accommodate nearly 200 personnel with all suitable facilities and other arrangements.
• The evacuated personnel in the camp will be closely monitored to ensure Social Distancing and under medical supervision in accordance with the protocols laid down by the Department of Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of India by a team of naval personnel and medical professionals of ENC.

Important Points:

• Chief of Naval Staff: Admiral Karambir Singh.

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International Affairs

US Africa Command Cancels Annual Military Exercise African Lion

The annual African Lion military exercise became the latest casualty of the global novel coronavirus pandemic with this year’s event being canceled.

• The US Africa Command (AFRICOM) said that, the decision to cancel the exercise was made based on international travel restrictions associated with the novel coronavirus and to minimize the risk of exposure to US and partner nation service members.
• African Lion had been scheduled to take place from March 23 to April 4 in Morocco. But the command called off the entire event and began planning for next year’s African Lion 21.

Economic Affairs

Standard and Poor’s Cuts India 2020 Growth Forecast To 5.2%

Global credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P) lowered the forecasts for India to 5.2 per cent from the earlier 5.7 per cent.

• Along with S&P, Moody’s and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has also reduced their growth projections for India. Moody’s has lowered growth projections for India for financial year 2020 to 5.3%. While, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has lowered growth projections for India for financial year 2020 to 5.1%.

Banking & Finance

Paytm Payments Bank to now issue Visa debit cards

Paytm Paymnets Bank Ltd(PPBL) has partnered with Visa to issue Visa debit cards.

• Now, Paytm will issue over 10 million new digital debit cards in FY 2020-2021 to its customers.
• PPBL will issue Visa virtual debit cards to its customers and facilitate them to transact at all merchants accepting payments through cards. It will also enable its customers to make international transactions using their Visa debit cards.

Appointments

Ajay Kumar appointed India’s High Commissioner to Uganda

Ajay Kumar has been appointed as India’s next High Commissioner to Uganda. A. Ajay Kumar is currently posted as the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs.

• Ajay Kumar is a 2001 batch IFS officer.

About Uganda:

• Capital : Kampala.
• Currency : Ugandan shilling.
• President : Yoweri Museveni.

Karan Bajwa appointed Google Cloud India MD

Google has appointed former IBM executive, Karan Bajwa as Managing Director of Google Cloud in India. He will be responsible for driving all revenue and go-to-market operations for Google Cloud’s portfolio that includes Google Cloud Platform and G Suite

• Karan Bajwa has earlier served as the Managing Director of IBM for India and South Asia.

Bajaj Auto board approves reappointment of Rajiv Bajaj as MD, CEO

Bajaj Auto has approved the re-appointment of Rajiv Bajaj as Managing Director and CEO of the company.

• Rajiv Bajaj, Managing Director and CEO of the company, whose five-year term expires on March 31, 2020, has been re-appointed for a further period of five years with effect from April 1, 2020.

Important Points:

• Chairman : Rahul Bajaj.

Barham Salih President of Iraq designates Adnan al-Zurfi as Prime Minister

Barham Salih, President of Iraq appoints 54- year- old Adnan al-Zurfi as Prime Minister(PM) of Iraq who has 30 days to form his cabinet in an attempt to resolve a months-long political crisis. He will succeed Mohammed Allawi, the 1st politician named by the president as PM-designate who withdrew his candidacy for the post.

About Iraq:

• Capital– Baghdad
• Currency– Iraqi dinar

Summits and Conferences

7th World Cities Summit to be held in Singapore

The 7th World Cities Summit (WCS) will be held from 5 to 9 July 2020 in Singapore. It is organized by Singapore’s Centre for Liveable Cities and the Urban Redevelopment Authority.

The theme for WCS 2020 is ”Livable and Sustainable Cities: Adapting to a Disrupted World”.

The WCS 2020 is held in conjunction with the Singapore International Water Week (SIWW) and the CleanEnviro Summit Singapore (CESG).

About Singapore:

• Currency: Singapore dollar.
• Capital: Singapore.

Awards

Prachi Salve, Pradeep Dwivedi won 2019 Road Safety Media Fellowship award

Prachi Salve of IndiaSpend and Pradeep Dwivedi of DainikJagran jointly won the top prize in the Road Safety Media Fellowship 2019.

• The award recognized their contribution towards reporting on road safety by the Centre for Media Studies (CMS). The awardees were selected by a three-member jury.
• Journalist B. Raveendra Shetty of Vijay Karnataka and Purnima Singh of Times Now Hindi shared the second prize.

Sports Affairs

French Open tennis tournament postponed till September

The French Open Tennis has been postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic and will take place from 20th September to 4th October. Organisers said, the Grand Slam event was to have taken place from 24th May to 7th June.

• The new dates would mean the tournament would start just one week after the US Open, if that event remains in its scheduled slot.

Books & Authors

“My Encounters in Parliament” authored by Bhalchandra Mungekar released

‘My Encounters in Parliament’, book authored by Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Bhalchandra Mungekar, was released in the presence of former Vice President- Hamid Ansari, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Chief Sharad Pawar, Communist Party of India (CPI) General Secretary D Raja and CPI (Marxist) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury.

Important Days

Global Recycling Day 2020: March 18

March 18, 2020, is observed as a third annual Global Recycling Day. This day was first observed on March 18, 2018, by the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) and celebrated globally every year to raise awareness of the importance of recycling.

• The Global Recycling Foundation announces “Recycling Heroes” as the theme for third Global Recycling Day.
• The main aim of the day is to turn ‘waste’ into a valuable resource.

Ordnance Factories’ Day observed on 18th March

219th Ordnance Factories Foundation Day was observed. Every year India observes March 18 as Ordnance Factory Day. The first Ordnance Factory was established in Kolkata in 1801. There are 41 ordnance factories in the country.

About Ordnance Factory:

• Director-General & & Chairman: Hari Mohan.
• Headquarters : Kolkata, West Bengal.

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