IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS OF MARCH 2nd, 2018

IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS OF MARCH 2nd, 2018

IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS OF MARCH 2nd, 2018  

   

1. The 22nd World Information Technology Congress (WITC) 2018 was held at Hyderabad (Telangana)

a. Theme of WITC 2018 : Future Enterprises. 

b. Note : India is hostedWITC for the first time. 

2. The South Korean National Assembly has passed a law reducing the maximum weekly working hours from 68 to 52. 

a. The new work week will consist of 40 regular hours and an additional 12 hours of overtime. 

3. The Centre approved projects worth over Rs 2,900 crore under the Nirbhaya fund for eight major cities of the country in a bid to make them safer for women.

a. Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad Ahmedabad and Lucknow have been sanctioned a total of Rs 2,919.55 crore after a meeting today of the Empowered Committee, which is headed by the secretary of Women and Child Development (WCD).

b. Note : The Nirbhaya Fund was set up in the aftermath of the gruesome gangrape and murder of a paramedical student in Delhi in 2012, and aims at improving safety for women.

4. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is going to deploy an all-female staff in at least one of its toll booths in each state across the nation on the occasion ofInternational Women's Day (March 8). 

5. In a first, the Maharashtra government has announced a collaboration with online encyclopedia Wikipedia to promote Marathi globally and increase its online usage. 

a. This move is aimed at providing Marathi-speaking people a single platform to interact and help reach Maharashtrians who have settled abroad.

6. Indian women’s Twenty20 cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur joined the Punjab police as a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) today

a. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and Director General of Police (DGP)Suresh Arora pinned the stars on her uniform.

7. Wadhwani AI, India’s first research institute dedicated to developing artificial intelligence solutions for social good was inaugurated in Mumbai today. 

a. The institute will focus on researching ways to harness the power of AI to solve deep rooted problems in healthcare, education, agriculture, and infrastructure to accelerate social development.

8. India's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has increased Marginal Cost-based Lending Rates (MCLR) across most maturities, making home, education, and auto loans more expensive. 

a. The bank raised the key one-year MCLR rate to 8.15% from 7.95%, effective immediately. 

9. The scam-hit Punjab National Bank (PNB) raised its lending rate by 15 basis points to8.30% with immediate effect.

a. The bank also increased its retail and build deposit rates by up 45 basis points on various maturities.

10. China has topped the Hurun Global Rich List 2018 with 819 billionaires, beating the United States which had 571 billionaires. 

a. India replaced Germany to reclaim the third spot in the list with 131 billionaires. 

b. Jeff Bezos of Amazon stood at first place with $123 billion.

c. Warren Buffett overtook Bill Gates and grabbed the 2nd position. 

d. Pony Ma of Tencent became the richest Asian with $47 billion

11. Indian e-payments and e-commerce brand Paytm has emerged as the largest contributor to the overall volume of UPI transactions in February 2018. 

a. This is within two months after the full roll-out in January.

12. The Union Cabinet approved draft rules to set up National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA), an independent regulator to oversee auditing and accounting standards. 

a. NFRA's jurisdiction will extend to listed and large unlisted public companies.

b. The existing self-regulatory body, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), will continue to govern audits of smaller companies.

13. The Indian Railways has announced that Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) charges won't be levied on passengers for booking railway tickets through debit cards.

14. The deadline for mandatory KYC (Know Your Customer) compliance by prepaid wallet customers has expired on 28th February 2018.

a. The customers who haven't completed the KYC won't be able to reload their wallet or send money to others. 

15. To deal with those banking fraudsters who are escaping overseas to avoid getting caught, the Union Cabinet proved the Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill. 

a. This bill empowers the government to confiscate any property owned by such persons in India.  

b. Announced in Budget 2017, the bill was hastened after PNB scam accused Nirav Modi fled the country and refused to cooperate with investigations.

16. The CBI has charged former CMD of United Bank of India Archana Bhargava for amassing assets worth over ₹3.6 crore, 133.23% more than her known sources of income.