Important Current of March 6 &7, 2016

IMPORTANT CURRENT AFFAIRS OF MARCH 6 & 7, 2016

• The first Raisina-Dialogue 2016 was recently held at New Delhi. 
• The three day conference is joint initiative of Union Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Observer Research Foundation (ORF), an independent think tank based in India. 
• This is a flagship conference on Geopolitics and Geo-economics 
• The theme of Raisina-Dialogue 2016 : Asia: Regional and Global Connectivity
• Jalandhar based Capital Local Area Bank limited (CLABL), is set to becomeIndia's first Small Finance Bank (SFB) by flagging-off its operations on April 13, 2016.
• The Punjab-based entity is the first among ten players to get final licence from the Reserve Bank of India.
• Important Points to Note : 
• CLABL is currently active as local area bank.
• The CLABL will launch operations under a new name ‘Capital Small Finance Bank Limited’ on April 13, coinciding with the auspicious festival of Baisakhi (the beginning of rabi harvest that gives a major boost to rural spending) in Punjab.
• India's biggest lender SBI is among four new foreign banks that have been given preliminary approval to open fully-owned branches in Myanmar. 
• Important Note : This is the second time that Myanmar has allowed foreign banks to open fully-owned branches in the country, after the military seized power in 1962, following permits to nine banks in October last year.
• Prof. Sirshendu De, Head of the Chemical Engineering department of the IIT, Kharagpur was selected for the Indian Desalination Association (IDA)Innovation Award 2016.
• He was selected for the award for developing an ultra low-cost eco-friendly laterite based arsenic water filter.
• The Advertising Club Madras conferred its 1st Distinguished Service Award onSrinivasan K Swamy, Chairman and Managing Director, R K Swamy BBDO for his outstanding contribution to the advertising industry.
• State-owned airline Air India operated the world's longest all-women crew flight, from Delhi to San Francisco, On March 6, 2016. 
• The flight will return on March 8 to commemorate the International Women's Day. 
• It is the airline's longest flight, covering around 14,500 km in 17 hours. 
• Important Note : Air India was the first carrier to operate an all-women crew flight in 1985.
• NASA's Hubble telescope has broken the cosmic distance record by measuring thefarthest galaxy ever seen in the universe. 
• The galaxy, named GN-z11 is so far that the light from its stars takes 13.4 billion years to reach the Earth. 
• The galaxy is located in the direction of the constellation of Ursa Major.
• China plans to land a probe on Mars in 2021 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Communist Party of China, the sole governing political party of the country. 
• Important Points to Note :
• China’s earlier attempt to send a probe to Mars had failed in 2011.
• So far, only India, the US, Russia and the European Union have successfully carried out Mars exploration missions.
• Sanjiv Kohli, High Commissioner of India to New Zealand, has been concurrently accredited as the next High Commissioner of India to the Independent State of Samoa with residence in Wellington.
• Union of European Football Associations named Theodore Theodoridis asinterim general secretary. 
• Tony Dyson (68), the man who designed the Star Wars droid R2-D2, passed away.
• He was hired to build remote-controlled R2-D2 units for George Lucas' Star Wars films in the 1970s.
• Cristiano Ronaldo became the second-highest goalscorer in La Liga history with 252 goals.
•  India won the 2016 Asia Cup title after defeating hosts Bangladesh by 8 wickets in the finals played at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on 6 March 2016. This was 6^th Asia Cup title for India.
• After taking the first wicket in the Asia Cup final against Bangladesh On March 6, 2016, Ashish Nehra became the fourth highest T20I wicket taker for India with 26 wickets. 
• The list is topped by Ravichandran Ashwin with 45 followed by Irfan Pathan with 28 and Yuvraj Singh with 27. While, Harbhajan Singh sits at the fifth spot with 25 wickets.
• Sabbir Rahman, who was the highest run-scorer of the tournament with 176 runs, was declared ‘Player of the Series’. Shikhar Dhawan was declared ‘Man of the Match’ of the final.
• – This was the 6^th Asia Cup title for India and is now the most successful team in this tournament by overtaking Sri Lanka’s 5 title wins.
• – The 2016 Asia Cup was a Twenty20 International (T20I) cricket tournament  and was held in Bangladesh from 24 February to 6 March 2016. It was the 13^th edition of the Asia Cup, the fifth to be held in Bangladesh, and the first to be played using the T20I format.
• Patna Pirates won their maiden Pro Kabaddi League title on 5 March 2016 when it defeated defending champions U Mumba (Mumbai) by 31-28 in the high octane final played at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium (New Delhi).
• – Rohit Kumar of Patna Pirates was awarded Best Raider and Mohit Chillar of U Mumba the Best Defender of the Match.
• – PKL is a professional Kabaddi league in India, based on the format of the Indian Premier League T20 cricket tournament. The inaugural season of PKL was held in 2014 and was won by Jaipur Pink Panthers. Second season (2015) was claimed by U Mumba.
• 41-year old Billionaire tycoon Babak Zanjani was sentenced to death for corruption after a long trial in which he was accused of fraudulently pocketing $2.8 billion.
• – His sentence was declared in at a weekly press conference by Iranian Govt’s judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejeie on 6 March.
• – He became notorious during the era of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as he found ways to channel hard currency from oil sales to Iran despite financial sanctions imposed on the country’s banks as punishment for its nuclear programme.
• – Zanjani, who can appeal against the death sentence, has denied any wrongdoing. He insisted that the only reason the money had not been paid to the oil ministry was that sanctions had prevented a planned transfer from taking place.
• Popular south Indian actor Kalabhavan Mani passed away on 6 March 2016 after battling with liver disease. He was primarily associated with films in South Indian language Malayalam.
• Kalabhavan Mani had acted in more than 200 films, majority being Malayalam. He also featured in numerous Tamil and Telugu films.
• Tech Mahindra, the IT entity of the Mahindra Group, will become the first corporate entity in India to have startup incubator (‘startup garage’) for its in-house entrepreneurs. Majority of the entrepreneurs will be company’s own employees.
• – Currently, as many as 15 businesses have emerged from among the over 1.05 lakh Tech Mahindra employees and they work as part of the ‘growth factories’ set-up.
• – All the businesses that are getting incubated will be physically housed together in the garage and doing so will give them independence to operate. Mentoring the businesses will also be easier if they are housed together. Tech Mahindra’s ‘startup garage’ will be established at Pune.