Important days:
1. March
8 – International Women’s Day
Tamil Nadu:
1. Paytm
has launched the ‘Paytm for Business’ app in Tamil Nadu. It enables
merchants to track payments, view past collections and make settlements
instantly. It can be downloaded from Android play store. Available in 10
regional languages.
National:
1. A MoU on Cooperation
in field of Renewable Energy between India and Hellenic was appraised by the
Union Cabinet in Nov 2017. Under this agreement, both countries aim to establish
basis for cooperative institutional relationship to encourage and promote
technical bilateral cooperation on new and renewable issues on basis of mutual
benefit equality and reciprocity.
2. The Union Cabinet
has approved two key measures in telecom sector. These include
restructuring of Deferred Payment Liabilities of TSPs for spectrum and Revision
of limits of cap for spectrum holding in order to facilitate investments,
consolidation in the sector and enhancing ease of doing business.
3. The signing of
Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement between India and France was
approved by the Union Cabinet chaired by PM Modi. The agreement
represents major milestone in enhancing people-to-people (P2P) contacts between
both countries. It will foster mobility of students, academics, skilled
professionals and researchers and strengthen cooperation on issues related to
irregular migration and human trafficking between countries. The agreement will
be signed during forthcoming state visit of French President to India.
4. THE
CCI (The Competition Commission of India) order comes on complaint filed
by Express Industry Council of India (EICI) against airlines alleging
cartelization. It has directed three airlines (Jet Airways, InterGlobe
Aviation and SpiceJet) to cease and desist from anti-competitive practices. The
penalties were imposed at the rate of 3% of three airlines average relevant
turnover of last 3 financial years.
5. The Cabinet
Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has approved Rs. 1,151 crore Central
Sector Scheme for in-situ management of crop residue in Punjab, Haryana and
Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi. Government will provide 80% financial assistance of
project cost to cooperative societies of farmers, FPOs, SHGs, registered
farmers societies or farmers groups, private entrepreneurs and group of women
farmers.
6. The Maharashtra
government told the Legislative Council that the sale of gutka, which is banned
in the state, would be made a non-bailable offence. The
government plans to enhance the punishment for the offence to three years in
prison.
7. The Haryana
government proposed a pension scheme for widowers in the state. The matter is
currently with the Finance Department and under consideration. The widowers
above 45 years of age, who have children and have not remarried, would be
eligible under the pension scheme.
8. Indian Railways
have now planned to provide Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system conforming
to ETCS level-2 standards on the entire Indian Railway Broad Gauge (BG) network. The system
will provide technological aid to Loco Pilots for avoiding Signal Passing at
Danger (SPAD).
9. The Ministry of
Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) launched Udyam Sakhi Portal for
women entrepreneurs of India on the occasion of International Women’s Day(
March 8, 2018) The portal aims to nurture entrepreneurship and create
business models for low cost products and services in order to empower women.
10. ‘Suvidha’, the 100 per cent
Oxo-biodegradable Sanitary Napkin, under the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya
Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP) was launched by the Union Minister for Chemicals
& Fertilizers and Parliamentary Affairs Mr. Ananthkumar. The
affordable sanitary napkin will be available for Rs 2.50 per pad at over 3200
Janaushadhi Kendras across India and would ensure ‘Swachhta, Swasthya and
Suvidha’ for the underprivileged Women of India. These napkins would be physically
available by May 28, 2018, which is observed as World Menstrual Hygiene Day.
11. The Silver Jubilee
of the Losar festival was celebrated in Itanagar , Arunachal Pradesh by the
Buddhist Community. Losar festival is celebrated as New year for 3 days
in their Buddhist Calendar. This year they entered into 2145 Earth Dog Year,
according to the Buddhist Calendar.
12. Odisha
MSME International Trade Fair 2018 began in Bhubaneshwar, Odisha which
will be held from 5th March to 10th March. It focuses mainly on food processing
sector.
13. Indira Gandhi
International Airport (New Delhi )has been ranked as World no : 1 among
airports handling more than 40 million passengers per annum as per the
survey conducted by Airports Council International ( ACI). Mumbai’s
Chhatrapathi Shivaji International Airport has been chosen as the World’s Best
Airport for Customer Experience.
14. Delhi
Government approved a proposal for delivering rations in sealed packets at the
door step of PDS ( Public Distribution System) beneficiaries. It will
address the issues like theft of ration, poor quality of supplies and shops
remaining closed.
15. Shigmotsav
or Shigmo is the biggest Hindu festival in Goa celebrated from 3rd March
to 17th March 2018.Parades are conducted that depicts the
Goa People. Folk dances like Ghode Modni and Fugdi are performed.
International:
1. Recently,
US had proposed to impose tariffs of 25% on steel imports and 10% on imported
aluminium to protect domestic steel industry from cheap imports. It
had clubbed India as steel non-mature country with other steel surplus nations.
The proposal, if implemented, will result in major shifts in existing global
trade flows of steel and steel products. It will dent growth prospects of
developing nation like India, whose production and consumption of steel is
inward looking.
2. India-China
bilateral trade has reached $84.44 billion last year, a historic high with
18.63% year-on-year growth rate according to data of Chinese General
Administration of Customs. This is considered as historic landmark as volume of bilateral
trade for first time has touched $80 billion, well above the $71.18 billion
registered in 2016. India has emerged as the seventh largest export destination
for Chinese products, and 24th largest exporter to China.
3. World ATM congress
held in Madrid, Spain from 6th to 8th March 2018.ATM
stands for Air Traffic Management. Airports Authority of India (AAI)
participating in this congress.
4. Sri Lankan
Government declared a state of emergency on 6th March 2018 for
10 days to prevent the spread of communal violence between majority Sinhala and
minority Muslims in Kandy district. This will be the first time since Aug
2011, that the state of emergency will be in force in Sri Lanka,
5. Washington became
the first state in US to pass its own net neutrality law. The bill
forbids internet service providers from blocking or slowing the flow of web
content, or from charging websites for higher delivery speed.
Science & Technology/Defence :
1. India’s ranking in the adoption of cloud-friendly policies has
come down from 18 in 2016 to 20 out of 24 leading IT economies according to the
report by "BSA | The Software Alliance". The fall in
India’s ranking shows that the legal and regulatory environment in the country
is restricting innovation. Cloud computing services is a tool that can help
countries to constructively self-evaluate their policies and determine the next
steps to increase adoption of the technology.
Appointments/Resignations:
1. Neiphiu
Rio was appointed as the CM of Nagaland. He belongs
to National Democratic Progressive party .
2. US
President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser Gary Cohn resigned from
his position.
3. Ryoko
Azuma ( 44) became Japan’s female chief of warship unit. She was appointed as
the Commander of a unit that consists of Japan’s biggest warship.
Awards/ Honors:
1. Legendary Indian
architect Balkrishna Doshi (90), a pioneer of low-cost housing design has won
the prestigious Pritzker Prize, considered architecture field’s Nobel. He is 45th
Pritzker laureate and first from India to receive it. The international
Pritzker prize was established by Chicago’s Pritzker family in 1979. It is
considered to be one of the world’s premier architecture He is also known as an
institution builder. He established his studio Vastu-Shilpa (environmental
design) in 1955 and worked with Louis Kahn and Anant Raje in designing campus
of IIM Ahmedabad. He also designed campuses of IIM Bangalore and Lucknow,
National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Tagore Memorial Hall,
Institute of Indology in Ahmedabad, among other fine campuses and buildings
across India, besides many low-cost housing projects.
2. Harry Athwal, a
British Indian has been selected for the Pride of Birmingham award in UK for
his bravery. In 2017, during the Barcelona terror attack, he risked his
own life to help an injured boy. But unfortunately the boy was died on the spot.
Deaths:
1. MK
Bhargav , former Chairman of Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (
MPCA) passed away due to long illness in Indore, MP.
Prepared by
8th March Tamil version current affairs pl
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