Current Affairs of 5th March 2016

Important Current Affairs of 5th March 2016 for Competitive Exams.

1. IFC launched 300 million rupee Uridashi Masala Bonds in Japan

1. International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group,  launched its first Uridashi Masala Bond. The bonds are worth 300 million rupees and will be utilised to promote private sector development in India.

2. The three-year Uridashi Masala Bond is Japan-specific and builds on IFC’s Masala bond Program.

3. While Masala bonds are rupee-denominated instruments sold only to offshore investors, Uridashi bonds are sold to Japanese household investors.

4. Earlier, in November 2014, the IFC issued first-ever Masala Bonds in London. The bonds were worth 10 billion rupee and listed in the London Stock Exchange.

So far, the IFC raised 1.7 billion US dollars from international investors under the Masala Bond Program.

2. FIH promoted Napoleon Singh as international Umpire

1. The International Hockey Federation (FIH) on 3 March 2016 promoted Hockey India national-level umpire Napoleon Singh as the International Outdoor Umpire.

2. The FIH took the decision after seeing his performance in the recently-concluded 12th South Asian Games 2016, held at Guwahati from 5 to 16 February 2016.

Napoleon started his career as an umpire from Manipur in the third Hockey India Junior Women National Championship 2013 held at Ranchi, Jharkhand.

3. Earlier, he was also appointed as umpire in the eighth Junior Men Asia Cup, held at Kuantan, Malaysia in 2015.

The 30 year-old Napoleon is among those young umpires from India who have recently been upgraded to international-level outdoor umpire. With Napoleon's promotion, a total of 14 Indian umpires (10 men, 4 women) are now in the category of international-level umpires.

3. Film Archivist PK Nair died

1. Indian film archivist and film scholar Paramesh Krishnan Nair died on 4 March 2016. He was 82.

2. He was the founder and former director of the National Film Archive of India (NFAI) in 1964.

3. In 2012, Celluloid Man, an award-winning documentary was made on his life and works, by Shivendra Singh Dungarpur. Later it won two National Awards at the 60th National Film Awards, including Best Biographical Film and Best Editing.

4. President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurates National Conference on Women Legislation

1. President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated a National conference on ‘Women Legislators: Building Resurgent India’ in New Delhi The conference intends to hone the skills of legislators to perform their legislative and non-legislative roles with greater effectiveness.

2. The two-day conference will provide women legislators a platform to interact with their counterparts from across the country. It will also bring together women union ministers, chief ministers, MPs and eminent women from the judiciary and the bureaucracy.

5. Traditional Chapchar Kut festival celebrated across Mizoram

1. The traditional festival of Chapchar Kut of the Mizos was celebrated across the north-eastern state of Mizoram and also in the Mizo-inhabited areas in the neighbouring states. It is a spring festival celebrated every year in month of March with great fervour and gaiety by Mizos after completion of their Jhum operation (shifting agriculture by clearing jungle by burning and cultivating in remnants of burning).

6. India takes on U.S. at WTO over visa rules

1. India has filed a complaint to the World Trade Organisation against the United States over its measures raising fees on some applicants for temporary work visas, mostly involving the tech sector.

2. The Geneva-based body said Friday that India has notified it has started dispute proceedings alleging the U.S. measures are not consistent with Washington’s commitments to accept services from other countries.

3. India in effect is seeking consultations with the U.S. The WTO will make further information available in coming days.