Current Affairs: Daily GK Update 21st March, 2017

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International Day of Forests: 21 March

i. March 21 is the United Nations’ (UN) International Day of Forests, which promotes the importance of forests and trees in our lives.

ii. The 2017 theme is 'Forests and energy'.

Bharatiya Mahila Bank to be merged with SBI

i. New-Delhi headquartered The Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) will be merged with the country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI).

ii. The move will ensure that banking services are provided to more women at a faster pace, given the advantage of the large network of SBI.

Branches of SBBJ, SBH, SBM, SBP and SBT to operate as branches of SBI from April 1, 2017

i. All branches of State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur (SBBJ), State Bank of Hyderabad (SBH), State Bank of Mysore (SBM), State Bank of Patiala (SBP) and State Bank of Travancore (SBT) will function as branches of State Bank of India from April 1, 2017.

ii. The Customers, including depositors of all the five Banks will be treated as customers of State Bank of India with effect from April 1, 2017.

India home to 101 billionaires, Mukesh Ambani tops the list: Forbes

i. India is home to world’s fourth highest number of billionaires with Reliance Industries chief Mukesh Ambani (33rd position globally) leading the club of more than 100 super rich Indians.

ii. The list has been topped by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates for the fourth year in a row.

Uttarakhand HC accords human status to Ganga, Yamuna

i. The Uttarakhand High Court has given the status of "living human entities" to the Ganga and Yamuna.

ii. The Director of Namami Gange project for cleaning and rejuvenating the river, the Chief Secretary and the Advocate General of Uttarakhand will act as the "legal parents" of the holy rivers and work as the human face to protect, conserve and preserve them and their tributaries.

India's first sign language dictionary to come up soon

i. The government is all set to come up with the country's first-of-its-kind dictionary which aims to bring uniformity in sign languages used by hearing and speech impaired people across the nation.

ii. The Indian Sign Language (ISL) dictionary is being developed by the Indian Sign Language Research and Training Centre (ISLRTC). The dictionary is being developed in both print and video format.

Solar Energy Scheme for Small Powerloom Units

i. The Government has approved a new scheme to provide financial assistance or capital subsidy to small powerloom units, for installation of Solar Photo Voltaic (SPV) plant, in order to alleviate the problem of power cut and shortages faced by decentralized powerloom units in India.

ii. Under the Solar Energy Scheme, the plants have two options:

On-Grid Solar Power Plant where power cut/shortage is negligible and power tariff is high.

Off-Grid Solar Power Plant in areas where there is power shortage & on-grid power is not continuously available.

ICICI Bank launches new app for rural customers

i. ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank by consolidated assets has announced the launch of a mobile banking app 'Mera iMobile' for rural customers.

ii. This app will allow them to access banking services as well as information on agri-services.

India ranks 122nd in World Happiness Report

i. India ranked 122nd out of 155 countries in the recently released World Happiness Report, 2017.

ii. India is behind Pakistan (80th) and Nepal (99th) in the global list of the happiest countries. The top three happiest countries in the list are- Norway, Denmark and Iceland.

ICRISAT, ICAR join hands for crop improvement

i. Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) would work together on crop improvement and agronomy programmes for grain legumes and dryland cereals.

ii. ICAR and ICRISAT, recently signed an agreement in New Delhi, in which climate-smart crops, smart food and digitalisation of breeding database were identified as some of the core areas of research.

IIT-Madras inks pact with Tanstia-FNF Service

i. IIT-Madras and small scale industry body Tanstia-FNF Service Centre have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for technology transfer of water treatment analysis kits designed to treat drinking water mainly in rural areas.

ii. The research at IIT-Madras for developing the filter and the kit was funded by International Development Research Centre, Canada.

NBCC to execute social housing project in Mauritius

i. National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC), a Navratna construction major under the Ministry of Urban Development will execute a US $ 20 million (Rs.130 crore) social housing project in Mauritius.

ii. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in this regard was signed between NBCC and Mauritius.

Canadian wins $1m Global Teacher Prize

i. A Canadian school teacher Maggie MacDonnell was awarded the annual Global Teacher Prize and won a $1-million prize during a ceremony in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

Five Indians in WEF’s 100 Young Global Leaders list

i. Five Indians have made it to the World Economic Forum's list of 100 Young Global Leaders under 40 years of age.

ii. These include Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Blippar app's Founder Ambarish Mitra, journalist in Fortune India Hindol Sengupta, Swaniti Initiative's Rwitwika Bhattacharya and The Tamara Coorg hospitality's Shruti Shibulal. All the people in the list are entitled to a five-year leadership journey.

2017 healthiest country index

i. Bloomberg released it's 2017 World Health Index. Italy has been named the healthiest country by the index followed by Iceland and Switzerland at the top second and third position respectively.

ii. The list graded 163 countries based on variables such as life expectancy, causes of death and health risks such as high blood pressure, malnutrition, the availability of clean water and tobacco use.

Tamil Nadu wins Vijay Hazare Trophy

i. In Cricket, Tamil Nadu has won the domestic 50-over competition, the Vijay Hazare Trophy, for the fifth time.

ii. In the Final played at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in New Delhi, Tamil Nadu defeated Bengal. Dinesh Karthik was named man of the match.

Cheteshwar Pujara becomes first Indian to face 500 balls in Test innings

i. Cheteshwar Pujara has become the first Indian to face 500-plus balls in an innings, going past the mark against Australia.

ii. He broke past Rahul Dravid's record of 495 balls, which were the most faced by an Indian in one Test innings.

BCCI’s new constitution ousts Mumbai Cricket Association as full member

i. Mumbai, 41-time Ranji Trophy champions, will no longer be considered a Full Member association in accordance with the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s (BCCI) new constitution.

ii. The new constitution stipulates that only 30 associations will function as controlling bodies for domestic cricket in their respective states by the Justice Lodha Committee.

iii. Maharashtra and Gujarat cricket associations were included in the list of Full Members which means that the cricket associations of Mumbai, Vidarbha, Saurashtra and Baroda previously functioning as Full Members will now be considered Associate Members henceforth.

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