Ace Indian paddler Achanta Sharath Kamal ended his 10-year title drought as he defeated top seed former world-ranked 7 Marcos Freitas 4- 2 to be crowned champion of the ITTF Challenge Plus 2020 Oman Open
Oman Capital: Muscat; Currency: Omani rial
In Badminton, Taiwan's shuttler Tai Tzu Ying clinched her 3rd women's singles title of the All England Championships at Birmingham in United Kingdom beating China's Chen Yufei in 2 straight games 21-19, 21-15
Denmark's Victor Axelsen claimed Men’s Singles title
US Federal Reserve made its 2nd emergency rate cut in less than 2 weeks, cutting the benchmark borrowing rate to a range of 0-0.25% & pledged to keep it there "until it is confident that the economy has weathered recent events”
Rate was previously at this level during 2008 global fin. Crisis
Index Maintenance Sub-Committee (IMSC) under National Stock Exchange has decided to accelerate the removal of Yes Bank from Nifty50, Nifty Bank & all Nifty equity indices. In Nifty50, Yes Bank will be replaced by Shree Cements with effect from March 19
Nifty100 index: Yes Bank replaced with Adani Transmission
Mastercard announced a global partnership with Samsung to enable digital access to consumers & small businesses in emerging markets through its extensible Pay on Demand platform, designed to accelerate digital inclusion
Mastercard HQ: New York, USA
Under CMAST Scheme, a suitable employment in govt services to be provided to sports persons, who have won medals in notified disciplines in selected Inte’l Sports events & CMAT scheme is designed with a view to encourage the artists in different fields
Manipur Governor: Najma Heptulla; CM: N. Biren Singh
Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan was appointed as the 4th Advisor to Lieutenant Governor Jammu & Kashmir, Girish Chandra Murmu by the Ministry of Home Affairs. Other advisors include Rajiv Bhatnagar, Farooq Khan & K K Sharma
Ladakh UT Lt. Governor: R. K. Mathur
India pledged $10 million towards a Covid-19 emergency fund & said it was putting together a rapid response team of doctors for South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation nations as part of an initiative led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
India has set up an Integrated Disease Surveillance Portal
Uttar Pradesh has mandated 25% procurement by the state government departments & public sector undertakings from the state MSMEs & fixed sub-quota of 3% & 4% for compulsory procurement from MSME units owned by women & SC/ST entrepreneurs
UP Governor: Anandiben Patel
Microsoft Bing team has launched a web portal for tracking COVID-19 infections worldwide, accessible at bing.com/covid, which provides up-to-date infection statistics for each country. WHO had recently declared coronavirus outbreak as a Pandemic
WHO Head: Tedros Adhanom
Flipkart and Aegon Life Insurance joined hands to sell comprehensive insurance solutions for customers looking for instant digital policies with a sum assured of up to Rs 10 lakh. It will be available to customers between the ages of 18 and 65 years.
AEGON is headquartered in Mumbai.
IndiaFirst Life Insurance, a joint venture of Bank of Baroda and Andhra Bank, has re-appointed RM Vishakha as its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. She took on the responsibility as the IndiaFirst Life MD and CEO in 2015.
IndiaFirst Life Insurance Headquarters: Mumbai.
As an initiative towards the enablement of Digital payment services to the customers, the Cosmos Co-operative Bank enabled the BBPS .Through BBPS, consumers can now pay their Bills via multiple payment channels digitally like Internet Banking, Website etc.
BBPS is a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) conceptualized system.
Scientists have discovered a new species of bird-like dinosaur from a skull trapped in amber. Researchers describe a tiny, bird-like skull discovered in approximately 99-mn.-yr-old amber from northern Myanmar.Skull of the specimen is only 7.1 mm in length.
Bee hummingbird – the smallest living bird.
Scientists at the National Institute of Virology, Pune have isolated 11 strains of the Covid-19. India has become the fifth country to successfully isolate the virus strain after Japan, Thailand, the United States and China.
SARS-CoV-2 virus causes COVID-19.
National Vaccination Day is observed annually on 16th March in India. It is a day celebrated to make people aware of the importance of timely vaccination for preventable diseases. In the year 1995, the first vaccination day was celebrated in the country.
Government started ‘Pulse Polio Abhiyan’ on 16 March 2020.
Uttarakhand celebrated the traditional harvest festival- Phool Dei. Phool Dei is the harvest festival of Uttarakhand that is celebrated in the month of Chaitra (March-April) in the Hindu calendar. On this occasion, girls decorate their houses with flowers.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister- Trivendra Singh Rawat.
Five yrs after announcing a goal to have more than 1 billion devices running on Windows 10, Microsoft has reached that milestone.There are now more than 1 bn. devices running Windows 10, a milestone made possible thanks to the end of support for Windows 7.
Microsoft HQs- Redmond, Washington, United States.
The share of Indian companies in contracts awarded by the Union Defence Ministry for procurement of defence equipments increased from 39.06 per cent in 2015-16 to 75.03 per cent in 2019-20. 58 contracts were signed with Indian vendors in the last 5 years.
100 contracts were signed with foreign vendors.
Odisha launched a star-rating program for industries in a bid to cut air pollution. 1st-of-its-kind initiative in the state will categorize industries from 1-star to 5-stars, with 1-star being the least compliant and 5-stars being the most compliant.
Jharkhand will launch its ‘Star Rating Program’ on June 5, 2020.
Kerala health ministry launched a mass handwashing campaign called Break The Chain.Health Minister KK Shailaja Teacher inaugurated the mass campaign to sensitize the public about the importance of public & personal hygiene in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan