RBI decided to infuse additional liquidity with a second tranche of bond purchase worth ₹30,000 crores amid the Covid-19 pandemic. RBI will conduct purchase of government securities under Open Market Operations in 2 tranches of Rs 15,000 Cr each in March.
RBI Governor- Shaktikanta Das, RBI HQ- Mumbai.
The SAARC Disaster Management Centre has launched a website for information related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the region. The website ‘www.covid19-sdmc.org’ shows the number of coronavirus cases in the member states while updating the numbers regularly.
Headquarters of SAARC Secretariat is in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Non-life insurance firms reported a 14% increase in the premium collection to Rs 1.73 lakh CR during April-February this fiscal, according to IRDAI data. 34 non-life insurance companies had collected a total premium of over Rs 1.52 lakh Cr in 2018-19.
Public sector insurance firms witnessed a rise of 11%.
Fitch Ratings cut India's growth forecast to 5.1% for FY 2020-21, saying the coronavirus outbreak is likely to hit business investment and exports. Fitch in December 2019 projected India's growth at 5.6% for 2020-21 and 6.5 percent in the following year.
For 2021-22, Fitch projected India's growth to be 6.4%.
Covid-19 pandemic will leave the economy crippled next FY pulling down the growth to a low of 5.2%, says CRISIL that had earlier forecasted the GDP in a 5.7% expansion. Bank of America Securities India lowered India growth forecast to 4.1% for FY2021.
COVID-19 hit more than 155 nations.
Govt issued draft Defence Procurement Procedure 2020, wherein it introduced ‘leasing’ as another category to get defence equipment at affordable rates. Indigenous content stipulated in various categories of purchasing was enhanced to support Make in India.
Category that gets the highest priority: Buy (Indian-IDDM).
Country’s insurance regulator has set up a 16-member committee headed by Pravin Kutumbe to find ways to improve corporate governance systems of insurers, primarily on making key functions such as risk management & internal audits independent of each other.
It has been asked to submit the report to IRDAI in 3 months.
National Health Mission TN has launched a web portal - http://stopcoronatn.in/ to provide updates on Covid-19 & has a link to global cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, which monitors the Covid-19 cases.
Johns Hopkins is the America's first research university.
International Data Corporation (IDC) announced the appointment of Vasant Rao as MD for IDC India and South Asia, effective March 18, 2020. He will be based out of IDC’s Bengaluru office and will be reporting to Eva Au-Managing Director, IDC Asia/Pacific.
IDC of the United States provides market research services.
GoAir has appointed Sanjiv Kapoor as Advisor. He was at Vistara as its Chief Strategy & Commercial Officer. His career spanned for over 2 decades with airlines in Asia, Europe, and the US as investment advisor, portfolio manager & management consultant.
Chief Executive Officer of GoAir- Vinay Dube.
Project aimed to transform 5 Crore Tribal Entrepreneurs under the name ‘Tech for Tribal’ has been launched. It was launched by TRIFED & IIT-Kanpur along with IIT-Roorkee, IIM Indore, Kalinga Institute of Social Science, Bhubaneshwar & SRIJAN, Jaipur.
It is supported by the Ministry of MSME.
India (3.573) ranked 144th position & Finland (7.809) topped for the 3rd time in the UN World Happiness Report released in accordance with International Day of Happiness. WHR is a landmark survey of the state of global happiness that ranks 156 countries.
Survey grades using Gallup World Poll & six other factors.
The 1st asteroid that approached Earth has been identified by NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS) as 2020 FK. As indicated in CNEOS’ database, this asteroid has a diameter of about 43 feet, which makes it the smallest in the group of 4.
Trailing behind 2020 FK was an asteroid known as 2020 FS.
SpaceX will launch a Falcon 9 rocket to transport NASA astronauts Bob Behnken & Doug Hurley in a 1st for the space agency as it looks to cut costs. Since the last US space shuttle mission in 2011 only the Russians have been going back & forth to ISS.
Construction began on the ISS in 1998.
Indian Institute of Technology Madras organised India’s 1st Global Hyperloop Pod Competition to increase awareness & enthusiasm about Hyperloop in India. Competition is open globally & the final round will take place in the IIT Madras campus in July 2020.
Hyperloop is the 5th mode of transportation.
India is going ahead with a $2.3-b deal to manufacture Fleet Support Vessels in collaboration with a Turkish shipyard. Turkey’s TAIS had emerged as the lowest bidder for a contract to manufacture 5 of the 45,000-tonne FSVs at the Vizag-based HSL last year.
But the contract signing was put on hold in October.
World Meteorological Day is observed on 23 March & remembers the coming into force on 23 March 1950 of the Convention establishing the World Meteorological Organization. The themes chosen for the Day reflect topical weather, climate/ water-related issues.
World Meteorological Day 2020 Theme: Climate and Water.
Britain confirmed as the 1st co-chair of the Governing Council on the India-led CDRI- a international grouping, linking govts, UN agencies, banks, private sector groups & academia to develop the spirit of infrastructure systems to climate & disaster risks.
CDRI- Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.
Government decided to postpone the nation's first summit on Artificial Intelligence (AI)- ‘RAISE 2020 (Responsible AI for Social Empowerment 2020)’- that was scheduled to be held in the Capital in October amid the growing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The summit aims to create a data-rich environment.
Cabinet has approved the inclusion of AYUSH Health and Wellness Centre component of Ayushman Bharat in National AYUSH Mission. The proposal entails an expenditure of Rs. 3399.35 Crore- Rs.2209.58 Crore as Central Share and Rs. 1189.77 crore as State share.
Operationalization of AYUSH HWCs is within a period of 5 years.
Union government has give 1-year extension to Legislative Secretary G Narayana Raju.The Legislative Department is mandated with drafting of legislations for the central government. Sumeet Jerath has been appointed as Secretary, Dept. of Official Languages.
Ravi Shankar Prasad is the current Minister of Law and Justice.
23 March is celebrated as Shaheed Diwas/ Martyr’s Day to commemorate the courage and heroism of three great young leaders Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar and Shivaram Rajguru. Several Schools and Colleges pay tribute and express their gratitude on this day.
Bhagat Singh popularised the phase ‘Inquilab Zindabad’.
Novelist Ruchika Tomar is the winner of the 2020 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel, for A Prayer for Travelers (Riverhead). Award includes a $25,000 prize intended to allow significant time & resources with which to pursue a subsequent work of fiction.
The prize is underwritten by Ernest Hemingway Foundation.
