Daily Current Affairs, 15th March 2019

1) World Consumer Rights Day: 15th March

•World Consumer Rights Day is celebrated every year on 15 March as part of an initiative by Consumer International, a membership organization for consumer groups around the world. The theme for World Consumers day 2019 is “Trusted Smart Products”. 

•World Consumer Rights Day was inspired by President John F Kennedy, who sent a special message to the US Congress on 15th March 1962, in which he formally addressed the issue of consumer rights. He was the first world leader to do so.

2) New Delhi, Islamabad Agree To Work On Operationalizing Kartapur Corridor

•India and Pakistan have agreed to work expeditiously on operationalizing the Kartapur corridor. The corridor will facilitate Indian pilgrims to visit the holy shrine of Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur in Pakistan.

•The agreement was reached during the first meeting between the representatives of the two countries held at Attari in Punjab.

3) Indo-Bangladesh Joint Military Exercise Sampriti 2019 Concludes

•Exercise Sampriti-VIII, a joint Indo-Bangladesh military exercise which witnessed participation of a company group of 9th Battalion the Rajputana Rifles from the Indian Army and the Company of 36 East Bengal Battalion, Bangladesh Army concluded at Tangail, Bangladesh.

•The closing ceremony was graced by HE Mrs. Riva Ganguly Das, Indian High Commissioner who highlighted the special bonds between the two nations. The exercise was the 8th edition in the Sampriti series, which started in 2009.

4) Padmanaban Gopalan Wins the Commonwealth Youth Award For The Asian Region

•A social entrepreneur from Tamil Nadu, Padmanaban Gopalan, founder of No Food Waste, was named the winner of the Commonwealth Youth Award for the Asian region worth 3,000 Pounds at a ceremony at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London.

•His initiative runs a geo-mapping platform, which allows users to drop food at located “hunger spots” and has so far recovered over 650,000 meals across 14 cities and the platform has been used by over 12,000 volunteers.

5) MR Kumar Appointed LIC Chairman

•The government has appointed MR Kumar as the Chairman of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and Vipin Anand and TC Suseel Kumar as the managing directors (MDs). LIC’s executive board comprises of 1 chairman and 4 managing directors. MR Kumar is currently the Zonal Manager, Delhi at LIC.

6) India Ranks 16th In Terms Of Highest Number Of Impacted Species In Hotspots

•A recent study published in PLOS Biology found that human impacts on species occur across 84% of the earth’s surface and India ranks 16th in such impacts, with 35 speciesimpacted on an average. Malaysia ranks 1st among the countries with the highest number of impacted species (125).

•Southeast Asian tropical forests, including those in India’s Western Ghats, Himalaya, and north-east, are among the ‘hotspots’ of threatened species. However, these very areas are also ‘cool-spots’ (the world’s last refuges where high numbers of threatened species still persist).

7) Fresh Liquidity Infusion Through Forex Swaps Announced By RBI

•The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to use a new tool for the first time to enhance liquidity in the system using which it will buy $5 billion from the banks in a swap deal that is capable of injecting around Rs. 35,000 crores into the system.

•Banks will have to deposit dollar funds with RBI with the condition of buying them back from RBI after 3 years. Minimum bid size for the auction has been fixed at $25 millionand multiple bids submission by banks will be allowed. However, the aggregate amount of bids submitted by a single eligible entity should not exceed the notified amount of auction.