Daily Current Affairs, 08th March 2020

1) International Women’s Day observed globally on 8th March

•International Women’s Day is celebrated on the 8th of March every year. This day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.

Theme of International Women’s Day 2020:

•The theme of International Women’s Day 2020 is, I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights. And the campaign theme for International Women’s Day 2020 is #EachforEqual. The theme is aligned with UN Women’s new multigenerational campaign, Generation Equality, which marks the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the most progressive roadmap for the empowerment of women and girls, everywhere.

International Women’s Day 2020: Significance

•This year women’s day will be celebrated in the wake of the 25th anniversary of Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, which is termed by the UN Women as the “most visionary agenda for women’s rights and empowerment everywhere”. The body also came out with a report to review the effect of Beijing Declaration. It reveals “important progress” in areas of education and heath, while other sectors have seen “stagnation and reversals”.

History of International Women’s Day

•The United Nations began celebrating International Women’s Day in the International Women’s Year, 1975. In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly invited member states to proclaim March 8 as the UN Day for women’s rights and world peace.

2) Denys Shmygal becomes Ukraine’s new prime minister

•Ukraine parliament approved Denys Shmygal as a new prime minister of Ukraine. He is the nominee of Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine. He won by majority, previously he held the post as the Deputy Prime Minister in charge of regional Development & before that was governor of the western Ivano-Frankivsk region.

•Ukraine Parliament also approved Oleksiy Honcharuk resignation who is previous Prime Minister of Ukraine. He was first offered his resignation in January 2020 after a leaked recording of him saying that the President’s views on the country’s economy as “primitive”& in his 2nd attempt he was offered resignation. He served only 6 months & was the country’s youngest Prime Minister.

3) Bimal Julka becomes new Chief Information Commissioner of India

•Bimal Julka is appointed as the Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) of India. President Ram Nath Kovind administered the oath of office to Bimal Julka as Chief Information Commissioner (CIC). The oath ceremony was held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. Sudhir Bhargava was the former CIC of the country retired on January 11, 2020.

•Earlier, Julka was working as Information Commissioner. He was born on August 27, 1955. He was serving as the Director of the Department of Industrial Development under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry before the role of Information Commissioner.

Central Information Commission:

•The Central Information Commission was established by the Central Government in the year 2005 under the Right to Information Act (RTI), 2005. The role of this commission is very important in maintaining transparency in the governance work of a healthy democracy. The central government tries to prevent misuse of power, control corruption and nepotism.

4) Sri Lanka to host 5th BIMSTEC Summit in September

•The 5th edition of BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Summit 2020 to be held in Colombo, Sri Lanka in the month of September 2020. The summit will be preceded by the 17th Ministerial Meeting and 21st Senior Officials Meeting by the end of 2020.

•During the meet, it was decided that Sri Lanka will lead the science, technology, and innovation sector in BIMSTEC. Sri Lanka is the Chair of BIMSTEC between 2018 and 2020 and it will hand over the chairmanship to Thailand by the end of 2020. Even though Sri Lanka had hosted 3 Working Committee meetings earlier, this summit will be the first one under the new Administration.

5) Paytm & Hyderabad Metro tie up for QR-based tickets

•Hyderabad Metro Rail Ltd in partnership with Paytm has launched a QR-code-based metro ticketing system at Rasoolpura metro station Hyderabad, Telangana. The new service will enable commuters to travel seamlessly and avoid queues to buy tokens at the metro stations. They can now simply purchase a QR ticket on their Paytm app, which can be displayed at the Automatic Fare Collection (AFC) gates to proceed for the journey.

•The feature will help over 14 lakh smartcard holders using the metro service. The company plans to extend the service to metro-feeder buses to ensure last-mile connectivity in the city. The QR-code-based ticket booking on our app will help in reducing congestion at the ticket counters.

6) Defending champion Australia wins Women’s T20 World Cup title

•Defending champions Australia wins Women’s T20 World Cup 2020. Australia bowled India out for 99 runs to clinch the final by 85 runs for a record-extending fifth Women’s T20 World Cup title at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Australia. Beth Mooney has been adjudged Player of the Tournament & Alyssa Healy has been adjudged the Player of the Match.

•The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 was the seventh edition of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup tournament. It was held in Australia from 21 February to 8 March 2020. The final match of the tournament was held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The schedule of the final match of the tournament coincided with the occasion of International Women’s Day. The tournament featured 10 teams namely: India, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa, England, West Indies, Pakistan &  Thailand.

7) West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard becomes 1st player to play 500 T20s

•West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard has become the 1st player in the history of T20 (Twenty20) cricket to feature in 500 matches during the field against Sri Lanka for the first T20I in Pallekele, Srilanka. The jersey had the all-rounder’s name at the back along with the number 500. Dwayne Bravo is second in the list with 453 matches under his belt so far. Chris Gayle is at the third spot in the list as he has featured in 404 T20 matches.