Daily Current Affairs Analysis Today : 30 –March-2023 This section is designed to provide a comprehensive and in-depth insight into the world of current affairs. It covers major national and international news and events, important international summits, important national events, political developments, economic developments, sports news and entertainment events. It also provides information regarding upcoming exams like UPSC, IAS/PCS, Banking, IBPS, SSC, Railway, UPPSC, RPSC, BPSC, MPPSC and TNPSC. This section also provides updates on current affairs related to Science & Technology and Business & Economy. In addition to this it also offers regular tests to improve your knowledge on Current Affairs.
India Takes Bold Steps to Promote Electric Vehicles with Three New Schemes
The Indian government has launched three schemes to promote the production and adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles in the country. The schemes aim to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and address issues of vehicular emissions.
Scheme 1: Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles in India Phase II (FAME India Phase II)
The FAME India Phase II scheme has a budgetary outlay of Rs. 10,000 crore and runs for a period of five years, commencing from 1st April 2019. The scheme provides subsidies to electric and hybrid vehicles used in public transportation or for commercial use. Privately-owned electric two-wheelers (e-2W) are also eligible for subsidies.
The FAME II scheme supports 7,090 e-Buses, 5 lakh e-3 Wheelers, 55,000 e-4 Wheeler Passenger Cars (including Strong Hybrid) and 10 lakh e-2 Wheelers. The scheme seeks to promote hybrid/electric technology in transportation and reduce dependency on fossil fuels.
Scheme 2: Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Automobile and Auto Component Industry
The PLI Scheme for Automobile and Auto Component Industry provides financial incentives to boost domestic manufacturing of Advanced Automotive Technology products including electric vehicles and their components. The scheme has a budgetary outlay of ₹ 25,938 crore and provides incentives up to 18% of eligible sales of electric vehicles and their components.
Scheme 3: Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC)
The government has approved the PLI Scheme for manufacturing of ACC in the country with a budgetary outlay of ₹ 18,100 crore. The scheme incentivizes the establishment of Giga scale ACC manufacturing facilities in the country for 50 Giga Watt hour (GWh). These ACCs will be used in batteries which are aimed to promote the widespread adoption of EVs.
Name the three schemes launched by the Government of India to promote the production and adoption of electric and hybrid vehicles in the country? FAME-II, PLI for Automobile and Auto Component Industry, PLI Scheme for Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC)
1st woman to head NASA’s space operations to retire from agency
NASA’s Kathryn Lueders, who is the first woman to head its space operations and the first woman to manage its human spaceflight program, will be retiring from the agency in April.
Lueders will be succeeded by her deputy, former astronaut Ken Bowersox, effective May 1.
Lueders’s 31 years at NASA have been spent in human spaceflight programs including the space shuttle and the International Space Station. She is particularly well known for leading the Commercial Crew Program that worked with SpaceX and Boeing on development of spacecraft to ferry crews to and from ISS after the space shuttle’s retirement in 2011.
NASA:
Formed: July 29, 1958
Headquarters: Washington, D.C.
Administrator: Bill Nelson
Deputy Administrator: Pamela Melroy
Name the first woman to lead NASA’s space operations, who will retire from the agency in April? Kathryn Lueders
ADB, Maldives sign $41mn financing package
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $41 million financing package with the Bank of Maldives (BML) to support locally owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and tourism.
As the sole mandated lead arranger and bookrunner, the Manila-based ADB has arranged, structured, and syndicated the entire financing package, comprising a loan of up to $13 million from the ADB’s ordinary capital resources, a parallel loan of up to $13 million from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and a parallel loan of up to $5 million from the Development Bank of Austria.
To improve development impact and to address bankability issues relating to blue economy transactions in Maldives, the ADB blended the project’s debt financing with a concessional loan of up to $9 million from the Canadian Climate Fund for the Private Sector in Asia II (CFPS II) and a grant of up to $1 million from the ADB’s Asian Development Fund (ADF)-Private Sector Window (PSW).
The blue economy is crucial to future prosperity in Maldives, as its people and economy are intrinsically linked to the health and wealth of the ocean, coral reefs, beaches and marine life. However, investments in the blue economy, including by SMEs and through climate adaptation projects, have been lacking.
Bank of Maldives:
Founded: 1982
CEO and Managing Director: Karl Stumke
ADB:
Formation: 1966
Headquarters: Mandaluyong, Philippines
Membership: 68 countries
President: Masatsugu Asakaw
Recently Asian Development Bank has signed a ____ financing package with the Bank of Maldives. $41 million
Vinod Chandran Takes Oath As Patna HC Chief Justice
Justice K.Vinod Chandran took oath as the 44th Chief Justice of Patna High Court.
Vinod Chandran replaces Justice Sanjay Karol who has been elevated as Supreme Court justice.
Sanjay Karol served as a chief justice for three years before being promoted in February 2023.
Chief Justice Vinod Chandran’s tenure will end in April 2025.
The Supreme Court collegium had named Vinod Chandran for Guwahati High Court but withdrew it in view of the vacant posts of justice in the Supreme Court.
Bihar
Founded: 22 March 1912
Capital: Patna
Official animal: Gaur
Chief minister: Nitish Kumar
Who took oath as the 44th Chief Justice of Patna High Court? Vinod Chandran
Naveen Jindal gets Lifetime Achievement Award by Texas University
The University of Texas at Dallas has conferred Indian industrialist Naveen Jindal with a lifetime achievement award in recognition of his accomplishments in industry, politics and education.
Jindal is an alumnus of the university’s 1992 batch.
Jindal is the second person to receive the award from the University of Texas at Dallas after Nobel Laureate Aziz Sancar.
The lifetime achievement award is the highest honour that the University of Texas Dallas bestows on alumni, to recognize a graduate whose extraordinary contributions have bettered society, transformed the university and inspired others to reach new heights of excellence
Texas:
Texas is a state in the South Central region of the United States.
Capital Austin
Governor: Greg Abbott
Which Indian industrialist has been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the University of Texas? Naveen Jindal
NDTV Appoints Ex-SEBI Chief & Welspun CEO As Independent Directors
NDTV has appointed former Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairman Upendra Kumar Sinha as an independent director and non-executive chairperson of the NDTV board of directors.
The news broadcaster also appointed Welspun India’s chief executive officer Dipali Goenka as an independent director on the board.
Both appointments will come into effect from March 27 for a tenure of two years.
Sinha, a former bureaucrat, served as the chairman of the Sebi between 2011 and 2017. Before this, he was the chairman and managing director at UTI Asset Management Company Pvt Ltd for six years.
Last year in December, Adani group gained full control of news broadcaster NDTV after it acquired most of the stake of founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy
The Adani Group holds over 64 per cent of New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV).
Name the former SEBI chief, who has been appointed as an independent director and non-executive chairman by NDTV recently? Upendra Kumar Sinha
Kashmir’s Alia Mir Gets Wildlife Conservation Award
Alia Mir, a woman from Jammu and Kashmir has been honoured with the Wildlife Conservation Award by the administration for her conservation efforts in the region.
J-K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha facilitated her with the wildlife honour award.
Alia is also the first woman from Kashmir who works for the charity Wildlife SOS organisation which is part of the Wildlife Rescue Team.
Alia Mir is Kashmir’s first woman wildlife rescuer who is performing her duties as Head of an Education System in the Wildlife SOS Program.
She is best known for catching snakes.
Alia grabbed the headlines for an hour long when she led the Wildlife SOS team to hunt down a Levantine viper, a venomous snake, from the then chief minister’s regional residence.
The Viper snake weighed about 2 kg and it is the largest animal biting in a group of wild animals.
Who is the first woman from Jammu and Kashmir to be honored with Wildlife Conservation Award by the administration for her conservation efforts? Alia Mir
Artist Vivan Sundaram Passes Away
Renowned Indian artist Vivan Sundaram passed away in Delhi. He was 79.
Sundaram worked with different media – painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, installation and video art – during his career. His work has been showcased in museums and exhibitions across the world.
Sundaram was a founding member of the Kassuli Art Center, the Journal of Arts & Ideas, the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT), and a managing trustee of the Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation.
Renowned Indian Vivan Sundaram, who passed away recently, was related to which field? Art
FOSWAL confers ‘Special Literary Award’ to Bangabandhu
The Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature (FOSWAL) conferred ‘Special Literary Award’ to Bangladesh’s Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The award has been conferred for his trilogy- The Unfinished Memoirs, The Prison Diaries and the New China 1952.
SAARC Literary Award is an annual award conferred by the Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature (FOSWAL) since 2001.
The three-day regional literary conference of FOSWAL began in the Indian capital New Delhi.
Note: SAARC member states are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.
FOSWAL:
Formation: 1987
Headquarters: New Delhi
President: Ajit Cour
Parent organization: SAARC
Who has been conferred with the ‘Special Literary Award’ by the Foundation of SAARC Writers and Literature (FOSWAL)? Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman