Current Affairs - March 2016 - Current Affairs for TNPSC Exams

TNPSC Current Affairs March 2016
Miscellaneous 

• Important Days
• March 8 - International Women's Day
• March 12 - World Kidney Day
• March 15 - World Consumer Rights Day
• March 18 - Ordinance Factory Day
• March 20 - World Sparrow Day, International Day of Happiness
• March 21 - World Forest Day
• March 22 - World Water Day
• March 23 - World Meterological Day
• March 24 - World TB Day
• Awards
• Oscars
• Best film - Spotlight
• Best Director - Alejandro G Inarritu (for the film The Revenant)
• Best actor - Leonardo Dicaprio (for the film The Revenant)
• Best Actress - Brie Larson (For the film Room)
• Best Documentary - Amy
• Best Animation film - Inside out
• 63rd National Awards
• Best Film - Baahubali
• Best Featured Film - Bajrangi Bhaijaan
• Best Director - Sanjay Leela Bansali 
• Best Actor - Amitabh Bachchan
• Best Actress - Kangana Ranaut
• Manoj Kumar - won the Dada Saheb Phalke Award for 2016.
• Jerry Pinto - won the Windham Campbell Prize.
• Dr. M. Sarada Menon - won the Avvaiyar Award for 2016.
• Satya Prakash Sharma - Tatrakshak medal.
• Geetakshi Arora - Noor Inayat Khan Prize for 2016.
• Important Persons in News
• Ranjeet Rajan - Lok Sabha congress MP who rode a Hardley davidson bike to Parliament on the women's day.
• 
  
• P.G. Anandakrishnan (Film News Anandan) - famous film historian passed away.
• Ashok Ghosh - Veteran All india Forward Bloc leader from West bengal passed away.
• P A Sangma - Former Lok Sabha Speaker from the state of Meghalaya Passed away.
• P. K. Nair - Poineer Film Archivist passed away.
• 
  
• Books in News
• Kunjunji Kadhakal - authored by P.T. Chacko on CM of Kerala Oommen Chandy.
• 2nd Century Rock paintings
• The Rock paintings which is believed to belong the 2nd century was discovered in the Kondane caves in Raigarh distict of  Maharashtra.
• MH370
• It is a malaysian aeroplane which disappeared on March 8th, 2014.
• Recently a part of its debris was found in the reunion Island.
• Shaktiman
• It is the name of a police horse that got injured in its leg during a protest.
• The injured leg of the horse was removed and prosthetic leg was fixed.
• P. Susheela in Guinness World Record
• Famous playback singer P.Susheela sets World record for singing most number of songs over 17,600 songs.

Polity

• Important Appointments
• H.L Dattu - appointed as the new chairman of the National Human Rights commission (He also served as the 42nd Chief Justice of India).
• Important Persons in News
• Nizam Zaidi - Chief Election commissioner of India
• Rajesh Lohani - Chief electoral Officer of Tamil Nadu.
• Harish Rawat - Chief Minister of Uttarakand.
• Vasundhara Raje - Chief Minister of Rajasthan
• National Human Rights commission
• Established on October 12, 1993.
• State Human Rights Commission Tamil Nadu 
• Established on March 17, 1997
• Force 18
• It is a multinational field training exercise among the 18 ASEAN - Plus countries name as FTX-2016 of Force 18.
• It was conducted in Pune in Maharashtra.
• VVPAT - Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail.
• Singing National anthem a part of School curriculam
• The Madras Highcourt has ordered recently that all the private school in the state must follow singing of national anthem as part of their curriculam.
• Public Affairs Index of Governance in States
• It is a index released by Public affairs centre in Bangalore.
• In the recent index list the top 3 states were
1. Kerala
2. Tamil Nadu
3. Karnataka

Economy

• BIS Standards was made mandatory for steels used in constructions form March 18, 2016 onwards.
• Bureau of Indian Standards was established in 1986. HQ - New Delhi.
• Setu Bharatam Project
• It aims to make all national highways to have zero railway level crossing by 2019.
• This project was launched by PM Narendra Modi with the estimate of 50,000 crore rupee.
• Under this, 208 rail overbridges and under bridges will be constructed.
• 1500 old bridges will be renovated.
• Third round of the Sovereign Gold bond scheme to be launched in March 2016.
• Give it up scheme
• It is a scheme launched in March 2015, under which a consumer of LPG can voluntarily give up their LPG Subsidy.
• As on date March 3, 2016 nearly 80 Lakhs consumers has enrolled and gave up their subsidy.
• Christine Lagarde - Managing Director of IMF.
• FDI in Insurance
• Govt of India increased Foreign Direct Investment in Insurance sector to 49% through the automatic trade route
• RoRo Service
• RoRo - Roll on Roll Off
• It is a dedicated transport service introduced by the Chennai port Trust between Chennai port and Colombo port.
• Food Security Scheme
• The total number of states implementing the Food Security Scheme under the National Food Security Act, 2013 will increase to 21 states as on April 1, 2016.
• The First State to implement Food Security Scheme was Bihar.
• Go Green Policy of Railway
• As a part of go green policy Indian railway recently stopped pasting of passenger charts in two trains on a trial basis for one month.
• The two trains are
1. Chennai Central - Bengaluru Shatabdi express train and
2. Thiruvananthapuram - Hasrat Nizamuddin Rajdhani express train.
• Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana Scheme
• To provide subsidised LPG connections to women of Poor households.

Environment and Health

• Avascular Necrosis
• It is a disorder caused by the death of bone tissue mainly due to a lack of blood supply.
• It is caused by alcoholism and usage of excessive steroids.
• Mamallapuram - an Oceanarium is proposed to be set up in Mamallapuram.
• Wallaceophis Gujaratensis
• It is a new species of snake which was discovered in Gujarat.
• Harsha Chawda - India's first test tube baby born in 1986,.
• World Cultural Festival
• It was organised by a foundation named 'Art of Living' headed by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
• For this event the National green tribunal is to levy Rs. 5 Crore as compensation for environmental restoration.
• Ideonella Sakaiensis 201-F6
• It is a bacteria that is capable of degrading the plastic PET - Polyethylene Tetrepthalate.
• Medicine With a Red Line
• The ministry of Health and Family welfare suggested that people should never consume the medicines with Red Verticle line on their packets without doctor's advice.
• Monsanto
• It is an american seed company which sells Genetically modified Cotton seed in India.
• It accounts for nearly 90% of the total cotton seeds in India.
• Longitute Prize
• It is a prize offered to researchers for developing an affordable and effective diagnostic technique to detect anti-microbial resistance.
• The prize amount is 10 Million Pounds.
• BIRAC - Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council.
• Bedaquiline
• It is a new medicine introduced in India for tackling the Drug resistant TB.
• J.P. Nadda - Union Minister of Health and Family welfare.

Science and Tech

• Whatsapp announced to stop its support for Blackberry Os, Symbian OS and lower versions of android 2,1 and windows 7.1 versions by 2016.
• ARASU Fibre 
• It is the broadband service launched by the Tamil Nadu Government to provide low cost internet connections to all households.
• Speed ranges from 2 Mbps to 4 Mbps.
• Plan price ranges from Rs.299 to 899.
• Skimmer Device
• A Skimmer Device is used to read the details from the magnetic strips usually from the ATM Cards.
• It is very small in size which is attached to the ATM machine's card reader.
• When the ATM card holder uses an ATM having the Skimmer device, the card details will be saved in the skimmer device.
• Then the details will be recorded in duplicate ATM card and will be used by the thieves.
• India's First solar Ferry
• India's First Solar Ferry (Boat) came to operation in theAlappuzha back waters in kerala.
• The Arecibo Radio Telescope.
• It is located in Puerto rico, the astronomers there claimed that they detected repeated radio signals beyond the edge of Milky way.
• SPIKE  - anit Tank Guided missiles.
• Indian Firm Kalyani Group joins with Israel's Rafael to produce SPIKE within India.
• Vishing 
• Voice + Phishing
• In this type of phishing the hacker use voice calls which would resemble like a genuine one but uses it to steal your information.
• NCPTS - North Chennai Thermal Power Station
• Tamil Nadu's first 800 MW Supercritical thermal power station to be set up at the NCPTS Complex in Thiruvalluvar district.
• INS Viraat
• It is an Indian Aircraft carrier in which a fire accident happened recently.
• Fisher Friend
• It is an app developed by the M S Swaminathan research foundation to provide a holistic support for the fisherman community.
• IRNSS-1F  PSLV C-32
• The IRNSS-1F satellite to be launched by the PSLV C-32 Vechicle.
• For more info on IRNSS
• Pay Mint App
• It is an app developed to tackle the money change problem in the stores.
• Android N
• It is the latest version of the Android OS (Android 7.0) to be released.
• World's thinnest lens 
• It was developed by a team of researchers headed by Yuerui Larry Lu in Australia.
• Kakrapar Nuclear Plant
• It is located in Gujarat.
• Recently due to a leakage in coolant system, it was shut down and the power generation was temporarily stopped.
• BIS Care
• It is a mobile application launched by BIS Bureau of Indian standards.
• It can be used to make complaints about the product quality and services.
• ICGS Arnvesh
• It is Indian coast guard's Fast patrol vessel built by the Cochin Shipyard limited and commissioned at Vishakapatnam.
• Rajasthan celebrated it's first IT Day on March 21, 2016.
• Theme: Promotion of IT Startups
• Akikiki
• An asteroid was named akikiki by the International Astronomical Union.
• HQ of IAU - France.
• Akikiki is a name of a critically endangered Hawaiian honeycreeper bird.
• It was suggested by Prakash Vaithyanathan.
• PSLV C34
• India's PSLV C34 rocket is scheduled to be launched in May 2016.
• It is planned to carry 22 satellites.
• ABS and CBS
• The Road Transport and Highways ministry has issued a notification that the two wheelers having cubic capacity over 125cc must have the Antilock Braking System from April 2018.
• Also the vechicles below 125cc must have either ABS of CBS (Combined Braking System).

Sports

• Maria Sharapova
• She is a Russian tennis player who had been notified by the International tennis Federation for failing in a dope test.
• She was found positive for the substance Mildronate which is in the prohibited list.
• Martin Crowe
• He was a former New zealand Cricketer who died at the age of 53 recently.
• Swiss Grand Gold Badminton 2016
• H. S. Pronnoy (India) won gold against Marc Zwiebler (Germany) in the Final.
• Gurmeet Singh
• He became the first Indian to get a gold in the Asian 20KM race walk championship.

World

• Babak Zanjani
• He is an Iranian Billionaire who was sentenced to death for corruption of 2.8 Billion US Dollars.
• Andrew Grove
• The former chairman and CEO of Intel passed away.
• Nancy Reagan
• The First lady and the wife of former US President Ronald Reagan died recently.
• George Martin
• He is the producer of the world famous Beatle band. He passed away recently.
• Merrick Garland
• Merrick Garland was nominated to the post of Chief Justice of US Court of Appeals by the US President Barack Obama.
• Air India
• Air India on women's day (March 8, 2016) operated the world's longest all women operated flight (All crew members were women including the support staffs) from Delhi to San Francisco nearly 14,500 km in 17 hours non stop.
• Madame Tussauds
• Madame Tussauds is a wax museum in London.
• It has branches in singapore, Hongkong and Bangkok.
• It's branch is also expected to be in India (New Delhi) in 2017.
• The Year 2017 also marks the India-UK year of Culture.
• Very soon the wax statue of Indian PM Narendra Modi to be unveiled.
• Flydubai Passenger flight Crash - Boeing 737
• The flight flew from Dubai to Rostovondon of Russia.
• The flight crashed while landing in Rostovondon airport.
• Nepal PM K.P Sharma Oli 
• Nepal PM K.P Sharma Oli visited China as his first official tour after becoming the Nepal PM.
• Aung San Suu Kyi
• To be appointed as the foreign minister of Myanmar.
• An Auditorium is expected to be named after Rabindranath Tagore to be constructed in the University of Ruhuna in Srilanka.
• BRICS 2016
• India to host the 8th edition of the BRICS Summit 2016 in Goa.
• It is planned to be held in the month of October 2016.
• Brussels
• A series of bomb blasts claimed 34 lives in Brussels in Belgium.

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