CURRENT AFFAIR –CLAT 2018BY SNEHA SINGHLLB (HONS), LLM

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• The Lok Sabha has passed the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2016by a voice vote to give more thrust to road safety, controlling pollutionand accidents. The bill seeks to amend the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988that provides for legal standards for motor vehicles, granting of drivinglicenses, and penalties for violation of these provisions.

• The Lok Sabha passed the Constitution 123rd Amendment Bill, 2017,which seeks to give constitutional status to the National Commissionfor Backward Classes.

• In a quest to set a new world record, Air India has operated a flightaround the world with an all-woman crew ahead of InternationalWomen’s Day. The aircraft, a Boeing 777-200LR, flew over the Pacificon its journey to San Francisco, while the return flight flew over theAtlantic, encircling the globe. The cockpit and cabin crew, check-inand ground handling staff, and the engineers who certified theaircraft were all women. The Air Traffic Controllers who cleared thedeparture and arrival of the aircraft were also women.

• The world’s longest serving warship INS Viraat was decommissionedby the Indian Navy at Naval Dockyard in Mumbai, Maharashtra afternearly six decades of service. INS Viraat holds Guinness Books ofrecord of being the longest serving warship in the world. It was alsothe last British-built ship serving with the Indian Navy.

• The Andhra Pradesh Tourism Authority has partnered with the UnitedNations World Tourism Organization (WTO) to promote sustainabletourism across the state. The U.N. has declared 2017 as theInternational Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development.

• The Union Cabinet has approved the signing of a Memorandum ofUnderstanding between India and the United Nations Entity ofGender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women).Under this MoU, the Union Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) andUN-Women will work in collaboration with each other to promoteparticipation of women in Panchayati Raj Institutions.

• India’s first lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1, which was considered lost, is stillorbiting the moon, NASA scientists have found by using a new ground-based radar. The ISRO lost communication with Chandrayaan-1 on August29, 2009, almost a year after it was launched. Now, scientists at NASA’s JetPropulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California have located the spacecraft stillcircling some 200 km above the lunar surface.

• NASA has announced that Saturn’s sixth-largest moon Enceladus andJupiter’s fourth largest moon Europa may be habitable as they have thenecessary ingredients required to sustain life. The key ingredients forsustaining life are liquid water, a source of energy for metabolism, andchemicals such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, andSulphur. The findings were made by NASA with the help of the Cassini-Huygens unmanned spacecraft and the Hubble Telescope. It was sent in1997 to study Saturn, its rings, and its moons.

• The Commonwealth of Nations has launched the “Peace in the Home”programme to help member states tackle domestic violence onwomen. The programme was launched onWomen’s Day (March 8) andwill continue through till 2018. The Commonwealth of Nations is a 52-member international intergovernmental organization of countriesthat were mostly former territories of the British Empire anddependencies. It was established by the London Declaration in 1949.Queen Elizabeth II is the Head of the Commonwealth. She is also themonarch of 16 members of the Commonwealth, known asCommonwealth realms.

• Jwala Gutta was appointed as a member of Sports Authority of India(SAI). Jwala Gutta is a 14-time national champion. Gutta has won thebronze medal at the 2011 World Championship and she is a 2010Delhi Commonwealth Games champion and a silver medalist at the2014 Glasgow Games in women’s doubles. She was also honored withArjuna award by the Indian Government.

• Amitabh Bachchan launched the World’s first mobile Application forbreast cancer awareness, named ‘ABC of Breast Health’. Aim: Toeducate the nation about every aspect of breast cancer and non-cancer breast health issues. The App has been conceived, created anddesigned by the Ushalakshmi Breast Cancer Foundation, Hyderabad.

• The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and UN Women launched the‘Women in Politics 2017 Map’ in New York. The Women in Politics2017 Map is the visual representation of women’s politicalempowerment in executive government and parliament as on January1, 2017. The theme for 2017 CSW is Women’s EconomicEmpowerment In The Changing World Of Work. As per the Map, Indiaranked 148 out of 193 UN member nations in representing women inthe executive government.

• The first edition of the Haryana Sahitya Sangam began on March 17,2017 in Haryana. The aim of the festival is to highlight thecontribution of Haryana in the field of literature and culture and toprovide a platform for young and budding writers to get genuine andwide range of guidance. Chief Minister of Haryana- Manohar LalKhattar.

• Nobel laureate poet Derek Walcott died at his home after a longillness. He was 87. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 andthe TS Eliot Prize for Poetry in 2011.

• The two day G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meetbegan in BadenBaden, Germany. The meeting focused onstrengthening economic resilience in finance, digitalization andpromote investment in Africa. The G20 is an international forum forthe governments and central bank governors from 20 majoreconomies. It was founded in 1999.

• India and Pakistan held meeting of the Permanent Indus Commissionin Islamabad. The Permanent Indus Commission is a bilateralcommission consisting of officials from India and Pakistan, created toimplement and manage the goals and objectives and outlines of theIndus Waters Treaty.

• The Union Finance Ministry has merged Bhartiya Mahila Bank (BMB)and State Bank of India (SBI) to ensure better reach to a largernumber of women.

• The Union Ministry of Power has launched the URJA MITRA app forempowering citizens by real time information sharing on powersupply.

• March 20 is celebrated as the World Sparrow day (WSD) every year to raiseawareness of the house sparrow and other common birds and the threat totheir survival.

• March 22 is celebrated as the World Water Day to raise awareness aboutconserving water. The theme for 2017 is: ‘WhyWasteWater?’ World WaterDay has been celebrated since 1993 after the Agenda 21 was accepted bythe UN in 1992.

• March 23 is celebrated as World Meteorological Day, commemorating theestablishment of World Meteorological Organisation. The theme for 2017is ‘Understanding Clouds’ which aims to highlight the importance of cloudsfor weather climate and water.

• March 23 is also celebrated in India as the Shaheed Diwas or the Martyr’sDay to commemorate the death anniversary of India’s freedom strugglefighters, Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev Thapar, and Shivaram Hari Rajguru. March23, 2017 is the 86thdeath anniversary.

• India was ranked 87th out of 127 countries in the Energy ArchitecturePerformance Index 2017 released by the World Economic Forum.

• India ranked 131 out of 188 countries in UN Development Program'sHuman Development Index 2016. India was third amongst SAARCCountries, after Sri Lanka (73) and Maldives (105). Norway wasranked the first on the list, followed by Australia and Switzerland.

• According to the EY Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA)Fraud Survey 2017, India ranks 9th among 41 surveyed countries inbribery and corrupt practices in businesses.

• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has selected Nobel PeacePrize winner Malala Yousafzai (19) as Messenger of Peace. With this,she becomes UN’s youngest-ever Messenger of Peace, the highesthonour bestowed by the UN on a global citizen.

• The International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in MineAction is observed every year on April 4th to highlight the deadlythreat that mines pose to civilians’ lives and nations’ development.The theme of this year was “Needs driven. People Centred”. The daywas constituted by the United Nation General Assembly (UNGA) bypassing a resolution in December 2005.

• The Madhya Pradesh government has launched the ‘MP e-nagarpalika’ mobile application to provide various municipal servicesonline. The app will offer 378 services like online payment of propertytax, birth/ marriage/death certificates, building permission etc. It willalso register complaints related to water, garbage, streetlights etc. Italso has an online payment gateway.

• K. Prithika Yashini has become India’s first transgender person tobecome a police official. She was appointed as the sub-inspector ofthe Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu.

• Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli was honored as the Wisden’sLeading Cricketer in the World for the year 2016. He has also beendeclared as the Wisden India Almanack’s Cricketer of the Year for thesecond time in its 2017 edition.

• The World Health Day (WHD) is observed every year on 7 April tomark the anniversary of the founding of the World HealthOrganization (WHO). The theme for 2017 is “Depression: Let’s talk”. Itseeks to encourage people to come forward for treatment.