Current Affairs 9,10 & 11 March 2024

We are here for you to provide the important Recent and Latest Current Affairs 9,10 & 11 March 2024, which have unique updates of Latest Current Affairs 2024 events from all newspapers such as The Hindu, The Economic Times, PIB, Times of India, PTI, Indian Express, Business Standard and all Government official websites.

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NATIONAL AFFAIRS

PM Narendra Modi Inaugurates Bharat Tex 2024 in New DelhiPrime Minister(PM) Narendra Modi inaugurated Bharat Tex 2024, the world’s biggest textile event held from 26th to 29th February 2024 at the Bharat Mandapam, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, Delhi.

• The event took place in 2 venues, the Bharat Mandapam and YashoBhoomi, two of India’s largest exhibition centres.
• Bharat Tex 2024 inspired by PM Modi’s 5F Vision(Farm to Fibre to Factory to Fashion to Foreign) was organised with a unified Farm to Fashion focus.

i.Textiles Committee,  Government e-Marketplace (GeM) and Standing Conference of Public Enterprises (SCOPE), signed MoU to promote upcycled Products Made From Scrap
ii.Indian Institute of Management(IIM), Jammu, Jammu and Kashmir(J&K) signed a MoU with the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT ) Srinagar, J&K to foster entrepreneurship and innovation in the J&K.
About Ministry of Textile:
Union Minister– Piyush Goyal(Rajya Sabha- Maharashtra)
Minister of State– Darshana Vikram Jardosh (Constituency- Surat, Gujarat)
>> Read Full News

Overview of PM Modi’s visit to Jharkhand, West Bengal & Bihar from 1st-2nd March 2024 Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi visited Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar from 1st to 2nd March 2024.
i.On 1st March 2024, PM Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone and dedicated to the nation various development projects worth Rs 35,700 crore in Sindri, Dhanbad district in Jharkhand.
ii.PM Modi dedicated to the nation and laid the foundation stone for various development projects worth Rs 7200 crore in the Arambagh area of Hooghly district, West Bengal.
iii.On 2nd March 2024, PM Narendra Modi inaugurated development projects worth Rs 21,400 crore in Aurangabad district, Bihar. The development projects are related to sectors such as road, railway and Namami Gange, among others.
About Jharkhand:
Chief Minister– Champai Soren
Governor– C.P. Radhakrishnan
Tiger Reserve- Palamau Tiger Reserve
Wildlife Sanctuaries– Mahuadanr Wildlife Sanctuary; Koderma Wildlife Sanctuary
>> Read Full News

Overview of PM Modi’s visit to Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Odisha on 4th-5th March 2024Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi visited Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Odisha on 4th and 5th  March,2024, inaugurating and laying the foundation stone for various projects.

• PM inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of various projects during his visit to different cities of Telangana including Adilabad, Hyderabad, and Sangareddy.

Highlights
i.He inaugurated CARO at Begumpet Airport, Hyderabad, Telangana
ii.He inaugurated various projects related to power sector worth over Rs 56,000 crore
iii.He inaugurated multiple development projects worth more than Rs. 6,800 crores

• PM Narendra Modi inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of multiple development projects worth over Rs 19,600 crore during his visit to Odisha.
• PM Narendra Modi visited Tamil Nadu on 4th March 2024 and inaugurated India’s first indigenous Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) with a capacity of 500 Mwe(Megawatt electric) at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu marking a significant step in the country’s nuclear power program

About Telangana
Capital – Hyderabad
Chief Minister – Revanth Reddy
Governor – Tamilisai Soundararajan
>> Read Full News

Union Minister Hardeep S Puri inaugurates 201 CNG Stations and India’s First Small Scale LNG Unit of GAILUnion Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoP&NG) virtually inaugurated 201 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Stations and India’s 1st Small Scale Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Unit of GAIL (India) Limited.
Key People:The inaugural event was attended by Union Minister of State (MoS) Rameswar Teli, MoP&NG; Pankaj Jain, Secretary, MoP&NG; Sandeep Kumar Gupta, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD), GAIL; Praveen Mal Khanooja, Additional Secretary, MoPNG.
About CNG Stations:
i.The 201 CNG stations were set up by 15 City Gas Distribution (CGD) entities of the GAIL group in 52 Geographical Areas (Gas) across 17 states.
ii.Distribution breakdown: Out of these 15 CGD entities, 53 stations belong to GAIL Gas Limited, 50 to Indraprastha Gas Limited, 43 to GAIL and 20 to Mahanagar Gas Limited and others such as Avantika Gas Limited, Bengal Gas Company Limited, Uttar Pradesh Gas Limited etc.
About LNG unit:
i.The LNG unit was set up by GAIL at its Vijaipur Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) plant in Vijaipur, Madhya Pradesh (MP).
ii.The unit was set up at the project cost of 150 crores.
iii.It has the potential to connect the isolated gas sources with the market and consumers.
Key Points:
i.India aims to increase the share of natural gas in the primary energy basket to 15% by 2030.
ii.In order to make India a gas-based economy, it is important to develop a National Gas Grid (NGG) and CGD network.
iii.India also aims to set up 17,500 CNG stations and around 120 million PNG(Domestic) connections by 2030.
About GAIL (India) Limited:
GAIL (India) Limited is a Maharatna Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) under the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoP&NG).
Chairman & Managing Director (CMD) – Sandeep Kumar Gupta
Headquarters –  New Delhi, Delhi
Established in – 1984

MoCA Notifies Provision to Let CCI Impose Penalty on Firm’s Global TurnoverMinistry of Corporate Affairs (MoCA) notified that the provisions of sections 20, 35 & 40 of the Competition (Amendment) Act, 2023 will come into force with effect from 6th March 2024.

• The notification was issued in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of section 1 of the Competition (Amendment) Act, 2023 (9 of 2023).

Key Points:
i.The amendments allows the Competition Commission of India(CCI) to impose penalty on the global turnover of a company for engaging in activities that distort competition.

• This global turnover includes turnover from all products and services, not just from the product being investigated

ii.The CCI can impose a penalty of up to 30% on the global turnover of companies involved in anti-competitive practices.
Penalty Guidelines:
i.The amendment also mandates CCI to publish detailed penalty guidelines to offer clarity on the methodology of penalty calculation.
ii.The guidelines will offer a step by step process of penalty amount calculation.
Points to note:
i.Prior to this notification, CCI imposes fines based on the on the turnover of the relevant domestic entity.
ii.The penalty 10% of the turnover in cases of abuse of dominant position.
iii.In case of cartels, the penalty was three times of their profit for each year of such an agreement or 10% of the turnover for each year of the agreement.
iv.Prior to the Supreme court ruling in Excel Corp Case in 2017, CCI levied penalty based on the global turnover of the firm.
Additional info:
i.The amendment will have major implication on multi-product companies and companies with global operations that may lead to unfair and discriminatory outcomes between

• domestic companies and the one with global operations
• multi product companies and single product company.

ii.The amendment encourgaes companies under investigation to choose the settlements or commitments mechanism in abuse or vertical restraint cases or leniency in cartel cases.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

WB, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and UNICEF pledge approx. USD 600mn to Combat Cervical CancerOn March 5, 2024, the World Bank (WB), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) pledged nearly USD 600 million towards eliminating cervical cancer.

• This funding includes USD 400 million over three years by WB, USD 180 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and USD 10 million from UNICEF.
• This commitment was made during the first-ever ‘Global Cervical Cancer Elimination Forum: Advancing the Call to Action’ held in Cartagena, Colombia from March 5-7, 2024.
• The forum was dedicated to catalyze national and global momentum to end this preventable disease.

Key Points:
i.The funds will be utilised to enhance global access to vaccination, screening and treatment for cervical cancer.
ii.The Forum aims to unite governments, donors, civil society, and stakeholders to eliminate cervical cancer globally.
iii.A woman dies of cervical cancer every two minutes, mostly in low and middle-income countries with limited access to vaccines, screening, and treatment.
iv.On the other hand, High-income countries introduced the Human Papillomavirus Virus (HPV) vaccine in the 2000s, protecting against the virus causing most cervical cancers.
v.In 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed switching from two or three doses to one dose of the HPV vaccine to protect more girls.

• Immunization against HPV can prevent the majority of cervical cancer cases.
• 37 countries have switched or intend to switch to a one-dose HPV vaccine regimen.

vi.Notably, cervical cancer ranks as the fourth most prevalent cancer among women worldwide.
Commitments made by countries to combat cervical cancer:
i.Indonesia renewed its commitment to its National Action Plan 2023.
ii.The Democratic Republic of Congo pledged the single-dose HPV vaccine for girls 9 to 14, aiming to eliminate cervical cancer.
iii.Ethiopia promised 95% coverage for 14-year-old girls in 2024, with annual screening and treatment.
iv.Nigeria launched its HPV vaccine program, aiming for at least 80% coverage for girls by 2026.
About World Bank (WB) Group:
President– Ajay Banga
Headquarters– Washington, DC, United States of America (USA)
Establishment– 1944

BANKING & FINANCE

RBI and Bank Indonesia Sign MoU to Promote Use of Local Currencies for Bilateral TransactionsThe Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Bank Indonesia (BI) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for establishing a framework to promote the use of local currencies of both countries, such as the Indian Rupee (INR) and the Indonesian Rupiah (IDR), for cross-border transactions.
Signatories:
The MoU was signed by RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das and Bank Indonesia Governor Perry Warjiyo.
Features of the MoU:
i.It aims to promote the use of INR and IDR bilaterally.
ii.The MoU covers all current account transactions, permissible capital account transactions, and any other economic and financial transactions as agreed upon by both countries.
iii.This framework would enable exporters and importers to invoice and pay in their respective domestic currencies, which in turn would enable the development of an INR-IDR foreign exchange market.
Benefits:
The following are the benefits of using local currencies for cross-border transactions.
i.It would optimise transaction costs and settlement time.
ii.It promotes trade between India and Indonesia.
iii.It also deepens financial integration and strengthens the long historical, cultural, and economic relations between India and Indonesia.
About Indonesia:
As of 7th February 2024, Joko Widodo is the President of Indonesia and he will be succeeded by Prabowo Subianto Djojohadikusumo who is set to be sworn in as the 8th President of Indonesia on October 2024.
Capital – Jakarta
Currency – Indonesian Rupiah

RBI amends Card Rules; Customers can Choose Card Network i.The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 35A of the Banking Regulation (BR) Act, 1949 and Chapter IIIB of the RBI Act 1934, amended the ‘Master Direction – Credit Card and Debit Card – Issuance and Conduct Directions, 2022’, the provisions of which will come into effect from March 07, 2024.
ii.As per it, card issuers are barred to enter into any arrangement with card networks for the issuance of credit cards that restrain them from availing the services of other card networks.
iii.This will benefit as customers as they will get the freedom to choose from multiple card networks.
iv.The timeline to follow the new norms by the card issuers is 6 months.
About Reserve Bank of India (RBI):
Governor – Shaktikanta Das
Deputy Governors – Swaminathan Janakiraman, Michael Debabrata Patra, M. Rajeshwar Rao, T. Rabi Sankar
Establishment– 1st April 1935
Headquarters– Mumbai, Maharashtra
>> Read Full News

Fairfax India Provides Liquidity Support of USD 200 Million to IIFL Finance
Indian-Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa-backed Fairfax India Holdings Corporation committed to provide up to USD 200 million liquidity support to IIFL Finance Limited.

• The move is the aftermath of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s ban on IIFL Finance in sanctioning or disbursing gold loans.
• This move by Fairfax India aims to assure investors and lenders about IIFL Finance’s financial health.
• Fairfax India is one of the long-term investors in the IIFL group of companies and it owns a 15% stake in IIFL Finance.

ECONOMY & BUSINESS

Reliance Consumer Products & Elephant House Partners for Beverages
Reliance Consumer Products Limited (RCPL) has partnered with Sri Lanka-based Elephant House to manufacture, market, distribute and sell beverages under the Elephant House brand across India.

• Through the collaboration, RCPL will strengthen their beverage portfolio, which already includes brands like Campa, Sosyo, and Raskik.
• The collaboration also offers Indian consumers great choices and value propositions through quality products.

Note: 
i.RCPL is a Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) arm and wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Retail Ventures Limited (RRVL).
ii.Elephant House is owned by Ceylon Cold Stores (CCS), a subsidiary of John Keells Holdings, Sri Lanka’s largest listed conglomerate.

AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

Japanese Architect Riken Yamamoto Wins Pritzker Architecture Prize 2024Architect Riken Yamamoto of Yokohama, Japan, has been named the 2024 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the highest global architectural recognition.

• He is the 53rd laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize and the 9th Japanese architect to win the prize.
• The award includes a cash prize of USD 100,000 and a bronze medallion.

Note: Past laureates from Japan are Kenzo Tange (1987 – First Japanese to win the prize); Fumihiko Maki (1993); Tadao Ando (1995); Kazuyo Sejima, and Ryue Nishizawa (2010); Toyo Ito (2013); Shigeru Ban (2014); Arata Isozaki (2019).
Award Ceremony:
i.Riken Yamamoto will be honoured in Chicago, Illinois, United States of America (USA) in the 2024 spring.
ii.On 16 May 2024, the 2024 Laureate Lecture will be held at S. R. Crown Hall, Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), in partnership with the Chicago Architecture Center, USA.
Points to note:
i.The 2024 Jury highlights Yamamoto’s commitment to societal responsibility, questioning architectural norms to cater to individual needs while stressing the importance of people-driven spaces, similar to the principles of democracy.
ii.Over his 5-decade career, he has built private residences, community housing, schools, etc, and city planning, located throughout Japan, the People’s Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, and Switzerland.
About Riken Yamamoto:
i.He founded the Riken Yamamoto & Field Shop Co., Ltd in 1973 in Japan.
ii.He served as a Professor at the Department of Architecture at Kogakuin University, Tokyo (Japan) from 2002 to 2007 and Professor at the Yokohama Graduate School of Architecture, Yokohama National University (Y-GSA) from 2007-11.
iii.From 2018-2022, he served as President of the Nagoya Zokei University of Art & Design.
vi.He has been serving as a Visiting Professor at Tokyo University of the Arts since 2022.
Noted works: Hotakubo Housing (Kumamoto, Japan, 1991); Future University Hakodate (Hakodate, Japan, 2000); Ecoms House (Tosu, Japan, 2004); THE CIRCLE at Zürich Airport (Zürich, Switzerland, 2020); Nagoya Zokei University (Nagoya, Japan, 2022).
About Pritzker Architecture Prize:
i.It was established by the Chicago-based Pritzker family through their Hyatt Foundation in 1979. Jay A. Pritzker founded the prize with his wife, Cindy Pritzker.
Objective: To honour living architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of talent, vision, and commitment, which has produced significant contributions to humanity and the built environment through the art of architecture.
ii.This annual award is often labeled as the “Nobel of Architecture.”
Note:
i.In 2023, the prize was awarded to British architect Sir David Alan Chipperfield.
Ii.So far, Balkrishna Doshi is the first and only Indian architect to win the prize. He received the Pritzker Prize in 2018.

Indian Writer Amitav Ghosh Awarded the Netherlands’ Erasmus Prize 2024Eminent Indian Writer and Padma Shri Awardee Amitav Ghosh was awarded the Erasmus Prize 2024 by the Netherlands’ Praemium Erasmianum Foundation for his writings on the planetary crisis and climate change.
He was honoured for his contribution to the theme of the Erasmus Prize 2024 “imagining the unthinkable”.
Points to note:
i.The theme refers to the expression of the unprecedented global crisis ‘climate change’ in written words.
ii.His writings make the unimaginable consequences of climate change visible through compelling stories about the past.
About Amitav Ghosh:
i.Amitav Ghosh was born in 1956 in Calcutta (Now Kolkata), West Bengal.
ii.He is famous for connecting the past with the present in relevant ways in his novels.
iii.His works primarily cover migration, diaspora, and cultural identity.
iv.His also work demonstrates that the climate crisis is a cultural crisis, caused by a lack of creativity.
Notable Works:
i.The Circle of Reason (1986), In An Antique Land (1992), Dancing in Cambodia (1998), The Calcutta Chromosome (1995), The Living Mountain (2022), and Smoke and Ashes (2023).
iii.His Ibis trilogy consists of Sea of Poppies (2008), River of Smoke (2011), and Flood of Fire (2015). It narrates poppy cultivation and opium wars during colonialism in India.
Awards & Honours:
i.He was the first English-language writer to be honoured with the Jnanpith Award, India’s highest literary award, in 2018.
ii.He also got Padma Shri in 2007 in the field of ‘literature and education’.
iii.He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1990 for his book “The Shadow Lines.”
iv.He was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2008 for his novel “Sea of Poppies”.
v.In 2019, Foreign Policy magazine named him one of the most important global thinkers of the preceding decade.
About the Erasmus Prize:
i.The Erasmus Prize is awarded annually to a person or institution that has made an exceptional contribution to the humanities, the social sciences or the arts, in Europe and beyond.
ii.The prize consists of a cash prize of 150,000 Euros and a momento, which is a folded ribbon with a titanium plate at both ends.
iii.The prize was named after Dutch humanist scholar Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536). He was a true world citizen, with a universal view of life.
iv.The King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands is a patron of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation.
Note: Erasmus Prize 2023 was awarded to South African comedian Trevor Noah.

APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNATIONS

Alok Rungta appointed as MD & CEO of Future Generali India Life Insurance
Mumbai (Maharashtra) based Future Generali India Life Insurance Company Limited (FGILI) has appointed Alok Rungta as the Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) with effect from 01st April 2024.

• Alok Rungta will take charge from Bruce De Broize, who has been serving as the MD and CEO since 2022.
• Rungta is currently serving FGILI as Deputy CEO and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) since February 2023.

Note: FGILI is a joint venture(JV) between Generali Group and Future Group.

BOOKS & AUTHORS

Sri Lanka’s Ex-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa authored the Book ‘The Conspiracy to Oust Me from the Presidency’ 
Former President of Sri Lanka, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, has authored a book titled ‘The Conspiracy to Oust Me from the Presidency’ which speaks about his political downfall to a “conspiracy” involving foreign and local parties.

• Gotabaya Rajapaksa served as the 7th Executive President of Sri Lanka from 2019 to 2022.
• The book attempts to reconstruct the last moments of his Presidency when Sri Lanka was experiencing its worst economic crisis since its Independence in 1948.
• The book also speaks about foreign intervention in manipulating Sri Lankan politics and weakening the economy since the end of the war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009
• The book is available in the English and Sinhalese language.

IMPORTANT DAYS

International Women’s Day 2024- March 8 The United Nations (UN) International Women’s Day (IWD) is annually observed across the globe on 8 March to celebrate the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day aims to renew collective commitment to accelerate women’s equality.

• IWD aims to recognise the achievements of women regardless of their national, ethnic, linguistic, cultural, economic, or political distinctions.

Theme:
i.The 2024 theme of IWD is, “Invest in women—accelerate progress.”
ii.The campaign theme for IWD 2024 is Inspire Inclusion.
Background:
i.In December 1977, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution and proclaimed the 8 March of every year as UN Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.
ii.The UN officially recognised IWD for the 1st time in 1977.
Points to note:
On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2024 (8 March 2024), Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi, announced a reduction of Rs 100 reduction on the price of Liquefied Natural Gas (LPG) cylinder with effect from midnight.
>> Read Full News

STATE NEWS

UP CM Yogi Launched MYUVA Program to Nurture Youth Entrepreneurship in UPYogi Adityanath, Chief Minister (CM) of Uttar Pradesh (UP), has launched the Mukhyamantri Yuva Udyami Vikas Abhiyan (MYUVA) program to empower young entrepreneurs in UP and promote a culture of innovation and enterprise.
About the MYUVA program:
The MYUVA program is designed to empower educated and skilled youth across UP and to facilitate selfemployment opportunities and foster the establishment of new Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
Objective: To offer support and resources to young entrepreneurs to kickstart their entrepreneurial ventures.
Goal: The aims of the programe is to directly benefit 10 lakh units over the next 10 years by financing 1 lakh units every year.
Eligibility: Beneficiaries trained under government-run schemes, like Vishwakarma Shram Samman Yojana, One District One Product (ODOP) Training and Toolkit Scheme, Scheduled Caste(SC), Scheduled Tribe(ST), Other Backward Class (OBC) Training Scheme, and Skill Upgradation (Kaushal Unnayan) run by the Uttar Pradesh Skill Development Mission are eligible for the assistance under MYUVA.
Financing:
i.The program offers interest-free loans of up to Rs 5 lakh for projects in the industry and service sectors.
ii.To support this program, UP government has allocated Rs 1,000 crore in the budget for the financial year 2024-25 (FY25).
iii.Upon successful repayment of the first loan, the individual will be given a loan of double the initial amount or up to Rs 7.50 lakh.
iv.The funding will be provided through nationalized, scheduled, rural banks, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and all financial institutions notified by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
v.The provided loan will be covered under the Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE).

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