Current Affairs Current Affairs March 2020

 On March 8, 2020, Minister of Rural Development Narendra Singh Tomar announced that more than 17 lakh Self Help Groups (SHGs) are to be developed by 2022. Currently, there are more than 60 lakh self help groups in the country mobilizing 6 crore women.
  • Highlights
The Self-Help Groups will be provided funds for their livelihood missions. They will be linked with banks for easy credit flow. The platforms such as E-Marketplace will also be linked with the SHGs to provide better prices for their products.
  • Self Help Groups
The concept of Self-Help Groups was introduced in 1992 under the guidelines of RBI and NABARD. Today, more than 90% of SHGs in the country consist of women.
  • Why SHGs?
The SHGs help to promote Gender Equity, Social Integrity, Financial Inclusion and help raise voice of marginalized section. It also helps to improve efficiency of Government Schemes. The “Kudumbashree” project in Kerala is the largest and most successful SHG project in the country that was launched in Kerala. It is a SHG of the State Government. It was launched in 1998.

  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.

  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. 

  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.

  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.

  The 4th edition of TOISA (Times of India Sports Awards) awards honoured the best Indian in 2019 sports in New Delhi, India. The event was powered by BHIM-UPI (Bharat Interface for Money- Unified Payments Interface). Rohit Sharma was named as the Cricketer of the year and PV Sindhu was named as the Sportsperson of the year as she won gold at the World Championships in Basel, Switzerland.
Below is the complete list of winners of Times of India Awards 2019:
S. No. Award Award Winner
1 Sports person of the Year P.V. Sindhu
2 Cricketer of the year Rohit Sharma
3 Team of the year Indian men’s Hockey Team
4 Coach of the year Jaspal Rana
5 Inspiration of the year Rani Rampal
6 Mentor of the year Pullela Gopichand
7 Change agent of the year Odisha
8 Corporate supporter of the year Reliance Foundation
9 Unbreakable Spirit of Sports P.V. Sindu
10 Youth Icon of the year Vijendra Singh
11 Lifetime Achievement Bhaichung Bhutia
12 Icon of the year Balbir Singh

  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.

  Tasnim Mir and Mansi Singh of India has won the bronze medal each in the girls’ singles Badminton event at the Yonex Dutch Junior International 2020. The BWF Yonex Dutch Junior International was held in Haarlem, Netherlands. This was the first instance when Indian shuttlers has won two bronze medals in girls’ singles at this BWF Junior International Grand Prix tournament. Korean shuttler So Yul Lee defeated Indian shuttler Tasnim Mir by 21-19, 22-10 in the semifinals. Indonesian shuttler Saifi Rizka Nurhidayah defeated Indian shuttler Mansi Singh in the semifinals with a score of 21-11 & 21-16.

  India celebrates 7th of March every year as Jan Aushadhi Diwas. The days aims to create awareness and providing thrust to the use of generic medicines. On the occasion of Jan Aushadhi Diwas, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have an interaction event with seven Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana Kendras through the video conferencing. The message of the Prime Minister will also be telecasted at every Jan Aushadhi outlet. Janaushadhi Kendras is the world’s biggest retail pharma chain having around 6,200 outlets in 700 districts of the country. It also provides a good source of self-employment with sustainable and regular earnings. The first Jan Aushadhi Diwas was celebrated on 7th of March 2019.

  BRAC, an international development organization has topped the list of top 500 Global Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). The list of the top 500 global NGOs of year 2020 was released by Geneva-based organization NGO Adviser. NGO Adviser releases the rankings of the top 500 global NGOs every year. The Bangladesh based international development organization, BRAC has retained its 1st rank in the list for the 5th consecutive year. The rankings are drawn by NGO Adviser by keeping in mind the various aspects such as the impact, innovation, governance and sustainability of the NGO.
  • About BRAC:
BRAC is an international development organization based in Bangladesh. It was found in 1972 by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed to facilitate the returning war refugees with small-scale relief and rehabilitation project. Currently, the Bangladesh based organization is also having its presence in 11 countries of Asia and Africa. It is presently working in various fields like poverty alleviation through extending loans to the poor, nutrition, healthcare, gender equality, environment and employment etc. BRAC also runs a university, a bank, insurance company, a seed company among other things.


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