Notes:
Kishori Amonkar (84), the renowned Hindustani classical vocalist, has recently passed away in Mumbai, Maharashtra. She was considered one of the foremost singers in the Hindustani tradition and is an innovator of the Jaipur gharana. Amonkar received a plethora of awards, including the Padma Bhushan in 1987 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2002.

Notes:
Justice Indira Banerjee has been appointed the new Chief Justice of Madras High Court. With this, Justice Banerjee would be the second woman next to Justice Kanta Kumari Bhatnagar (June – November, 1992) to head the charted court. Prior to this appointment, Banerjee was a judge of the Delhi High Court.

Notes:
BP Kanungo has recently taken charge as the new Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a period of three years in Mumbai, Maharashtra. He succeeded R Gandhi. Prior to this appointment, Kanungo was holding the position of Executive Director of RBI. He has worked in several functional areas of the banks such as foreign exchange management, banking and non-banking supervision, currency management, government and bank accounts and public debt. Kanungo has also served as the head of regional offices of RBI at Jaipur and Kolkata besides holding the position of the Banking Ombudsman for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Notes:
Japan has officially recognized bitcoin and digital currencies as legal money with effect from April 1, 2017, which will help the integration of digital currency into the legacy banking system through regulation. Thus, as per new law’s implementation, Bitcoin exchanges will also come under additional regulatory scrutiny. The recognition of cryptocurrency as a legal tender also means the applicability of regulations governing banks and financial institutions to crypto-currency exchange platforms. They will be required to comply with strict Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements, along with annual audits. Other requirements include meeting the stated capital and cyber security requirements to ensure consumer protection.

Notes:
Germany has become the first North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member to launch a self-contained cyber command unit, which is designed to shield IT and weapons systems from growing attacks. The Cyber and Information Space Command (Kdo CIR) will have a status equal to that of the army, navy, and air force. The Kdo CIR is the youngest branch of Germany’s military “Bundeswehr”. It will operate and protect the military’s own IT infrastructure and computer-assisted weapons systems, and tackle online threats. The center would also focus on war-game offensive skills and capabilities.

Notes:
The Madhya Pradesh government has recently launched mobile app ‘MP e-nagarpalika’ to provide various municipal services online. The app would offer 378 services like online payment of property tax, seeking building permission, birth/ marriage/death certificates etc. It will also register complaints related to garbage, water, streetlights etc. Online payment gateway would be available on this app. The mobile app is a part of Rs 225-crore ‘e-nagarpalika’ project, under which all municipal services would be made available online on a unified web platform.

Notes:
K Prithika Yashini has become the India’s first-ever transgender person to become a police official, when she took charge as sub-inspector in Dharmapuri district in Tamil Nadu. In terms of judgement of the Madras High Court delivered in November 2015, directions were given to the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB) to appoint K Prithika Yashini as a sub-inspector of police as she is entitled to get the job. The judgement further directed the TNUSRB to include transgender people as a “third category”, apart from the usual category of “male” and “female”.

Notes:
Rajiv Kumar Chander, the 1983 batch Indian Foreign Services (IFS) officer, has been appointed as new Ambassador and permanent representative of India to the United Nations (UN) Offices in Geneva. He will succeed Ajit Kumar. At present, Chander is the consul general of India in Vancouver.

Notes:
Under the ‘Aapki Beti, Hamari Beti’ scheme, the Haryana government will provide one-time grant of Rs 21,000 to all those families whose third girl child was born on or after August 24, 2015. Under the scheme, the eligible families would receive the amount irrespective of their caste, creed, religion, income and number of sons. The purpose of the scheme is to combat the problem of declining child sex ratio and promote girls’ education in the state.

Notes:
The International Day of Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action is observed every year on April 4 to raise awareness about landmines and progress toward their eradication. The day also highlights the deadly threat that mines pose to civilians’ lives and nations’ development. The 2017 theme is “Needs driven. People Centred”.