Current Affairs Quiz - March, 2020

Notes:
Sadanand Fulzele, the founder secretary of the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Smarak Samiti, recently passed away at the age of 91.
The federation looks after Deekshabhoomi in Nagpur, the site of Babasaheb Ambedkar’s conversion to Buddhism in 1956. Fulzele was a follower of Ambedkar’s ideologies and was instrumental in building the stupa at the place. Fulzele was also the Deputy Mayor of Nagpur when the leader converted along with over 6 lakh followers.

Notes:
After the state government of Haryana requested to rename its village in Kurukshetra district, the centre has given approval for renaming.
The decision has been taken by the Union Home Ministry after getting formal approval and a No objection certificate from a few central organisations including Ministry of Railways, Department of Posts and Survey of India.

Notes:
The Central bank of the United States-the Federal Reserve has recently cut its benchmark interest rate to almost zero.
The Fed Reserve also announced that it would buy $700 billion in bonds to ease the economic activities. The bank also said that it shall maintain this target range until the economy is on track to achieve its maximum employment and price stability goal.

Notes:
The famous annual Chaitra Jatra festival is celebrated in the state of Odisha. The festival which was scheduled to be held on March 17 at the Tara Tarini hill shrine of the state was cancelled as a precautionary measure against COVID-19 outbreak.
According to the state officials, more than 1.5 lakh visitors usually arrive for the festival and some out of them reach the hill-top to offer prayers, as a part of the festival.

Notes:
Centre for Media Studies (CMS) in partnership with World Health Organization (WHO) is implementing a media fellowship programme on road safety, called WHO Road Safety Media Fellowship.
Recently it was offered to 12 journalists based in Delhi and Karnataka from print, broadcast and online media of Hindi, English and Kannada languages. The fellowship is aimed at improving the capacities of journalists in coverage of news related to road safety.

Notes:
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has extended the validity of authorization issued to IT service management company Vakrangee, to setup, own and operate the White Label ATMs (WLA) in India.
The validity of authorization has been extended till 31 March 2021. RBI has assigned a target of minimum 1,000 ATMS to be deployed by Vakrangee for three years starting from 2020, with the stipulated ratio in Metro & Urban, Semi-Urban and Rural regions.

Notes:
The Fifteenth Finance Commission is to set up a panel soon, which will examine the fiscal and debt situation of the Centre and states.
This panel is to be headed by the Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission N.K.Singh. It will present a road map on the lines of the erstwhile Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management panel, which was also headed by N.K.Singh. The panel may include or receive suggestions from former RBI Governor Urjit Patel, former chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian among others.

Notes:
In a ceremony at iconic Panathenaic stadium of Athens, Greece has handed over the Olympic flame to Tokyo 2020 organisers.
The ceremony did not include the planned cultural ceremonies from Greece or Japan, due to COVID-19 pandemic. The Governing Olympic body of Greece, Hellenic Olympic Committee’s President Spyros Capralos handed the torch over to the Tokyo Organising Committee. The Hellenic Olympic Committee organises the lighting ceremony of Olympic Torch and its relay in Greece.

Notes:
Afghanistan recently pledged $1 million contribution to the SAARC Corona Emergency Fund, which was proposed by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
India proposed an initial contribution of 10 million to tackle the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus. After the announcement, Nepal and Bhutan committed nearly 1 million and 100,000 respectively to the SAARC Corona Emergency Fund. Maldives pledged 0.2 million to the fund.

Notes:
The State government of Himachal Pradesh recently launched two initiatives namely Police Station Visitor Survey System and e-Night Beat Checking System for Himachal police.
The Visitor survey system would be used for the surveillance of visitors visiting the Police Stations, Police Posts and all police units and will help in creating a database of visitors. The Night Beat Checking system for the Police Department would help the State Police to keep track of the suspected vehicles and criminals who move in the night.