Latest Current Affairs: 30 March 2020

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Current
Affairs 30th March 2020
Indian Army launches OPRATION NAMASTE for COVID-19
  • Army Chief of Indian Army General Manoj Mukund Naravane
    launched ‘Operation Namaste’ initiative to protect 1.3 million strong forces
    from coronavirus and provide all possible assistance to the government to
    control the pandemic.
  • Under ‘Operation Namaste’, the army has issued a series of
    directives to all its bases to protect the force from the coronavirus & the
    army headquarters issued a number of suggestions to deal with the situation
    over the past few weeks.

Indian Army:
Founded: 1 April 1895; 124 years ago
Role: Land Warfare
Headquarters: New Delhi
Motto: Service before Self
Army Day: 15 January
Commander-in-Chief: President Ram Nath KovindChief of the Army Staff: General
Manoj Mukund Naravane
Govt. approves Rs. 5,751.27 crore as
additional assistance to 8 states under NDRF
  • The High Level Committee (HLC) under
    the Chairmanship of Union Home Minister 
    Amit Shah approved Rs 5,751.27 crores as additional Central assistance
    under National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) to 8 States affected by floods,
    landslides, cyclones ‘Bulbul’ & drought during 2019.

The states which got additional
assistance are:
  1. Bihar – 953.17 Cr
  2. Kerala – 460.77 Cr
  3. Nagaland – 177.37 Cr
  4. Odisha – 179.64 Cr
  5. Maharashtra – 1758.18 Cr
  6. Rajasthan – 177.37 Cr
  7. West Bengal – 1090.68 Cr
  8. Karnataka

  • Rs. 10937.62 crores has already been
    released by the center to 29 States as Central share from State Disaster
    Response Fund (SDRF) & additional assistance of Rs. 14108.58 crores to 8
    States under NDRF from 2019-2020 till now.
JICA sign agreement of Rs. 15,295 Cr
tp provide an ODA for 3 rail infrastructure projects
  • Japanese government funding agency
    (JICA) signs an agreement worth Rs. 15,295 crore with India to provide an
    Official Development Assistance (ODA) for 3 rail infrastructure projects.
  • JICA granted Rs 8,553 crore for
    Dedicated Freight Corridor (phase-1); Rs. 4,262 crore for Mumbai Trans Harbour
    Link Project (II) and Rs. 2,480 crore for the Mumbai Metro Line 3 Project (III).

3 Rail Infrastructure Projects:
  1. Mumbai Trans Harbour Link Project: The
    Construction of the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link (MTHL) project will connect
    Mumbai with Navi Mumbai. It aims to mitigate traffic congestion & promote
    economic development.
  2. Mumbai Metro Line Project: The
    objective of the project is to cope with the increase in traffic demand in the city
    by expanding the mass rapid transportation system, so as to promote regional
    economic growth & improve urban environment by reducing traffic jams &
    motor pollution.     The line-3 connects the area
    Colaba-Bandra- Santacruz Electronic Export Processing Zone (SEEPZ) covers a
    total of 33.7 km & entails 26 stations.
  3. Dedicated Freight Corridor: The
    project aims to cope up the increasing demand for freight transport in India by
    setting up a new dedicated freight railway line between Delhi and Mumbai so
    that to promote comprehensive regional economic growth on the freight corridor
    as the backbone of the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) Development
    plan. A new 950-km freight line (Rewari to Vadodara) connecting the major
    cities in Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Haryana states has been constructed.

JICA:
Formation: 1Octomber 2003
Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan
President: Shinichi Kitaoka
Rs. 4,431 Cr released by Centre to
clear pending wages of MGNREGA

  • The Centre released Rs 4,431 crores
    to clear pending wages under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
    Act, 2005(MGNREGA) & will also pay all dues (Rs 11,499 crores) by April 10,
    2020.
  • With this increase in wages, the
    national average wage under MGNREGA will rise from Rs 182 to Rs 202 per day.
  • The release is made at a time of
    country’s lockdown to combat COVID-19 which has made wage labourers with no
    work & financial resources.

MGNREGA: Mahatma Gandhi Employment
Guarantee Act
Mission Statement: It aims to enhance livelihood
security in rural areas by providing at least 100 days of wage employment in a
financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled
manual work
Act: Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act, 2005
Launched: 2 Feb 2006
Introduced by: Raghuvansh Prasad Singh
North Macedonia officially joints
NATO
  • The Republic of North Macedonia has
    inducted officially as the 30th and newest member of North Atlantic Treaty
    Organization (NATO). This membership comes after North Macedonia’s 2017 deal
    with Greece under which the former changed its name from Macedonia (a name same
    as Greek province). 
  • After the name change, Greece agreed to drop objections to
    its NATO and European Union (EU) membership. North Macedonia was granted a
    protocol on accession to NATO membership in February 2019..

NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Formation: 2 April 1949;
Type: Military Alliance
Headquarters: Brussels, Belgium
Membership: 30 states
Secretary General: Jens Stoltenberg
North Macedonia:
Capital: Skopie
Official Language: Macedonian,
Albanian
President: Stevo Pendarovski
Prime Minister: Oliver Spasovski
Independence Declare: 8 September 1991, from
Yugoslavia
Deputy Governor of RBI B.P.Kanungo reappoint
for a period of one year
  • The Appointments Committee of the
    Cabinet (ACC) headed by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi, has approved the
    extension of the tenure of RBI (Reserve Bank of India) Deputy Governor, Bibhu
    Prasad Kanungo for a period of one year up to April 3, 2021. His tenure is
    going to end on April 2, 2020.

RBI:
Reserve Bank of India
Established: 1st April, 1935
Act: Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934
Currency: Indian rupee
Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra
Governor: Shaktikanta Das
Short Notes
  • Indian Cricketer Mayank Agarwal appointed
    as a Brand Ambassador of Aeronutrix’s Fast & Up.
  • Ministry of the Development of North
    Eastern Region grants Rs. 25 Cr to the North Eastern State for combat COID-19.
  • UP CM Yogi Adityanath sets up
    ‘Team-11’ to beat Coronavirus.
  • Brahmakumaris chief Dadi Janki passed
    away at 104.
  • IAAF suspends Indian shot putter Navin
    chikara for 4 years for doping violation.
  • IIT Gandhinagar has launched Project
    ISAAC to engage students in creative projects during Corona lockdown.

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