GK & Current Affairs March 2016

Country’s largest private sector lender ICICI Bank on 14th March 2016 tied up with marquee sports car maker Ferrari to launch co-branded credit card.
•    “The ‘Ferrari Credit Card’ comes in two variants on the Visa platform and offers customers a host of offers including an all-expenses-paid trip for top spenders to Italy and also includes a Scuderia Ferrari watch as a joining gift,” the bank said in a statement.
•    this is the first-ever Ferrari range of credit cards in the country.
•    The bank had over 34.69 lakh outstanding credit cards as of November, that saw transactions of over Rs 2,393 crore at ATMs and POS terminals.
•    Other benefits which come with the card include discount on Ferrari branded products at the Ferrari Store in Maranello, Italy, and merchandise sold online at the Ferrari Store and Myntra.com, the statement said.
•    The cardholder also gets complementary access to domestic airport lounges in the country and a ‘buy one, get one free’ offer on bookings done through bookmyshow.com, it added.

 Fazle Kabir on 15 March 2016 was appointed the 11th Governor of the Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of Bangladesh.
•    Kabir replaced Atiur Rahman, who had resigned after taking moral responsibility over electronic theft of 101 million US dollars from the central bank's account with the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
•    A Bangladeshi economist and banker, FazleKabir served as the chairman of state-owned Sonali Bank prior to his appointment in the Bangladesh Bank.
•    He has also served as a Director of state-owned Janata Bank.
•    A graduate from University of Chittagong in economics, he started his career in 1980 with Bangladesh Railway as an Assistant Traffic Superintendent.
•    He was appointed as a senior secretary to the Ministry of Finance in 2012.
•    Between 4 February and 5 February 2016, unknown cyber criminals hacked into the computer systems of Bangladesh Bank and stole around 101 million US dollars from its account at the Reserve Bank of New York between. The money was then allegedly transferred electronically to casinos in the Philippines.
•    The hackers had reportedly bombarded the New York Fed with 35 separate requests to withdraw money.
•    The theft is one of the biggest cyber heists in history

 Meir Dagan, former Chief of Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad, passed away on 17 March 2016 due to cancer. He was 71.Dagan served as Director of the Mossad from 2002 until his retirement in 2011.
• Born on 30 January 1945, Dagan was recruited into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 1963.
• In the early 1970s, he commanded an ad hoc undercover commando unit, known as SayeretRimon, whose task was to combat the increasing violence in the Palestinian territories.
• In 1971, he received a Medal of Courage for tackling a wanted terrorist who was holding a live grenade.
• During the 1982 Lebanon War, he commanded the Barak Armored Brigade, and was one of the first brigade commanders to enter Beirut.
• In the 1990s, he held a series of high-level positions in the IDF command, eventually reaching the rank of Major General. He retired from the army in 1995.
• Later, he served as a counterterrorism adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
• He also initially served as a National Security Adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who appointed him Director-General of Mossad in August 2002.
• As Mossad director, he was responsible for intelligence, counter-intelligence, and counter-terrorism activities outside of Israel and the Palestinian Territories.
• Under his watch, Mossad tripled its recruitment efforts, launching a website where people can apply to join.
• Mossad is the national intelligence agency of Israel.
• It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with Aman(military intelligence) and Shin Bet (internal security).
• Mossad is responsible for intelligence collection, covert operations, and counterterrorism.
• It is also responsible for bringing Jews to Israel from countries where official Aliyah(immigration of Jews from the Diaspora to the Land of Israel) agencies are forbidden, and protecting Jewish communities.

 Bharti Airtel Ltd., India’s largest mobile phone operator, on 17 March 2016 announced the acquisition of Videocon Telecommunications Ltd’s entire spectrum for 4428 crore rupees.
•    It is the second such acquisition in India’s fragmented telecom sector after the Union Government allowed trading of airwaves in October 2015.
•    The deal gives Bharti Airtel the rights to use 2x5MHz spectrum in the 1800 megahertz (MHz) band in six licence areas, which are Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, eastern Uttar Pradesh, western Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.
•    After the deal, Bharti Airtel’s 4G coverage will go up to 19 circles from the current 15.
•    The deal gives Airtel additional spectrum in the 1,800 megahertz (MHz) band in six licence areas—Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, eastern Uttar Pradesh, western Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. 
•    It also signals the exit of Videocon, which acquired the spectrum in a November 2012 auction, from telecom services.
•    The spectrum trading rules have finally spurred consolidation in India’s telecom sector, where as many as 11 operators are competing, driving down prices and profits, even as the high cost of spectrum is adding pressure on already stressed balance sheets. 
•    The operators have a combined debt of more than Rs.3.5 trillion on revenue of more than Rs.2 trillion.

 Federal Open Market Committee of US Federal Reserve on 16 March 2016 release an implementation note with a decision to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate at 0.25 to 0.5 percent.
•    The stance of monetary policy remains accommodative, thereby supporting further improvement in labor market conditions and a return to 2 percent inflation.
•    And it also decided to maintain its existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from its holdings of agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities and of rolling over maturing Treasury securities at auction. 
•    It anticipates doing so until normalization of the level of the federal funds rate is well under way.
•    The US central bank last raised rates in December 2015, saying it expected to raise rates four times in the year 2016 but at present it expects to raise rates just twice.
•    The Committee met in January 2015 and suggested that economic activity has been expanding at a moderate pace despite the global economic and financial developments of recent months. 
•    Household spending has been increasing at a moderate rate, and the housing sector has improved further; however, business fixed investment and net exports have been soft.
•    A range of recent indicators, including strong job gains, points to additional strengthening of the labor market. Inflation picked up in recent months. 
•    However, it continued to run below the Committee's 2 percent longer-run objective, partly reflecting declines in energy prices and in prices of non-energy imports.

 Songkran festival, often referred to as the world's biggest water fight festival, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration decided to impose a curfew during the festival season that will be celebrated in April 2016.
•    The Songkran festival is celebrated in Thailand as the traditional New Year's Day from 13 to 15 April. 
•    The word "Songkran" comes from the Sanskrit word saṃkrānti literally "astrological passage", meaning transformation or change.
•    It coincides with the rising of Aries on the astrological chart, the New Year of many calendars of South and Southeast Asia. The festive occasion is in keeping with the Buddhist/Hindu solar calendar.
•    The curfew was imposed to show solidarity with farmers hit by drought. In form of solution, the Bangkok authority cut festival days down from four to three and imposed a curfew.
•    At present, Thailand is facing its worst water shortage in two decades, with 14 out of 76 provinces hit and large swathes of agricultural land at risk.
•    Thailand has entered its annual dry season, which typically runs from March to May, meaning the drought is likely to get worse.

 Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan on 17 March 2016 launched the Online Depot System in New Delhi to automate all the operations of Food Corporation of India (FCI) depots.
•    The key objective of the Depot Online System is to align with Digital India vision for transformation of food distribution supply chain in India.
•    The system, which efficiently captures data online on a real time basis, will bring total transparency in the working of FCI. Besides, it will also help in better monitoring and supervision to reduce leakages and losses.
•    The online depot system will eliminate usage of manual registers.
•    The cost of the project is estimated to be 63 crore rupees.
•    The Depot Online System will be rolled out in all 554 FCI-owned godowns by July 2016.
•    It will also be implemented in godowns owned by state-run Central Warehousing Corporation and State Warehousing Corporations as well as hired ones by March 2017.

 Beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya has stepped down as director of Royal Challengers Sports Pvt Ltd (RCSPL), which runs the Royals Challengers Bangalore IPL franchise.
•    Amrit Thomas, newly appointed chairman of the RCSPL, will be the man in charge of the franchise and the main point of contact with the BCCI.. 
•    Mallya, who is currently in the UK, is the subject of several investigations by federal authorities in India following the collapse of some of his business interests and the seizure of several of his assets. 
•    On February 25, he announced he was stepping down from his positions as non-executive director and chairman at United Spirits. 
•    As for his association with RCB, which he bought in 2008 for $111.6 million, Mallya said he would become the franchise's "chief mentor".
•    Vijay Mallya has been the owner of RCB since 2008, with the franchise failing to win the IPL a single time. 
•    It has been five days since he left India for the United Kingdom with the allegations of being loan defaulter by various Banks of India.
•    He has 9000 crore rupees debt which need to be paid toward various Indian Banks

 Famous magician Paul Daniels passed away on 17 March 2016 due to brain tumor. He was 77.
Daniels was best known for his BBC TV series The Paul Daniels Magic Show, which ran from 1979 to 1994.
• Daniels was born in 1938 in South Bank, Middleborough, where he began his career as a magician and entertainer.
• A major turning point in Daniels' career came in 1969 when he was offered a summer season at Newquay.
• He made his television debut on the long-running talent show Opportunity Knocks in 1970.
• Later, he was given a regular spot on a show The Wheel tappers and Shunters Social Club for Granada Television.
• In 1982, he was awarded the prestigious Magician of the Year Award by the Academy of Magical Arts. He was the first magician from outside the US to receive it.
•    Daniels was awarded the prestigious "Magician of the Year’" Award by the Academy of Magical Arts in 1982, and was the first magician from outside  US to receive it.
•     An Easter special of The Paul Daniels Magic Show won the Golden Rose of Montreux Award at the International TV Festival in Switzerland in 1985.
•    Daniels was the recipient of The Maskelyne, awarded for services to British Magic by the Magic Circle in 1988.
•    Daniels was also awarded the "Great Lafayette Award" by the Edinburgh International Magic Festival in 2011.
He is also known for expertise specially in Card games.

 Eminent Shehnai exponent Ustad Ali Ahmad Hussain Khan died on 16 March 2016 in Kolkata. He was 77.
•    Ustad Khan was known as one of the best-known players of the instrument after the legendary Bismillah Khan (1916-2006).
•    He was from a family of renowned shehnai exponents. His grandfather Wazir Ali Khan, father Ali Jan Khan and uncle Nazir Hussain Khan were also renowned shehnai specialists.
•    In fact, Wazir Ali Khan was the first to demonstrate Indian classical music on shehnai at Buckingham Palace.
•    He was famously known for his innovative style and mastery over the classical and semi-classical and folk music repertoire.
•    He, along with sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, played Shehnai at the inauguration ceremony of Doordarshan in 1973. He also rendered its signature tune.
•    He was a top-graded artiste of All India Radio (AIR) and taught in the ITC Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata.
•    His concert tours have included countries like United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands, France, etc.
•    In 2010, he was felicitated with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for his contribution to Hindustani instrumental music.
•    In 2012, he was felicitated with the Bangabhushan Award by the Government of West Bengal