GK & Current Affairs March 2016

India is going to host BRICS Friendship Cities Conclave in Mumbai (Maharashtra), financial capital of India from April 14 to 16, 2016. 
•    It will be attended by the top Urban Policy makers and Planners from BRICS Nations viz. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. 
•    Key facts The conclave will be joint initiative of Union Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Government of Maharashtra. 
•    Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the conference which will be attended by representatives of at least two cities from each of the BRICS nations. 
•    The three-day conclave will be organised by Mumbai First, a think-tank working to find solutions for city’s development.
•    The programme - BRICS Friendship Cities Conclave - is being organised jointly by the Maharashtra government and the External Affairs Ministry between April 14 and 16.
•    National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) will be the venue for the inauguration on April 14, followed by deliberations at Hotel Trident on April 15-16.
 

108—feet tall idol of Lord Rishabhdeva, the first Teerthankar of Jains, carved out of a single rock, has entered the “Guinness World Records” as the world’s tallest Jain statue. 
•    The idol was consecrated last month during a grand ceremony where rituals were performed for several days.
•    Till now, the 57 feet idol of Lord Bahubali in Shravanabelagola in Karnataka was considered the world’s tallest Jain statue.
•    The impressive statue is located atop Mangi Tungi mountain near Teharabad village of Baglan tehsil in this North Maharashtra district.
•    The word Tīrthankara signifies the founder of a tirtha which means a fordable passage across a sea.
•    The Tirthankara show the 'fordable path' across the sea of interminable births and deaths.  Rishabhanatha is also known as Ādinātha.
•    Till now, the 57 feet idol of Lord Bahubali in Shravanabelagola in Karnataka was considered the world’s tallest Jain statue.
•    After locating the single rock atop Mangi Tungi, the carving work, that involved more than 300 sculptors, started in 2012, Mr. Papadiwal said.

National carrier Air India on 7^th march 2016 flew the "world's longest" all-woman operated and supported flight from the national capital to San Francisco.
•    The flight, which travelled a distance of around 14,500 kilometre in close to 17 hours, was operated as part of International Women's Day celebrations.
•    The non-stop flight to San Francisco took off from New Delhi on March 6.
•    The flight was under the command of Kshamta Bajpayee and Shubhangi Singh, along with First Officers Ramya Kirti Gupta and Amrit Namdhari.
•    The carrier has about 3,800 women employees, including pilots, cabin crew, engineers, technicians, doctors, security personnel and executives.
•    It was a 17-hour flight that covered 14,600 km with a ground speed of 1200 km per hr.
•    The flight that departed from New Delhi on March 6 at 0235 hrs and landed in San Francisco at 0600 hrs, covering 17 long hours.

Indian men’s doubles duo of Tarun Kona and Alwin Francis emerged victorious at the II Peru International Series 2016 in the Peruvian capital of Lima on 6th march 2016. 
•    Kona and Francis, who were seeded second at this tournament, upset the top seeds; the Mexican pair of Job Castillo and Lino Munoz 21-8, 21-12 to win the final.
•    This is the second career title for this duo and their second of the season after triumphing at the Herbalife International Series in Guatemala just a week back. 
•    There too they had got the better of Castillo and Munoz in the summit clash, beating them comfortably by a score of 21-8, 21-14. 
•    The Guatemala title win shot them up 24 places to their current ranking of 108th.
•    After Peru, the duo has tournaments in Brazil and Jamaica lined up.

On 8th March 2016, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced to withdraw proposal to tax Employee Provident Fund (EPF) withdrawals. 
•    He further stated that government would also like to comprehensively review EPF tax proposal. 
•    But government retained the tax proposal for National Pension Scheme (NPS) withdrawals.
•    The proposal was made by Arun Jaitley while presenting the Union Budget 2016-17 in the Lok Sabha on 29 February 2016. 
•    Proposal said 60 percent of the amount deposited in the EPF account of the employee would be taxable at the time of withdrawal, and 40 percent would be tax free. 
•    It was going to be effective from 1 April 2016.
•    It also said that if the employee re-invested 60 percent of the EPF in an annuity or pension fund then it will not be taxed. 
•    Currently entire amount is tax free at the time of withdrawal if the employee has completed five years of continuous service.
•    The proposal to tax EPF withdrawals was made with an aim of to create a pensioned society, especially among employees in the private sector who have no provision for pension.
•    The EPF is a retirement benefit scheme for salaried employees. 
•    Any company with over 20 employees is required by law to register with the 

On 3rd  March 2016 chairman of Charutar Arogya Mandal and former chairman of the National Dairy Development Board Amrita Patel, , was awarded the prestigious Mahindra Samriddhi Krishi Shiromani Samman in Delhi.
•    It is also considered as the Lifetime Achievement Award.
•    Radha Mohan Singh, Union Minister of Agriculture, presented the award to Patel .
•    Mahindra Samriddhi India Agri Awards are given to the farmers and institutions to recognize their noteworthy and purposeful contribution to the field of agriculture.
•    Other winners of the Mahindra Samriddhi India Agri Awards (MSIAA) 2016 are:
•    Mahindra Samriddhi  Krishi Samrat Samman - Farmer of the Year Award (Male) - Land holding less than 5 acres -Mahendra Patidar
•    Mahindra Samriddhi  Krishi Samrat Samman - Farmer of the Year Award (Male) - Land holding from 5 to 20 acres -Krishnpal Singh Mourya
•    Mahindra Samriddhi  Krishi Samrat Samman - Farmer of the Year Award (Male) - Land holding more than 20 acres - Neelam Dutta
•    Mahindra Samriddhi Krishi Prerna Samman - Farmer of the Year Award (Female)- Sugan Bai Patidar
•    Mahindra Samriddhi Krishi Yuva Samman- Farmer of the Year Award (Youth)- P Jawahar Raja
•    Mahindra Samriddhi Krishi Sansthan Samman - Recognition for Public Sector organization- Indian Institute of Soil Science Bhopal
•    Mahindra Samriddhi Krishi Shiksha Samman - Recognition for Agricultural Universities - Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad
•    Mahindra Samriddhi Krishi Sahyog Samman - Recognition for NGOs / SHGs- Rajasthan Rural Institute of Development Management, Udaipur
•    Amrita Patel played an important role in the implementation of Operation Flood, the largest developmental programme in the world.
•    Programme helped to promote, finance and deliver a variety of supporting services to a national cooperative dairy structure that transformed the lives of millions of marginalised and small farmers and milk producers.
•    She was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2002.

Jawaharlal Nehru University has been named the winner of two of the three Visitor’s Awards President Pranab Mukherjee instituted last year.
•    The university took the prize in the “Innovation” and “Research” categories, while Assam’s Tezpur University was adjudged the “Best University”, according to an announcement by Rashtrapati Bhavan on Sunday.
•    While Tezpur University got the award for academic excellence and overall performance in 2015, Rakesh Bhatnagar, a JNU professor, and the Delhi institute’s Molecular Parasitology Group made the cut for innovation and research.
•    Bhatnagar developed a vaccine and therapeutic antibody against anthrax, and a team of scientists led by Professor Alok Bhattacharya worked on malaria, amoeba and kala-azar parasites. The sources said there were about ten entries in each category and were assessed by a panel of experts.
•    The recognitions for JNU come at a time the institution is at the centre of a sedition row following a campus event last month on executed Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. A BJP MP, Maheish Girri, even described JNU as a “hub of treason”.
•    The crackdown that followed led to the arrest of students’ union president Kanhayia Kumar, who got bail last week.
•    Several ex-servicemen have been critical, too, and even suggested taking a tank inside the campus to create “nationalistic sentiments” among students.
•    Bhatnagar, who heads a panel that was set up to probe the February 9 campus event, didn’t want to comment about his work. Bhattacharya said several institutions were engaged in research on malaria, kala-azar or amoeba, but JNU was the only place for a comprehensive research on all three.
•    Tezpur University vice-chancellor Mihir K. Chaudhuri said the university had produced excellent research while catering to the needs of 3,600 students in a place whose location was a disadvantage.
•    The awards, which Mukherjee – the Visitor for all central universities – had instituted last year, will be given away next Monday.
•    Last year, Hyderabad University was adjudged the “Best University” for its performance in 2014. 
•    A Delhi University professor, Vijaya Chaudhary, and his team got the award for “Innovation”. The Centre of Theoretical Physics, from Jamia Millia Islamia, won the “Research” prize.

On 8th March 2016, President Pranab Mukherjee presented Nari Shakti Puraskar for the year 2015 to 15 women, 5 organisations, one state and panchayat. 
•    The awards are annually given by the Union Ministry of Women & Child Development to institutions and individuals who have made exceptional contribution towards empowerment of women specially belonging to vulnerable and marginalised sections of society. 
•    It carries cash award of two lakh rupees and a certificate for institutions and one lakh rupees and a certificate for individuals.
•    Haryana was awarded as a state for demonstrating improvement with work in improving Child Sex Ratio (CSR) and Sex Ratio at Birth (SRB) during 2015. 
•    Anganwadipuram Gram Panchayat, Mallapuram of Kerala was awarded for their work towards women empowerment. 
•    Other awardees are :
•    Lucky Kurien, Maharashtra 
•    Dr. Saurabh Suman, Bihar
•    Basanti Devi, Uttarakhand 
•    Suparna Baksi Ganguly, Karnataka 
•    Meena Sharma, Rajasthan 
•    Preeti Patkar, Maharashtra 
•    Uttara Padwar, Madhya Pradesh 
•    Polumati Vijaya Nirmala, Andhra Pradesh 
•    Vasu Primalni, Delhi 
•    Sujata Sahu, Haryana 
•    Jyoti Mhapsekar, Maharashtra 
•    Sumita Ghosh, Delhi 
•    Anjali Sharma, Delhi 
•    Krishna Yadav, Delhi 
•    Shakuntala Majumdar, Maharashtra 
•    Organisations who were awarded are Gudiya Shyam Sevi Sansthan, Varanasi, Jagori, Delhi,Kanaklata Women Urban Cooperative Bank (Institution), Assam,Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (Institution), Delhi, Breakthrough Trust

ICICI Bank on 7th March 2016 launched iWork@Home programme for its women employees to prevent them from dropping out of its workforce.

•    The iWork@Home is an information and communication technology initiative and will enable employees work from home.
•    It allows women employees to have access to their required operating systems in a safe and secure manner by creating a seamless office-like environment.
•    By using the platform, employees can carry out multiple tasks that include checking documents for loan disbursement, image-based verification of cheques for clearance and processing of export-import documents for payments, etc.
•    It was developed in-house by ICICI Bank in partnership with students from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi.
•    To address data security and privacy related issues, facial recognition technology is incorporated that will scan the face to ascertain identity.
•    Women in all roles, except those in direct customer-facing ones, would be eligible for this initiative based on their life stage needs.
•    These would include young mothers, expectant mothers, those suffering from medical conditions among others.
•    Initially, the facility will be available for one year and can be extended beyond the period based on the requirements of the employee.
•    At present, the bank has about 30 per cent women in its overall workforce.