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Important Current Affairs 17th March 2021

INTERNATIONAL

India-Finland Virtual Summit 2021

• The India-Finland Virtual Summit was held on March 16, 2021, with the participation of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of the Republic of Finland Ms Sanna Marin. The virtual summit was organised to discuss the entire gamut of bilateral issues as well as other regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest.

• The two leaders reviewed the ongoing bilateral engagements and committed to further expand and diversify the relationship across sectors such as trade and investment, innovation, education, emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence, 5G/6G, and quantum computing.

• The two leaders also discussed the Covid-19 situation including their respective vaccination drives and emphasized the importance of global efforts for urgent and affordable access to vaccines across all nations.

• The leaders exchanged views on regional and global issues, including the India-EU partnership, cooperation in the Arctic region, WTO and UN reforms. Both sides noted the potential for India and Finland to cooperate in undertaking developmental activities in Africa.

NATIONAL

Samsung sets up Innovation Lab at DTU

• Samsung India has announced that it has inaugurated a Samsung Innovation Lab at Delhi Technological University (DTU) to focus on collaborative research and training. It has set up the innovation lab under the Samsung Innovation Campus initiative as part of its new #PoweringDigitalIndia vision. With this addition, Samsung now has eight technical labs spread across the country as part of its Samsung Innovation Campus initiative, which was earlier called Samsung Digital Academy.

• As part of the lab, engineers at Samsung R&D Institute, Noida (SRI-N) will work with students and faculty at DTU on collaborative research projects on smartphone domains.

• he students and faculty at DTU will work on domains such as Application Framework, Multimedia, Health and Security, at the lab.

• Projects will focus on technology areas such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Computer Vision. So far, over 200 students have worked with SRI-N engineers on research projects and have received training.

• Collaborative research projects will be open to B.Tech, M.Tech and PhD students at DTU, who will receive certificates for their contribution at the end of each project. Samsung Innovation Campus is the company’s global citizenship program that aims to bridge proficiency gaps by skilling students on cutting-edge technology.

SPORTS

Virat Kohli becomes first player to score 3000 runs in men’s T20

• Indian captain Virat Kohli has breached the 3000-run mark in Twenty20 Internationals with his last shot in the second T20I against England. Kohli’s knock of 73 runs, which came off 49 balls, also helped India to level the five-match T20I series.

• He also became the third captain in international cricket to score 12000 runs as a captain. He joined legendary captains Ricky Ponting and Graeme Smith in the elite list.

UAE’s Mohammad Naveed, Shaiman Anwar banned for 8 years from all cricket

• The International Cricket Council (ICC) has imposed eight years ban on former UAE players Mohammad Naveed and Shaiman Anwar Butt from all cricket, for trying to fix matches during the T20 World Cup qualifiers in 2019. The ICC Anti-Corruption Tribunal had found them guilty of breaching the Anti-Corruption Code in January 2021.

• The bans are backdated to 16 October 2019, when they were provisionally suspended for attempting to corrupt matches of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Qualifier 2019 in the UAE. Naveed was the captain and leading wicket-taker. Anwar was the opening bat. Both had long international careers and were well versed in the threat from match-fixers.

• Both have been charged with two breaches each, the first of which is Article 2.2.1, which stands for ‘contriving, or being party to an agreement or effort to fix or contrive or otherwise influence improperly, the result, progress, conduct or any other aspect of matches in the upcoming ICC World T20 Qualifiers 2019.’

Bhavani Devi becomes first ever Indian fencer to qualify for Olympics

• Bhavani Devi became the first-ever Indian fencer to qualify for the Olympics. The sabre fencer secured an Olympic spot due to events in the ongoing Fencing World Cup. Hosts Hungary lost in the quarterfinals of the team event, allowing Korea to progress to the semis.

• Therefore, Bhavani Devi qualifies through the Adjusted Official Ranking (AOR) Method. Currently, she is ranked 45th in the world. In 2017 She won India’s 1st international gold medal in fencing.

Mumbai City FC beat ATK Mohun Bagan to win their maiden ISL title

• Mumbai City FC has defeated ATK Mohun Bagan 2-1 in the ISL 2020-21 final to lift yet another trophy this year. Mumbai had earlier secured the ISL Shield along with a spot in the AFC Champions League group stage by finishing first in the standings in the regular season.

• Golden Ball Award (Best Player of ISL 2020-21): ATK Mohun Bagan forward Roy Krishna.

• Emerging Indian Player of the Year: NorthEast United midfielder Lalengmawia.

• Golden Boot Award (Top goal-scorer): FC Goa striker Igor Angulo for 14 goals.

• Golden Glove Award (Best Goalkeeper): ATK Mohun Bagan custodian Arindam Bhattacharya for ten clean sheets.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

ISRO launches sounding rocket RH-560 to study attitudinal variations

• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has launched the sounding rocket (RH-560) to study attitudinal variations in the neutral winds and plasma dynamics, at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota Range (SHAR). ISRO has developed a series of sounding rockets called Rohini series, important among them being RH-200, RH-300 and RH-560, number in the name indicating the diameter of the rocket in mm, according to the Bengaluru-headquartered space agency.

• Sounding rockets are one or two-stage solid propellant rockets used for probing the upper atmospheric regions and for space research. They also serve as easily affordable platforms to test or prove prototypes of new components or subsystems intended for use in launch vehicles and satellites.

OBITUARY

Renowned Padma Bhushan winning painter Laxman Pai passed away

• Renowned Indian artist and painter Laxman Pai has passed away. The Goa-based painter was a recipient of the Padma Bhushan, India’s third-highest civilian honour.

• The former principal of the Goa College of Art had several laurels under his name including Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri, Nehru Award, and Lalit Kala Akademi Award.

Former Boxing Champion ‘Marvelous’ Marvin Hagler Passed Away

• The former undisputed middleweight boxing legend “Marvelous” Marvin Hagler has passed away. Hagler, the American legend, ruled as the undisputed middleweight champion from 1980 to 1987.

• He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame and the World Boxing Hall of Fame in 1993.

Noted Kathakali Dancer Chemancheri Kunhiraman Nair passed away

• Veteran Kathakali artist Chemancheri Kunhiraman Nair has passed away in Kozhikode, Kerala. He was 105-year old. He was awarded Padma Shri in 2017 for his contributions to the dance form of Kathakali.

• Besides this, Chemencheri was also the recipient of several other awards like the Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Award in 1979, the Kerala Kalamandalam award in 2001, Kalaratnam award in 2009, Mayilpeeli award and Sangeet Natak Academi Tagore award.

APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Principal Advisor P K Sinha resign

• Former Cabinet Secretary and Principal Advisor in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) P.K. Sinha has relinquished his high-profile position on personal grounds. He was appointed in the PMO first as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) briefly and then as Principal Advisor, a specially created position for him, in September 2019 after the 2019 parliamentary polls. Besides him, two senior officials are serving as Advisors in the PMO: Bhaskar Khulbe and Amarjit Sinha, both 1983 batch retired IAS officials.

• Mr. Sinha is a retired 1977 batch IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre and served in various capacities during the UPA and the NDA regimes. His is the second high profile exit from the PMO after PM’s Principal Secretary Nripendra Misra had resigned after the last Lok Sabha polls. Earlier, he was Secretary, Ministry of Power in the government of India and served as Cabinet Secretary for four years from 2015.

BANKING AND ECONOMY

NPCI launches UPI-Help on BHIM app for Grievance Redressal

• The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the umbrella entity for digital payments in India, has launched a new application named “UPI-Help” on BHIM UPI, which will act as a grievance redressal mechanism for the users of the BHIM application. Initially, UPI-Help has been made live on the BHIM app for the customers of State Bank of India, AXIS Bank, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank. Users of other banks participating in UPI will also be added to UPI-Help soon.

• check the status of the pending transactions,

• raise complaints against transactions that have not been processed

• raise complaints against money that has not reached the beneficiary

• aise complaints against merchant transactions

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