GK and Current Affairs Updates

 Union Government on 15 March 2016 imposed anti-dumping duty of up to 44.7 percent on import of plastic-processing machines for five years. 
•    It will be implemented on the imports from Chinese Taipei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
•    The duty will be levied on all kinds of plastic-processing or injection-moulding machines, also known as injection presses.
•    According to Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), the safeguard duty was imposed after it was noticed that these imports from other countries led to deterioration of performance of the domestic industry.
•    Anti-dumping duty of 27.98 percent has been imposed on plastic-processing machines imported from Chinese Taipei.
•    Safeguard duty of 44.74 percent and 30.85 percent has been imposed for the same products imported from Malaysia and the Philippines.
•    Imports from Vietnam will attract a levy of 23.15 percent.
•    Plastic-processing or injection-moulding machines are used for processing or moulding plastic materials. 
•    Anti-dumping measures are taken to ensure fair trade and provide a level-playing field to the domestic industry. 
•    They are not a measure to restrict imports or cause an unjustified increase in cost of products.

 India ranked 118th out of 157 countries on the United Nations’ World Happiness Index (WHI) 2016. It was revealed by the fourth World Happiness Report 2016 published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), a global initiative for the UN. 
•    Top 10 countries: Denmark (1st), Switzerland (2nd), Iceland (3rd), Norway (4th) and Finland (5th), Canada (6th), Netherlands (7th), New Zealand (8th), Australia (9th) and Sweden (10th). 
•    5 Least happiest countries: Rwanda (152nd), Benin (153rd), Afghanistan (154th), Togo (155th), Syria (156th) and Burundi (157th). Among BRICS: Brazil (17th), Russia (56th), China (83rd), South Africa (116th) and India (118th). 
•    For the first time, the report has given a special role to the measurement and consequences of inequality in the distribution of well-being among countries and regions. 
•    Countries where there was less inequality were happier overall. 
•    Top five countries have strong social security systems About World Happiness Report The report aims at influencing government policy and is prepared based upon study undertaken by Gallup World Poll. 
•    These variables include real GDP per capita, healthy life expectancy, corruption levels and social freedoms India was ranked 111th in 2013 and 117th in 2015.

 President Barack Obama has nominated veteran appeals court judge Merrick Garland (63) to be the next US Supreme Court Justice. 
•    His nomination comes to vacancy in the US Supreme Court which was created after the death of SC Justice Antonin Scalia. The Supreme Court vacancy follows the death of Antonin Scalia last month. This appointment now has to be ratified by the Senate. 
•    Judge Garland is viewed as a centrist and moderate. He is highly regarded by the legal fraternity and lawmakers. 
•    India-born Srikanth Srinivasan was also one of the contenders for the nomination. 
•    Currently he is serving as US Circuit Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
•    President Barack Obama on 16 March 2016 nominated appeals court judge Merrick Garland to be the next US Supreme Court Justice. 
•    63-year-old Garland will be 113th Supreme Court justice of the US.
•    Garland, who is the Chief Judge on the US Court of Appeals in D.C. Circuit, will succeed Justice Antonin Scalia who died on 13 February 2016.
•    Justice Garland is viewed as a moderate and has won praise from senior Republican figures. 
•    The appointment has to be ratified by the Senate, but its Republican majority has vowed to block a vote on any Supreme Court nominee from Obama.

 The National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) on 16 March 2016 signed a License Agreement with Kudos Laboratories India for commercialization of Ayush-82, an Ayurvedic formulation for prevention and management of diabetes.
•    The agreement will now allow Kudos Laboratories India to commercialize the drug under their trade name with due acknowledgement to Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India.
•    Ayush-82 was developed by CCRAS. The CCRAS is an apex organization for research in Ayurveda under the Ministry of AYUSH.
•    Kudos Laboratories India, a 100 years old organization, is engaged in marketing, manufacturing and exports of the widest range of Ayurvedic / Herbal products and range of Cosmetics.
•    The company holds G.M.P & ISO Certifications.

 Lloyd Stowell Shapley, an American mathematician and Nobel Prize-winning economist, died on 12 March 2016. He was 92.
•    Shapley, who contributed to the fields of mathematical economics and especially game theory, won the Nobel Prize for economics in 2012.
•    He made fundamental contributions to economic theory and game theory.
•    His work is central to the modern understanding of competitive behavior and its game theoretic underpinnings.
•    In 1967, he, along with Bondareva, proposed the Bondareva-Shapley theorem. This work introduced the notion of “balanced,” a key notion to this day for understanding when games have nonempty cores.
•    His interest areas include Non-cooperative market models, political games, cost allocation and organization theory.
•    He, along with Alvin Roth, won the Nobel Prize for his work on the theory of stable allocations and the practice of market design.
•    The theory offers solution to a key economic problem - How to bring different players together in the best possible way?
•    Alvin Roth used Shapley's theoretical results to explain how markets function in practice. Through empirical studies and lab experiments, Roth and his colleagues demonstrated that stability was critical to successful matching methods.
•    Roth also developed systems for matching doctors with hospitals, school pupils with schools, and organ donors with patients.
•    Apart from the Nobel, he won innumerable awards and honours that include John von Neumann Theory Prize and Golden Goose Award in 1981 and 2013 respectively

 India Inc. on 12 March 2016 formally adopted the United Nations' (UN) agenda for the world's sustainable development and the 17 goals identified for its implementation in Mumbai.
•    The 11th National Convention on Sustainable Development Goals organized by the Global Compact Network in Mumbai, which was inaugurated by Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, assumed significance as this is for the first time the UN is involving private and public sector corporates globally to drive its development agenda. This was the first such meeting which was held globally.
•    Top 50 domestic corporate leaders such as the Tata Group, the Aditya Birla Group, Reliance, Vedanta, the Adani Group and public sector behemoth Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and several MNCs will officially adopt the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (SDGs).
•    The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the continuum of the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which were under implementation from January 2000 to December 2015. These 17 SDGs are being implemented from January 2016 to December 2030.
•    17 Sustainable Development Goals are:
•    No Poverty
•    Zero Hunger
•    Good Health and Well Being
•    Quality Education
•    Gender Equality
•    Clean Water and Sanitation
•    Affordable and Clean Energy
•    Decent Work and Economic Growth
•    Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
•    Required Inequalities
•    Sustainable Cities and Communities
•    Responsible Consumption and Production
•    Climate Action
•    Life Below Water
•    Life on Land
•    Peace Justice and Strong Institutions
•    Partnerships for the Goals
•    United Nations Global Compact is a UN initiative to encourage businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible polices, and to report on their implementation.  
•    Under the Global Compact, companies are brought together with UN agencies, labour groups and civil society.
•    It is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative with 13000 corporate participants and other stakeholders over 170 countries.
•    The Global Compact Network India, an association of over 300 companies, functions as the Indian Local Network of UN Global Compact, New York.

 Priyanka Kakodkar and Raksha Kumar on 15 March 2016 were named as joint winners of the 2015-16 Chameli Devi Jain Award. 
•    They were awarded for their work that clubs social concern and compassion with pioneering reportage and analytical skills.
•    Kakodkar's reports, targeted on the acute farming crisis in Maharashtra, were published on the front page of The Times of India in the year 2015. 
•    More than 50 of her reports were published in a year by the paper.
•    Independent journalist Raksha Kumar won the honour as her reports focused on the perilous features of the Union Government's proposal to amend the Land Acquisition Act, the Forest Rights Act and the Coal Act.
•    The award will be presented by former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on 17 March 2016 at the India International Centre, Delhi.
•    The annual Chameli Devi Award of The Media Foundation is the premier award for women media persons in India.
•    It was first awarded in 1982.

 Mauritania on 14 March 2016 became the second African country to ratify the 2014 Protocol to the Forced Labour Convention 1930.
•    Prior to Mauritania, Niger (Africa), Norway (Europe) and the United Kingdom (Europe) ratified the protocol.
•    The protocol requires States to take effective measures for prevention of forced labour, protection of victims and ensuring their access to justice and compensation.
•    The ILO estimates that about 21 million men, women, and children are in forced labour – trafficked, held in debt bondage, or working under slave-like conditions.
•    The vast majority of these forced labourers – almost 19 million – are exploited in the private economy, by individuals or enterprises.
•    Another 2.2 million (10 percent) are in state-imposed forms of forced labour, including forced labour imposed by paramilitary forces.
•    To address the issue, governments, employers, and workers at the ILO International Labour Conference supported the adoption of the new ILO Protocol of 2014 to the Forced Labour Convention, 1930.
•    Besides, a Recommendation on supplementary measures for addressing forced labour was also adopted.
•    If widely ratified and implemented by ILO member countries, the Protocol and Recommendation promise to act as a catalyst for achieving the vision of a world without forced labour.

 Pope Francis on 15 March 2016 announced that Mother Teresa will be made a saint of the Roman Catholic Church at a ceremony on 4 September 2016.
•    The pope cleared the way for sainthood to Mother Teresa, who was famed for her lifetime of service to the poor, establishing shelters for homeless, orphanages, soup kitchens and clinics around the world.
•    The Vatican credited her with the 2008 cure of a Brazilian man who had been suffering from brain tumors.
•    The first step toward making her a saint took place in 2002 when Mother Teresa was credited with the healing of a Bengali woman who suffered from tuberculosis and cancer.
•    Teresa was born Agnese Gonxha Bojaxhiu of Albanian parents in 1910 in what was then part of the Ottoman Empire and is now Macedonia. 
•    She lived in India for much of her life, where she founded a religious congregation called the Missionaries of Charity. She died in India in 1997 at the age of 87.
•    She won a Ramon Magsaysay Peace and International Understanding (PIU) Award in 1962 and a Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

 The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on 15 March 2016 suspended Maria Sharapova as a goodwill ambassador.
•    The five-time grand slam winner who became a goodwill ambassador in February 2007 was suspended after she tested positive for the banned substance meldonium at 2016 Australian Open.
•    The New York based UNDP in a statement said that it was suspending Sharapova, who worked as a goodwill Ambassador, until the outcome of the investigation into her case is known.
•    Maria Sharapova provisionally suspended after failing drug test at Australian Open
•    The statement said that the UNDP remains grateful to Maria Sharapova for her support of our work, especially around the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster recovery.
•    On 7 March 2016, the Russian tennis player announced that she tested positive for a drug called meldonium, also known as Mildronate, at the Australian Open.