Daily GK Updates - 22nd March, 2016

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley launched ‘Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana’ and ‘Unified Package Insurance Scheme’.

2. Government further relaxes Atal Pension Yojana norms: It has further relaxed the norms for the Atal Pension Yojana to give an option to spouse to continue to contribute for the balance period on premature death of a subscriber.

3. Akhilesh Ranjan Committee on Taxation of e-Commerce submitted its report to the Union Government: The report provides the view of the committee on issues related to taxation of e-commerce and recent international developments in this area.

4. Ashok Leyland (a Hinduja Group company) to partner with US firm Lockheed Martin to develop defence systems such as light specialist vehicle and light armoured multi-purpose vehicles. 

5. Ashok Lahiri committee constituted to review excise duty imposed on different jewellery articles in Budget 2016-17.

6. Telangana and French Aviation Company Aero Campus Aquitaine and Bordeaux Metropole signed MoU to set up aviation training institute in Hyderabad.

7. India to host 8^th BRICS Summit in October in Goa: The logo of the summit is a lotus having colours from all the five member countries and a traditional ‘namaste’ in the centre.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. World Water Day observed on 22^nd March 2016 across the world with theme ‘Water and Jobs’.

2. Ali Mohamed Shein declared winner of Presidential elections of semi-autonomous region Zanzibar.

3. Scientists from University of Hawaii revealed that year 2014 recorded highest anthropogenic carbon release in past 66 million years.

4. Nepal signed agreement with China to extend the strategic Tibet rail link to Nepal

OTHER UPDATES:

SPORTS:

1. Novak Djokovic and Victoria Azarenka won BNP Paribas Open Men’s and Women’s title respectively.

2. Indian wrestler Hardeep Singh won silver medal in Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament held in Astana, Kazakhstan.

AWARDS:

3. Renowned Malayalam writer M Sukumaran chosen for CV Kunhiraman Literary Prize.

4. 5^th National Photography Awards presented in New Delhi by Arun Jaitley: Lifetime Achievement Award-Bhawan Singh, Professional Photographer Award-Javed Ahmed Dar, Amateur Photographer-Himanshu Thakur.

OBITUARIES:

5. Former Inter Chairman and CEO Andrew Grove died at the age of 79.