1. India bans entry of International Commercial Passenger Flights from March 22 for week

• India has banned the entry of all international commercial passenger flights from March 22 for one week.
• Railways and Civil Aviation will suspend all concessional travel except for students, patients, and divyang category.
• States are being requested to enforce work for home for private-sector employees except those working in emergency or essential services.

2. Centre issues gazette notification for adaptation of 37 Central laws in J&K

• The Centre has issued a gazette notification for the adaptation of 37 Central laws in the Concurrent List for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
• The gazette notification, issued by the Home Ministry's Department of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh Affairs will come into force with immediate effect.
• It contains 37 Central laws including the representation of people act, the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, the Protection of Human Rights Act, the Prevention of Corruption Act and the Indian Penal Code among others.

Foot Notes:
About J&K:
Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir: G. C. Murmu

3. Priyanka Chopra Collaborates with WHO to spread awareness over COVID-19

• Actress Priyanka Chopra urged followers to rely on authentic sources of information about coronavirus and arranged an Instagram live with top personnel of the World Health Organization (WHO) to raise awareness about the pandemic.
• The 37-year-old actor documented her videos on Instagram stories where she expressed the importance of only relying on authentic information about the highly contagious disease.
• Priyanka and her husband Nick Jonas are on day 8 of self-isolation and have said they are taking all the recommended precautions to combat the spread of the virus.

4. Nirbhaya Case Convicts Hanged to Death in Tihar Jail on March 20

• On March 20, 2020, four convicts of the Nirbhaya Gang Rape were hanged to death in Tihar Jail. In September 2013, a fast track court convicted them with a death sentence. Several curative and mercy petitions were filed by them at the Delhi High Court and Supreme Court. In 2017, the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty. Recently, in 2020, the Supreme Court refused to take in the petitions.
• Article 145 of the constitution allows the Supreme Court to frame its own rules. Under the Article, the SC rules its own proceedings, cases handled by it, transferred to high courts, etc. It has powers to stay proceedings, grant bail, allocate a number of judges to sit in a bench, etc. With this power, the apex court refused to consider the petitions of the accused.

5. SBI acquired 6.825% stake of Zero Mass Private Limited

• State Bank of India acquires stake in Zero Masson March 17, 2020, State Bank of India entered into an agreement to acquire 6.825%(6,825 equity shares) stake of Zero Mass Private Limited (Pvt Ltd)
• The deal is to be completed by March 31, 2020. As part of the deal, the Bank sold its entire stake in A Little World Pvt Ltd to target the Zero Mass Pvt Ltd
• Zero Mass Pvt Ltd was founded by Anurag Gupta on March 20, 2007, which is the 1st ever Business Correspondent in the country & is formerly known as Zero Microfinance and Savings Support.

Foot Notes:
About SBI:
Headquarters– Mumbai, India
Chairman– Rajnish Kumar

6. Arundhati Bhattacharya resigns from Crisil board

• Arundhati Bhattacharya has submitted her resignation from Crisil board. She was serving as the independent director of the Crisil. Her resignation will be effective on April 15, 2020.
• She has submitted her resignation as she will be joining as a Chairperson and CEO for the India operations of Salesforce, USA.

Foot Notes:
About CRISIL
Managing Director and CEO of CRISIL: Ashu Suyash
Founded: 1987

7. Ajay Kumar appointed as India’s next High Commissioner to the Republic of Uganda

• Ajay Kumar has been appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to the Republic of Uganda. Ajay Kumar is currently posted as the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs.
• Ajay Kumar is a 2001 batch IFS officer.

Foot Notes:
Union Minister of External Affairs: Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
About Uganda:
President of Uganda: Yoweri Museveni.
Capital of Uganda: Kampala.
Currency of Uganda: Ugandan shilling.

8. Italy becomes the country with most deaths due to COVID-19

• Italy announced 427 more fatalities from COVID-19 yesterday as it becomes the country with the most deaths due to the virus outbreak. The total death toll in the European nation at more than 3,400 has crossed China's death toll of 3,245. The total number of infections in Italy has crossed 41000.
• The Italian police in Rome are repeating instructions to everyone on megaphones to stay at home and maintain distance from each other. China, on the other hand, reported the second successive day today with no new domestic cases since the virus was reported in Wuhan three months ago. Globally, the death toll from the virus has risen to over 9,800.

Foot Notes:
About Italy:
Capital: Rome
Currency: Euro
President: Sergio Mattarella
Prime minister: Giuseppe Conte

9. Defence Ministry signs contract with Israeli firm IWI to acquire 16,479 light machine guns

• The Defence Ministry has signed a capital acquisition contract with Israel Weapons Industries, IWI for procurement of 16,479 light machine guns, LMGs at a cost of 880 crore rupees. IWI, which is based out of Ramat HaSharon city in Israel, would be providing Negev 7.62*51 mm LMGs to the Indian armed forces under the contract
• The contracted Negev 7.62X51 mm LMG is a combat-proven weapon and currently used by several countries around the globe. Defence Ministry said the LMG will greatly enhance the lethality and range of a soldier vis-a-vis the presently used weapon.

10. DAC gives approval for procurement of 83 indigenous Tejas fighter aircraft for Indian Air Force

• Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) today gave approval for the procurement of 83 indigenous Tejas fighter aircraft for the Indian Air Force.
• While orders of 40 Tejas aircraft had been placed with HAL in initial configurations, today DAC paved the way for procurement of another 83 of the more advanced version of the aircraft from HAL.

Foot Notes:
About Tejas:
The Light Combat Aircraft Tejas indigenously-designed by Aircraft Development Agency (ADA) under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is going to be the backbone of Indian Air Force in future.

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Current Affairs 19 March 2020

Current Affairs 18 March 2020

Current Affairs 17 March 2020