Current Affairs 17th March 2020
1. India’s Sharath Kamal beats
Marcos Freitas in ITTF Oman Open final
- Paddler
Achanta Sharath Kamal ended his 10-year title drought
- He
defeated top seed former world-ranked 7 Marcos Freitas 4- 2
- To be
crowned champion of the ITTF Challenge Plus 2020 Oman Open
- Oman
Capital: Muscat; Currency: Omani rial
2. Taiwan’s Tai Tzu Ying clinches
her 3rd women’s singles title of All England Championships
- At Birmingham
in United Kingdom beating China’s Chen Yufei in 2 straight games 21-19, 21-15
- Denmark’s
Victor Axelsen claimed Men’s Singles title
3. US Fed Reserve Slashes Key
Interest Rate to Near Zero amid Economic Shutdown Over Coronavirus
- It is 2nd
emergency rate cut in less than 2 weeks,
- Cutting
the benchmark borrowing rate to a range of 0-0.25% & pledged to keep it
there “until it is confident that the economy has weathered recent events”
- Rate was
previously at this level during 2008 global fin. Crisis
4. Yes Bank to exit all Nifty
indices: NSE
- Index
Maintenance Sub-Committee (IMSC) under National Stock Exchange has decided to
accelerate the removal of Yes Bank from Nifty50, Nifty Bank & all Nifty
equity indices.
- In
Nifty50, Yes Bank will be replaced by Shree Cements with effect from March 19
- Nifty100
index: Yes Bank replaced with Adani Transmission
5. Mastercard and Samsung partner
to enable Digital Inclusion
- Digital
access to consumers & small businesses in emerging markets
- Through
its extensible Pay on Demand platform, designed to accelerate digital inclusion
- Mastercard
HQ : New York, USA
6. Manipur govt announces schemes
for sportspersons, artistes
- Under
CMAST Scheme, a suitable employment in govt services to be provided to sports
persons,
- Who have
won medals in notified disciplines in selected Inte’l Sports events.
- CMAT
scheme is designed with a view to encourage the artists in different fields
- CMAT = Chief Ministers Akhannaba Sanaroisingi
Tengbang
- Manipur
Governor : Najma Heptulla;
- CM : N.
Biren Singh
7. IAS officer Baseer Ahmed Khan
appointed 4th advisor to J-K Lt Gov
- Divisional
Commissioner of Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan
- He was
appointed as the 4th Advisor to Lieutenant Governor Jammu & Kashmir, by the
Ministry of Home Affairs.
- Other
advisors include Rajiv Bhatnagar, Farooq Khan & K K Sharma
- Ladakh UT
Lt. Governor: R. K. Mathur
8. PM Modi proposes emergency covid-19 fund for SAARC nations
- South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation
- India
pledged $10 million towards a Covid-19 emergency fund
- Said it
was putting together a rapid response team of doctors for SAARC nations as part
of an initiative led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
- India has
set up an Integrated Disease Surveillance Portal
9. Microsoft Bing team launches
covid-19 portal for global tracking of cases
- Accessible
at bing.com/covid,
- Which
provides up-to-date infection statistics for each country.
- WHO had
recently declared coronavirus outbreak as a Pandemic.
- WHO Head :
Tedros Adhanom
