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• China`s aviation regulator said it had ordered Chinese airlines to suspend their Boeing Co 737 MAX aircraft operations today by 6 p.m. (1000 GMT) following a deadly crash of a 737 MAX 8 operated by Ethiopian Airlines.


• An Ethiopian Airlines 737 Max 8 bound for Nairobi crashed minutes after take-off, killing all 157 people on board.


• It was the second crash of the 737 MAX, the latest version of Boeing`s workhorse narrow body jet that first entered service in 2017.

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• External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj said Four Indians, including a UN consultant attached with the environment ministry, were among those killed when a Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines plane crashed after taking off from Addis Ababa.


• The Boeing 737 crashed minutes after an early-morning take off from Addis Ababa, killing all eight crew and 149 passengers on board, including tourists, business travellers, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) consultant attached with the environment ministry, Shikha Garg, who was on her way to attend a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) meeting.

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• US President Donald Trump is seeking $8.6 billion in fresh funding for a wall on the US-Mexico border, likely triggering another fight with Congress.


• The 2020 budget request, which is set to be formally unveiled, would far exceed the $5.7 billion Trump demanded last year.


• That previous request led to an impasse that resulted in a 35-day partial shutdown of the US government, the longest ever.

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• Pakistan has asked the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to remove India as the co-chair of the international terror financing watchdog’s Asia-Pacific Joint Group, which is reviewing Islamabad’s progress on action against terrorism.


• The FATF had in February said Pakistan made “limited progress” in curbing terror financing and failed to show a proper understanding of the risks terrorist groups pose. Pakistan faces economic sanctions if it fails to act.


• In a letter to FATF president Marshall Billingslea, Pakistan finance minister Asad Umar asked him to appoint any other member country as the co-chair “to ensure that the review process is fair, unbiased and objective”.

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• The 2019 poll battle has begun with the contest, charged by the recent Pulwama terror attack and India’s retaliatory air strikes, shaping into a hotly debated referendum on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership and alternatives offered by a patchwork of opposition alliances.


• The Election Commission’s announcement of a seven-phase poll schedule from [latex]11^{th}[/latex] April to [latex]19^{th}[/latex] May , culminating in the results on [latex]23^{rd}[/latex] May, will spur already intense campaigning that has seen Modi criss-cross the country in a spree of inaugurations and foundation stone laying functions that doubled up as election rallies.

• The government allotted its 7-croreth free cooking gas (LPG) connection, as a part of the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY).


• 7 crore free LPG connections have been issued in the past 34 months which approximates to almost 69,000 connections per day.


• This scheme was launched on 1st May, 2016 with the aim of issuing 5 crore connections to women from poor families.


• 42% of the total connections have been issued to SC/ST.


• The highest number of connections have been issues in Uttar Pradesh (1.26 crore), followed by West Bengal (78 lakhs) and Bihar (77.51 lakh).

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• Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep S. Puri, in New Delhi, inaugurated state-of-the-art India Urban Observatory, which would plug into the myriad sources of data from cities, both real-time and archived.


• The Observatory will help in getting reliable, latest information on a meaningful set of indicators over various domains such as transport, health, environment, water, finance, which will assist in developing best practices, future strategies and policy interventions as and when required.

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• Election Commission announced the voting for Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, which has seven parliamentary seats, will be held on a single day on [latex]12^{th}[/latex] May.


• The BJP currently holds all the seven seats in Delhi. In Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal, the elections will be held in seven phases beginning [latex]11^{th}[/latex] April.

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• India's first holistic LGBTQ clinic and community-based HIV treatment centre was inaugurated in Mumbai.


• The trust's Founder and Chairman Ashok Kavi said Started by Humsafar Trust, the centre will also provide for Antiretroviral Therapy (ART), used in treatment of HIV. The centre will serve as a one-stop centre for pre-counselling, detection, counselling and treatment of HIV patients.

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• The Goa government has approved setting up two Information Technology parks in North Goa, seeking to address the IT sector's future demands.


• The IT Parks will come up at Chimbel and Penha-de-Franca villages, bordering Panaji. The Chimbel project is an "integrated IT township" while the Penha-de-Franca project is a "hybrid IT Park" under the Goa Information Technology Development Act, 2007.

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• The World Bank has provided additional financing of $137 million (nearly ₹960 crore) for the Dam Rehabilitation and Improvement Project (DRIP) to rehabilitate and modernise over 220 selected large dams in six states.


• The dams are located in Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand. Previously, the bank approved $350 million to finance DRIP in 2010.

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• The State Bank of India (SBI) became the first bank to link its interest rate on savings account with balance above Rs. 1 lakh and short-term loans to the Repo rate of the Reserve Bank of India. This shall be effective from 1st May 2019.


• The current Repo rate of RBI is 6.25%.


• The bank will link savings accounts with balance greater than Rs. 1 lakh to repo rate at current effective rate of 3.5% (2.75 percentage points lower than the current repo rate of 6.25%).


• All cash credit accounts and overdrafts having limits greater than Rs. 1 lakh shall also be linked to the benchmark policy rate, plus a spread of 2.25%—amounting to 8.5%.


• A risk premium, above 8.5%, will be charged on these loans on the basis of the risk profile of the borrower.


• The interest rate on home loans will continue to be determined by MCLR (marginal cost of funds-based lending rate).

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• Opener Rohit Sharma smashed his 218th six in ODI cricket during the fourth ODI against Australia on Sunday, setting the record for most sixes hit by a batsman for India in ODI cricket.


• The 31-year-old overtook former captain MS Dhoni, who has smashed 217 sixes for India. Notably, Dhoni hit seven out of his 224 ODI sixes for Asia XI.

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• India lost the fourth ODI against Australia despite setting up a 359-run target for the visitors.


• This was the first time India lost an ODI despite scoring 350 or more runs batting first. Prior to this, India had won each of the 23 ODIs in which they put up a total of 350 or more runs (batting first).

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• Gymnast Dipa Karmakar was honoured by 'Barbie' in celebration of their 60th anniversary and was presented a doll modelled after her.


• "Barbie has always shown girls that they can be anything!! On the occasion of her 60th anniversary, Karmakar tweeted that I am honoured to be selected as a Barbie Role Model to help inspire the next generation of girls!".

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• A bilingual correspondent with the BBC at its Delhi bureau, Priyanka Dubey won the Chameli Devi Jain Award 2018 as outstanding women journalist.


• She was chosen for her multi-faceted, interrogative and investigative reports. She helped to uncover the reality underlying in the social and political issues.


• Chameli Devi Jain Award has been awarded to women journalist for upholding standards of excellence through a sustained body of work for the past 37 years. The award was presented at a function in Delhi.


• She was a freedom fighter. This award is the countries longest running media award for women.


• The jury comprised Vandita Mishra, National Opinion Editor in Indian Express, Bharat Bhushan, former editor in NewsX and Sheela Bhatt, National editor of NewsX.

Source: Cick Here

• Economist Mohammed Shtayyeh, a member of the West Bank's dominant Fatah party, was named Palestinian prime minister on [latex]10^{th}[/latex] March in what the rival Hamas group that runs Gaza called a blow to unity efforts.


• The appointment was announced six weeks after Rami al-Hamdallah tendered his resignation from the post and the resignation of his unity government to President Mahmoud Abbas, underscoring the failure of Hamas and Fatah to implement a power-sharing deal.

Source: Cick Here

• Subhash Chandra Garg, the Economic Affairs Secretary was appointed as the Finance Secretary by the Personnel Ministry.


• His appointment was approved the by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet which is led by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi.


• He is an IAS officer from the 1983 batch and belongs to the Rajasthan cadre.


• He has succeeded Ajay Narayan Jha, the former Finance Secretary who retired on February 28, 2019 and is a member of the 15th Finance Commission.

Source: Cick Here

• China lifted its broadband communication system by launching a Long March – 3B carrier rocket with ‘ChinaSat 6C’ into a geostationary orbit in Sichuan province.


• The ‘ChinaSat 6C’ was launched from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province. It is a 19 story tall rocket which is expected to provide high quality radio and television transmission services.


• It marked 300th launch of the Long March carrier rocket series which was developed by the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation and will be operated by China Satellite Communications Co. Ltd.


• The satellite will cover China, Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific Island Countries. Nearly 97% of China’s total launch missions was on Long March rocket series.


• China has built 17 types of Long March rocket with five of them being retired. The first carrier rocket A Long March-1 with first satellite Dong fanghong 1 launched by China in 1970.

A. Narendra Modi B. Ram Nath Kovind C. Arun Jaitley D. Dr Harsh Vardhan Answer: B

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