• On [latex]21^{st}[/latex] March, World Forestry Day or International Day of Forests is celebrated every year to raise public awareness about the values, significance and contributions of the forests to balance life cycle on the earth.


• In 1971, the World Forestry Day was established at the 23rd General Assembly of European Confederation of Agriculture.

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• World Down Syndrome Day is observed every year on [latex]21^{st}[/latex] March. Down syndrome is a naturally occurring chromosomal arrangement in human which results in variable effects on learning styles, physical characteristics or health.


• The General Assembly has declared [latex]21^{st}[/latex] March in December 2011 as World Sown Syndrome Day.

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• On [latex]21^{st}[/latex] March, World Poetry Day is celebrated every year to recognise the unique ability of poetry to capture the creative spirit of the human mind.


• To celebrate this day on [latex]21^{st}[/latex] March was adopted during UNESCO's 30th session in Paris in 1999.

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• Britain has asked EU leaders to delay Brexit until [latex]30^{th}[/latex] June, Prime Minister Theresa May told parliament, on eve of an EU summit in Brussels.


• May said she had written to EU President Donald Tusk "informing him that the UK seeks an extension to the Article 50 period to [latex]30^{th}[/latex] June".

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• New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that military-style semi-automatics and assault rifles will be banned under stronger new gun laws following the killing of 50 people in the country`s worst mass shooting.


• Ardern said she expects the new law to be in place by April 11 and buy-back scheme will be established for banned weapons.

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• The world`s biggest plane maker Boeing faced growing obstacles to returning its grounded 737 MAX fleet to the skies, while chilling details emerged of an Indonesian crash with similarities to the Ethiopian disaster.


• Experts suspect an automated system, meant to stop stalling by dipping the nose, may be involved in both cases, with pilots unable to override it as their jets plunged downwards.

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• Kazakhstan has renamed its capital as Nursultan from its previous name Astana in order to recognize its outgoing leader Nursultan Nazarbayev(78), who has served nearly 30 years as president of Kazakhstan.


• The name was changed after Kassym-Jomart Tokayev sworn in as president of Kazakhstan.The new president will serve till April 2020.

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• Indian-origin Jagmeet Singh has created history in Canada by entering the House of Commons as the first non-white leader of a major opposition party in the country.


• The 40-year-old was elected as the leader of the New Democratic Party in the federal by-elections, which were held on February 25.


• The arrival of the leader, wearing a turban, into the house was cheered by all the members.


• His induction into the house, coincided with the induction of a senior woman member into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's cabinet.


• Singh's first words as an elected lawmaker were about last week's terrorist attack on two mosques in New Zealand.

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• The Union Ministry of Steel had organised a two-day vigilance conclave in New Delhi.


• The Conclave was aimed at sensitising the officials of Steel PSUs on the basic principles and procedures to be followed while taking important administrative and commercial decisions relating to various functions including procurements, contracts, personnel and finance.


• In the 2-day conclave, basic issues concerning vigilance, adherence to rules and regulations relating to public procurements, transparency in tendering processes, e-procurement, GeM, GFR, e-auction, ethics in governance, complaint handling system and other matters of importance were deliberated upon.


• The conclave saw participation from around 100 senior officials of the PSUs of the Steel Ministry, namely SAIL, RINL, NMDC, MECON, KIOCL, MOIL, MSTC, FSNL, Bird Group of Companies and OMDC.

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• Defence Ministry cleared a major project for the Indian Army for the acquisition of 10 lakh ‘Made in India’ multi-mode hand grenades. The new hand grenades will replace the existing inventory, HE-36 grenades manufactured by the Ordnance Factory Board. The multi-mode grenades have been developed by the DRDO.


• The project worth more than Rs 500 crore proposal was critical as the government has already taken care of the main personal weapon requirements of the Army soldiers by signing two contracts for modern rifles.

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• Google has unveiled its Cloud gaming service called Stadia at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco. Google CEO Sundar Pichai introduced the Stadia service during a special keynote at the GDC.


• The platform is essentially a Cloud-based infrastructure where game developers would be able to design and write games to run directly on the Internet giant’s hardware at data centres.

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• The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to prepare a noise pollution map and identify hotspots and categorise the cities with specified hotspots.


• CPCB is also expected to submit the remedial action plan to solve the issue across the country. Noting the establishment of the noise monitoring mechanism in seven cities, NGT asked CPCB to consider setting up of such mechanisms in all cities where noise pollution is beyond permissible limits.


• Further, the police departments of all the States and Union Territories are asked to obtain the noise monitoring devices within a period of three months and specification of such devices may be finalized in consultation with the respective state PCBs and pollution control committees.


• NGT noted that the absence of implementation of noise pollution norms affects the health of citizens, especially infants and senior citizens.

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• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has turned down IDBI Bank's proposal to change its name following the transfer of controlling 51 per cent stake to insurance behemoth LIC from the government of India.


• The board of IDBI Bank had last month sought RBI's approval for change in the name of the lender to either LIC IDBI Bank or LIC Bank following the takeover by Life Insurance Corporation (LIC).

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• The All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) has demanded the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to reconsider its decision to categorise IDBI Bank as a private entity.


• In a letter to the RBI, AIBEA's General Secretary C.H. Venkatachalam conveyed the union's opposition to RBI's decision.

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• The BCCI has turned down the request from official IPL broadcasters Star India to allow political advertisements during the IPL, which begins on [latex]23^{rd}[/latex] March.


• The board said it would continue its policy and not allow political and religious advertisements during a bilateral, international or domestic tournament held under its banner. This year's IPL clashes with the Lok Sabha polls.

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• Finland topped the ranking of the world`s happiest countries for the second year in a row, with the Nordic countries taking the leading spots.


• South Sudan came last in the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network`s 2019 World Happiness Report.

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• University of Texas professor Karen Uhlenbeck has become the first woman to win the Abel Prize, a mathematics honour first given in 2003. The 76-year-old was awarded for the impact of her work on "analysis, geometry and mathematical physics".


• Modelled after the Nobel Prize, the Abel Prize is presented by the King of Norway and carries a $700,000 cash award.

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• Prominent Indian-American lawyer Neomi Jehangir Rao (45) has been sworn in as US Circuit Judge for the powerful District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals, replacing the controversial Justice Brett Kavanaugh.


• Joined by her husband Alan Lefkowitz, Rao was sworn in by US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. She took the oath on a Bible.

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• 38-year-old transgender activist ShreeGauri Sawant from Mumbai has been appointed as first transgender election ambassador by The Election Commission of India.


• There was no separate classification of transgenders as voters till 2014 but after that transgenders were first enrolled as voters along with males and females.

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• The US based researchers from NASA, Los Alamos National Laboratory and US army disclosed a new ideology that mercury is closer to earth than Venus.


• As per the research every other planet when compared to mercury is farther including Venus based on average distance. It also included mercury is the closest planet to every other planet in the solar system when considering the average.


• To calculate distance between planetary bodies involves their relative distance from the sun which is measured in Astronomical Unit (AU) as per the current methodology. The study says mercury is at 0.387 AU from earth while Venus is at 0.722 AU.

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• Former Supreme Court judge Mr.Satya Brata Singh died at the age of 75 in New Delhi. His native was Dhanbad,Jharkhand.


• He was serving as Supreme Court judge from [latex]3^{rd}[/latex] October, 2002 until [latex]8^{th}[/latex] August, 2009.