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• International Women's Day is observed globally every year on [latex]8^{th}[/latex] March to celebrate about the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. Also, it is an action for accelerating gender parity.


• Purple is the colour which symbolise women internationally. The combination of purple, green and white colour is to symbolise the equality of women's which is originated from the Women's Social and Political Union in the UK in 1908. Purple signifies justice and dignity, green symbolises hope and white purity.

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• US President Donald Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort was sentenced to 47 months in prison for tax crimes and bank fraud.


• It was the stiffest sentence yet given to an associate of the president in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling but significantly lighter than many expected for the 69-year-old political consultant.

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• The US has asked Pakistan to take "sustained and irreversible" actions against terrorist groups operating from its territory.


• The state department statement came as Pakistan, under global pressure after the Pulwama terror attack and India's air strikes against a JeM terrorist camp in Balakot on [latex]26^{th}[/latex] February, has started taking actions against some of the terrorist outfits and their leaders over the past few days.


• In Islamabad, the interior ministry announced that a total of 121 members of the proscribed groups have so far been taken into "preventive detention" across Pakistan.

• United States has decided to withdraw duty benefits on annual exports worth $5.6 billion from India under the so-called Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) by May.


• The US move could also harden New Delhi’s resolve to slap proposed retaliatory tariff worth $235 million against the Trump administration’s extra 25% levy on steel supplies.

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• The Venezuelan government has announced to expel German ambassador Daniel Kriener from the country.


• President Nicolas Maduro’s embattled government has declared the German ambassador personal non grata and ordered him to leave the country within 48 hours.

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• The Supreme Court will pass its order today on the more than 70-year-old litigation over Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid disputed land in Ayodhya should be referred for a mediated settlement.


• Mediated settlement would be the preferred solution to the vexed issue, adding that it was not merely a litigation over a piece of land but a matter relating to hearts, minds and faith of a large swathe of the population.


• In response to the SC’s proposition to the parties to suggest names of mediators, the Muslim parties and Nirmohi Akhara had separately submitted names. But the Hindu parties stuck to their stand that they were opposed to mediation and did not offer any names.

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• Union Cabinet approved the proposal for promulgation of the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Teachers’ Cadre) Ordinance, 2019.


• The Ordinance will ensure that the Constitutional provisions of reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and the socially and educationally backward classes in the faculty recruitment will be protected.


• This will ensure that the process of recruitment of faculty is resumed and the vacancies are filled up.


• The decision will allow filling up of more than five thousand vacancies by direct recruitment in Teachers cadre.

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• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the construction of a 3rd railway line between Narayangarh in West Bengal and Bhadrak in Odisha of 155 kilometres length.


• The total estimated cost of this project is over Rs 1866 crore and will be completed by 2023-24.


• This will also help in generating direct employment for about 37 lakh man-days.

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• Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated National Highways projects worth Rs 1,10,154 crore in Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh.


• He inaugurated foundation stone for several works under Namami Gange programme worth over Rs 1969.57 crore.


• The National Highways include four-laning of Lucknow-Sultanpur section on NH-56, four-laning of Kursi Road–Ayodhya Road section of Lucknow ring road, four-laning of Ghaghra Bridge to Budhanpur section on NH-233, widening of Sonoli-Gorakhpur section on NH-29E, widening of Barabanki-Jarwal Road Junction on NH-28C, etc.


• The foundation stone for construction of Lucknow-Kanpur Expressway was also laid.


• Several projects under Namami Gange programme were launched including laying of sewerage network of 214.88 km in Prayagraj at a cost of Rs 260.86 crore, laying of sewerage network of 69 km including 2 STPs of 9MLD capacity in Garh Mukteshwar, etc.

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• Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has laid the foundation stone for the Dehradun-Mussoorie ropeway project which is considered to be a tourist novelty. The Rs 300-crore ropeway project is expected to be completed in three years.


• Poma, a French company which manufactures cable-driven projects, will provide the technical support to the ropeway which will be built on the PPP mode.

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• National space agency ISRO and its French counterpart CNES signed an agreement to set up a joint maritime surveillance system in the country.


• The two nations will explore putting up a constellation of low-Earth orbiting satellites that will identify and track movement of ships globally and in the Indian Ocean region where France has its Reunion Islands.


• They will initially share data from their present space systems and develop new algorithms to analyse them.


• The agreement comes a year after the two governments initiated broad collaboration plan during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit in March 2018.


• The two agencies have put up two climate and ocean weather monitoring satellites Megha-Tropiques (of 2011) and SARAL-AltiKa (2013) that are considered as models.

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• Korea Exim Bank has come forward to extend a Rs 4,100 crore loan for Visakhapatnam Metro Rail project.


• A team of officials from Korea Exim Bank called on Andhra Pradesh Chief Secretary A.C. Punetha in Amaravati and discussed the loan proposal and related issues.

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• The Centre has announced a new Rs 20 coin which will come in 12-edged polygon (dodecagon) shape. The government is also planning to release new coins of Re 1, Rs 2, Rs 5 and Rs 10. However, the govt has not announced the exact date for the issuance of these new series coins.


• The Finance Ministry stated that the new Rs 20 coin will be made in copper, zinc and nickel. It will be 27mm (millimeters) and weigh 8.54 grams.


• The Lion Capitol symbol of Ashoka Pillar with the legend “Satyamev Jayate” below it will be inscribed on its front side. The words “Bharat” in Hindi and “INDIA” in English will be there on the right and left-hand side of the symbol respectively.

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• The National Green Tribunal has slapped a fine of Rs 500 crore on German auto major Volkswagen for damaging the environment through the use of “cheat device” in its diesel cars in India. A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel directed the carmaker to deposit the amount within two months.


• The tribunal enhanced the compensation amount of Rs. 171.34 crore, which was recommended by an NGT- appointed committee, as a means of “creating deterrence”.

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• The International Cricket Council (ICC) has banned former Zimbabwe Cricket director Enock Ikope for a period of 10 years for the offence of breaching 3 ICC’s anti-corruption codes.
  
• In 2018, he had been suspended after being charged under ICC’s Article 2.4.6 and Article 2.4.7. These articles constitute offences like refusal in cooperation and delaying the investigation being conducted by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU).


• He is the second person from the Harare Metropolitan Cricket Association to be punished by the ICC, the first being Rajan Nayer who was banned from cricket for 20 years for his involvement in match fixing.

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• Kudo International Federation India (KIFI) has been provisionally recognised as National Sport Federation by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. The recognition shall be granted if it complies with the provisions of National Sports Development Code of India, 2011 and displays information on the website according to the ministerial guidelines.


• The recognition would provide a major chance to KIFI Association for promoting and developing Kudo in India. The sport is placed in the ‘Others’ category.

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• Reliance Industries Chairman, Mukesh Ambani, jumped six positions to rank 13th on Forbes World’s Billionaires list with USD 50 billion wealth and leads 106 billionaires from India on the list where Wipro Chairman Azim Premji ranked 36th with USD 22.6 billion wealth.


• Last year, he was ranked 19th with USD 40.1 billion.


• The list was topped by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and family with USD 131 billion wealth followed by Bill Gates (USD 96.5 bn) in the 2nd place and Warren Buffet (USD 82.5 bn) on the 3rd.

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• The Ministry of Personnel has notified the appointment of Ajit Kumar Mohanty as Director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre for the period of three years. Currently, he is the Director, Physics Group in BARC and Director, Saha Institute Institute of Nuclear Physics.


• The Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) is India’s premier nuclear research facility headquartered in Trombay, Mumbai, Maharashtra.

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• 65-year-old, Justice Arjan Kumar Sikri, the second senior-most judge of the Supreme Court, has retired.


• His career began in 1977 when he enrolled as an advocate and was appointed as a judge of the Delhi High Court on July 7, 1999.


• He became Acting Chief Justice of the High Court on October 10, 2011 and was elevated as Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on September 23, 2012, before beginning his tenure in the Supreme Court.


• He is a serving member of the Academic Council of National Judicial Academy, the Committee on Restatement of Law, International Law Association (India Branch), Governing Council of Bangalore Law University and the Directorate of Legal Studies and Law Reforms Committee.

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• Google India has unveiled an app- Bolo which focuses on improving the reading and comprehension skills of students, especially the ones in rural areas.


• The Beta version of the app was launched after a pilot project with support from ASER centre was conducted in around 200 villages of Uttar Pradesh with a sample size of almost 900 students.


• Bolo has an in-built reading companion called ‘Diya’ whose primary task is to encourage, aid, explain and correct the users as they read aloud.


• It has been launched on the Google Play Store in India and has compatibility with all Android smartphones running on Android 4.4 (Kit Kat) and higher.

Source: Cick Here

• Jerry Merryman, one of three people at Texas Instruments (TI) credited with inventing the world’s first handheld electronic calculator in 1960s, died at the age of 86 years at Dallas, Texas.


• He helped to develop the calculator while he was working at TI alongside James Van Tassel and his boss Jack Kilby, the co-creator of the first integrated circuit and Nobel Prize winner.


• The team filed a patent for the finished prototype in 1967 for the battery-powered product known as “Cal-Tech” which could fit in the palm of the hand and was capable of addition, multiplication, subtraction and division.

Source: Cick Here

• Binapani Devi, popularly known as Boro Maa, died at the age of 100 years, due to age-related ailments at the SSKM Hospital, Kolkata, West Bengal.


• She headed the Matuas sect, a religious refugee community from Bangladesh and was the widow of Pramath Ranjan Thakur, great-grandson of Harichand Thakur who was the founder of Matua Mahasangha.


• Nearly 65-67% voters in Bongaon Lok Sabha seat belong to the Matua community and the sect holds sway with political parties ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

A. 7th March B. 8th March C. 9th March D. 10th March Answer: B

A. Indian Army B. Indian Air Force C. Indian Martyrs D. Police Officers Answer: C

A. e-Dharti B. Proper-T C. Urban-U D. Conversion Answer: A

A. Prayagraj B. Faizabad C. Varanasi D. Lucknow Answer: B

A. Russia B. Israel C. Myanmar D. Saudi Arabia Answer: D

A. Egypt B. Kazakhstan C. Saudi Arabia D. UAE Answer: C

A. Germany B. Japan C. UK D. Austria Answer: C

A. Mizoram B. Assam C. Meghalaya D. West Bengal Answer: A

A. Khaleel Ahmed B. Rohit Sharma C. Jasprit Bumrah D. Shikhar Dhawan Answer: D

A. Karnataka B. Kerala C. Tamil Nadu D. Odisha Answer: B

A. Uttar Pradesh B. Odisha C. Telangana D. Andhra Pradesh Answer: A

A. Kanpur B. Jodhpur C. Satna D. Bhopal Answer: B

A. Lucknow B. Bhopal C. New Delhi D. Jabalpur Answer: C

A. UP B. MP C. Haryana D. Odisha Answer: B

A. 98.54% B. 90.52 % C. 96.5 % D. 95.2 % Answer: C

A. Japan B. Russia C. USA D. France Answer: D

A. $85 million B. $96 millon C. $91 million D. $88 million Answer: B

A. Rs 3600 cr B. Rs 3500 cr C. Rs 4100 cr D. Rs 4000 cr Answer: C

A. Mangalore B. Chennai C. Lucknow D. Bangalore Answer: B

A. Telangana B. Andhra Pradesh C. Uttar Pradesh D. Odisha Answer: B

A. Vachan B. Diya C. Shaurya D. Bolo Answer: D

A. Rajasthan B. Andhra Pradesh C. Chattisgarh D. disha Answer: C

A. March 10 B. March 5 C. March 7 D. March 8 Answer: C

A. Surya B. Chetan Bhagat C. Amitav Ghosh D. Kamlesh Patel Answer: D

A. Shiv Nadar B. Mukesh Ambani C. Jeff Bezos D. Bill Gates Answer: C

A. Leander Paes B. Alexander Zverev C. Rafael Nadal D. Nick Kyrgios Answer: D

A. Ajit Kumar B. Alok Sinha C. Sanjeev Ranjan D. NN Sinha Answer: C

A. Ajit Kumar Mohanty B. Brajendra Tripathi C. Mukesh Lakhera D. Ramesh Singh Tyagi Answer: A

A. Belarus B. Afghanistan C. Estonia D. Sri Lanka Answer: C

A. Binapani Devi B. Rani Raikwar C. Rekha Shikhar D. Ranjana Goswami Answer: A