4th March Daily Updates

1. Spectrum auction begins; govt eyes over Rs. 80,000 crore revenue

i. The much awaited spectrum auction, wherein 8 companies are bidding to acquire airwaves in four bands started. 

ii. The auction is the biggest ever sale of 2G and 3G airwaves which may fetch the government over Rs. 82,000 crore.

iii. A total of 380.75 MHz of spectrum in three bands — the premium 900 MHz band, 1,800 MHz and 800 MHz — is put on sale besides 5 MHz in the 2,100 MHz band across 17 out of 22 telecom areas in the country.

2.World’s largest and tallest Indian flag unfurled in Faridabad

i. World’s largest and tallest Indian national flag was unfurled at Town Park in Faridabad, Haryana. The flag was unfurled by BJP president Amit Shah, Haryana CM ML Khattar and Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor.

ii. The flag has dimension of 96 feet by 64 feet and weighs 48 kilograms. Flag was hoisted at the height of 250 feet (75 meters). Thus, making it the world’s largest and the highest hoisted Indian flag in the world.

iii. Another such flag is located at the Central Park in Connaught Place, New Delhi. This flag is 60 feet in width and 90 feet in length and is hoisted at the height of 207 feet.

3. World Wildlife Day observed globally

i. The World Wildlife Day was observed on 3 March 2015. The 2015 theme of the day is Wildlife crime is serious, let’s get serious about wildlife crime.

ii. The day is celebrated as an opportunity to celebrate the varied forms of wild fauna and flora and to raise awareness of the multitude of benefits that conservation provides to people.

iii. The day also reminds us of the urgent need to step up the fight against wildlife crime, which has wide-ranging economic, environmental and social impacts. 

4. Rani Mukerji awarded by National Institute of Gender Justice for representing the cause of women

i. Bollywood actress Rani Mukerji was on 3 March 2015 awarded with the National Award for the Best Representation of the Cause of Safety, Security and Protection of Women and Girl Child by National Institute of Gender Justice (NIGJ).

ii. Rani is the first ever film personality to be felicitated with this prestigious award. She was awarded for creating awareness about child trafficking in New Delhi. 

iii.  Rani was honoured not only for her incredible work in cinema but also for the kind of work she has been doing to create awareness about child trafficking. 

5. Indian-American physician Rahul Jindal selected for Fulbright Nehru Distinguished Chair

i. Indian-American physician Rahul Jindal was on 3 March 2015 selected for the prestigious Fulbright-Nehru Distinguished Chair.

ii. The Ahmedabad-based HL Trivedi Institute of Transplantation Sciences will host Rahul Jindal for the duration of the chair. The Institute performs about 400 kidney transplants in a year and has developed innovative transplant tolerance models.

iii. Rahul Jindal is a Professor of Surgery and Global Health at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. Jindal was also presented with a prestigious immigrant award of the US government in 2013, in recognition of his outstanding achievements.

6. President gives assent to Maharashtra Animal Preservation Amendment Bill, 1995

i. President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to the Maharashtra Animal Preservation (Amendment) Bill, 1995. It received assent nearly after 19 years it was passed by State Assembly in 1995.

ii. This bill amends Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act 1976 and bans slaughter of bulls and bullocks in the state. As per the provisions of new Act, anyone found to be selling beef or in possession of it can be jailed for 5 years and fined Rs 10,000.

iii.  However, this Act allows slaughter of water buffaloes, which provides carabeef that is generally considered as an inferior quality meat.

7. FICCI ropes in Arvind Virmani as economic mentor. He will now mentor Ficci’s public policy & economic work. Arvind Virmani, served as the country’s Chief Economic Advisor and Principal Advisor in the Planning Commission. Virmani’s association as Economic Mentor to Ficci will spur the growth agenda for the Indian economy.

8. Online Taxi-service aggregator Olacabs acquired Bengaluru-based rival TaxiForSure in a cash and equity deal worth 200 million US dollars. This is the first major acquisition in the taxi-aggregator space in India.

9. Hifikepunye Pohamba, outgoing Namibian President won the Mo Ibrahim prize for achievement in African leadership for year 2014. Established in 2007, the Ibrahim Prize recognises and celebrates excellence in African leadership.

10. Country’s third largest software services firm Wipro has partnered with the World Economic Forum (WEF) to develop a cyber value-at-risk (VAR) framework. This will allow organisations to assess threat landscape, the nature of assets needed protection and quality of defences. As per the Forum’s estimates, the resultant new cyber regulations and restrictive policies could hurt innovation by about $3 trillion by 2020.

11. Zakir Naik, president of the Islamic Research Foundation in India, was one of five recipients of the King Faisal International Prize for 2015 from Saudi Arabia’s King Salman. Indian Islamic scholar and comparative religion expert Dr. Zakir Naik was honoured for being one of the most renowned non-Arabic speaking promoters of Islam. It is one of the most prestigious awards of Saudi Arabia.

12. Spanish tennis ace, Rafael Nadal won the Argentina Open title of Tennis. In the summit clash, Nadal defeated Juan Monaco of Argentina in straight sets 6-4, 6-1 in Buenos Aires. This was the 65th career title for Nadal. It is Nadal's first title in 2015.

13. The government appointed former Panchajanya editor Baldev Sharma as the new chairman of the National Book Trust, cutting short the term of incumbent A. Sethumadhavan — better known by his pen name `Sethu’ — by six months.

14. Government has given additional charge of Managing Director and CEO of Bank of Baroda to Ranjan Dhawan, the senior most executive director at the bank. Dhawan has been entrusted the additional charge for a period of three months.