National & International Appointments
1. TCS appoints K Krithivasan as CEO designate
- Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has appointed veteran K Krithivasan as MD & CEO designate with effect from March 16, 2023.
- He has replaced Rajesh Gopinathan, who resigned recently.
- Gopinathan completed his six years as CEO and was reappointed as CEO till 2027.
- He will continue with the company till September 15, 2023, and provide transition and support to K Krithivasan.
- Before this role, K Krithivasan served as President and Global Head of BFSI Business Group, TCS.
National & International Appointments
2. FSIB recommends Ashwani Kumar as MD of UCO Bank
- FSIB has recommended the executive director of Indian Bank, Ashwani Kumar as an MD of UCO Bank.
- Before Indian Bank, he worked as chief general manager of the Mumbai Zone of Punjab National Bank (PNB).
- He would succeed Soma Sankara Prasad, whose tenure will be completed on May 31, 2023.
- The final decision on the FSIB recommendation would be taken by the ACC headed by PM Narendra Modi.
- Former secretary of DoPT Bhanu Pratap Sharma headed the FSIB.
National & International Appointments
3. Anup Bagchi to head ICICI Prudential Life from June 2023
- ICICI Bank's executive director Anup Bagchi will take over as the CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance on June 19, 2023, subject to regulatory and statutory approvals.
- He will replace the present CEO, NS Kannan, who will superannuate on June 18, 2023.
- He has been working with the ICICI group since 1992 and was appointed as an executive director of ICICI Bank on February 1, 2017.
- He worked as the Non-Executive Director of ICICI Prudential Life since October 2018.
National & International Appointments
4. India’s KR Parvathy appointed as UN Resident Coordinator in Tajikistan
- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed India's Kavilmadam Ramaswami Parvathy as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Tajikistan.
- She has served in leading roles at the World Food Programme in Türkey and Afghanistan.
- She has more than 30 years of experience in the development and humanitarian sectors, focusing on strategic planning, performance, risk management, people management, conflict analysis, and humanitarian access negotiations.
Honours & Awards
5. Bengaluru receives 'healthy city' award for smoking laws
- Bengaluru won the 'Partnership for Healthy Cities' award and a cash prize of $ 150,000 for effectively enforcing smoke-free laws at a summit held in London.
- The focused effort from smoke-free Bengaluru resulted in a reduction of public-place smoking from 18.2% (2017) to 13.3% (2021).
- The display of 'no-smoking' signs in the city also increased from 23.1% (2017) to 75%.
- The global summit brought together officials from over 50 cities to discuss public health concerns.
National Affairs
6. Solar Energy capacity tripled in last 5 years from 21651 to 64380 MW
- Union Minister of Renewable Energy & Power, R. K. Singh informed in the Lok Sabha, that Solar projects of an aggregate capacity of 64,380 MW have been installed in the country (as of 28.02.2023).
- India's solar capacity has increased from 21,651 MW to 64,380 MW, an increase of 197% in the last 5 years.
- The Government has set a target of achieving 500 GW of installed capacity from non-fossil fuels (including around 270 GW of solar capacity) by 2030.
Banking & Finance
7. RBI and UAE's Central Bank sign MoU for innovation in financial services
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) signed an MoU with the Central Bank of the UAE to promote innovation in financial products and services.
- Both central banks will work together to explore Central Bank Digital Currencies.
- They will also investigate interoperability between the CBDCs of CBUAE and RBI.
- They will conduct proof-of-concept and pilot tests of the bilateral CBDC bridge to facilitate cross-border transactions of remittances and trade.
Agreement
8. Ayush Ministry, MoRD sign MoU for skilling of rural youth and women
- The Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and the Ministry of Ayush signed an MoU for the skilling of rural youth and empowering women.
- The MoU is valid for three years.
- Under this MoU, the training program shall be funded as per Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) cost norms.
- National Rural Livelihoods Mission and DDU-GKY will communicate to States/UTs for enlisting willing SHG members and rural poor youth
- DDU-GKY is the flagship program of the MoRD
Important Dates
9. National Vaccination Day 2023: 16 March
- National Vaccination Day is observed every year on March 16 to spread awareness about the importance of vaccinations for human health.
- The theme for 2023 has not been announced by the Ministry of Health.
- The day was first observed in 1995 when the Indian government started the Pulse Polio Immunisation program.
- It focuses on the relevance of vaccinations in the battle against deadly diseases and appreciates the hard work of healthcare professionals.
Important Dates
10. Falcon LLM, a rival of ChatGPT launched in Abu Dhabi
- The Technology Innovation Institute in Abu Dhabi (UAE) has launched Falcon LLM, a large language model (LLM) with 40 billion parameters.
- It was trained on one trillion tokens and built by the AI and Digital Science Research Center's AI Cross-Centre Unit.
- The model outperforms GPT-3 and requires only 75% of its training compute, as well as lower percentages of other large language models' training compute.
- LLMs have a wide range of applications, including chatbots.
Banking & Finance
11. CRISIL: India’s GDP to grow at 6% in FY24
- According to the credit rating agency CRISIL report, India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is estimated to grow at 6% in 2023-24, slower than the 7% estimated for 2022-23.
- Report Title: Rider in the Storm: Tracing India’s Growth in a Volatile World
- It was also estimated that the corporate revenue would continue to grow in double digits, buoyed by strong domestic demand.
- Retail inflation will average 5% over 2023-24, lower than the 6.8% (averaged in 2022-23).
Banking & Finance
12. Defense ministry approved to buy worth Rs 70,500-crore indigenous arms
- An apex body of the defense ministry for clearing weapons procurement, the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) met under the chairmanship of DM Rajnath Singh.
- The DAC has accorded Acceptance of Necessity (AoN) for capital acquisitions worth Rs 70,500 crore under Buy Indian-IDDM (Indigenously Designed, Developed, and Manufactured) — a new procurement category.
- It includes 307 Advanced Towed Artillery Gun Systems and 60 indigenous marine utility helicopters.
Banking & Finance
13. Digit Insurance launches three new health plans
- The Go Digit General Insurance has announced three new plans under the Digit Health Insurance policy.
- The three plans—Digit Double Wallet, Digit Infinity Wallet, and Digit Global Treatment
- Aim: To meet Indians’ newly evolved health insurance demands following the pandemic
- Under the Infinity Wallet and Worldwide Treatment plan for every claim-free year, the policyholders can earn 50% of the sum insured as a cumulative bonus of up to 100% of the SI.
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