Current Affairs Recap of the Day : 07

March 2016

07-MAR-2016

Jagranjosh.com brings the Current Affairs Recap of the Day to provide the reader a tool to recap and revise the important current affairs of the day in bulleted form. It will be helpful in preparation for competitive exams like IAS/PCS, SSC, Bank, MBA and etc.

The year by which China plans to land a probe on Mars so as to coincide with 100^th year of founding of Communist Party of China – 2021
The place where National Conference of Women Legislators was held – New Delhi
The place where 17^th International Congress on Infectious Disease was held – Hyderabad
He is an Iranian billionaire who was sentenced to death for corruption by the Iran judiciary – Babak Zanjani
He will head a 17-member Indian wrestling team named for the Asian Olympic Qualification tournament, to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan from 18 March to 20 March 2016 – Olympian Yogeshwar Dutt
The economic growth rate set by China for the financial year 2016 –6.5%
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the services sector surged 85.5 percent in the first nine months of the financial year 2015-16 to reach - 4.25 billion dollars
She writes both in her mother tongue Dogri and the national language Hindi
She also writes an occasional article in Hindi for newspapers and journals.
She also has won Soviet Land Nehru Award, Hindi Academy Puraskar, U.P. Hindi Academy Pruaskar, Raja Ram Mohan Roy Puraskar, Joshua Poetry Award, and the Jammu & Kashmir Government’s Robe of Honour.

Her collection of Dogri poetry

Tawi Te Chanhaan (1976)
Pota Pota Nimbal (1987)
Tainthiyaan (1999)

Women at Work: Trends 2016 report

released by International Labour

Organization

08-MAR-2016

International Labour Organization (ILO) on 8 March 2016 released a report titledWomen at Work: Trends 2016. The Women at Work report provides the latest ILO data on women’s position in labour markets and examines the factors behind these trends and explores the policy drivers for transformative change.

The report which was released on International Women’s Day says that gender equality in the workplace remains elusive. It finds millions of women worldwide are not getting the same kind of quality, well-paying jobs as men.

New data of 178 countries present a gloomy picture of the current state of working women. The report shows the gender gap in employment, wages and social protection has changed little in 20 years.

Major Highlights of the report

• Globally, 812 million of the 865 million women who have the potential to contribute to their national economies through employment live in emerging and developing countries.

• Between 1995 and 2015, the global female labour force participation rate decreased from 52.4 to 49.6 percent. The corresponding figures for men are 79.9 and 76.1 percent, respectively. Worldwide, the chances for women to participate in the labour market remain almost 27 percentage points lower than those for men.

• In 2015, the gender gap in the employment rate amounted to 25.5 percentage points in women’s disfavour, only 0.6 percentage points less than in 1995.

• Only marginal improvements have been achieved since the Fourth World Conference on Women of Beijing in 1995, leaving large gaps to be covered in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by the United Nations in 2015.

• Women are more likely to be unemployed than men, with global unemployment rates of 5.5 percent for men and 6.2 percent for women. With the exception of Eastern Asia, Eastern Europe and Northern America, male unemployment rates are lower than female unemployment rates in all other regions of the world.

• Globally, youth unemployment remains an issue of concern. Unemployment is affecting young women more than young men in almost all regions of the world.

• Globally, the share of contributing family workers has decreased significantly among women (by 17.0 percentage points over the last 20 years) and to a lesser extent among men (by 8.1 percentage points over the same period), resulting in a decrease in the gender gap from 19.5 percentage points in 1995 to 10.6 percentage points in 2015.

• 52.1 percent of women and 51.2 percent of men in the labour market are wage and salaried workers. This in itself constitutes no guarantee of higher job quality. In fact, globally, nearly 40 percent of women in wage employment do not contribute to social protection.

• Since 1995, women’s employment in services has increased from 41.1 percent to 61.5 percent.

• Across the world, women represent less than 40 percent of total employment, but make up 57 percent of those working on a part-time basis.

• Globally, the gender wage gap is estimated to be 23 per cent; in other words, women earn 77 per cent of what men earn. If current trends prevail, it will take more than 70 years before gender wage gaps are closed completely.

• Nearly 65 per cent of people above retirement age without any regular pension are women. This means that 200 million women in old age live without any regular income from social protection (old age or survivors pension), compared to 115 million men.

Main Recommendations of the report

• An integrated policy framework is needed to promote women’s access to more and better quality jobs.

• Affirmative action policies represent an important measure that can be applied by governments, trade unions, employers’ organizations and companies to help remedy the severe underrepresentation of women and their concerns in decision-making in business and societies.

• Education, outreach and training programmes must be designed to encourage and enable girls, boys and young women and men to venture more into non-stereotypical fields of study and work.

• More determined efforts to eliminate outright discrimination and to embed the principle of equal opportunity and treatment between women and men in laws and institutions constitute a key first step.

• Further progress can be made by promoting equal remuneration for work of equal value through wage transparency, training and gender-neutral job evaluations. These measures will help significantly in identifying discriminatory pay practices and unfair pay differences.

• In addition, countries need to support adequate and inclusive minimum wages and to strengthen collective bargaining as key tools in efforts to address low pay, improve women’s wages and hence reduce gender wage gaps.

• Unpaid care work must be recognized, reduced and redistributed and harmonization achieved between work and family life.

Report with respect to India

• If female employment rates were to match male rates, the GDP of India would increase by 27 per cent.

• In India, the minimum wages for domestic workers is lower than that of the cleaning workers, who are the lowest paid. Despite the low minimum wage set for domestic workers in India and other countries that were studied, the compliance rate is less than 50 per cent in the majority of the countries.

• In India, Estonia, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Republic of Korea and Turkey, women devote more than three times as much time to unpaid care work as men do.

• India has 100 percent deficit in terms of percentage of total population not covered by national legislation related to long-term care (LTC) coverage in 2015. In the face of these LTC shortages, family members remain the main caregivers of their ageing relatives. Similarly, in India, children can be prosecuted if they fail to provide care for their parents.

• In countries with social insurance systems such as India, employers are still statutorily responsible for the full payment of providing maternity protection, when women do not qualify for contributory social security benefits.

Women at Work: Trends 2016

ILO’s Women at Work: Trends 2016 is a key contribution to these efforts and seeks to further the central goals of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. The report provides a picture of where women stand today in the world of work and how they have progressed over the past 20 years.

New species of burrowing snake

discovered in Western Ghats

08-MAR-2016

A group of Indian and British researchers discovered a new species of burrowing snake in the Western Ghats.

The snake has been named after well known herpetologist from Maharashtra, Neelam Kumar Khaire, as Melanophidium Khairei.

The research paper about it has been published in the scientific journal,Zootaxa in the first week of March 2016.

The discovery is the result of the collaborative efforts of scientists from Natural History Museum (NHM), London, National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), Bangalore, the Indian Herpetological Society (IHS), Pune, and the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).

Researchers were studying the species since 2001 and confirmed the new species.

Key facts related to Melanophidium

Khairei

• The genus Melanophidium, commonly referred to as Black shieldtail, is endemic to the Western Ghats.

• Three species of the genus were previously known.

• The new species, Melanophidium khairei is distinct from three other species.

• Melanophidium khairei is a highly iridescent burrowing snake that inhabits evergreen forests.

• It is rarely seen above ground.

• It eats earthworms and is believed to bear young as mammals.

• At present, it is known in a few locations in southern Maharashtra, Goa and northern Karnataka.

• It is a small snake. The largest known specimen is 550 mm in length.

• It is non-venomous.

Union Government re-classified

industries on four-colour scheme

based on pollution potential

08-MAR-2016

The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar on 5 March 2016 released the list of re-classified industries based on pollution levels.

The new four-colour scheme was announced as per the resolution adopted at the two-day State Environment and Forest Ministers' Conference in April 2015.

The re-classification of industries is based on the Pollution Index (PI) scores and the new categories are as follows –

Industry Category	PI Score	No. of industries covered
Red	60 and Above	60
Orange	41 to 59	83
Green	21 to 40	63
White	Up to 20	36

Salient features of the four-colour

scheme

• The purpose of the categorization is to ensure that the industry is established in a manner which is consistent with the environmental objectives.

• The new criteria will prompt industrial sectors willing to adopt cleaner technologies, ultimately resulting in generation of fewer pollutants.

• Due importance was given to relative pollution potential of the industrial sectors based on scientific criteria.

• Wherever possible, splitting of the industrial sectors was also considered based on the use of raw materials, manufacturing process adopted and in-turn pollutants expected to be generated.

• Another feature of the new categorization system lies in facilitating self-assessment by industries as the subjectivity of earlier assessment has been eliminated.

• The re-classification is a part of the efforts, policies and objective of the government to create a clean and transparent working environment in the country and promote the ease of doing business.

• While no Red category of industries shall normally be permitted in the ecologically fragile area or protected area, the White category was created to identify non-polluting industries.

Features of White category industries

• It is a newly-introduced industry category and contains 36 industrial sectors which are practically non-polluting.

• There shall be no necessity of obtaining the Consent to Operate for this category of industries and intimation to concerned SPCB / PCC shall suffice.

• Some of the industries included in the category are - biscuit trays, etc. from rolled PVC sheet (using automatic vacuum forming machines), Cotton and woolen hosiers making (dry process only without any dying/washing operation) and electric lamp (bulb) among others.

Why the re-classification?

The old system of categorization was creating problems for many industries and was not reflecting the pollution of the industries.

For example, 25 industrial sectors which were not critically polluting were also earlier categorized as Red. This was creating wrong impression to everyone.

Hence, the exercise of re-categorization of industries took place on scientific basis based on their pollution load.

Patna Pirates defeated U Mumba to

win 2016 Pro Kabaddi League title

08-MAR-2016

The Patna Pirates on 5 March 2016 defeated U Mumba 31-28 to lift their maiden Pro Kabaddi League trophy in the final played in New Delhi.

Rohit Kumar of Patna Pirates was awarded Best Raider and Mohit Chillar of U Mumba was announced the Best Defender of the Match.

U Mumba’s Rishank Devadiga finished the season as the Most Successful Raider with 106 points.

About Pro Kabaddi League

• The Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) is a professional kabaddi league in India.

• It is known as the Star Sports Pro Kabaddi for sponsorship reasons.

• The first edition of the tournament was played in 2014 with eight franchises representing various cities in India.

• Star Sports Pro Kabaddi is organized by Mashal Sports and Star India in association with the International Kabaddi Federation, Asian Kabaddi Federation and the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India.

• U Mumba was the winner of the 2015 Pro Kabaddi League.

Union Government announced to

withdraw tax proposal on Employee

Provident Fund

08-MAR-2016

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on 8 March 2016 announced to withdraw proposal to tax Employee Provident Fund (EPF) withdrawals. He announced to withdraw the proposal while clarifying NDA government’s stand on the issue in the Lok Sabha.

He further stated that government would also like to comprehensively review EPF tax proposal. However, government retained the tax proposal for National Pension Scheme (NPS) withdrawals.

What was the proposal?

The proposal was made by the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while presenting the Union Budget 2016-17 in the Lok Sabha on 29 February 2016. As per the proposal 60 percent of the amount deposited in the EPF account of the employee would be taxable at the time of withdrawal, and 40 percent would be tax free. This proposal would have become effective from 1 April 2016.

It also said that if the employee re-invested 60 percent of the EPF in an annuity or pension fund then it will not be taxed. At present, the entire amount is tax free at the time of withdrawal if the employee has completed five years of continuous service.

The proposal to tax EPF withdrawals was made with an aim of to create a pensioned society, especially among employees in the private sector who have no provision for pension.

The EPF is a retirement benefit scheme for salaried employees. Any company with over 20 employees is required by law to register with the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).

Sri Lanka Cricket Board constituted

Arvinda de Silva-led National Cricket

Selection Panel

08-MAR-2016

Sri Lankan Cricket Board (SLCB) on 8 March 2016 constituted a new National Cricket Selection Panel headed by former cricketer Arvinda de Silva. Other members of the panel are Kumar Sangakkara (retired from international cricket recently), Romesh Kaluwitharana, Lalith Kaluperuma and Ranjith Madurasinghe.

The panel will succeed the Kapila Wijegunawardena-headed selection committee which was appointed in April 2015. Wijegunawardena selection panel was sacked by Sri Lankan board ahead of the 2016 ICC World T20, which will begin with the qualifiers on 8 March 2016 in India.

They were sacked in the wake of the national team’s poor performances in the just-concluded Asia Cup in Bangladesh and the preceding bilateral series in India. In January 2016, Sri Lanka had also lost its No 1 ICC Twenty20 ranking after they lost to New Zealand.

Besides, the Board also announced that Angelo Mathews will be the captain and Dinesh Chandimal the Vice Captain of the team for the T-20 Cricket World Cup.

Renowned Malayalam actor

Kalabhavan Mani passed away

08-MAR-2016

Popular Malayalam actor and folk singer Kalabhavan Mani passed away on 6 March 2016 in Kochi. He was 45.

The winner of National Special Jury Award in 2000 for his performance in Malayalam film Vasanthiyum Lakshmiyum Pinne Njaanum, Mani died allegedly because of methyl alcohol consumption.

About Kalabhavan Mani

• Mani Raman, better known by his stage name Kalabhavan Mani, started his career as a mimicry artist with the Kalabhavan troupe.

• He starred in over 200 films, including Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu films.

• He is renowned for his comedy, character and villain roles.

• He won the National Film Award and Kerala State Film Award in 1999 for his performance as Ramu in Vasanthiyum Lakshmiyum Pinne Njaanum.

International Women's Day observed

with campaign theme

#PledgeForParity

08-MAR-2016

8 March: International Women's Day (IWD)
International Women's Day was observed across the world on 8 March 2016. This year's theme for the Day is “Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality”. The campaign theme for the day is#PledgeForParity.

United Nations observance and the idea of this theme reflect on how to accelerate the 2030 Agenda, building momentum for the effective implementation of the new Sustainable Development Goals.

The special focus is on Goal Number 5: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls; and Goal Number 4: Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning.

The theme will also focus on new commitments under UN Women’s Step It Up initiative, and other existing commitments on gender equality, women’s empowerment and women’s human rights.

Some key targets of the 2030 Agenda

• By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and Goal-4 effective learning outcomes.

• By 2030, ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and preprimary education so that they are ready for primary education.

• End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere.

• Eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation.

• Eliminate all harmful practices, such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation.

Celebrations of IWD in India

2016 International Women's Day (IWD) was observed in India by conferring the Nari Shakti Awards by President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhawan. On the other hand, the day was observed in different states of India in different ways like around 40 acid attack survivors were felicitated with the Rani Laxmi Bai award and provided financial assistance in Uttar Pradesh.

In context of Uttar Pradesh, a special eating joint ''Café Sheroes'', was inaugurated for acid attack survivors. In addition, Asha Jyoti Centres in 11 districts and 181 helpline were also launched along with the rescue vans associated with the centres.

About International Women's Day

(IWD)

The United Nations began celebrating International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March during International Women’s Year 1975. Two years later, in December 1977, the General Assembly adopted a resolution proclaiming a United Nations Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace to be observed on any day of the year by Member States, in accordance with their historical and national traditions.

Union Government launched online

marketing platform Mahila e-Haat

08-MAR-2016

Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Sanjay Gandhi on 7 March 2016 launched Mahila e-Haat portal in New Delhi.

The Mahila e-Haat portal, http://mahilaehaat-rmk.gov.in, is an online marketing platform. It will provide access to markets to thousands of women who make products and are spread all over the country.

Features of Mahila e-Haat

• It is a unique initiative since this is the first time that the government will help women to sell products online.

• Products & services: It allows women entrepreneurs to leverage technology for showcasing products made or manufactured or sold by women entrepreneurs. This facility is also available to services, like tailoring, also.

• The product, along with photograph description, cost and mobile no./address of the participants will be displayed on the e-Haat enabling direct contact between sellers/service providers and buyers.

• Participation: It is open to all Indian women citizens more than 18 years of age and women SHGs desiring for marketing their legal products/services after indemnifying RMK from any or all acts of transaction.

• Rahstriya Mahila Kosh (RMK) is primarily involved in the creation of the portal and the entire business of e-Haat can be handled through mobile phone.

• 3-Stages of women empowerment: The launch of Mahila E-Haat is the first stage towards achieving the objective of women empowerment.

• In the second stage Mahila E-Haat will be integrated with e-commerce portals to provide a larger platform for selling and buying.

• In third and final stage, it will culminate into Women’s Entrepreneurs Council which will help to expand this initiative further and give it an institutional shape.

• Benefits: It will benefit more than 10000 Self Help Groups (SHGs) and 1.25 Lakh women beneficiaries spread across the country.

• This unique e-platform will strengthen the socio-economic empowerment of women as it will mobilize and provide better avenues to them.

• It will act as a catalyst in creating a new generation of business women and help women to make financial and economic choices.

• It is an initiative for women across the country as a part of Digital India and Stand Up India initiatives.

South Korea, US began largest ever

military exercises

08-MAR-2016

The US and South Korean troops on 7 March 2016 began their largest ever military exercises off the coast of the Korean peninsula. The bilateral exercises come just days after the UN passed new sanctions against Pyongyang, North Korea following its recent nuclear test and rocket launch.

The 8-week long drill will involve about 300000 South Korean troops and 15000 US personnel. These are being conducted near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas and off the eastern coast of South Korea.

Drills will include ground, air, naval and Special Operations components apart from the computer-simulated training.

Meanwhile, North Korea has warned South Korea and US of indiscriminate and pre-emptive nuclear strikes if the two allies go further with the drills. The threat from Pyongyang follows its leader Kim Jong-Un's order last week asking country's nuclear arsenal to be placed on standby for use at any moment against the South.

Amrita Patel awarded with Mahindra

Samriddhi Krishi Shiromani Samman

08-MAR-2016

Amrita Patel, chairman of Charutar Arogya Mandal and former chairman of the National Dairy Development Board, on 3 March 2016 was conferred with the prestigious Mahindra Samriddhi Krishi Shiromani Samman (Lifetime Achievement Award) in Delhi.

Radha Mohan Singh, Union Minister of Agriculture, presented the award to Patel for her contribution that made a difference in the field of agriculture to increase productivity and rural prosperity.

Instituted in 2011, the Mahindra Samriddhi India Agri Awards are bestowed upon the farmers and institutions to recognize their noteworthy and purposeful contribution to the field of agriculture.

Other winners of the Mahindra

Samriddhi India Agri Awards (MSIAA)

2016 are:

Award	Winner
Mahindra Samriddhi Krishi Samrat Samman - Farmer of the Year Award (Male)	Land holding less than 5 acres -Mahendra Patidar
Land holding from 5 to 20 acres -Krishnpal Singh Mourya
Land holding more than 20 acres - Neelam Dutta
Mahindra Samriddhi Krishi Prerna Samman - Farmer of the Year Award (Female)	Sugan Bai Patidar
Mahindra Samriddhi Krishi Yuva Samman- Farmer of the Year Award (Youth)	P Jawahar Raja
Mahindra Samriddhi Krishi Sansthan Samman - Recognition for Public Sector organization	Indian Institute of Soil Science Bhopal
Mahindra Samriddhi Krishi Shiksha Samman - Recognition for Agricultural Universities	Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad
Mahindra Samriddhi Krishi Sahyog Samman - Recognition for NGOs / SHGs	Rajasthan Rural Institute of Development Management, Udaipur
Mahindra Samriddhi Krishi Vigyan Kendra Samman - Recognition for KVK of the year	Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kadapa

About Amrita Patel

• Amrita Patel played an important role in the implementation ofOperation Flood, the largest developmental programme in the world.

• The programme helped to promote, finance and deliver a variety of supporting services to a national cooperative dairy structure that transformed the lives of millions of marginalised and small farmers and milk producers.

• She was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2002.

Maria Sharapova provisionally

suspended after failing drug test at

Australian Open

08-MAR-2016

Former world number one Maria Sharapova on 7 March 2016 in a press-conference at Los Angeles announced that she failed a drug test at the Australian Open. Due to this failure, she was provisionally suspended from Tennis.

The International Tennis Federation said Sharapova, a five time Grand Slam champion, is provisionally suspended from 12 March 2016 pending further action. She was charged on 2 March 2016 with an Anti-Doping Rule Violation after testing positive for meldonium.

The 28-year-old Russian star tested positive for meldonium, a substance, she has been taking since 2006 for health issues. World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on 1 January 2016 included meldonium in its forbidden list.

Sharapova, who lives in Florida, provided the anti-doping sample in question on 26 January 2016, the day she lost to Serena Williams in the Australian Open quarter finals. Maria said that she received an email from WADA with the list of substances forbidden in 2016 back in December 2015, but she didn’t look at that list.

Golfer Adam Scott won 2016 WGC-

Cadillac Championship

08-MAR-2016

Australian golfer Adam Scott on 6 March 2016 won the 2016 WGC-Cadillac Championship at Doral, Florida, U.S.

Scott recovered from two double bogeys in his first five holes with six birdies the rest of the round to prevail by one stroke over United States’ Bubba Watson.

The victory was Scott's second consecutive win on the PGA Tour, having won The Honda Classic in February 2016.

About Adam Scott

• Australian professional golfer, Adam Derek Scott plays mainly on the PGA Tour.

• He was the World No. 1 ranked golfer from mid-May to August 2014.

• He has won 29 professional tournaments around the world.

• His biggest win to date was the 2013 Masters Tournament, his first major championship and the first Masters won by an Australian in its 77-year history.

About WGC-Cadillac Championship

• The WGC-Cadillac Championship is a professional golf tournament, one of the four annual World Golf Championships.

• It is sanctioned and organized by the International Federation of PGA Tours and the prize money is official money on both the PGA Tour and the European Tour.

• The 2016 WGC-Cadillac Championship was played on the TPC Blue Monster course at Trump National Doral in Doral, Florida.

• The 2016 WGC-Cadillac Championship was the 17th WGC-Cadillac Championship tournament and the first of the World Golf Championships events in 2016.