11th March 2015 - Important Current Affairs updates

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National Affairs

• Maharashtra‬ government has started a helpline to address the social, physical and psychological issues faced by adolescents.
• The helpline was inaugurated by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ wife Amruta Fadnavis. 
• Currently, the annual budget for the scheme is 5.7 crore rupees.
• The expert counsellors, one male and one female will be available between 10 am and 6 pm on the toll free number 1800 233 2688. 
• This service can be accessed from anywhere in Maharashtra.
• The Rajya Sabha has passed the Motor Vehicle (Amendment)  Bill, which will pave the way for plying of e-rickshaws on the roads of the National Capital Region. 
• The Bill was cleared by the Lok Sabha on March 3.
• India's literacy rate rose to 72.98 % in 2011. 
• Replying to supplementaries in the Lok Sabha Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani said, as per census 2011, the number of illiterates has declined to 28.27 crore in the country from 30.41 crore in 2011.

International Affairs

• The United States declared Venezuela a national security threat and ordered sanctions against seven officials from the oil-rich country in the worst bilateral diplomatic dispute since socialist President Nicolas Maduro took office in 2013.
• U.S. President : Barack Obama
• Venezuelan President : Nicolas Maduro
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has began a five-day trip to three island nations in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), marking India's bid to expand its footprint and gain more eyes across the vast, under-observed and under-policed body of water to its south.
  
• His first visit was Seychelles, there he inaugurated a Coastal Surveillance Radar Station (CSRS) which will serve as a fresh pair of eyes for India in the IOR.
• India and Seychelles have signed four agreements. Those are,
1. Cooperation in hydrography
2. Cooperation in renewable energy
3. Cooperation in infrastructure development
4. Cooperation in sale of navigation charts and electronic navigational charts
• President of Seychelles : James Alix Michel
• Modi's next stop was Mauritius.
• From Mauritius, he would travel to Sri Lanka, becoming the first Indian Prime Minister to visit the country in 28 years.
• Backed by Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress, Communist Party of India and one Independent MLAs, the Nitish Kumar government comfortably won confidence vote in the Bihar Assembly amid walk out by the Opposition BJP.

Business & Economy

• Reliance Industries Ltd is India's largest corporate with assets worth Rs 3.68 lakh crore, followed by state-owned Indian Oil Corp and mortgage lender HDFC.
• In the list of top 10 corporates in terms of assets, RIL and HDFC (Housing Development Finance Corp) were the only two firms from the private sector, data compiled by the Corporate Affairs Ministry showed.
• Indian Railways signed an MoU with Life Insurance Corporation for raising Rs 1.5 lakh crore for financing its capacity augmentation projects.
• Under the MoU, state-run insurance major LIC will commit Rs 1,50,000 crore to Railways for developing infrastructure and the investment would be made over a period of five years.
• Five public sector undertakings (PSUs) will be closed down by the government, which has included some of the best known state-run enterprises like Air India, MTNL   and Hindustan Shipyard, in the list of 65 sick PSUs, Lok Sabha was informed.

People in News

• Special CBI court summons Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as accused in a coal scam case
• Dr Singh says truth will ultimately prevail.
• Calcutta High Court orders West Bengal govt to pay 50,000 rupees as compensation to Professor Ambikesh Mahapatra who was arrested in 2012 for posting cartoons of CM Ms. Mamata Banerjee.

Sports

• World Cup
• Sri Lanka beat Scotland by 148 runs
• Kumar Sangakkara became the first player to score four successive one-day international centuries.

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