Current Affairs Update – 24 March, 2017

• The World Bank on 23 March 2017 signed a USD 100 million credit agreement with the Union Government and Uttarakhand to improve quality of healthcare services in all 13 districts of Uttarakhand.
• The agreement for the project was signed by Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary in Union Ministry of Finance; Neeraj Kharwal, Project Director for the Uttarakhand Health Systems and World Bank India Operations Manager and Acting Country Director Hisham Abdo Kahin.
• The project aims to reduce the financial risk for its citizens and make affordable and quality health care available to all. It will also strengthen the government’s ability to effectively engage with the private sector to pursue the innovations planned under this project.
• The loan will be from the International Development Association (IDA) of the World Bank with a maturity of 25 years, including a 5-year grace period.

• Bharti Airtel on 23 March 2017 acquired 4G business of Tikona Networks including the Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) business and 350 sites across 5 circles of Tikona Digital for Rs 1600 crore.
• Currently, Tikona has 20 MHz spectrum in the 2300 MHz band in Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West), Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh circles.
• With this acquisition, Airtel will be second company after Reliance Jio to have pan-India presence in 2300 Mhz band. The 2300 Mhz band has second largest ecosystem of 4G devices.
• The acquisition of the 4G business in Gujarat, UP (East), UP (West) and Himachal Pradesh will be undertaken by Airtel, while in the Rajasthan circle, it will be accomplished through Airtel's subsidiary Bharti Hexacom Limited.
• Post-acquisition, Airtel will roll-out its high speed 4G services on the newly acquired spectrum in the five circles. The combined spectrum holding of Airtel in these five circles will be within the spectrum caps prescribed by the government.
• Post the completion of the deal, Airtel will have 30 MHz in the 2300 MHz band in 13 circles.

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the Phase I of the North East Road Network Connectivity Project. The approval was given at a meeting of the CCEA chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 22 March 2017 in New Delhi.
• Under the project, 403 kilometers of National Highways (NHs) will be developed in Meghalaya and Mizoram.
• Out of 403 kilometers, approximately 52 kilometers will be in Meghalaya and 351 kilometers in Mizoram.
• The project will be executed in the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) mode.
• The projects will be taken up for implementation during the financial year 2017-18.
• The civil works are expected to be completed by 2021 and the maintenance works are expected to be completed by 2025.
• The estimated cost is Rs 6,721 crore, including cost of land acquisition, resettlement and other pre-construction activities.

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in March 2017 announced that it has sent four teams to install stakes on ice for Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) to validate the glacier surface velocity.
• The teams will mount the stakes around Indian station known as Bharati and Maitri.
• One team is from Space Application Center and the second team is from National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC). The third and fourth team belongs to IRS Dehradun and Space Physics Laboratory.
• The Union Ministry of Earth Sciences organizes the Indian Scientific Mission to Antarctica (ISEA) every year.
• Climate change is the thrust area of the 36th ISEA.

• The National Helicopter operator Pawan Hans is going to launch a new service, ‘Delhi Darshan rides’ from 1 April 2017.
• The announcement of the same was made by the operator’s Chairman and Managing Director B P Sharma during the inauguration of the nation’s first heliport in Rohini, in the north of Delhi.
• The service would include two rides, a 10 minute one and a 20 minute one.
• While the 10 minute one would cost around Rs 2499 per person, the 20 minute one would be a slightly more expensive service with the cost being around Rs 4999 per person.
• The rides would commence from the company’s state of the art integrated heliport at Rohini.
• The service would undergo a trial run between 25 and 26 March.
• It would be officially opened for regular service on 1 April.

• French Mathematician Yves Meyer was on 21 March 2017 selected for the Abel Prize 2017. The Abel Committee of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters conferred on Meyer for his pivotal role in the development of the mathematical theory of wavelets.
• Yves Meyer, born 19 July 1939 of French nationality, grew up in Tunis on the North African coast.
• After graduating, Meyer completed his military service as a teacher in a military school. He obtained his Ph.D. in 1966 from the University of Strasbourg.
• He became a professor of mathematics first at the Universite Paris-Sud, as it is now known in 1966. He retired in 2008.
• Yves Meyer has been a member of the French Academie des Sciences since 1993.
• His prizes include the Salem (1970) and Gauss (2010) prizes.

• Veteran photojournalist Raghu Rai on 22 March 2017 was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 6th National Photography Awards.
• Rai began his career in photography in 1965. He has also served on the jury of World Press Photo and Unesco’s International Photo Contest.
• He is known for his books, Raghu Rai's India- Reflections in Colour and Reflections in Black and White.
• For Greenpeace, he completed an in-depth documentary project on the chemical disaster at Bhopal in 1984.
• The subjects of his photographs include MS Subbulakshmi, Bismillah Khan, Mother Teresa, Satyajit Ray, Indira Gandhi, Raj Kapoor and Mrinal Sen.

• The Bakshi stadium in Srinagar, Jammu & Kashmir is all set to be developed into a world-class facility as per the FIFA norms. The total estimated cost of the project is expected to be around Rs 48 Cr.
• The announcement was made at a meeting convened by the Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan, to analyse the activities of Jammu and Kashmir State Sports Council. The meeting was attended by divisional sports officer, deputy director planning, district officers from sports council and other concerned officers.
• The Bakshi stadium would be developed according to the norms and regulations set by the Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the international governing body of football.
• The stadium is expected to be developed within 12 working months.
• It would be having floodlights, six entry and exit points, a modern pavilion, food court and other state-of-the-art facilities.

• Michael Lobo, a BJP legislator was elected as the Deputy speaker of the Goa Assembly on 24 March 2017.
• Lobo, who is a two-time MLA from Goa’s Calangute constituency, defeated the Congress nominee Izidore Fernandes by 21-15 during the final day of the state’s Budget session.
• While one Congress MLA Churchill Alemao refrained from voting, another Fransisco Silveira reached late to the House.
• Speaker Pramod Sawant also did not vote.
• The state has a 40 member house and one of the MLA’s resigned just days after the assembly poll results were announced.

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