Current Affairs From 15th March to 21st March 2014 For SSC, IBPS & IAS

International

• Five Indian languages were reinstated as official subjects that will be taught in South African state schools. The five Indian languages which have been reinstated are Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati, Telugu and Urdu.

National

• India nominated Rani-ki-Vav located in Patan, Gujarat and GHNP in HP for UNESCO’s World Heritage Site Status.
• SIPRI in its data on international arms transfers claimed India as largest importer of weapon systems, which is three times more than Pakistan and China.

India & The World

• PEACE (Promoting Energy Access through Clean Energy) is a MoU between India and US to promote increase the energy access and to develop several priority activites.

Business

• IOC sold 10% of government stake for 5340 crore rupees to OIL and ONGC.
• Indian Oil Corp (IOC) on 17 March 2014 announced to set up 30000 crore rupees refinery at Mundra in Gujarat with 15 million tones capacity.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)  extended the 80:20 scheme to import gold to five private banks.

Banking

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued notice to banks to take measures to counter the threat expected to arise from discontinuation of Windows XP

Sports

• Sachin Tendulkar has voted as the Cricketer of the Generation by a 50-member by beating Shane Warne and Jacques Kallis.
• Novak Djokovic won the Indian Wells ATP Tennis Masters by defeating Roger Federer. Women’s singles was won by Flavia Pennetta.
• Karnataka won the Vijay Hazare Trophy 2013-14 at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata

Deaths

• The renowned author and journalist Khushwant Singh died on 20 March 2014 at the age of 99 in Delhi. He was mainly famous as the best storyteller.

Awards

• Tomas Halik won the Templeton Prize for 2014
• Gyan Correa bagged the 17th Gollapudi Srinivas National Award 2013 for his debut film as a director, The Good Road in Gujarati.
• Indian journalist Shubranshu Choudhary won digital activism award for regional news service.

Appointment

• GK Pillai resigned as Chairman of MCX-SX and will be succeeded by Thomas Mathew T.
• Aditi Khanna became the first women President of Indian Journalists’ Association (IJA) in London in its 67-years long history.

Others

• World Sparrow Day was observed on 20 March 2014
• International Day of Forests was observed by the United Nation on 21 March 2014.
• World Poetry Day observed on 21 March 2014