General Knowledge(GK) (or) General Awareness

Correct Answer :   NASA

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NASA announced on Wednesday (8th March 2023) that it is partnering with the Italian Space Agency ASI (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana) to build and launch MAIA, or the Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols missions.

The joint mission between the two national space agencies will investigate the health impacts of air pollution in the world’s most populated cities.

It is the first mission of the agency whose primary goal is to benefit societal health and will launch before the end of 2024.

It will consist of the PLATiNO-2 satellite (provided by ASI), and a science instrument (NASA)...

Source : Indian Express

Correct Answer :   Ujjivan Small Finance Bank

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Ujjivan Small Finance Bank is pleased to announce the launch of the ‘Unpause Initiative’, a programme designed to assist women who have taken a career break for any reason and are now ready to return to the workforce.

The initiative is part of our commitment to promoting workplace diversity and inclusion. The bank’s employees participated in a 3-kilometer walk from its registered headquarters in Koramangala, Bengaluru to support an initiative aimed at empowering women and providing them with the tools they need to move forward to the next phase of their lives.

As part of the ‘Unpause Initiative,’ Ujjivan SFB has also announced a special Hiring Drive and Employee referral programme for women who are resuming their careers.

The hiring programme will be implemented across the bank, and women from all walks of life and diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

Carol Furtado, Chief Business Officer of Ujjivan SFB, stated regarding the initiative, We believe that diversity and inclusion are essential to building a strong and sustainable organisation.

We acknowledge that women who have taken a career break often face various obstacles when re-entering the workforce. This initiative aims to provide women with the resources and support they need to succeed, to enable them to enrich themselves and contribute to the community at large...

Source : The Print

Correct Answer :   Yes Bank

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Yes Bank said it has partnered with Aadhar Housing Finance Ltd to offer home loans at competitive interest rates to customers from lower and middle-income groups.

* With this partnership, both entities aim to provide, convenient home finance solutions such as home loan for salaried employees, loan for plot purchase and construction, home improvement loan, loan against residential commercial property, balance transfer and top up, among others, to customers from lower and middle-income groups.

* Home loan penetration in India is relatively lower as compared to the most developed economies of the world. This offers an opportunity for lenders to bridge this gap with their product offerings.

* We are happy to partner with Aadhar Housing Finance, to bring forth a slew of affordable home finance solutions that will largely benefit individuals from lower-and middle-income groups by helping them fulfill their dream of building their own home.

* Given our vast network of banking relationships, we aim to cater to the financial requirements of customers across a wide socio-economic spectrum, in line with the Government’s vision of encouraging inclusive growth within the country," Lavesh Sardana, country head - retail assets, Yes Bank said.

* This partnership is in accordance with the co-lending framework of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that enables banks and non-banking companies to jointly bring forth financial solutions that cater to the requirements of the unserved and underserved sections of the society.

* “Yes BANK’s wide reach and trust in the market, coupled by our own network and digital, state-of-the-art IT infrastructure, improved control, underwriting functions, and increasing customer reach and distribution capability, will help provide efficient and economical home loan solutions to a wide gamut of customers across geographies, socio-economic groups and yield spectrum, to enable optimum growth," Rishi Anand, CEO and MD, Aadhar Housing Finance...

Source : Mint

Correct Answer :   Bank of Baroda

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The Bank of Baroda board has approved up to 49 per cent divestment in subsidiary BoB Financial Solutions, the company said in a regulatory filing on Thursday (9th March 2023).

"We advise that the Board of Directors of Bank of Baroda (BOB) have approved for divestment up to 49 per cent of Bank's shareholding in its 100 per cent owned subsidiary i.e. BOB Financial Solutions Ltd. (BFSL), and issuance of an advertisement inviting Expressions of Interest, from Suitable Investors/Strategic Partners to acquire shareholding of BOB in BFSL," the filing said.

BOB currently holds 100 per cent of the total equity share capital of BFSL.

"The details about the process of transaction and other relevant details will be published on March 10, 2023 for inviting EOI from the Suitable Investors/Strategic Partners," the filing Added...

Source : Economic Times

Correct Answer :   Axis Bank

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The third largest private sector lender in India, Axis Bank on Thursday (9th March 2023) joined hands with FMCG giant ITC to offer lending products and services to farmers who are a part of ITC's agriculture eco-system.

The partnership is expected to enable Axis Bank in reaching out to the unserved and under-served farmers based across rural regions.

Axis Bank will offer a host of credit facilities for rural lending products like Farmer Funding loans & Gold Loans with easy access.

Under the tie-up, the bank will leverage ITCMAARS (Meta Market for Advanced Agricultural Rural Services), a full-stack Agri-tech application for reaching out to the farmers and addressing their financial requirements.

Axis Bank will offer an extensive range of products and services to the farmers through its rural-urban and semi-urban (RUSU) branches located across 656 districts of India.

On this development, Munish Sharda - Group Executive & Head - Bharat Banking, Axis Bank said, "This partnership is in alignment with our Bank’s Bharat Banking mission of extending our reach in the remote regions and providing them with seamless customer experience. With the help of ITCMAARS strong and enduring relationship with over millions of farmers, we believe that we can make a significant contribution in uplifting financial situation of the community thereby unlocking the true potential of Bharat...’’

While Rajnikant Rai, Divisional Chief Executive, Agri Business Division, ITC Ltd said, “ITC has over the years spearheaded multi-dimensional interventions to transform the lives of farmers, powered by the ITC e-Choupal eco-system that connects with over 4 million farmers.

Taking a step forward, to bring the power of digital revolution to farmers, we have now implemented ITCMAARS a phygital eco-system that provides a range of solutions through Hyperlocal and personalised advisory, Agri- Inputs, Financial services, and Market linkages."..

Source : Mint

Correct Answer :   Indian Navy

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Indian Navy’s major Operational level exercise TROPEX for the year 2023, conducted across the expanse of IOR over a duration of four months from November 2022 - March 2023, culminated this week in the Arabian Sea.

* The overall exercise construct included Coastal Defence exercise Sea Vigil and the Amphibious Exercise AMPHEX. Together, these exercises also witnessed significant participation from the Indian Army, the Indian Air Force and the Coast Guard.

* Set in the Indian Ocean including the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, the theatre of operations for the exercise extended approximately 4300 nm from North to South upto 35 deg South Latitude and 5000 nm from Persian Gulf in the West to North Australia coast in the East, spanning an area of over 21 million square nautical miles.

* TROPEX 23 witnessed participation of approximately 70 Indian Navy ships, six submarines and over 75 aircraft.

* The culmination of TROPEX 23 brings to an end an intense operational phase for the Indian Navy that commenced in Nov 2022.

* As part of the final Joint Phase, the Hon’ble Raksha Mantri spent a day at sea onboard the newly commissioned Indigenous Aircraft Carrier Vikrant on 06 Mar 23.

* He reviewed the Indian Navy’s operational preparedness and material readiness wherein the Navy demonstrated operational manoeuvers and various facets of combat operations, including deck operations of indigenous LCA and live weapon firings.

* While addressing the Fleets, he lauded the Operational preparedness of the Indian Navy and emphasised that the country looks up to the Navy to ensure that the economic lifelines and military capabilities of our adversaries are disrupted to the extent where their warfighting endeavours can no longer be sustained. 

* He also stated that he is fully reassured that Indian Navy is wholly capable of safeguarding India’s national interests in the maritime domain and will thwart the diabolical designs of any potential adversaries who seek to threaten India’s peaceful existence.

* The Hon’ble RM complimented the Indian Navy for being at the forefront of the ‘Make in India’ Initiative and leveraging the path of Aatmanirbharta to be ‘Combat Ready, Credible, Cohesive and Future Proof’...

Source : PIB

Correct Answer :   SEBI

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Capital markets regulator SEBI on Wednesday (8th Mar 2023) imposed restrictions on the placement of bids, price and volume for the companies undertaking share buyback through the stock exchange route.

* Under the restrictions, a company will not be able to purchase more than 25 per cent of the average daily trading volume (in value) of its shares in the 10 trading days preceding the day in which such purchases are made, Sebi said in a circular.

* Among others, the company will not place bids in the pre-open market, first 30 minutes and the last 30 minutes of the regular trading session and the firm's purchase order price should be within the range of 1 per cent on either side from the last traded price.

* Sebi asked companies as well as appointed brokers to ensure compliance with the provisions. The stock exchange will monitor their compliance and in case of any instance of such non-compliance will impose appropriate fines or other enforcement actions as deem fit.

* Currently, for share buyback, companies have both the options of stock exchange and tender offer...

Source : Business Standard

Correct Answer :   ISRO

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The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said it successfully carried out an "extremely challenging" controlled re-entry experiment of the decommissioned orbiting Megha-Tropiques-1 (MT-1) satellite on Tuesday.

* "The satellite re-entered the Earth's atmosphere and would have disintegrated over the Pacific Ocean", the Bengaluru-headquartered national space agency said.

* The final impact region estimated is in the deep Pacific Ocean within the expected latitude and longitude boundaries, an ISRO statement said.

* The low Earth satellite was launched on October 12, 2011, as a joint satellite venture of ISRO and the French space agency, CNES for tropical weather and climate studies.

* Since August 2022, the satellite's perigee was progressively lowered through a series of 20 manoeuvres spending about 120 kg of fuel.

* Multiple manoeuvres including the final de-boost strategy were designed after taking into consideration several constraints, including visibility of the re-entry trace over ground stations, ground impact within the targeted zone, and allowable operating conditions of subsystems, especially the maximum deliverable thrust and the maximum firing duration constraint on thrusters.

* All manoeuvre plans were screened to ensure that there would be no post manoeuvre close approaches with other space objects, especially with the crewed space stations like International Space Stations and the Chinese Space Station, ISRO said.

* The final two de-boost burns were executed at 11:02 UTC and 12:51 UTC respectively on 7th March 2023 by firing four 11 Newton thrusters on-board the satellite for about 20 minutes each, it said.

* The final perigee was estimated to be less than 80 km indicating that the satellite would enter the denser layers of the Earth's atmosphere and subsequently undergo structural disintegration. The re-entry aero-thermal flux analysis confirmed that there would be no surviving large debris fragments.

* The entire sequence of events was carried out from the Mission Operations Complex in ISTRAC (ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network), Bengaluru.

* An uninhabited area in the Pacific Ocean between 5S to 14S latitude and 119W to 100W longitude was identified as the targeted re-entry zone for MT1, weighing about 1000 kg, ISRO said earlier this week.

* About 125 kg on-board fuel remained unutilised at its end-of-mission that could pose risks for accidental break-up, an ISRO statement had noted..

Source : Business Standard

Correct Answer :   INS Visakhapatnam

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* Indian Navy on Tuesday (7th Mar 2023) successfully tested Medium Range Surface-to-Surface Air Missile (MRSAM) from INS Visakhapatnam.

* Reason : To validate the capability of the anti-tank missiles

* MRSAM was developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and produced at Bharat Dynamics Ltd.

* The DRDO has already handed over two other versions to Indian Army and Indian Air Force to augment the country’s air defense power...

Source : Times of India

Correct Answer :   Sasi Kumar Ramachandran

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Ms Sipra Das was conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award. Professional Photographer of the year Award was given to "Shri Sasi Kumar Ramachandran while Shri Arun Saha won the Amateur Photographer of the Year award.

* A total of thirteen awards were presented during the ceremony today including 6 each in the Professional and Amateur category. The theme for the Professional category was “Life and Water”, while in the Amateur category the theme was “Cultural Heritage of India”.

* Speaking on the occasion, at the very onset, Dr Murugan congratulated all the award winners and acknowledged that the winners come from diverse professional backgrounds but what binds them is their passion for photography. These awards recognize the extraordinary talent and outstanding capabilities of these photographers, he added.

Winners of the 8th National Photography Awards :

* Lifetime Achievement Award : Ms Sipra Das

* Professional Photographer of the Year Award : Shri Sasi Kumar Ramachandran

* Special Mention Awards in the Professional category

* Amateur Photographer of the Year Award : Shri Arun Saha

* Special Mention Awards in the Amateur category
Members of the Jury for 8th National Photography Awards :

* Shri Vijay Kranti, Chairman
* Shri Jagdish Yadav, Member
* Shri Ajay Aggarwal, Member
* Shri K. Madhavan Pillai, Member
* Ms. Ashima Narain, Member, and
* Shri Sanjiv Misra, Photographic Officer, Photo Division, Member Secretary..

Source : PIB