Current Affairs Assam – March 2018
( Covers all important Assam Current Affairs & GK topics for the month of March 2018 )
March 2018 – eBook Monthly PDF | March 2018 – Monthly Quiz PDF
March 5
International Yoga festival at Rishikesh
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat inaugurated the week-long 29th edition of annual International Yoga Festival (IYF) at Parmarth Niketan ashram in Rishikesh. 29th International Yoga Festival was officially inaugurated by Vice President, Venkaiah Naidu on March 3, 2018.
The International Yoga Festival has been organised by Parmarth Niketan Ashram in association with Union Ministry of AYUSH, Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board and Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam Ltd.
In addition to daily yoga classes, 200 sessions on topics such as Ashtanga yoga, Bhakti yoga, Kundalini yoga and Ganga yoga will be conducted during the course of this event.More than 80 saints, yogacharyas, presenters and experts from nearly 20 countries will take part in these sessions. Over 1500 yoga practitioners from 94 countries have gathered in Rishikesh for this week-long festival.
Brand Ambassador of gaming platform Dream11 – MS Dhoni
Mahendra Singh Dhoni was named the brand ambassador of Dream11, a gaming platform.Mahendra Singh Dhoni will be the new face of Dream11’s multi-channel marketing campaigns and brand engagement activities.
Dream11 has a user base of 2 crore players currently. Its main products are related to cricket, football, kabaddi and basketball.
Marshall Islands 1st country launch own cryptocurrency as legal tender
Marshall Islands has announced that, it will launch its own cryptocurrency and it will be circulated as legal tender along with the U.S. dollar. This cryptocurrency is named SOV. Its legal tender status has been approved by the parliament of Marshall Islands. It has been said that, the SOV will be issued to the public through an initial coin offering.
Marshall Islands has limited the SOV supply at 24 million tokens to prevent inflation.SOV will function like regular money. Marshall Islands has tied up with Neema, an Israeli financial technology startup, for issuing SOV. The launch date of SOV has not yet been decided. SOV functions on “Yakwe framework”. This system mandates users to identify themselves on the blockchain. This will eliminate the anonymity problem that affected bitcoin.
Citibank India launches home loans linked to T-Bill
Citibank will charge a spread above the 90-day Treasury bill rate based on the borrower profile. Changes will be made in the rates once in every quarter on March 1, June 1, September 1 and December 1. Citibank will take the t-bill rate on 12th of February, May, August and November from Financial Benchmarks India Pvt Ltd to fix the benchmark rate.
The T-Bill-linked home loan is based on the 3-month T-Bill rates published on the 12th of each month by Financial Benchmarks India Pvt Ltd (FBIL) Citibank has chosen 90 day treasury bills since it provides better accuracy on local rates. Also, resetting the rates every quarter, makes sure that, the rates are in line with market reality.
March 6
Barpeta Doul Mohatsav concludes
Barpeta Satra Managing Committee organized the five-day ‘Doul Mahotsav’ from 28 February to 4 March with the objective to celebrate ‘Doul Jatra’ in holi at Barpeta Satra of Barpeta district. “During the Doul Mahotsav guests throng in different places in lakhs and people of Barpeta welcome them without any compromise. There is no change in tradition since the time of Mahapurush Madhavdev except the rise of various ‘Holi Geets’. Our aim is to celebrate the Doul Mahotsav whole-heartedly,” quoted Mahananda Pathak, the former Editor of the Managing Commitee.
The festivities commenced with the ‘Banhutsuva’ where Koliathakur and Doul Govinda were taken out from Manikut to begin the famous Doul Jatra around in the evening. Attractions like firecrackers followed by Phanuch started with the seven rounds along the Meji simultaneously. Holi Geet Competition was held later in the evening after the completion of Phanuch and was inaugurated by Basistha Deb Sarma, Burasattriya of Barpeta Satra. Both male and female participated in the competition.
India’s first helicopter taxi service to be launched in Bengaluru
India’s first helicopter taxi service (heli taxi) was launched in Bengaluru .The first trip of the heli taxi was between Electronic City and Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru and was completed in 15 minutes.
This service has been launched by Kerala-based Thumby Aviation Private Limited, using a Bell 407 helicopter with a capacity of six passengers.Currently, the heli taxi will operate between Electronic City and Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru only. However, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) airport will also be added in the next few weeks.Seats can be booked online by downloading the Thumby mobile app (Heli Taxii).The fare for this route is fixed at Rs 3500 per seat plus Goods and Services Tax (GST) at 18%.
Conrad Sangma showrn as new CM of Meghalaya
Conrad Sangma took charge as Chief Minister of Meghalaya.Conrad Sangma took oath as the 12th chief minister of Meghalaya in Shillong. He is the President of National People’s Party (NPP).The oath was administered by Meghalaya Governor Ganga Prasad. 11 Cabinet Ministers also took oath during the ceremony.
In the election, National People’s Party (NPP) won 19 seats. It has support from 6 United Democratic Party (UDP) MLAs, 4 People’s Democratic Front (PDF) MLAs, 3 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLAs, 2 Hill State People’s Democratic Party (HSPDP) MLAs and an independent MLA.It has a combined strength of 34 MLAs in the Assembly against Congress party that had won 21 seats on its own.
Threat of new malware – “Saposhi”
A new malware named Saposhi has been detected, which can take over electronic devices and make them as ‘bots’ that can be exploited for any purpose. Saposhi has been detected recently by cyber security agencies. It is being monitored and studied currently.
So far, the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) has not released any alert about Saposhi. It has been said that, alerts and guidelines about protecting devices from Saposhi will be launched soon. Saposhi can take over electronic devices and can create a Distributed Denial Of Service attack.
March 2018 – eBook Monthly PDF | March 2018 – Monthly Quiz PDF