Daily Current Affairs Update of 15 March 2015 | General Knowledge

Daily Current Affairs Update of 15 March 2015 | General Knowledge

1. India and Sri Lanka signed four agreements during Narendra Modi's visit to the country. The two sides signed four agreements on visa, customs, youth development and building Rabindranath Tagore memorial in Sri Lanka.

2. The Reserve Bank of India has entered a $1.5 billion currency swap agreement with the central bank of Sri Lanka. This will help keep the Sri Lankan rupee stable. Sri Lanka rupee has been under pressure since January 2015 and fallen around 1.5% so far this year despite the fact that the Sri Lankan central bank defended it with selling dollars.

3. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Indian Army and HDFC Bank on the Defence Salary Package. The first MoU between HDFC Bank and the Indian Army was signed in 2011 and was valid for a period of three years. The revised MoU is tailor made to suit the requirements of serving soldiers, pensioners and families. The basic features of the MoU are free drafts, free cheque books, free funds transfers to any bank in India through RTGS / NEFT and free ATM cards.

 

Daily Current Affairs Update of 15 March 2015 | General Knowledge

4. Ganasen Reddy, an Indian-origin South African educator, was awarded with KwaZulu-Natal 2015 National Teachers Awards at the annual National Teaching Awards held in Johannesburg. KwaZulu-Natal 2015 National Teachers Awards is a Lifetime Achievement Award for teaching in South Africa.

5. Harvard University of United States (US) has again topped in World Reputation Rankings 2015 published by Times Higher Education. University of Cambridge (UK) stood on the second place followed by University of Oxford (UK).

6. Moon Express, a California-based company, co-founded by Indian origin billionaire Naveen Jain, is teaming up with NASA to build robotic lander to mine the Moon. The company plans to send the first commercial robotic lander called ' MX-1' to the Moon in 2016.

7. The Union Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers Ananth Kumar launched the Pharma Jan Samadhan scheme. It is a web enabled system for redressal of consumers’ grievances relating to pricing and availability of medicines. The system was created by National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA). 

8. Renowned fantasy author Sir Terence David John Pratchett passed away in London, United Kingdom following a prolonged illness. He was 66.

9. Japan and France have signed an arms transfer agreement for military equipment, services and technology. The defence pact seeks to boost cooperation and joint development between both countries in order to strengthen security ties.