DAILY GK UPDATE 20TH MARCH

1.    Bangladesh President Zillur Rahman Passes away !

i. Bangladesh President Mohammad Zillur Rahman today passes away at a Singapore hospital where he was being treated for kidney and respiratory problems, He was 85

ii. "He breathed his last at the Mount Elisabeth Hospital,"

iii. Rahman was admitted to the facility on March 10 as he was flown to Singapore by an air ambulance for critical lung infection, a day after he was rushed to Combined Military Hospital (CMH) at Dhaka cantonment.

iv. Bangladesh has announced a three-day state mourning.

NOTE: i. Rahman, a veteran politician, who celebrated his 85th birthday earlier this month was installed as the ceremonial head of the state in 2009 after Awami League was elected in the landmark December, 2008, general elections.

About Zillur Rahman

i. Mohammed Zillur Rahman was the 19th President of Bangladesh. 

ii. He was also a senior presidium member of the Awami League.

iii. He was declared the President by the Election Commission on 11 February 2009 when no other candidate filed to run in the presidential election since the Awami League won the vast majority of seats in the just completed parliamentary election and he was sworn in on 12 February 2009.

2.    World Sparrow Day observed today…

Awareness campaign launched to save house sparrows….

i. March 20 is being observed as World Sparrow Day across the globe to raise consciousness in this regard.

ii. Aiming to conserve house sparrows and other neighborhood birds, the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board has launched a public awareness campaign involving students and morning walkers.

iii. The sparrow was once a very common bird all over the country, whether it was a bustling urban area or a small village. The decline of house sparrow due to polluted environment is an indicator of the degradation of our environment," W G Prasanna Kumar, a senior official of APPCB, said.
iv. As part of the campaign, the volunteers will be trained in raising general awareness, preparation of nests for sparrows and habitat conservation like providing water and food regularly to birds.

NOTE: i. The main reasons for the decline in population of house sparrows include unavailability of insects (the baby sparrows are fed exclusively on an insect diet for the first 15 days), pollution by devices like mobile phones and others, absence of appropriate food and increased use of pesticides.

ii. The sparrows do not get grain food as the home makers now procure packaged clean grains from supermarkets and malls and the practice of women cleaning grains at home no longer exists.

3.    DMK ministers resign from Cabinet…

i. A day after DMK withdrew support to UPA Govt on Sri Lankan Tamil's issue; the party's five Union ministers submitted their resignation to the Prime Minister on Wednesday.

The Ministers are –

i. M K Alagiri,Cabinet Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers

ii. D Napolean,Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment,

iii. S S Palanimanickam, Minister of State for Finance,

iv. S Jagathrakshakan, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry

v. S Gandhiselvan, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare.

NOTE: i.The resignations of the DMK Ministers followed the pullout of the party from the UPA government over its demand that India should push for amendments to a US-sponsored resolution in UN Human Rights Council for an independent international probe into genocide of Sri Lankan Tamils

ii. The DMK, which formally ended its nine-year-oldalliance with the UPA on Tuesday, has 18 members in the Lok Sabha and six MPsin the Rajya Sabha. The party ruled out supporting UPA from outside or joining the BJP-led NDA.

4.    RBI starts scrutiny of three private banks..

i. The Reserve Bank on Tuesday started a comprehensive scrutiny of head offices and branches of ICICI, HDFC and Axis Bank, which are accused of money laundering and violating regulations like FEMA and KYC.

ii. "The RBI has initiated the process of carrying out comprehensive scrutinies covering both, Head Office and branches of three private sector banks, namely, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank," 

iii. "The final reports on all the three banks will be completed by March 31, 2013 and thereafter further course of action as necessary will be initiated,

iv. The three private sector banks were accused of money laundering in a sting operation by an online portal.

v. RBI said: "The scrutinies have been initiated after an online media firm on the basis of its sting operations across some branches of these banks alleged money laundering and violation of several provisions of the RBI Regulations,"

vi. The media firm had uploaded some videos on the internet relating to these banks as well as ICICI Prudential Life Insurance and HDFC Life Insurance.

NOTE: i. Apart from this, the RBI has also undertaken a thematic study in respect of banks that are active in selling gold coins/wealth management products to examine whether there are systemic issues and to plug deficiencies and legal loop-holes, if any.

ii. Meanwhile, the three private sector banks, named in the sting operation, have started their own internal investigation. They have also suspended staff concerned pending probe.

5.    Book on Former President of India by Professor Sunaina Singh

i. The Vice President of India, Hamid Ansari released a book titled The First Woman President of India, Reinventing leadership, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil. 

ii. The book is written on the former President of India, Pratibha Devisingh Patil by Professor Sunaina Singh.

NOTE: The book is not just a biography of the former President, Pratibha Devisingh Patil but also highlights various kinds of issues in India.

6.    S. Venkata Mohan won the National Bioscience Award for 2012

i. S. Venkata Mohan a scientist of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, won the National Bioscience Award for 2012 in Hyderabad.

ii. S. Venkata Mohan who is from the Bioengineering and environmental centre of the Institute won the prize for his contributions towards developing technologies for production of clean bio-fuels from waste. 

About National Bioscience Award 

i. The National Bio-science Award which is also called by N-BIOS Prize is an honour of high importance conferred by the Federal Government of India to the select young Indian bio-scientists of less than 45 years of age. 

ii. The award is given every year for distinctive contributions made towards the development of state of art in basic and applied areas of biological sciences through demonstrated activity in the form of publication in reputed journals and or patents.

iii. The award is considered almost equivalent to the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize given by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research of India.