Current Affairs 8th March 2017

Current Affairs 8th March 2017 - Important Points

• Longest extradosed bridge across River Narmada at Bharuch dedicated to - Nation
• Funds transfer from Provident Fund to National Pension System - Non taxable 
• China overtakes eurozone as - World’s biggest bank system
• Fifth satellite of Copernicus observation program launched by - Europe Union
• First smart tribal village Habbi inaugurated - In Jammu and Kashmir
• Bengali singer Kalika Prasad Bhattacharjee passed away on - 7th March 2017
• Viola Davis awarded "artist of the year" with  - Harvard 

  Current Affairs 8th March 2017 - Details

Longest extradosed bridge across River Narmada at Bharuch dedicated to - Nation

Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated India’s longest extradosed bridge to nation on 7th March 2017.

Detailed information on Bharuch Bridge

• The 1.4 km edtradosed bridge is located across River Narmada at Bharuch in Gujarat. 
• The project has been completed in 34 months with a cost of Rs 380 crore.
• The bridge is 20.8 metre wide, with 14.5 metre carriageway and 3 metre footpath.
• It is supported on 9 pylons of 36 meter height on pile foundation of 1.5 metre diameter.
• The bridge will lit by more than 400 light emitting diode (LED) lights.
• This section of NH-8 will have state-of-the-art Highway Traffic Management System (HTMS), variable message sign boards, median plantation, 
• traffic aid post, medical aid post and radio-frequency identification (RFID).
• Smart card swapping enabled infrastructure is placed at the toll plaza of the bridge.

Did you know?

• This Bharuch bridge is a part of National Highways Authority of India’s  project for six laning of Ahmedabad-Mumbai section of NH-8.
• India's second longest extradosed bridge is held by the Nivedita Setu over the Hooghly in West Bengal.

Funds transfer from Provident Fund to National Pension System - Non taxable 

 The Pension Fund and Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA) announced certain rules for transfer of funds from recognised provident and superannuation funds to the National Pension System (NPS) on 7th March 2017. The regulator mentioned that as per the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961, the amount transferred from recognised provident or superannuation fund to NPS was not treated as income for the current year and hence it is not taxable.

Important Highlights

• The transferred recognised provident fund or the superannuation fund will not be treated as contribution of the current year by employee or employer and accordingly the subscriber cannot make income tax claim of contribution for this transferred amount.
• Any subscriber interested in such a transfer should have an active NPS Tier I account, can be opened either through the employer (where NPS is implemented) or through the points-of-presence (POPs) or online through eNPS on the NPS Trust website.
• The subscriber should approach the recognised provident or superannuation fund trust through the current employer to request transfer to the NPS account.
• The recognised provident fund or the superannuation fund trust may then initiate transfer of the funds as per the provisions of the trust deed read with the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
• In case of a government or private sector employee, the employee should request the recognised provident or superannuation fund to issue a letter to his present employer mentioning that the amount was being transferred from the recognised fund to the NPS Tier I account of the employee. 
• The return on NPS for central government employees for one year is 15.9 per cent while for five years it stands at 11 per cent.

China overtakes eurozone as - World’s biggest bank system

 Latest studies from Financial Times shows that the banking system of China has overtaken the eurozone to become the world’s biggest by assets. The analysis indicates China’s increasing global influence and its reliance on growth driven by debt.

Important highlights of the analysis

• China’s GDP surpassed that of the European Union’s in 2011 at market exchange rates. However, its banking system took the top spot at the end of 2016.
• Data shows that Chinese bank assets hit USD 33 trillion at the end of 2016, while eurozone was at USD 31 trillion.
• The value of China’s banking system is more than 3.1 times of the size of the country’s annual economic output, while it is 2.8 times for the eurozone and its banks.
• Chinese local governments have relied heavily on bank loans to finance infrastructure unlike in developed markets.

Fifth satellite of Copernicus observation program launched by - Europe Union

The European Union (EU) launched the fifth satellite of the Copernicus observation program from Europe's spaceport in French Guiana on 7th March 2017. The Sentinel-2B satellite is a part of Sentinel Earth observation satellites. This fifth Sentinel satellite will cut the time of imaging the earth by half and will ensure speedy provision of images of land, oceans and waterways. This will improve services for fishermen, farmers,and other users of land and sea maps. Now, the globe’s image will taken in five days only. 

Interesting Highlights of Sentinel-2B satellite

• It will join its twin Sentinel-2A, which has been in orbit since 2015, to take high-resolution, colored and infrared images for a wide array of environmental initiatives.
• These two satellites will orbit 488 miles (786 km) above Earth on the opposite sides of the planet.
• They will cover all of Earth's land surfaces, large islands, inland and coastal waterways every five days together.
• They will provide more up-to-date images and at higher resolution than the other ones.
• It will help tracking pollution of lakes and coastal waters, monitor land changes or produce disaster maps by providing information on floods, volcanic eruptions and landslide.
• The Copernicus project aims at improving the life of EU communities by providing near-real-time global environment data.
• It is described by the European Space Agency (ESA) as the most ambitious Earth observation program till date. 

First smart tribal village Habbi inaugurated - In Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir Minister for food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs, Choudhary Zulfkar Ali inaugurated the first tribal model village Habbi in Kotranka in Jammu and Kashmir on 5th March 2017. Kotranka is located Rajouri District of the state. The village has been introduced with smart classes in the schools, better roads, electricity and water facility, developed under the Rural Development Department of the State Government.

Important Points

• The Government of Jammu and Kashmir has 3 Divisions and 22 districts.
• It consists of an executive, a judiciary and a legislative branch. The executive branch is led by the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.
• The Governor is appointed by the President of India on the advice of the Union Government and he is the head of the state.

Did you know?

Srinagar is the Summer and Jammu is the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir.

Bengali singer Kalika Prasad Bhattacharjee passed away on - 7th March 2017

Famous Bengali singer Kalika Prasad Bhattacharjee passed away in a car accident on 7th March 2017 in Hooghly district's Gurap town. He was 56 at the time of death. He was on his way to a show in Birbhum, when his car was hit by a truck. Following the collision, his car fell into a ditch on Durgapur expressway at Gurap, Hooghly. There were four other singers of Kalika Prasad's band Dohar in the car. However, driver and other three people were injured.

More about Kalika Prasad Bhattacharjee -

• He was born and raised in Silchar, Assam.He co-founded the band Dohar and was the lead singer of this Bangla band in 1999.
• He studied Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University. 
• He was best known for popular folk songs of rural Bengal among the present generation in the albums of his band 'Dohar'.
• He had also sang for films - Jaatishwar (2014), Moner Manush (2010) and Bhuban Majhi (2017).

Viola Davis awarded "artist of the year" with  - Harvard 

Viola Davis, the actress was honoured with the Harvard foundation 'Artist of the year' 2017 award at Harvard's 32nd Cultural Rhythms festival in Cambridge on 4th March 2017. 

Interesting Highlights-

• This award honours the America's most accllaimed artists and scientists each year.
• She was born in St. Matthews on 11th Aug 1965.
• She is the founder of a producction company 'Juvee Productions' .
• She has become the first african american to win the primetime Emmy Award for outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series in 2015 for her role in the ABC's drama series.
• She was listed among 100 top influential people in thw world by Time Megazine in the world in 2012.

 Did you know?

Viola is the only african american to actress to win the triple crown of acting , The academy award, the Emmy award and the Tonny award.