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- In a first-of-its kind, State Bank of India announced linking of its savings deposits rates and short-term loans to the RBI's repo rate.
- The new rates, linked to the external benchmark rate, would be effective May 1.
- The new regime would be applicable only for those with a balance of over Rs 1 lakh in their accounts.
- The move would help speed up the monetary transmission process wherein lenders pass on RBI's rate cuts as well as hikes to borrowers.
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- In a decision bound to further the outreach and accessibility of Doordarshan, Prasar Bharati has brought 11 more State DD Channels, including five channels of North-Eastern States, on the Satellite footprint of India through DD Free Dish
- It is for the first time that the States of Chhattisgarh, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Uttarakhand have got their own DD Channel on a Satellite Network through DD Free Dish.
- These State channels represent the regional aspirations of the local population.
- Providing a satellite network for these channels through DD Free Dish will not only increase visibility of these channels in the Regions, but also give them an All-India presence.
- The increased accessibility to regional broadcast will help promote regional culture and give opportunities to local talent as well.
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- Industrialist Swraj Paul, one of the richest Indians in the UK who set up his first companies in Birmingham in the 1960s, has been awarded for his lifetime contribution in the Midlands region, which is home to a large Indian diaspora.
- Paul, 88, who is also a member of the House of Lords, received the ‘Lifetime Contribution-Midlands Business Awards 2019’ from Harj Sandher, founder of the awards, at an event in Leicester on 8th march evening.
- One of the previous recipients of the awards is Kumar Bhattacharyya, the celebrated engineer who founded the Warwick Manufacturing Group and advised the Tata group, among others, during his long career. He passed away earlier this month.
- Paul recalled the entrepreneurial spirit of the Indian community in the region, and said: “I first began business in the Midlands nearly 50 years ago. It was then a very different place but there was a feature that I found particularly encouraging - it was a region of opportunity”.
- “In the decades since then, we have had good times and difficult times. But that attribute remains an essential part of our commercial and social DNA and it is what sustains our economic environment; and we must nourish it”.
- A large number of Indian-origin people moved to Leicester and the Midlands after being expelled from Idi Amin’s Uganda in the early 1970s.
- They have since rejuvenated the region’s economy and culture to the point that Leicester is now seen as the ‘poster town’ of UK’s multicultural policies.
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- A 116-year-old Japanese woman who loves playing the board game Othello was honored Saturday as the world’s oldest living person by Guinness World Records.
- The global authority on records officially recognized Kane Tanaka in a ceremony at the nursing home where she lives in Fukuoka, in Japan’s southwest. Her family and the mayor were present to celebrate
- Tanaka was born January 2, 1903, the seventh among eight children. She married Hideo Tanaka in 1922, and they had four children and adopted another child.She is usually up by 6 a.m. and enjoys studying mathematics.
- The previous oldest living person was another Japanese woman, Chiyo Miyako, who died in July at age 117. The oldest person prior to Miyako was also Japanese.
- Japanese tend to exhibit longevity and dominate the oldest-person list. Although changing dietary habits mean obesity has been rising, it’s still relatively rare in a nation whose culinary tradition focuses on fish, rice, vegetables and other food low in fat.
- Age is also traditionally respected here, meaning people stay active and feel useful into their 80s and beyond.But Tanaka has a ways to go before she is the oldest person ever, an achievement of a French woman, Jeanne Louise Calment, who lived to 122 years, according to Guinness World Records.
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- NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft has observed water molecules moving around the dayside of the Moon, a finding that may prove beneficial as the agency plans to put astronauts back on the lunar surface.
- Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) the instrument aboard LRO measured sparse layer of molecules temporarily stuck to the Moon’s surface, which helped characterise lunar hydration changes over the course of a day, revealed the paper published in Geophysical Research Letters.
- “The study is an important step in advancing the water story on the Moon and is a result of years of accumulated data from the LRO mission,” said John Keller, LRO deputy project scientist from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland.
- Until the last decade, scientists thought that the Moon was arid, with any water existing mainly as pockets of ice in permanently shaded craters near the poles.
- More recently, they identified surface water in sparse populations of molecules bound to the lunar soil, or regolith.But, the amount and locations were found to vary based on the time of day. The lunar water is more common at higher latitudes and tends to hop around as the surface heats up.
- Scientists had hypothesised that hydrogen ions in the solar wind may be the source of most of the Moon’s surface water. As a result, when the Moon passes behind the Earth and is shielded from the solar wind, the “water spigot” should essentially turn off.
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- Vice President Venkaiah Naidu on 7th march was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate by the University for Peace founded by the United Nations Organisations (UNO) for his contribution "to the Rule of Law, democracy and sustainable development in India".
- He received the degree of "Doctor Honoris Causa" from the Dean of the University for Peace here.
- In his acceptance speech, Naidu said, "This (Honorary Doctorate) is an honour for my country than to me as an individual.
- It is an honour bestowed on a country, a civilization and a culture that has been an ardent and consistent champion of peace since time immemorial.
- Urging the people to see others as their own kin, he asserted, "The ability to appreciate and celebrate the fascinating diversity in thoughts, languages, cultures and religious beliefs is the foundation for our ability to live together. Peace begins with our search for common bonds that unite us rather than when we look for and accentuate the differences."
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