” Israel Aerospace Industries (iai) has opened its indian subsidiary aerospace services india (asi) in new delhi, delhi.i. asi acts as the sole authorized original equipment manufacturer’s (oem) technical representative for the entire medium range surface-to-air missile (mrsam) system used by the indian army, indian air force (iaf), and indian navy.ii. mrsam has been jointly developed by iai and the defence research & development organisation (drdo) and produced at bharat dynamics limited (bdl) for the indian forces.”

” Brokerage Firm Morgan Stanley in its report titled ‘Building Stronger Recovery’ has increased India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) forecast for FY24-25 to 6.8% from 6.5% estimated earlier amid continued traction in industrial and capex activity.i. For Calendar Year (CY) 2024 Indian economy will grow at 6.8% as compared to 6.4%.ii. For FY24, India’s GDP growth will be at 7.9%, and for Q4FY24 (January- March) GDP growth is at 7% with gross value-added Growth of 6.7%.”

” On 22nd March 2024, SBI Mutual Fund(MF) acquired a 3% stake, equivalent to 20.73 lakh equity shares, in Savita Oil Technologies Ltd, via a block deal.  SBI MF bought the shares at an average price of Rs. 408 apiece from its promoter entity Mehra Syndicate.i. Before the sale, promoters held 62.78% stake, equivalent to 43,383,855 shares. Post-sale, promoter stake reduced to 59.78%, comprising 41,310,855 shares.”

” French aerospace and defence firm starburst accelerator (sarl) collaborated with the indian institute of technology-madras (iit madras) to establish an innovative hub for start-ups with the funding support of 100 million euros. a memorandum of understanding (mou) formalizing this collaboration was signed at the iit madras campus in chennai, tamil nadu.i. under this partnership, iit madras will enable starburst to set up accelerator programs to strengthen india’s aviation, space, and defence (asd) ecosystem.”

” China launched a new satellite “yunhai-3 02” from the taiyuan satellite launch center located in north china’s shanxi province. the satellite was launched atop a modified version of the long march-6 rocket.i. this launch marks the 514th mission of the long march series carrier rockets, highlighting china’s extensive experience in space missions. yunhai-3 02 is specifically designed to conduct: atmospheric and marine environment surveys, space environment monitoring, disaster prevention and reduction efforts and scientific experiments.”

” The insurance regulatory and development authority of india (irdai) retained the domestic systemically important insurers (d-siis) status for life insurance corporation of india (lic), general insurance corporation of india limited (gic re) and the new india assurance company limited.i. this means these public sector insurance companies will continue to be identified as d-siis, as in the 2022-23 list of d-siis.”

” On 27th march 2024, ritu raj awasthi was sworn in as one of the three judicial members of lokpal of india. the oath of office was administered by justice am khanwilkar, chairperson of lokpal of india at the ceremony held in lokpal of india office at new delhi, delhi.i. during the event, pankaj kumar, a 1986 batch ias officer from gujarat cadre(retired), and ajay tirkey, a 1987 batch ias officer from madhya pradesh (mp) cadre(retired), took charge as the non-judicial members of lokpal.”

” On march 27, 2024, the United Nations Environment Programme (unep) released its ‘food waste index report 2024-think eat save tracking progress to halve global food waste‘, which tracks countries’ progress to halve food waste by 2030.i. as per it, the world wasted an estimated 19% of the food produced globally in 2022, or about 1.05 billion metric tons. this equals to 132 kilograms per person, amounting to nearly one-fifth of all available food.”

” On 26th march 2024, india released the 2nd tranche of rs 500 crore for the development of infrastructure related to gyalsung project to bhutan.sudhakar dalela, indian ambassador to bhutan handed over the tranche to lyonpo d.n. dhungyel, minister of foreign affairs and external trade, bhutan.ii.the mou laid down the framework for the disbursal of rs 1,500 crore as concessionary financing to the royal government of bhutan.iii. the 1st tranche of rs 500 crore was released on 28th january, 2024. till now, government of india(goi) has released rs 1000 crore to government of bhutan.”

” The ministry of rural development (mord) has notified a 3-10% increase in the wage rate of workers under the mahatma gandhi national rural employment guarantee act (mgnrega) in nominal terms for the financial year 2024-25(fy25). The notification was issued under section 6 (1) of the mgnrega, 2005. the new wage hike range from rs 7 and rs 26 will come into force from 1st april 2024. goa, karnataka (10.4%), andhra pradesh (10.29%), and telangana (10.29%) have seen a significant hike of over 10% increase.”