Top GKToday’s News Headlines-15 March 2020

March 14, 2020

Here are Top GKToday’s News Headlines for 15 March, 2020

Home Ministry to treat coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as a “notified disaster”; states can now spend more funds from SDRF (State Disaster Response Fund) to fight the pandemic
NMCG (National Mission for Clean Ganga) organises “Ganga Amantran Abhiyan” rafting and kayaking expedition from Devprayag (Uttarakhand) to Gangasagar (West Bengal)
2020 Chameli Devi Jain Award for outstanding woman journalist jointly awarded to Arfa Khanum Sherwani of The Wire and Bengaluru-based freelancer Rohini Mohan
Prachi Salve of IndiaSpend and Pradeep Dwivedi of Dainik Jagran jointly awarded first prize on road safety reporting by New Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies (CMS)
UP Cabinet passes ordinance for recovery of damage to public property during violent protests
Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has isolated COVID-19 virus strain: Director General Balram Bhargava
Recruitment in railways, banks and lower levels of Central government to be done through Common Eligibility Test (CET) from 2021, National Recruitment Agency (NRA) to conduct this online test
Malayalam scholar and Sahitya Akademi award winner Puthussery Ramachandran dies at 91 in Thiruvananthapuram

GST Council meeting chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi
GST rate on mobile phones and specific parts raised from 12% to 18%
One rate of GST at 12% for both hand-made (5% earlier) and machine-made matchsticks (18% earlier)
GST rate on Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) services for aircrafts reduced from 18% to 5%

Special excise duty on petrol and diesel hiked by Rs. 2, road cess on both fuels raised by Rs. 1; no impact on retail prices
Justice Bansi Lal Bhat appointed as the officiating chairperson of NCLAT (National Company Law Appellate Tribunal)
Bandhan Bank to invest Rs 300 crore for equity stake in troubled Yes Bank under RBI’s reconstruction scheme
New website of Ministry of New and Renewable Energy launched; has additional portals such as ‘Akshay Urja Portal’ and ‘India Renewable Idea Exchange’ (IRIX)
‘WINGS INDIA 2020′ Exhibition and Conference being organised by Civil Aviation Ministry and FICCI at Begumpet Airport, Hyderabad from March 12 to 15

World Health Organisation declares Europe as epicentre of coronavirus pandemic
90% of all people have ‘a deeply ingrained bias’ against women: UNDP Gender Social Norms Index