• World Wildlife Day Celebrated on March 3rd every year.
• Wildlife Day to celebrate and raise awareness of the world’s wild animals and plants.
• World Wildlife Day will be celebrated in 2020 under the theme “Sustaining all life on Earth”, encompassing all wild animal and plant species as key components of the world’s biodiversity.
• This aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals 1, 12, 14 and 15, and their wide-ranging commitments on alleviating poverty, ensuring sustainable use of resources, and on conserving life both on land and below water to halt biodiversity loss.

Themes:

• 2020: The 2020 theme is “Sustaining all life on earth”
• 2019: The 2019 theme is “Life below water: for people and planet”
• 2018: The 2018 theme is “Big cats – predators under threat”.
• 2017: The 2017 theme is “Listen to the young voices”.
• 2016: The 2016 theme is “The future of wildlife is in our hands”, with a sub-theme “The future of elephants is in our hands”.
• 2015: The 2015 theme is “It’s time to get serious about wildlife crime”.

The Andhra Pradesh govt has appointed retired former Union finance secretary, Subhash Chandra Garg, as an advisor to CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy
Garg has been given the rank of a cabinet minister in the state government and a tenure of two years.
A 1983-batch IAS officer of the Rajasthan cadre, Garg took voluntary retirement from his service in October 2019.

Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi has approved the appointment of Ajay Bhushan Pandey as the new Finance Secretary in Ministry of Finance. He will succeed current Rajiv Kumar, who has retired in February 2020.

The Union Cabinet approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India and the Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene of Cote d’Ivoire. The MoU was aimed to enhance cooperation in the field of health. The MoU will regulate drugs and pharmaceutical products.

North Korea launched two short-range missiles into its eastern sea on 2 March 2020.
The projectiles were fired from an area near the coastal town of Wonsan and flew about 240 kilometres, or 149 miles, northeast while reaching a height of about 35 kilometres, or 22 miles.
The launches took place in quick succession, with just 20 seconds between them.

The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Aditya Nath announced on 3rd March that the government will pay Rs. 900 per month to anyone who will keep stray cattle in their homes. The government will be building proper shelters for these stray cattle and in case any farmer wants to keep them in their homes they will be given Rs. 900 every month under “Chief Minister Destitute Cow Participation Scheme” This was done after a complaint of stray animals destroying field crops were reported and in order to prevent the slaughter of these animals, the govt decided to introduce such an initiative. The development and maintenance of the shelters will cost around Rs. 109 crores annually.

Chairman of The Hyatt Foundation Tom Pritzker announced Yvonne Farrell (69) and Shelley McNamara (68) as the winners of Pritzker Architecture prize 2020. It is the 1st time an Irish citizen & a female combination won the prize. It is an annual award sponsored by Hyatt foundation is regarded as the profession’s highest award. The Pritzker Architecture Prize is founded by Jay A. Pritzker & his wife Cindy. It is often referred to as “architecture’s Nobel” & “the profession’s highest honor.”

The Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) reintroduced the Model Guidelines for Conservation, Management, and sustainable use of Community Forest Resources (CFR Guideline) under the Forest Rights Act, 2006. MoTA created a committee to examine and recommend CFR Guidelines under FRA. The committee will be headed by NC Saxena, a former member of the Planning Commission of India and of the National Advisory Council.

Google on March 5, 2020 announced its plans of launching a Delhi Cloud Region. This will be the technology giant’s second cloud region in India, as it launched its first in the country in Mumbai in 2017. Google’s existing network includes 22 cloud regions across the globe with 8 in the Asia-Pacific region.

China has recently taken over as the President of the UN Security Council for the month of March 2020.
The Security Council was established by the UN Agreement to maintain international peace and security. The council has 15 members (5 permanent and 10 non-permanent members for two-year terms). The 15 members assume presidency every month in a rotation basis.

Paytm is set to make a foray into the business of selling insurance products with subsidiary Paytm Insurance Broking securing a brokerage license from Insurance Regulatory and Authority of India (IRDAI).
The company plans to offer insurance products across four categories including auto, health, and life.
Customers will also be able to claim settlement services at select merchant points.

The Blue Dot Network is an initiative which aims at providing quality infrastructure investments which are transparent, socially sustainable, economically and financially viable, and in tune with the international standards. The countries participating in the project are the U.S. India, Japan and Australia. It will bring together governments, private companies and civil societies to promote road building, ports and bridges. This project came into being in November 2019 at the Indo-Pacific Business Forum in Bangkok. Context: After President Donald Trump’s India visit, Both the countries will formally launch project Blue Dot, to set up high-quality infrastructure pegged to global standards, which already has the support of Japan and Australia.

Luxembourg, the 7th smallest country in Europe, has been made public transport free to reduce traffic pressure on the road. It becomes the 1st country in the world to make public transport free.

The National safety day is observed every year on 4th March. This year 2020 will be celebrated as the 49th National Safety day organized by the National Safety Council (NSC). The National safety day is celebrated throughout the country to reiterate the importance of safety and create awareness throughout the country. The Theme of National Safety day 2020 is “Enhance Health & Safety Performance by Use of Advanced Technology “.

KPIT announced the winners of KPIT Sparkle 2020 on 4 March. Army Institute of Technology, Pune, was awarded gold and a cash prize of Rs.5 Lakhs Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru jointly won silver awards of Rs.2.5 Lakhs.

India has entered the final of the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020, after its semi-final with England got rained out in Sydney. This is India’s maiden Women’s T20 World Cup final. The second semi-final will be played on March 5 between Australia and South Africa in Sydney. The ICC Women’s T20 World Cup is scheduled to be held in Melbourne on March 8, 2020 from 12.30 pm IST.

US-based think tank Global Financial Integrity (GFI) recently released a report titled “Trade-related Illicit Financial Flows in 135 Developing Countries: 2008-2017”.
As per the report, five countries with the largest gaps were China ($457.7 billion), followed by Mexico, India, Russia and Poland. India has the third-highest trade-related illicit financial flow escaping the government’s tax net, with $83.5 billion (Rs 6.14 trillion), equivalent to 3.05 per cent of GDP).

A research team of Sree Chitra Thirunal Institute of Medical Science and Technology (SCTIMST), Thiruvananthapuram, an Institute of National Importance under the Department of Science and Technology has developed an innovative intracranial flow diverter stent named as Chitra Flow Diverter for the treatment of aneurysms of the blood vessels of the brain. The new technology is ready for transfer & further testing in animals, followed by human trials.

India will soon become one of the top three markets by volume for The Coca-Cola Co., the company’s CEO and chairman James Quincey informed.
India is the fifth-largest market by volume for Coca-Cola, which sold 1 billion unit cases in the country in 2019.
The Atlanta-based company wishes to double this number in the next five years.

Shafali Verma has been ranked at the top in the latest ICC women’s T20 International batting rankings. The 16-year-old is the only second Indian woman cricketer after Mithali Raj to top the women’s T20 International rankings.

India Pharma 2020 & India Medical Device 2020 Conference & Exhibition has been scheduled to be held at Gandhi Nagar, Gujarat from 5-7 March 2020. The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) that functions under the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, in association with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), is organizing the conference.

The Punjab government recently scrapped the policy of granting optional extension in service to the state government employees after retirement.
This decision is taken with an aim to generate employment for the youth of the state. The state government had earlier allowed service extension to all employees up to the age of 60 or 62. Recently, the state made the retiring age of the employees to 58 from 60.

HDFC Bank joined hands with the country’s largest airline IndiGo to launch a co-branded credit card, which will effectively work like a loyalty programme for the carrier. Labelled Ka-ching, the card will offer many benefits like complimentary air tickets, lounge access, 5 percent cashback or reward points on Indigo bookings, and 3 per cent cashback on dining, grocery and entertainment.

Telecom gear maker Nokia said its board of directors has appointed Pekka Lundmark as President and CEO to succeed Rajeev Suri. Lundmark is expected to start in his new role on September 1, 2020 and will be based in Espoo, Finland.

India private sector bank, RBL Bank (formerly known as Ratnakar Bank ltd) inks partnership with Online food ordering and delivery app Zomato to launch co-branded credit cards, powered by Mastercard.

John Francis Welch Jr., former chairman & CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of General Electric (GE) Company passed away at the age of 84, in New York, US (United States). He was born on March 19, 1935 in Massachusetts, US. He grew General Electric company during the 1980s & 1990s into the most valuable public company in the US. In 1999, Fortune named him the “Manager of the Century” and the Financial Times named him “One of the 3 most admired business leaders in the world”.

Drugs to treat the novel coronavirus could be available by this summer.
The vaccine may not be available until late 2020 or early 2021, but the therapeutics to give relief to the people who contract the coronavirus could be available by summer.
The Gilead drug remdesivir has already been used to treat one infected patient in the US as part of a trial.

Western Railways has announced a 5 percent bonus for every recharge to R-Wallet until August 24, 2020. The move is aimed at promoting mobile ticketing

NASA released a photo of the mysterious hole on Mars that could hold a clue to life on Mars. The unusual hole on the planet was discovered in 2011. The image was taken by the High-Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) instrument. The photo was taken by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter which currently circles the planet.

The Labour Minister Santosh Gangwar recently launched the mobile application named ‘Humsafar’. The app is launched with an objective of delivering fuel at the door-steps of Housing societies, hotels and hospitals in the National capital region.
The app will ensure the delivery of fuel to other bulk buyers of diesel in various NCR cities. This step would curb the unsafe practices of transporting fuel in the city.