Savita Chhabra, an award-winning businesswoman, launched her first novel titled ‘Legacy of Learning’ which offers relatable and simplistic interpretations of the Bhagavad Gita and tries to connect the youth of India to the ancient scriptures. Savita Chhabra is the chairperson at Hygienic Research Institute Private Limited (HRIPL) located in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari appointed Justice Bhushan P Dharmadhikari as the Chief Justice of Bombay High Court. He was sworn in at Raj Bhavan. President of India, Ram Nath Kovind issued a notification for appointing him as Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court.

In accordance with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) report, Peatlands are facing degradation and need to be urgently monitored. The report authored by 35 experts comprised information as well as recommendations to countries on restoring and managing peatland

Karnatak’s folklore ‘Yakshgana’ has been digitized with more than 900 scripts and made public. These scripts have been digitized and preserved in PDF format in Google Drive. These scripts are available on www.prasangaprathi sangraha.com and have also been made available through the ‘Context FIRST Collection’ app. Yakshagana is a famous folk theatre performance in the coastal region of Karnataka.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) established India’s first COVID-19 dedicated hospital in Mumbai, Maharashtra. The 100-bedded Covid-19 centre is located at Seven Hills Hospital, Mumbai. The hospital was established by Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital in collaboration with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The Canadian Olympic Committee and Canadian Paralympic Committee announced they would not send athletes to the 2020 Summer Olympics due to the health risk of the global coronavirus pandemic.
Canada becomes the first country to withdraw its athletes from the Games.
Apart from Canada, North Korea and Indonesia have withdrawn from the game.

A Pune-based company Mylabs has received commercial approval from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) for its Covid-19 test kit.

With the emphasis on ‘Make in India’ and support from local and central government, the Covid- 19 kit has been made as per WHO/CDC guidelines.

The Abel Prize for the year 2020 was awarded to   Gregory Margulis from Yale University, CT, U.S.A and Hillel Furstenberg from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Israel for their work in number theory and combinatorics, by an Abel Committee consisting of five mathematicians of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters which review and recommend candidates for the award.

The Heritage Foundation published its 26th annual edition of Economic Freedom Index 2020 to measure the level of economic freedom in 186 countries. India (56.5) ranks in 120th position & Singapore (89.4) tops the index for the 1st time.

The Gujarat Police is now equipped with taser guns as a part of their modernization drive to ensure public safety and security. By introducing the taser guns as part of police weapons, Gujarat becomes the first state in India.

The National Task Force for the novel coronavirus constituted by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has recommended the use of hydroxychloroquine for healthcare workers or persons staying with and caring for positive COVID-19 patients. This protocol has been approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DGCI), Dr. V. G. Somani.

Scientists at IIT Delhi have developed an affordable, easy and accurate technique for testing coronavirus (COVID-19), ‘Probe-Free Detection Assay’.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved for continuation of Rebate of State and Central Taxes and Levies (RoSCTL) scheme from 1 April 2020.

March 23 is marked as Shaheed Diwas or Martyrs’ Day to remember the day when three brave freedom fighters were hanged by the British.
Bhagat Singh, Shivaram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar were inspirational youngsters, and their sacrifice remained etched in the Indian conscience.
Amongst them, Bhagat Singh stood out for his bravery, clarity of thought and exceptional patriotism.

India’s largest lender State Bank of India has opened an Emergency Credit Line to meet the liquidity requirements of its borrowers. The bank will provide funds up to Rs.200 crores till 30 June 2020. The credit line by the bank will be available to all standardized accounts which are not classified as SMA 1 or SMA 2. Note: SMA 1 accounts are given an overdue period ranging from 31 to 60 days, and SMA 2 accounts are given an overdue period ranging from 61 days to 90 days. SMA stands for Special Mention Accounts.

Greece has handed over the Olympic flame to Tokyo 2020 organisers at an event which was ‘significantly scaled-down’ due to a coronavirus pandemic

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh proposed a new “Draft Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) 2020” featuring promotion of indigenous manufacturing. The proposed DPP 2020 comes into effect from April 1, 2020 and remain in force till March 31, 2025. DPP 2020 replaces DPP 2016 and the draft for DPP 2020 has been finalized by a high-level committee headed by Apurva Chandra, Director General (DG) Acquisition, Ministry of Defence that was set up in August 2019.

The Union Cabinet approved the inclusion of the AYUSH health and wellness centre component of Ayushman Bharat in National Ayush Mission. It is expected that it will provide enhanced accessibility to achieve universal health coverage for affordable treatment.

The UN released its World Happiness Report and India was at a dismal 144 rank of a total 156 nations surveyed.
India has been scored at 3.573 points nestled between Lesotho and Malawi nations.
Pakistan, on the other hand, has been ranked 66 with a score of 5.693.
On top of the charts is Finland rated as high as 7.809 points for the third consecutive year.

To expand its presence in the Indian Ocean and to improve engagement with foreign partners, India and France recently conducted joint patrols from the Reunion Island. The focus of the exercise was mainly from the East African Coastline to the Malacca Strait. India has till now carried out Coordinated Patrols (CORPAT) only with maritime neighbours and had refused a similar offer by the United States of America.

World Down Syndrome Day is observed on 21 March to raise awareness globally about the disease Down syndrome. The theme of World Down Syndrome Day 2020 is “We Decide”.

A 30- day long capacity building program called “Tech for Tribal” has been launched by the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED),which works under Ministry of Tribal Affairs in association with IIT-Kanpur,IIT-Roorkee, IIM Indore, Kalinga Institute of Social Science, Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) and SRIJAN, Jaipur to provide entrepreneurship skills to the tribal people. The Programme is supported by MSME ministry.

The United Kingdom (UK) was confirmed as the first co-chair of the governing council of India-led global Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI). Governing Council of CDRI is the highest policy-making body of the society. The council is co-chaired by India and a representative of another national government nominated by rotation every two years

Star Health and Allied Insurance launched a benefit policy to cover all those who test positive for novel coronavirus and require hospitalisation.
The ‘Star Novel Coronavirus’ policy will provide a lump sum payment to any insured between age 18 to 65 years, who is declared positive.
The policy is available under two sum insured options of Rs 21,000 and Rs 42,000.

To promote the Bulk Drug Parks, the Indian Government will provide Grants-in-Aid to States with a maximum limit of Rs. 1000 Crore per Bulk Drug Park. The Grants-in-aid provided under the scheme on Promotion of Bulk Drug Parks will finance Common Infrastructure Facilities in 3 Bulk Drug Parks that will cost  Rs. 3,000 crores in the next five years. Another scheme approved by the Union Cabinet under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme. The programme aims at the promotion of domestic manufacturing of crucial Drug Intermediates or Key Starting Materials (KSM) and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) in the country which will cost implications of Rs.6,940 crores for next eight years.

Finland is world’s happiest nation in UN’s World Happiness Report of 156 countries

Scientists at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom (UK) have discovered a
fossil of the world’s oldest known modern bird skull dating to about 66.8m – 66.7m
years ago- means the birds lived alongside dinosaurs for around a million years before
the latter died out. Scientists dubbed the creature as ‘Wonderchicken’, which is thought
to be a common ancestor of modern chickens and ducks.The findings were published in
the journal Nature.

World Poetry Day was observed on 21 March. The day recognizes the unique ability of poetry to capture the creative spirit of the human mind. The day reminds and encourages the oral tradition of poetry recitals.

The country’s insurance regulator has set up a 16-member committee to find ways to improve corporate governance systems of insurers.
The Insurance Regulation and Development Authority (IRDAI) said that a peer review of its current guidelines on corporate governance indicated that there is a need to further strengthen the guidelines.
The committee will be headed by Pravin Kutumbe.

In a relief to the residents of Lachen in North Sikkim, the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) opened for traffic 360 feet long bailey suspension bridge over Teesta River in Munshithang near Chungthang town.