Current Affairs 22nd March 2017

Current Affairs 22nd March 2017 - Important Points

• NASA to send next-gen clock to Space to - Guide space crafts and astronauts
• 5th Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav being organized in - North East Region
• Who has been appointed as Full Time Member of SEBI ? - Madhabi Puri Buch
• Who has been appointed as Interim Director General of ISA ? - Upendra Tripathy
• Top spot in ICC Test bowler rankings grabbed by - Ravindra Jadeja
• Who has been appointed as Chief Financial Officer of ICC ? - Ankur Khanna

Current Affairs 22nd March 2017 - Details

NASA to send next-gen clock to Space to - Guide space crafts and astronauts

NASA has made a key advance in future human space exploration by developing the world’s first next-generation atomic clock for deep space missions. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, California developed this clock and is expected to aid future manned deep space exploration missions by helping in the navigation of space crafts.

Important Highlights

• This clock is be smaller, lighter and its magnitudes are expected to be more precise than any atomic clock flown in space before. 
• The JPL engineers monitored the integration of the clock on to the Surrey Orbital Test Bed spacecraft in February 2017, which will take it into the orbit later in 2017.
• Most space crafts are tracked using the ‘two-way’ method where a ground-based antenna ‘pings’ the spacecraft and then waits for the signal to return. 
• The distance to the spacecraft is calculated on the basis of time signal takes to travel. 
• The navigation team then uses the same data to determine the spacecraft’s flight path and see if any changes are required in the course. 
• With the development of the clock, however, the spacecraft will not need to send the signal back to earth. Scientists would be able to track the spaceships in real-time. 
• The clock would also help improve the precision of radio data used by scientists for determining a planet’s gravity field and probing its atmosphere.

5th Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav being organized in - North East Region

The Fifth Rashtriya Sanskriti Mahotsav (RSM) – 2017 is organizing in North Eastern Region of India from 23rd March to 31st March 2017 by the Union Ministry of Culture. The festival will be inaugurated at Parade Ground, Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh on 23rd March 2017 and will extend to other North Eastern states including Dimapur (Nagaland), Majuli (Assam), Imphal (Manipur), Aizawl (Mizoram), Gangtok (Sikkim), Shillong (Meghalaya and Khowai (Tripura). Governor of Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh PadmanabhaBalakrishna will inaugerate this extravaganza..

Key Highlights

• Around 5000 artists from North East India and 2000 artists from across the country will showcase India’s cultural heritage through performances, arts and cuisines. 
• The festival will be implemented in the seven Zonal Cultural Centres. 
• The North East Zone Cultural Centre (NEZCC), Dimapur will be the nodal agency to carry the execution of the National Cultural Festival.
• Each Zonal Cultural Centre will present their arts during the festival.

Who has been appointed as Full Time Member of SEBI ? - Madhabi Puri Buch

Madhabi Puri Buch is appointed as the Whole Time Member of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on 21st March 2017. She is the first woman and a person from the private sector, chosen for a key post in SEBI.

More about Madhabi Puri Buch

• Buch is serving at the New Development Bank in Shanghai currently.
• She is a management graduate from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad.
• She has served at various roles in private banks in a career of 20 years. 
• She started her career with ICICI Bank and went on to become the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at ICICI Securities Ltd from February 2009 to May 2011.
• She left for Singapore were she joined Greater Pacific Capital LLP in 2011.
• She is also the Founder-Director of Agora Advisory Pvt Ltd.

 Who has been appointed as Interim Director General of ISA ? - Upendra Tripathy

Upendra Tripathy, the former secretary at Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, is appointed as the full-time interim Director General (IDG) of the International Solar Alliance (ISA).

More about Upendra Tripathy

• Tripathy is an IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer of Karnataka Cadre.
• He served the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy as its secretary from 1st April 2014 to 31st October 2016.
• He has worked with local, provincial and union governments in India from last 36 years.

 Top spot in ICC Test bowler rankings grabbed by - Ravindra Jadeja

India’s ace bowler Ravindra Jadeja grabbed the top spot in the list of the Test bowlers in third week of March 2017. He bagged a total of nine wickets in the recently concluded match between India and Australia in Ranchi, Jharkhand. Ravichandran Ashwin and Jadeja were sharing the top spot in the list earlier in March 2017. However, Ashwin, who had a highest rating of 904 points, has slipped 37 points behind Jadeja to 862 points.

Important HIghlights

• The ICC Player Rankings is a widely followed system of rankings for international cricketers based on their most recent performances.
• The current sponsor is MRF Tyres, who signed a 4-year lasting till 2020 deal with the ICC.
• The ratings were developed by the suggestion of Ted Dexter in 1987.
• Initially, the rankings were for Test cricket only. However, One Day International rankings were introduced in 1998.

 Who has been appointed as Chief Financial Officer of ICC ? - Ankur Khanna

Ankur Khanna was appointed as the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the International Cricket Council (ICC) on 20th March 2017. Khanna is expected join the ICC by the end of March 2017. He will relocate to the ICC headquarters in Dubai.  Presently, he is serving Air Asia India as the CFO from the last 1 year.

Key Points

• ICC is the global governing body for cricket. 
• It represents 105 members.
• The ICC governs and administrates the game and is responsible for the staging of major international 
• tournaments including the ICC World Cup and Women’s World Cup.
• The ICC also appoints the umpires and referees that officiate at all sanctioned Test matches, One Day International and 20-20 Internationals.
• Khanna has also worked in senior roles at Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and ITC, an associate company of British American Tobacco.