 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. It abolished fares for trains, trams and buses. The main reason is to have a better quality of mobility, and then the side reason is clearly also environmental issues. All standard-class journeys on public transport in the tiny and wealthy European country are now free of charge, compared to an annual pass worth 440 euros ($485) before. Travellers can still pay for first-class, at a cost of 660 euros a year. Luxembourg has just over 600,000 inhabitants, but 214,000 more travel in for work every day from neighbouring Germany, Belgium and France, causing heavy traffic jams as the majority of workers commute by car. More than half of Luxembourg’s greenhouse gas emissions come from transport. It is expected that more than 65% of people in Luxembourg use their car to go to work in 2025, down from 73% in 2017. |
 According to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the exercise of consolidation of 10 public sector banks (PSBs) into four is on course and the merger will come into effect from the new financial year 1st April 2020. The Union Cabinet has given a go-ahead for the merger proposal. The Central government has been in regular touch with these banks. Finance Minister stated that the merger of Public Sector Banks’ merger is on course and decisions have already been taken by the respective bank boards. In the biggest consolidation exercise in the banking sector, the union government in August 2019 had announced four major mergers of public sector banks, bringing down their total number to 12 from 27 in 2017. |
As per the plan, PSBs will be merged into:-
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| The Plan had been first publicly mooted in December 2018 when Central Bank of India (RBI) stated that India could create some global banking majors if the then ongoing mergers of some state-owned banks achieve the desired impact of creating stronger and well-capitalized lenders of international level. In 2019, Mumbai based Dena Bank and Bengaluru based Vijaya Bank were merged with Bank of Baroda. Prior to this, the central government had merged five associate banks of State Bank of India and Bharatiya Mahila Bank with the State Bank of India effective from 1st April 2017. |
 Former Indian cricketer Sunil Joshi becomes the new chairman of the national selection panel by the BCCI’s Cricket Advisory Committee (CAC) in Mumbai. The CAC also select former Indian cricketer Harvinder Singh for a place in the five-member group. The CAC, comprising Madan Lal, RP Singh and Sulakshana Naik, select the two selectors with Joshi replacing South Zone representative MSK Prasad. Harvinder Singh was chosen from the railway zone and replaces Gagan Khoda in the 5 member panel. The CAC will review the panel’s performance after one year and make recommendations accordingly. |
 The Ministry of External Affairs announced Senior diplomat Sanjay Kumar Panda has been appointed as India’s Ambassador to Turkey. He will succeed Sanjay Bhattacharya. He is a 1991 Indian Foreign Service officer, is presently Consul General, Consulate General of India, San Francisco. He is appointed to the post when India- Turkey relations are under strain. |
 Government of India appointed the current Revenue Secretary Ajay Bhushan Pandey as the new Finance Secretary. Pandey replaces current Finance Secretary Rajiv Kumar. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment. He had earlier worked as chief executive officer of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), the organization behind the Aadhaar. |
The senior-most bureaucrat among all secretaries in the Finance Ministry is designated as the finance secretary.
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 The fourth edition of the Women Transforming India Awards 2019 will be organised on the occasion of International Women’s Day i.e. on 8 March 2020. The Women Transforming India Awards 2019 will be organised by the Women Entrepreneurship Platform of the NITI Aayog (National Institution for Transforming India). The WTI awards will be conferred by the Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh to the exceptional women change makers from across India. |
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 The state government of Uttarakhand has announced that “Gairsain” will be the summer capital of Uttarakhand. Gairsain is a tehsil located in Chamoli district. The historic announcement was made by the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Trivendra Singh Rawat on the conclusion of his budget speech during the assembly session held in Gairsain. The state Assembly of Uttarakhand is located in Dehradun while assembly sessions are also held in Gairsain. Uttarakhand was formed on the 9th November 2000 when it was carved out as a separate state from Uttar Pradesh. It became the 27th State of India. After the formation of the state, Dehradun was stated as the provisional capital of Uttarakhand. Garsain was always demanded by the statehood activists as the permanent capital of the state. |
 Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath inaugurated and laid foundation stones for 23 development projects worth Rs 2,821 crore at Gautam Buddh Nagar in Noida on 3rd March 2020. Among the 23 projects, 13 projects were inaugurated at the total worth of Rs 1,452 crore, while foundation stones were laid for 10 projects worth Rs 1,369 crore. |
The various project setting up:
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 The International Advanced Research for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad has developed a fuel cell technology called Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). The ARCI, Hyderabad is an autonomous R&D Centre of Department of Science and Technology (DST). It has developed an in-house PEMFC systems in the power range of 1 to 20 kiloWatt (kW) for Disaster Management. |
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 A “Student Health Card” scheme has been launched in the Union Territory Jammu and Kashmir. Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Girish Chander Murmu launched the “Student Health Card” scheme to check the malnutrition in school going children. This scheme aims to ensure good health of every school going children. According to the “Student Health Card” scheme, the school going children will undergo a regular checkup so that malnutrition can be prevented. The “Student Health Card” scheme was launched during the programme which was organised by Directorate of Mid Day Meal, School Education Department in cooperation with the National Health Mission. |
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