Daily Current Affairs Update --- 16th & 17th March 2017

• Braille maps and platform indicators were unveiled at the Bengaluru City railway station making it the second blind-friendly station after Mysuru railway station in India.


• Captain Amarinder Singh of Congress was today sworn in as the 26th Chief Minister of Punjab.


• Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge is set to become the next Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).


• After postponing its first attempt to launch communications satellite EchoStar XXIII due to high winds on Tuesday, Elon Musk-led space startup SpaceX today successfully deployed the satellite through its Faclon 9 rocket.


• Lipstick Under My Burkha' will be the opening film at the 17th edition of the New York Indian Film Festival, the oldest Indian film festival in the US.


• India along with other South East Asian Region countries signed a ‘Call for Action’ on March 16, 2017 to end tuberculosis (TB) and pledged to take efforts to end the disease by 2030.


• China and Saudi Arabia have signed Memorandums of Understanding(MoU) and Letters of Intent(LoI) potentially worth about $65 billion during Saudi King Salman’s visit to China.


• HDFC Bank in collaboration with National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) has launched an instant Digital Loan against Securities (LAS) product .


• Private insurer Future Generali India Insurance Company (FGII) has announced tie-up with Kolkata based UCO Bank for its products .


• Singapore based Changi Airport was named as the World’s Best Airport for the fifth consecutive year at the 2017 Skytrax World Airport Awards held at the Passenger Terminal EXPO in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.


• Bibhu Prasad Kanungo from Odisha has been appointed as Deputy Governor in Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for three years by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) . Prasad is the succeedor of R Gandhi .


• The Election Commission has announced that it will make the voting system watertight by introducing Voter-Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) by the 2019 General Elections.


• A parliamentary panel has suggested the merger of state-run telecom firms Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) for their long-term survival.
The committee was chaired by : Bhagat Singh Koshyari (BJP MP).


• The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today elected Trivendra Singh Rawat as the next Chief Minister of Uttarakhand.