1. *Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir the advance registration of the pilgrims for Annual Amarnath Yatra 2021 pilgrimage will begin from April1* . The registration will be done through 446 designated branches of Punjab National Bank, Jammu and Kashmir Bank and YES Bank, located in 37 States and UTs. This year the Yatra will commence on June 28 and will conclude on August 22.
2. *All arrangements put in place for second phase of assembly elections to be held in West Bengal and Assam on Thursday.* Nandigram Assembly constituency of Purbo Midnipur district from where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is seeking a third term in office, also goes to poll in this phase.
3. *COVID vaccination for people above 45 years from today* : The nationwide COVID-19 vaccination for people above 45 years of age will start from Thursday.
4. *Bank OTP issue* – SBI, ICICI, HDFC and other bank customers could face OTP issues from April 1. OTPs (one-time passwords) from banks have become an essential part of our lives now, especially if you don’t use UPI (universal payments interface) to make payments. Customers of State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI and HDFC may not be able to complete their online transactions from April 1 as they will not receive OTPs.
5. *Women in Punjab get to travel free of cost in all Government-run buses within the state from Thursday.* The cabinet on Wednesday stamped its approval on the scheme which the Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh announced earlier this month. The scheme would benefit over 1.31 crore women and girls across the state.
6. *The Income Tax department has extended the deadline for linking of PAN with Aadhaar.*
The new deadline for linking PAN with Aadhaar is June 30, 2021.
If any individual fails to link their PAN with Aadhaar before this deadline, their PAN will be marked inoperative.
7. *LPG price cut by Rs 10 per cylinder* 14.2-kg LPG cylinder—both for subsidised and market price users—will cost Rs 809 from April 1 as against Rs 819 currently.
8. The Sanyukt Kisan Morcha decided that the farmers will be undertaking a march to the Parliament in the month of May 2021. The date for the march is yet to be decided.
9. *Telugu Desam (TD) chief and former three-term chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has decided to merge his floundering party with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),* bringing to an end the saga of a regional entity that had seen a meteoric rise in the country. TD leaders reportedly felt the party has lost its verve and there is little hope of reinvigorating the party within the next three years and wrest power from the YSRC in the next Assembly polls in Andhrapradesh.
10. *The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) will not issue hard copies of migration certificates to students of Class 10 and 12 going forward. The board will, however, issue the certificates to those who make a request for it.* The new rule will come into force from 2021. From 2024, the board will stop issuing hard copies of migration certificates completely. It will not be provided even on request. The soft copies of the migration certificate will suffice for admission and migration-related issues. These soft copies could be accessed using the DigiLocker app
11. Bollywood actor Sunny Deol’s son Rajveer Deol to debut in Rajshri Productions’s next
12. *The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has awarded a major contract to Mahindra Defence Systems (MDS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mahindra & Mahindra, for the manufacturing of Armoured Tactical Vehicles (specifically Light Strike Vehicle – LSV) for the Indian Army for their recce and weapon carrier requirements.* Being indigenously developed the MDS LSV will get complete lifecycle support. The introduction of the LSVs is set to be completed by 2025.
*✈INTERNATIONAL NEWS*
1. *Pakistan will buy sugar and cotton from India, newly appointed Finance Minister Hammad Azhar announced on Wednesday, lifting a ban on their import from the neighbouring country imposed in the wake of heightened tension over Kashmir in 2019.*
2. India got three more Rafale fighter jets on Wednesday, which will join the Golden Arrows Squadron in Ambala. These fighter jets flied directly from France and provided mid-air refuelling by the UAE.
The fresh induction will take the squadron’s strength to 14. The next batch of nine Rafale fighter jets will be coming in April.
3. The World Bank has forecast per 10 per cent GDP growth for the Indian economy in the next fiscal year that begins from Thursday.
4. The Brazilian health regulator Anvisa has denied permission to import Bharat Biotech’s COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin into the country after its authorities found that the plant in which the vaccine is being made did not meet the Good Manufacturing Practice requirements.
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