Current affairs 25 March 2024

Election Commission launches Saksham App for PwD persons.

• The Election Commission has announced that voters above 85 years of age and Persons with Disabilities with 40 percent benchmark disability can vote from home.
• The poll body is also arranging transport facilities for Persons with Disabilities and Elderly.
• 25th Chief Election Commissioner - Rajiv Kumar.
• Other Election Commissioners - Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu.

Hansha Mishra (IA&AS) appointed as Director in UPSC.

• Hansha Mishra (IA&AS) has been selected for the appointment as Director of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
• She has been selected for the appointment under the Central Staffing Scheme for five years.
• Mishra is an Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IA&AS) officer of the 2010 batch.

IAU approves "Shiv Shakti" as name for Chandrayaan-3 landing site.

• International Astronomical Union approved the name Station Shiv Shakti for the landing site of Chandrayaan's Vikram lander.
• Chandrayaan 3, India’s third lunar mission, took off from the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 14 and successfully landed on the Moon's surface on August 23, 2023, near the lunar south pole.

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1st Foreign Office Consultations held between India and Mauritania.

• The 1st Foreign Office Consultations between India and Mauritania was held in Nouakchott.
• The bilateral trade between India and Mauritania has grown steadily during the last three years and it reached over 378 million US dollars during 2022-23, from 108 million US dollars in 2021-22.
• Mauritania - Capital - Nouakchott.
• Currency - Mauritanian Ouguiya.

Bharat Biotech starts clinical trials of Tuberculosis Vaccine "MTBVAC".

• This is the first vaccine against Tuberculosis derived from a human source by the Spanish bio-pharmaceutical company, Biofabri.
• A Phase 2 study in HIV-infected adults has started in 2024 to determine whether MTBVAC is safe in this population.
• Bharat Biotech Founder - Krishna Ella (1996).
• Headquarters - Hyderabad.