. The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and South Asian Cooperative Environment Programme (SACEP) to cooperate on the issue of oil and chemical pollution in the South Asian Seas region.

. As per an official release, the MoU aims to seek cooperation between India and other maritime nations including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives and Pakistan to protect and preserve marine environment in the South Asian region.

. The Regional Oil Spill Contingency Plan was made to facilitate international co-operation and mutual assistance in preparing and responding to a major oil pollution incident in the seas around the Maritime States of Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

. NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS, which aims to find alien worlds with capacity to harbour life is scheduled to launch on April 16 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

.  On March 15, the spacecraft passed a review that confirmed it was ready for launch, NASA had said 

. The Supreme Court on Tuesday appointed Justice Jawad Rahim, judicial member of the National Green Tribunal (NGT), as its acting chairperson.

. A bench comprising Chief Justice Dipak Misra and justices A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud said that the new acting chairperson will discharge his duties until a regular appointment is made..

. “Justice Rahim shall discharge the duties of Chairperson (of NGT) for all purposes, including participating in the selection process for filing up vacancies of members, until a regular appointment of a new Chairperson is made,” the bench said.

. The World Theatre Day was celebrated on 27 March 2017 across the globe.

. To mark the occasion, various national and international theatre events were organized by the International Theatre Institute (ITI) Centres and the international theatre community.

. The success of Bitcoin, a popular cryptocurrency, may have encouraged the central bank to consider its own cryptocurrency since it is not comfortable with this non-fiat cryptocurrency, as stated by RBI executive director Sudarshan Sen a few days ago.

.  Despite RBI's call for caution to people against the use of virtual currencies, a domestic Bitcoin exchange said it was adding over 2,500 users a day and had reached five lakh downloads. The company, launched in 2015, said the increasing do .. 

. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Indian Government on March 28, 2018 signed USD 80 million loan agreement to help modernise Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions and improve the skills ecosystem in Himachal Pradesh.

. The loan agreement was signed by Sameer Kumar Khare, Joint Secretary (Multilateral Institutions) in the Department of Economic Affairs and by Kenichi Yokoyama, Country Director of ADB’s India Resident Mission. 

.  While, the project agreement was signed by Basu Sood, Adviser (Planning) in the Planning Department of Himachal Pradesh.

• Google has acquired GIF platform Tenor for an undisclosed sum.
• The company wants to integrate GIFs into Google Images.

. Muskan Bhanwala clinched the gold medal in women’s 25m pistol as India pipped China at the top of the pecking order in the ISSF Junior World Cup in Sydney on Wednesday.

. The 16-year-old Indian bested China’s Qin Sihang and Thailand’s Kanyakorn Hirunphoem, who respectively took silver and bronze in the pistol event, the tournament’s penultimate on the final day.

. The team gold was won by Muskan Bhanwala, Manu Bhaker and Devanshi Rana, adding to India’s rich medal haul.

. India thus upstaged China with 22 medals, including nine gold to China’s eight. India have also five silver and eight bronze medals.

• Technology giant Microsoft on Monday inaugurated Garage facility, a maker space for employees, its first in India and the second-largest in the world after its 11,000-sq-ft Redmond Garage facility. 
• Spread over an area of 8,000 sq ft, the Hyderabad facility was in the process of being set up for the past 18 months. Upbeat on the increasing innovations from Indian centres, Microsoft is also planning a Garage facility in Bengaluru, which will be operational this year.
• Additionally, the global technology firm is also expanding its India development center in Hyderabad to tap the growing market. 

. A Rs 5 crore insect museum with the state-of-the-art amenities was unveiled by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswamy at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University here today.

. The museum, established at a 6,691 sqft area, is fully dedicated to insects and claimed to be the first of its in the country.

. It would display insects preserved as specimens as also live ones depicting their different developmental stages, images, videos and models of their unique behaviour, habits and habitats.