Saturday 16 March 2013

Current Affairs march'2013

*   Princess Lilian (97) of Sweden passed away. She had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Her romance with husband Prince Bertil became one of Sweden’s best-known love stories.
*   Jorge Mario Bergoglio has been elected as new pope of the Catholic Church. 
   -266th pope
   -Native of Argentina.
   -Became first pontiff from outside Europe in more than a millennium since Syrian-born Pope  
    Gregory III, who died in 741. Thus, he is thefirst non-European pope since the 8th 
     century.
    -He has chosen the name Pope “Francis”. He is now both the leader of the Catholic Church 
     and sovereign ruler of the Vatican City State.
*   In Budget 2013-14, Finance Minister P Chidambaram proposed 0.01% tax on the trade of non-agricultural commodities futures, the new tax is called Commodity Transaction Tax (CTT)
*   The world’s largest biogas plant was inaugurated on Finland’s western coast as the country seeks to cut its use of foreign coal.
*   Cruise missile Nirbhay missed the target test-firing as it had to be terminated midway after deviating from the flight course. 
*   World banks estimates Indian economy to grow over 6% by 2013-14
*   President appoints Ashwani Kumar and S.C. Jamir as new Governors of Nagaland and Odisha respectively
*   India’s First All Women Post Office
 Union Minister of Communications & IT Sh. Kapil Sibal inaugurated India’s First All Women Employees Post Office at Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi. All the counters of this Post Office will be staffed by Women employees only. The working hours: 9.30 a.m. – 5.30 p.m.
*   Mukul Sangma once again becomes CM of Meghalaya
*   Financial inclusion plan main criteria for getting new bank licences: RBI
*   The four financial sector regulators in the country- RBI, SEBI, IRDA and PFRDA have inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for co-operation in the field of consolidated supervision and monitoring of financial groups identified as financial conglomerates.
*    Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan President died due to cancer on 5 March 2013 at Caracas.
*   Airtel starts HD voice service in Africa
*    The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee on 8 March 2013 released the Commemorative Postage Stamp on Sahir Ludhianvi at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
*   Compost Plant in New Delhi is first composting plant in India to get carbon credits from UNFCCC
*    Venezuelan Vice- President Nicolas Maduro  was sworn in as Venezuela’s acting president.
*   In the Budget speech it has been announced that the government will infuse Rs 14,000 crore in public sector banks in next fiscal (2013-14).
*    62 year old Former CBI Director, Ashwani Kumar appointed as Governor of Nagaland.
*    C J George the Managing Director of Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Ltd, on 9 March 2013 elected chairman, CII Kerala State Council for 2013-14.
   Union Minister of Communications & IT, on 8 March 2013 inaugurated the First All Women Employees Post Office of India at Shastri Bhawan in New Delhi.
*   The Foreign Minister of Portugal, Paulo de Sacadura Cabral Portas visited India from 3 March 2013 to 7 March 2013. This was his first official visit.

*    John Kerry was sworn-in as the 68th Secretary of State of the US.

*  Rajeev Shahare was appointed as the new High Commissioner to Maldives .
*  Japan’s Parliament approved Haruhiko Kuroda, a Finance Ministry veteran to become the Governor of the Central Bank of Japan.
*  Silver Linings Playbook won four awards at the Independent Spirit Awards in Santa Monica.
*   Famous Indian journalist Bobby Ghosh has been made the the new editor of TIME International.Bobby joined TIME in 1998 after doing journalism in India.
*  Vice Admiral, Anurag G Thapliyal took over as the Director General of the Indian Coast Guard.
*  India’s Sania Mirza and her American partner Bethanie-Mattek Sands won the Dubai Tennis Championship.
*  Kallam Anji Reddy (73), the founder-chairman of Dr Reddy’s Labs passed away.
*  Anupam Kher, the veteran Bollywood actor was awarded with the City Proclamation Award in Los Angeles .
*  The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain David Cameron was on an official visit to India from 18 to 20 February 2013.
*  Marina Erakovic won her first WTA title, US National Indoor Tennis Championship 2013.

SAARC Literature Award 2013

SAARC Literature Award was presented to five writers at Agra during the two days SAARC Festival of Literature on 10 March 2013.
A poet-diplomat from India Abhay K was among the five writers to be honoured with the prestigious Literature Award.
Other writers to be honoured with this award were Farheen Chaudhary (Pakistan), Abdul Khaliq Rashid (Afghanistan), Suman Pokhrel (Nepal) and novelist Daya Dissanayake (Sri Lanka).

Arun Jaitley, Karan Singh and Sharad Yadav Selected For Outstanding Parliamentarian Award

Outstanding Parliamentarian Award was instituted by the Indian Parliamentary Group in 1994. The Parliamentary Award Committee selected BJP leader Arun Jaitley, Congress MP Karan Singh and JD(U) MP Sharad Yadav for Outstanding Parliamentarian Award for 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively.
Arun Jaitley and Karan Singh are the members of Rajya Sabha from Gujarat and Delhi respectively. Sharad Yadav, on the other hand is a member of Lok Sabha from Madhepura, Bihar.

Mukul Manda Sangma Sworn-In As the Chief Minister of Meghalaya

Mukul Manda Sangma of Congress was sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Meghalaya for the second term on 5 March 2013. He took oath for the second term as 26th Chief Minister of the state.
Mukul Manda Sangma is a medical practitioner who left his job as Medical and Health Officer in Tura Health Centre to enter into elections in 1993. In 2005, he was also appointed as the deputy chief of Meghalaya.

Neiphiu Rio sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Nagaland

Neiphiu Rio 63, of Naga People’s Front (NPF) party was sworn in as Chief Minister of Nagaland for the third straight term.The Naga People’s Front (NPF), is supported by two alliance partners, BJP and JD(U) with one MLA each, also with an unconditional support of 7 Independents.
Rio was dismissed as Chief Minister when President’s Rule was imposed on Nagaland on 3 January 2008.

Hariram Meena Selected For the Bihari Puraskar For 2012

Rajasthani author Hariram Meena was selected for the Bihari Puraskar for 2012 for Hindi novel Dhooni Tape Teer. The novel was published in 2008. Dhooni Tape Teer is a novel based on the deaths of tribal people in Banswara in Rajasthan.
Bihari Puraskar was instituted by K K Birla Foundation in 1991.  It is given on a yearly basis to the Rajasthani writers for their literary works in Rajasthani or Hindi published in last 10 years.  The award includes a citation along with a cash prize of 1 lakh Rupees.

Rafael Nadal  Won ATP Mexican Open 2013 Tennis Tournament

Rafael Nadal defeated top seed and defending champion David Ferrer  in the final match of the ATP Mexican Open 2013 tennis tournament. Rafael Nadal won ATP Mexican Open tournament for the second time. Earlier he had won this title in 2005.David Ferrer was the 3-time defending champion

ISRO’s PSLV-C20 Rocket Successfully Launched SARAL

Six foreign micro and mini spacecrafts as well as the Indo-French oceanographic study satellite, SARAL (Satellite for Argos-3 and Altika) were launched successfully by ISRO’s PSLV-C20.
Satellites launched by PSLV-C20 rocket
• 410-kg SARAL with payloads – Argos and Altika
• Two micro-satellites UniBRITE and BRITE from Austria
• AAUSAT3 from Denmark
• STRaND from United Kingdom
• Micro-satellite (NEOSSat)
• Mini-satellite (SAPPHIRE) from Canada
To create a level playing field for women in banking sector, an initial capital of Rs 1,000 crore has been committed in the current Budget for the establishment of India’s first public sector Women’s Bank by the end of 2013.

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