CURRENT AFFAIRS MARCH 2013

International Women's Day was celebrated across the world on 8 March 2013. The theme for 2013 International Women's Day was - A promise is a promise: Time for action to end violence against women . Astronomers have for the first time accurately measured the distance between our galaxy (Milky Way) and its closest neighbouring galaxy (Large Magellanic Cloud) and it is 163,000 light-years. The new measurement improves scientists knowledge of the rate of expansion of the Universe called Hubble Constant (named after Edwin P Hubble who discovered in 1929 that the Universe was growing continuously) and is a crucial step towards understanding the nature of the mysterious dark energy that is causing the expansion to accelerate. Determination of the Hubble Constant is highly important for finding out the age as well as size of the universe. The astronomers worked out the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud by observing rare close pairs of stars, known as eclipsing binaries As these stars orbit each other they pass in front of each other. When this happens, as seen from Earth, the total brightness drops, both when one starpasses in front of the other and, by a different amount, when it passes behind. By tracking these changes in brightness very carefully, and also measuring the stars orbital speeds, it is possible to work out how big the stars are, their masses and other information about their orbits When this is combined with careful measurements of the total brightness and colours of the stars remarkably accurate distances can be found. The armies of Nepal and the United States launched a joint military exercise called Shanti Prayas-II at the Birendra Peace Operation Training Centre in Panchkhal, Nepal. This drill is designed for promotion of security as well as regional peace, while also enhancing the peacekeeping capabilities as well as capacity of the nations which participate in Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI). GPOI is the initiative of G8 nations (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United

States) for

increasing the operations for peace support across the worldwide.

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Australia won the Sultan Azlan Shah hockey tournament over host Malaysia. The Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament is held in Malaysia every year. The first tournament took place in 1983. The tournament is named after the ninth king of Malaysia- Sultan Azlan Shah. India won its first Sultan Azlan Shah Hockey Tournament in 1985. Malayalam poetess Sugathakumari has been selected for the Saraswati Samman 2012 for her poetry collection Manalezhuthu (Writing on the Sand). The award, instituted by the K.K. Birla Foundation, carries a cash component of Rs. 10 lakh, a citation and a plaque. The award is given annually to an outstanding literary work written in any Indian language during the last 10 years. The weaponised advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Rudra was officially handed over to Indian Army. Rudra, developed by HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited) is armed with Mistral, the air-to-air missile, heavy machine guns as well as rocket pods World Water Day is celebrated across the world on 22 March. This day was first celebrated in 1993. For the year 2013, the theme is Water Cooperation. The United Nations celebrated the first ever International Day of Happiness on March 20 urging nations around the world to promote the well-being and happiness of their citizens and eradicate human suffering. The initiative comes as part of a resolution passed last year sponsored by the Kingdom of Bhutan recognising happiness as a universal goal and as a guiding principle for public Policies. Bhutan, under the able leadership of King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, adopted Gross National Happiness (GNH) over Gross National Product (GNP) as its major goal many years ago

India has constituted three new High Courts in the northeast Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura taking the totaL number of High Courts in the country from 21 to 24. South Africa hosted the fifth BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Summit in Durban. The summit decided to launch a development bank and create a $100 billion fund for contingency reserve arrangement to tackle any emergency financial crisis in member countries Brundtland Commission of 1987 World cancer day was observed on 4 March The theme for World Cancer Day, 2013 was Cancer - Did you know? Pakistan approved a deal to handover its Gwadar port to China Gwadar port is situated at a strategic location of the Arabian Sea and the mouth of the Persian Gulf. It is only about 400 kilometres away from the Strait of Hormuz, a key global oil supply route. Mauritius President Rajkeswur Purryag visited his ancestral village of Wajidpur in Patna district of Bihar. Rajkeswur Purryag was the Chief Guest at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2013 from 8 January 2013to 9 January 2013. President Purryag was honoured with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award. MCX Stock Exchange ( MCX-SX ), India's third full-fledged equity bourse after BSE and NSE, began trading in equities and equity derivatives Its 40-stock index was named SX40 It will be a free-float based index of large-cap and liquid stocks, representing diverse sectors. The base value will be 10,000 with a base date of March 31, 2010

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Mohan Parasaran was appointed as India's solicitor general Asoke Kumar Mukerji was appointed as the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations President Pranab Mukherjee presented the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2011 to Ela Ramesh Bhatt. Ela Ramesh Bhatt is the founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association of India (SEWA) Anurag G Thapliyal on 28 February 2013 took over as the twentieth Director General of the Indian Coast Guard The state-of-the-art MEMU(Mainline Electric Multiple Unit)coach factory will be set up in Bhilwara, Rajasthan at a cost of Rs.1,000 crore, for which the Railways has joined hands with the public sector BHEL(Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited). The existing rail coach factory at Kapurthala, Punjab is not able to meet the growing demand for MEMU coaches. Main Line Electric Multiple Unit Trains, popularly known as MEMU trains, were first introduced in Indian Railways in the Year 1994-95, as a mode of rapid transit system, to cater to non-suburban passengers, residing in small towns and villages surrounding urban and industrial centres. MEMU trains have higher passenger carrying capacity and higher average speed as compared to conventional loco hauled passenger trains due to faster acceleration and braking characteristics . 67th Santosh Trophy was won by Services as they defeated hosts Kerala at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi. The Services football team is an Indian football team representing the Indian defence services in the Santosh Trophy. Santosh Trophy is an annual Indian football tournament which is contested by states and government institutions. The first winners were Bengal, who also lead the all-time winners list with 31 titles till date. The tournament first began in 1941, and

was the premier football competition in the country before the National Football League started in the year 1996. The trophy as named after the late Maharaja Sir Manmatha Nath Roy Chowdhary of Santosh, which is now in Bangladesh, who had been the President of the Indian Football Association, the football organisation of Bengal and the donators of the trophy. The runners-up trophy, Kamla Gupta Trophy, was also donated by the IFA. The third place teams receive the Sampangi Cup which was presented by the Mysore Football Association (now KSFA) in 1952, in the memory of Sampangi, a renowned footballer from Mysore.
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Work has started on India-based Neutrino Observatory (INO) project, which is coming up along the West Bodi Hills in Theni district in Tamil Nadu. Expected to be completed in four to five years, the INO will house a massive 50,000-tonne magnetic detector to study elusive neutrinos. The 50,000-tonne magnet is supposed to be the largest in the world The South Delhi Municipal Corporations composting plant in Okhla received Rs.25 lakh as carbon credits from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The plant has processed two lakh tonnes of municipal solid waste into high compost through aerobic composting technology. The plant was the first in India to receive the carbon credits from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Carbon credits are tradable certificates or permits awarded for decreasing greenhouse gases in environment. Projects which help in preventing the generation of these greenhouses gases are eligible for earning these credits. One carbon credits equals to the saving of one tone of carbon dioxide or the mass of another greenhouse gas with a carbon dioxide equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide