Daily Current Affairs Updates: 1 March 2014

1) Former Army chief General VK Singh joins BJP: Former army chief Gen VK Singh — a controversial figure during his army tenure and after — along with nearly three dozen senior retired defence officers joined the BJP on Saturday amid promises to set up ex-servicemen welfare commission and a war memorial once the NDA government comes to power. Singh – who was locked in a row with the government over his retirement age – was the first serving army chief to drag the government to the SC.

2) Bangaru Laxman, ex-BJP president passed away in Hyderabad: Former BJP president Bangaru Laxman has died in Hyderabad's Yashoda Hospital on Saturday following a prolonged illness. He was 74. He joined politics at an early age and was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 1996. He was also jailed during the Emergency in 1975. Bangaru Laxman was president of the BJP between 2000 and 2001. Before becoming the BJP president, Laxman was the Union minister of state for railways between 1999 and 2000.

3) Noted academician GK Chadha is dead:  Noted economist and academician G.K. Chadha died Saturday after a heart attack, a statement said. He was 73. The first president of the SAARC-established South Asian University, Chadha was associated with the university since its inception in 2008, said a university statement.

4) Aam Aadmi Party declared third list of Lok Sabha candidates: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Saturday declared their third list of candidates for 20 Lok Sabha seats with prominent names being Savita Bhatti, wife of late comedian Jaspal Bhatti, who has been given a ticket from Chandigarh, and Anand Kumar, a professor from JNU, from Delhi.

5) Zero Discrimination Day celebrated on 1 March 2014: UNAIDS- United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, Executive Director Michel Sidibé was launched the Zero Discrimination Day on 27 February with a major event in Beijing, China. Zero Discrimination Day is celebrated on 1 March 2014 to call to people everywhere to promote and celebrate everyone’s right to live a full life with dignity—no matter what they look like, where they come from or whom they love. The symbol for Zero Discrimination is the butterfly, widely recognized as a sign of transformation.

6) Saurabh Chandra takes over as Secretary, Petroleum Ministry: Saurabh Chandra assumed charge as Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, on Saturday. He succeeds Vivek Rae, who demitted office on superannuation on February 28.

7) Pranab Mukherjee approved Telangana Bill, President’s rule imposed in Andhra Pradesh: The Bill to carve out Telangana on Saturday received the assent of President Pranab Mukherjee who also signed the proclamation to impose central rule in Andhra Pradesh. The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill 2014, which got Parliament’s approval on February 20 despite strong opposition from Seemandhra leaders, got the Presidential assent, paving the way for creation of the country’s 29th state by splitting Andhra Pradesh. There will be 13 districts in residuary Andhra Pradesh while Telangana will have 10 districts, including the Hyderabad city. In a bid to address concerns of the Seemandhra region, government had already announced grant of Special Category Status including tax incentives to the residuary state as part of a six-point development package for AP’s two successor states.

Why Presidents rule?- The decision to impose the President’s Rule in Andhra Pradesh was necessitated by N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s resignation as the Chief Minister on February 19 as he was opposed to division of the state to carve out Telangana.

8) Afghanistan script history, beat Bangladesh by 32 runs in Asia Cup:  Afghanistan notched up their first major win against a Test playing nation as they produced an all-round performance to script an upset 32-run victory over Bangladesh in their Asia Cup match on Saturday. Chasing 255 for victory, Bangladesh could not recover from a top-order collapse and kept on losing wickets at regular intervals to be bundled out for 222 in 47.5 overs at Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium to slump to their second consecutive loss in the five-nation regional tournament.

9) Government of India constituted an expert committee to study demand for Bodoland state: Government of India on 27 February 2014 constituted one-man expert committee to study and examine the demand of a separate Bodoland state, which will be carved out from Assam. G K Pillai, the former Union Home Secretary will head the one man committee and will submit its report in nine months after consulting all sections of the society on the viability of a separate state.