Daily Current Affairs Updates: 12 March 2014

1) IPL to start in UAE on April 16, ends in India on June 1: The IPL will start on April 16 in the UAE and is likely to be held in three phases across three countries, ending in India on June 1. A detailed schedule of dates and venues is yet to be finalised but an IPL announcement said that the first 16 matches would be held in the UAE from April 16 followed by a set of matches between May 1 and 12 to be held in either Bangladesh or, the Indian Home Ministry permitting, in India. This move was taken due to upcoming Lok Sabha poll which will be held during the same time.

2) Rakesh Sethi appointed new chairman, managing director of Allahabad Bank: Rakesh Sethi has become the new chairman and managing director of Allahabad Bank. "Allahabad Bank has informed BSE that the Government of India...have appointed Rakesh Sethi as Chairman and Managing Director of the Bank with effect from the date of his taking over the charge," it said in a regulatory filing. He succeeds Shubhalakshmi Panse.

3) Chhattisgarh Maoist attack: Shinde, Raman Singh pay homage to martyrs: Home minister Sushilkumar Shinde and Chhattisgarh chief minister Raman Singh on Wednesday paid homage to martyrs killed in Sukma Maoist attack. Earlier condemning the Maoist attack on security forces in Chhattisgarh, Shinde had warned that the Centre will take strict action. "I condemn this attack on the CRPF and the police of Chhattisgarh. This has happened for the second time in the same area. We have taken this very seriously," said Shinde.

4) SpiceJet, Boeing ink mega deal: SpiceJet places order for 42 737 MAX jets with Boeing. The biggest-ever deal of Rs.26,000 crore ($4.4 billion) at an Indian air show was signed between Boeing and SpiceJet as the India Aviation-2014 got off to a flying start here on Wednesday. The MoU was inked between the two companies in the presence of Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh during the inaugural session of the five-day India Aviation-2014 show with SpiceJet placing the order for 42 Next Generation 737 MAX 8 aircraft with Boeing.

5) Ram Kripal Yadav joined BJP: Rebel Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Ram Kripal Yadav, who is keen to contest from the Patliputra Lok Sabha seat in Bihar against RJD chief Lalu Prasad's daughter Misa Bharti, on Wednesday joined the BJP.

6) Twitter crashed -- again: The Twitter website crashed on Tuesday -- the social network's second outage in the past nine days. Twitter was down for about an hour because of complications stemming from a planned upgrade of the site, according to the site's status page.

7) India's largest civil aviation exhibition inaugurated: India's largest civil aviation exhibition, India Aviation-2014 (International Exhibition & Conference on Civil Aviation) inaugurated at Begumpet Airport, Hyderabad. This is the 4th year of the exhibition.