15th March 2015 Daily Current Affairs Updates

1) Services beat Punjab 5-4 in tie-breaker to lift Santosh trophy 2015:

--> Services lifted the 69th edition of Santosh Trophy after edging out hosts Punjab 5-4 via tie-breaker in a nail-biting final held at Guru Nanak Stadium in Ludhiana on 15 March 2015.

--> With this, Services won the Santosh trophy for the fourth time.

--> Earlier it had won the trophy in 2013, 2012 and 1961.

--> The tournament first began in 1941 and was named after the late Maharaja Sir Manmatha Nath Roy Chowdhary of Santosh, which is now in Bangladesh.

2) Srikanth won Swiss Grand Prix Gold championship:

--> Young Indian shuttler K. Srikanth clinched the Swiss Grand Prix Gold championship title after overcoming a strong challenge from Viktor Axelson of Denmark in a hard-fought men’s singles final on 15 March 2015.

--> The final was held at Basel in Switzerland.

--> With this, he became the first Indian men to win the 120000 US dollars Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold. 

3) Indian women beat Poland to win Hockey World League Round 2:

--> India scored in three of the four quarters to outplay Poland 3-1 in the final and clinch the FIH Hockey World League Round 2 at Major Dhyan Chan stadium in New Delhi on 15 March 2015.

--> Vandana Kataria (15th minute), Ritu Rani scored two goals (44th and 59th minute) for India which led to victory.

4) World Consumer Rights Day 2015 observed:

--> The World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) 2015 was observed on 15 March 2015.

--> The theme for the WCRD 2015 is Helping consumers choose healthy diets.

--> The World Consumer Rights Day (WCRD) is observed on 15 March every year to commemorate the historic address given by the then US President John F Kennedy to the US congress in 1962 in which he outlined the definition of consumer rights for the first time.

5) Veteran Gandhian Narayan Desai passed away:

--> One of the country’s noted Gandhians, Narayan Desai, known for his rendition of Gandhi Katha — stories on the Mahatma’s life — passed away on 15 March 2015.

--> He is son of Mahatma Gandhi’s personal secretary and biographer Mahadev Desai.

--> In 2004, Desai started a lecture series on Gandhi called ‘Gandhi Katha’, which he took across the world and received much acclaim for it.

6) Powerful Cyclone Pam hit south Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu:

--> Powerful cyclone Pam on 14 March 2015 hit the south Pacific archipelago of Vanuatu.

--> The cyclone Pam, a category five tropical storm, brought destructive 270 kilometre-per-hour winds and torrential rain along with it.

--> Vanuatu is located north east of Australia to south west of Hawaii Islands.

7) Lewis Hamilton won Australian Grand Prix to start 2015 season:

--> Lewis Hamilton fought off teammate Nico Rosberg to give Mercedes a dominant victory in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on 15 March 2015.

--> Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, in his first race drive for Ferrari since switching from Red Bull, finished on the podium in third place just ahead of Felipe Massa in a Williams.

--> Hamilton, 30, has won seven of the last eight GPs though this was his first in Australia since 2008. It was Hamilton's 34th win in his 149th GP.