Daily Current Affairs Updates: 10 March 2015

1) PM Narendra Modi left for three-nation tour:

--> Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for Seychelles on 10 March 2015 on the first leg of his five-day visit to three key Indian Ocean countries that include Mauritius and Sri Lanka, asserting that strong relations with them was “vital” for India’s security and progress.

--> Modi, who will be the first Indian Prime Minister to travel to Seychelles in 33 years and to Sri Lanka in 28 years, is expected to tap into the “substantive” goodwill and historical linkages between India and the three Indian Ocean economies which offer new possibilities of cooperation in defense and economic spheres.

2) 46th Raising Day of the CISF celebrated:

--> Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 10 March 2015 saluted the "bravery" and "sense of duty" of CISF personnel on force's 46th Raising Day.

--> The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) came into existence in 1969 to provide integrated security cover to public sector undertakings and at present has a strength of around 1.4 lakh personnel.

--> The force is responsible for securing critical infrastructure installations like nuclear installations, space establishments, airports as well as the Delhi Metro.

3) Lok Sabha passed Land Acquisition Bill:

--> The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (Amendment) Bill, 2015, popularly known as the land bill, was adopted by the Lok Sabha after debating it for two days.

--> Congress and Biju Janata Dal walked out ahead of the voting, to protest the removal of a clause that makes it mandatory to get farmers' consent prior to the acquisition of land by the government.

--> Government made nine amendments to bill, all of them were adopted.

4) RIL is India's largest company with Rs 3.68 lakh cr worth assets:

--> Reliance Industries Ltd is the country's largest corporate with assets worth Rs 3.68 lakh crore, followed by state-owned Indian Oil Corp and mortgage lender HDFC.

--> In the list of top 10 corporates in terms of assets, RIL and HDFC (Housing Development Finance Corp) were the only two firms from the private sector, data compiled by the Corporate Affairs Ministry showed.

--> This information was given by Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

5) U.S. declared Venezuela a national security threat:

--> The United States on 9 March 2015 declared Venezuela a national security threat and ordered sanctions against seven officials from the oil-rich country in the worst bilateral diplomatic dispute since socialist President Nicolas Maduro took office in 2013.

--> U.S. President Barack Obama issued and signed the executive order, which senior administration officials said did not target Venezuela's energy sector or broader economy.

6) Attorney General's office is public authority under RTI Act: Delhi High Court

--> Delhi High Court in its ruling has held that Attorney General of India comes under the ambit of Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005.

--> This ruling reversed the previous decision of the Central Information Commission (CIC) which had held that Attorney General does not come under RTI Act.

--> Court ruled that Attorney General is a public authority and comes under the ambit of section 2(h) of the RTI Act.

--> In 2012, CIC bench had ruled that the Attorney General of India is only a person and cannot be considered an authority under the RTI Act.

7) Five sick PSUs, including 3 HMT units, to be closed down:

--> Five public sector undertakings (PSUs) will be closed down by the government, which has included some of the best known state-run enterprises like Air India, MTNL and Hindustan Shipyard, in the list of 65 sick PSUs.

--> Heavy Industries Minister Anant Geete said this during Question Hour in Lok Sabha on 10 March 2015.

--> Air India and MTNL, once market leaders in aviation and mobile telephony sectors respectively, were declared sick according to the criteria for a PSU to be declared as such, after they incurred losses worth 50 per cent or more of their average net worth during four preceding years. 

8) MS Dhoni registered most wins as Indian captain in World Cup:

--> Mahendra Singh Dhoni on 10 March 2015 registered most wins by an Indian captain in the history of the cricket World Cup.

--> The Indian skipper surpassed former cricket legend Kapil Dev with 12 wins following his team's emphatic triumph over Ireland.

--> Dhoni leads the list of most World Cup wins by an Indian captain which includes Kapil Dev(11) at second spot, Mohammad Azharuddin(10) at the third place, Sourav Ganguly(9) at fourth.

--> Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting leads the list with 24 wins during 2003-2011.