1) Modi becomes first Indian PM to visit Sri Lanka in 28
years:
--> Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 13
March 2015 flew into Colombo in the early hours for a historic visit.
--> Modi was received by Sri Lankan
Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe at the airport after he arrived in Colombo
for a two-day visit at 5.25 am. following an overnight journey from Port Louis
in Mauritius in a special Air India plane.
--> Sri Lanka is the final stop of his
three-nation tour of Indian Ocean island nations that took him to Seychelles
and Mauritius.
--> Modi is the first Indian prime
minister to visit Lanka in 28 years.
--> His trip to Lanka is also the first
standalone prime ministerial visit to the island nation since the 1987 Rajiv
Gandhi visit.
--> Modi is accompanied by National
Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar.
2) Iceland withdraws its application to join the EU:
--> The North Atlantic island of Iceland
has withdrawn its bid to join the European Union, with the government saying
that its interests are best served outside the 28-nation EU.
--> Iceland started its membership
negotiations in 2010 looking to better anchor itself to Europe two years after
its economy imploded amid a banking collapse.
--> Iceland’s foreign ministry had
announced on 12 March 2015 that the application was withdrawn.
3) INS Alleppey decommissioned:
--> INS Alleppey, one of the six
Ponchicherry class coastal minesweepers purchased from the erstwhile USSR in
the 1970s, was on 13 March 2015 decommissioned at sunset after nearly 35 years
of service under the Western Naval Command.
--> After INS Alleppey’s
decommissioning, the Indian Navy will be left with five other operational
minesweeper vessels.
--> The ship was decommissioned by Rear
Admiral MS Pawar, Flag Officer Commanding, Maharashtra and Gujarat Naval Area,
at Mumbai Naval Dockyard.
4) RBI, Sri Lankan central bank agreed on currency swap
deal:
--> Reserve Bank of India has agreed for
a $1.5-billion currency swap agreement with the Sri Lankan central bank to help
the island nation keep its currency stable, Prime Minister Narendra Modi
announced on 13 March 2015.
--> The agreement was announced after a
meeting between Modi and Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena.
--> At the current valuation, one Indian
rupee is equivalent to 2.12 Sri Lankan rupees. It has lost almost three per
cent value in comparison to the Indian rupee so far in 2015.
5) World Sleep Day observed:
--> World Sleep Day is observed on the
Friday of the second week of March.
--> This day is being organized by the
World Sleep Day Committee of the World Association of Sleep Medicine (WASM)
since the year 2008.
--> The aim of this day is to celebrate
the benefits of good and healthy sleep and to draw society attention to the
burden of sleep problems and their medicine, education and social aspects; to
promote sleep disorders prevention and management.
6) UAE to host Asian Cup Football in 2019:
--> United Arab Emirates won a unanimous
vote to host the Asian Cup in 2019, the Asian Football Confederation said.
--> It will be the second time that the
UAE has organised the continent's showcase tournamnent having previously staged
it in 1996, when the hosts lost a penalty shootout in the final to Saudi
Arabia.
7) Pakistan tested 1st indigenous armed drone Burraq and
laser guided missile Barq:
--> Pakistan on 13 March 2015
successfully tested its first indigenously built all-weather armed drone named
Burraq and a laser guided missile named Barq.
--> By successfully testing of Burraq,
Pakistan became the 9th country in the World to develop an unmanned combat
aerial vehicle (UCAV) domestically.
8) Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed sentenced to
13-year imprisonment:
--> Former Maldivian president Mohamed
Nasheed was on 13 March 2015 sentenced to 13-year imprisonment by a criminal
court of Maldives under the anti-terrorism laws.
--> He was charged under the island
nation’s Anti-Terrorism Act, 1990 for his order to arrest a Criminal Court
judge Abdulla Mohamed in 2012.
9) Dr. Alka Beotra becomes Member of the Executive Board of
WAADS:
--> Dr. Alka Beotra, Scientific
Director, National Dope Testing Laboratory, Ministry of Youth Affairs &
Sports, has been nominated to the Executive Board of WAADS (World Association
of Anti Doping Scientists).
--> Her tenure on the Executive Board of
WAADS will be for a period of three years, i.e. from March 2015.
--> The WAADS is an organisation
comprising anti doping scientists from all the WADA- accredited labs across the
world.
