26th March 2015 - Important Current Affairs updates

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International Affairs

• Saudi Arabia launches a military operation against Houthi rebels to defend legitimate government in Yemen.
• Sri Lanka’s new president Maithripala Sirisena held talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping amid a push to recalibrate his predecessor’s strongly pro-China policies and a review of major Chinese projects in the island nation.
• Mr. Sirisena and Mr. Xi reaffirmed longstanding ties between their countries at the start of their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing. 
• The talks kicked off Sirisena’s first visit to China since taking office in January and follow his recent trip to India.
• The two sides were likely to discuss a $1.5 billion China-funded port city project in Colombo which Mr. Sirisena’s government suspended pending scrutiny of environment impacts and alleged corruption. 
• US aircraft have launched bombing raids to support Iraqi forces fighting to recapture Tikrit from the Islamic State (IS) group, after Baghdad issued a request for air power.
• Tikrit : Executed dictator Saddam Hussein's home town

National Affairs

• The Ministry of Railways appointed Ajay Shankar Committee to review the performance of the Public Private Partnership (PPP) cell functioning under the Railway Board.
• This Committee will recommend measures to make the cell more effective, customer friendly and result oriented. 
• PM Narendra Modi chairs 5th National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) meet 
• The Prime Minister is the the ex-officio Chairman of the Authority while Chief Ministers of Bihar, West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand are its members.
• The previous meeting was held on October 27 last year, which was chaired by Union Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti. 
• About NGRBA 
•  NGRBA is as an empowered planning, financing, monitoring and coordinating authority for river Ganga.
• Constituted : 2009
• Objective : To ensure effective abatement of pollution and conservation of the river Ganga by adopting a holistic approach with the river basin as the unit of planning. 
• Functions : All measures necessary for planning and execution of programmes for abatement of pollution in the Ganga in keeping with sustainable development needs.

New Appointments

• Diplomat Vikas Swarup has been appointed as the new official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs.
• Present spokesperson, Syed Akbaruddin has been appointed as Chief Coordinator of the India-Africa Forum Summit.
• Important Point to Note : Vikas Swarup is also the author of bestseller novel Q & A, on which the Oscar winning film Slumdog Millionaire was based,
• Former Sri Lankan president Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga will head a special presidential task force to identify urgent reconciliation needs of the minority Tamil community.
• Google Inc has appointed Ruth Porat as Chief Financial Officer (CFO). 
• She took the charge today. 
• She succeeded Patrick Pichette who announced his retirement on 10 March 2015.

Science & Technology

• The 59-and-half hour count down for PSLV-C27/IRNSS-1D Mission has started today
• IRNSS-1D is India's latest navigation satellite.
• Which is going to launch on 28th March 2015 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
• This will take the country closer to setting up its own navigation system on par with the GPS of the US.

Sports

• World Cup 2015
• India knocked out of World Cup, lose to Australia in semifinals. 
• Australia beat India by 95 runs. 
• Australia will play ‎Cricket WorldCup‬ final against ‎New Zealand‬ on 29th March.

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