12 March 2012

• Centre to revoke the export ban on Cotton
• US & European Countries pressure India, Japan & China to curtail oil imports from Iran
• Iran is India's second largest supplier of crude oil after Saudi Arabia
• Iran entering into barter deals with countries such as Russia by exchanging oil for wheat
• Kakodkar Committee : on railway safety submits report with a plan outlay of Rs.1lakh crore
• Sam Pitroda Committee : on railway modernisation also submitted its Rs.5.6lakh crore worth plan outlay
• Dilma Rousseff : Brazil's President
• Addressed UN General Assembly acknowledging the concept "Responsibility While Protecting"
• India & South Africa backs Brazil in the concept
• However, China & Russia remain sceptical
• BRICS Summit 2012 in India (March 28-29)
• Okram Ibobi Singh : Re-elected as Manipur's CM for third consecutive term
• Tagore University for the Liberal Arts : First institution to be established under the Human Resource Development Ministry
• To be set up in Pune
• Kofi Annan : UN Special Envoy on Syria
• Bashar al-Assad : Syrian President
• Jose Manuel Barroso : European Commission President
• MM Pallam Raju : Minister of State for Defence
• Shashi Kant Sharma : Defence Secretary
• RK Mathur : MSMEs (Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises) Secretary
• 28th Cappelle La Grande International Open Chess, France : Harikrishna Pentala (Ind) bt Parimarjan Negi (Ind)
• All England Open Badminton
• Men : Lin Dan (China) bt Lee Chong Wei (Malaysia)
• Women : Li Xuerui (China) bt Wang Yihan (China)
• Jairam Ramesh : Union Minister for Rural Development, Drinking Water & Sanitation
• Announced a National Award for Sanitation & Water in the name of Maharashtrian saint Sant Gadge Baba
• Sant Gadge Baba Swachta Abhiyan : Cleanliness scheme in Maharashtra
• Ved Prakash : Acting Chairman of UGC (University Grants Commission)