22 March 2012

• World Sparrow Day : 20 March
• World Water Day : 22 March
• Gunnar Toresen : Chief of Stavanger Child Welfare Society, Norway
• Norwegian laws direct it to protect children who are suffering abuse, ill-treatment or neglect while on Norwegian soil irrespective of their or their parents' nationality
• The society have taken custody of two Indian children Aishwarya (1) & Abhigyan (3) who are now migrated to India due to expiry of visa and refuses to handover them to their uncle
• 2012 Earth Hour : March 31 8:30pm
• Observed by switching off all the lights at homes and offices
• Sachin Tendulkar : 2012 Earth Hour Ambassador for India
• Chitrakalamandalam Velu Thampi Dalawa National Award 2011 : conferred to MP Veerendrakumar for his contributions to social cultural and political fields
• Sharad Pawar : Union Agriculture Minister
• Average per capita net availability of foodgrain declined every 5-year in reforms; it showed rise in every 5-years of pre-reforms period
• India ranks 67 in Global Hunger Index, out of 81 countries with worst food security status
• India's GHI value in 2011 worse than it was 15 years ago
• Montek Singh Ahluwalia : Planning Commission Deputy Chairman
• Endre Szemeredi : Hungarian Mathematician conferred Abel Prize 2012 of the Norwegian Academy of Science & Letters for his fundamental contributions to discrete mathematics, computer science
• US warned India & other nations importing oil from Iran that they could face sanctions by July if they do not significantly reduce the imports
• Countries such as China, South Korea faced the warning
• Japan already have reduced Iran oil imports by 15-22%
• US pushing against Iran through its 2012 National Defence Authorisation Act (Section 1245)
• JS Sarma : Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)
• Sigve Brekke : MD of Uninor
• Tech Mahindra & Mahindra Satyam to merge
• Shares to be swapped in the ratio 2:17
• Anand Mahindra : Chairman of Tech Mahindra
• Vineet Nayyar : Vice-Chairman & MD of Tech Mahindra
• CP Gurnani : Director & CEO of Mahindra Satyam
• Sanjoy Anand : CFO of Mahindra Satyam
• Directorate General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) rejected work programme & budget of Reliance Industries' (RIL) block in Mahanadi Basin for 2012-13 for failure to complete minimum works programme
• Reserve Bank of India (RBI) tightened norms for jewel loans by Non-Banking Finance Companies (NBFCs)
• NBFCs should maintain a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of not exceeding 60% for jewel loans
• NBFCs should disclose the percentage of such loans to their total assets in their balance sheet
• NBFCs engaged in lending against jewellery (loans comprising 50% or more of their financial assets) must maintain minimum Tier-I capital of 12%
• NBFCs should not grant any advance against bullion / primary gold & gold coins
• Mukesh Bansal : CEO of Myntra.com, rapidly emerging online fashion & lifestyle products retailer with over 200 brands under its banner
• CS Verma : Chairman of Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL)
• Hike in steel prices likely due to import duty increase on flat steel from 5% to 7.5%
• AP Choudhary : Chairman of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL)
• Group of scientists from Hawaii, Brazil & California at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy precisely measured Solar radius
• They used Michelson Doppler Imager (MDI) aboard NASA's Solar & Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)
• They measured the radius as 696,342 km with an uncertainty of only 65 km
• Ajay Maken : Union Sports Minister
• Lionel Messi : Argentine Footballer of FC Barcelona
• Scored a hat-trick in a Spanish League match against Granada & became Barcelona's all-time leading scorer with 234 goals
• He rewrote 232 goal record of club legend Cesar Rodriguez
• EK Nayanar Gold Cup Football : Bengal Nagpur Railway (BNR) lifted the trophy defeating Air India
• Kapil Sibal : Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Communications & IT
• Dhanraj Choudhary : Secretary-General of Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI)
• Hyderabad likely to host 2013 World Junior Table Tennis Championship
• Soumitra Chatterjee : Veteran Bengali Actor honoured with Dadasaheb Phalke Award for Lifetime contribution to Indian cinema
• Pulok Chatterjee : Principal Secretary to PM
• 7 Mega water route projects and corridors all over the country in the 12th plan carrying an outlay of Rs. 2,100 crore planned for transportation of bulk cargo
• Ajai Malhotra : Indian Ambassador to Russia
  
• A Russian court rejected a second bid to ban a Russian translation of Bhagavad Gita