01 April 2012

• Aung San Suu Kyi : Leader of National League for Democracy (NLD) of Myanmar
• P Chidambaram : Union Home Minister
• Pawan Kumar Bansal : Union Minister for Water Resources
• Sushil Kumar Shinde : Union Minister for Power
• South Indian Bank opens 700th branch in Thampanoor
• SIB 700 & SIB 700 Plus : new deposit schemes introduced following the branch expansion
• Jairam Ramesh : Union Minister for Rural Development
• Akhilesh Yadav : Uttar Pradesh CM
• MV Prabhu Daya : Singapore-flagged vessel detained for involving in collision with fishing boat off Kerala killing 5 fishermen
• ESL Narasimhan : Governor of Andhra Pradesh
• Naveen Patnaik : Odisha CM
• Union Home Ministry propose three amendments to Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS)
• The amendments would make arrest warrants mandatory; divest armed forces' power to open fire causing death; set up a grievance redress cell
• Mamata Banerjee : West Bengal CM
• Narendra Modi : Gujarat CM
• Dr VK Saraswat : Director General of Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO); also Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister
• Terms the performance of Tatra trucks as outstanding
• Gen VK Singh : Chief of Army Staff (COAS) of Indian Army
• AK Antony : Union Defence Minister
• Agni-V : Nuclear-capable three stage ballistic missile
• Places of worship outnumber educational institutions & health institutions in Punjab
• The 2.77cr population is met by 63,244 worship places but there are only 31,228 educational institutions (in ratio 2:1) and 14,494 health institutions (in raio 4:1)
• State has 76.7% literacy rate compared to national literacy rate of 64.8%
• Only 49.9% houses are in good condition
• 96.6% households have electricity
• 85.9% households have access to drinking water within the premises
• 82.6% have televisions & 12.8% have computers
• Jagir Kaur : former Punjab Cabinet Minister sent to jail for criminal conspiracy, forcible abortion & abduction in case of mysterious murder of her daughter
• SY Quraishi : Chief Election Commissioner
• VS Sampath & HS Brahma : Election Commissioners
• Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy : General Secretary of Communist Party of India (CPI)
• AB Bardhan : Outgoing General Secretary
• Thein Sein : Myanmar President
• US President Barack Obama approves new sanctions against Iran
• Says countries to cut down Iranian crude imports saying there is sufficient oil in world market to sideline Iran
• Iran has world's third largest oil reserves
• Kofi Annan : UN's & Arab League's Special Envoy to Syria
• Bashar al-Assad : Syrian President
• Rehman Malik : Pakistan Interior Minister
• Asif Ali Zardari : Pakistan President
• GL Peiris : Sri Lankan External Affairs Minister
• Mahinda Rajapaksa : Sri Lankan President
• Antonio Ereditato : Italian physicist head of OPERA team that made the claim that neutrinos travel faster than light
• OPERA is part of European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN)
• State-owned oil companies IOC, HPCL, BPCL hike Aviation Turbine Fuel (AFT)/jet fuel price by 3%
• Air India's Financial Restructuring Plan approved by SBI-led consortium of banks
• The Rs.67,520cr debt-ridden carrier signed four agreements with the consortium
• Mark Dolan : Country Manager (India) of Scottish Development International (SDI) which is engaged in promoting investments into Scotland & helping domestic companies explore new export markets
• SDI planning to expand its presence to South India
• For the first time in history India has qualified for World Track Cycling Championship to be held in Melbourne which is an Olympic qualification event
• O Bikram Singh, Amrit Singh & Amarjit Singh to represent India
• Rajender Kumar : Indian wrestler bagged bronze in an Olympic Asian Qualifying Event held in Astana, Kazakhstan
• Landmarks across the world observed Earth Hour by switching lights on March 31
• AS Kiran Kumar : appointed Director of Space Applications Centre (SAC) important facility under Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
• Indian scientists discovered anti-malarial compounds from various marine organisms mostly from Gulf of Mannar & Palk Bay
• Under a collaborative project titled "Discovering Anti-malarials from Marine Organisms"
• University of Kerala signs Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with International Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi for collaboration & sharing of intellectual property rights
• Dr K Padmakumar : Director of Centre for Marine Biodiversity under the University of Kerala
• Maharashtra Government raised objections to some portions of Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) last year report to Ministry of Environment & Forests