Notes:
India’s tallest national flag has been unfurled in Belagavi (also known as Belgaum) in Karnataka. The 9,600 sq.ft flag on a 110 m flag pole was unfurled by Ramesh Jarkiholi, District in-charge Minister. The event was attended by leaders, school children, and religious leaders of Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Sikh institutions at the Kote Kere front. The 110 m tall flag post at Kote Kere is near the historic Belagavi fort in the city. It is taller than the post in Pune (107 m) and the one at the India-Pakistan border at Attari (105 m) in Punjab.

Notes:
Narendra Jha (55), the noted film and television actor, has passed away in Nashik, Maharashtra on March 14, 2018. He was born in Madhubani, Bihar. He began his small screen journey with Mandira Bedi’s Shanti and went on to model in TV ads. He is best known for his performances in films such as “Raees”, “Kaabil”, “Mohenjo Daro” and “Haider”.

Notes:
The 105th session of the Indian Science Congress (ISC) will be hosted by Manipur Central University in Imphal from 16 to 20 March 2018. The focal theme of the ISC is “Reaching the Unreached Through Science & Technology”. The Indian Science Congress is an annual event, usually held in the first week of January. Top scientists from across the country and the world attend the event. The 104th ISC was held at Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh.

Notes:
The Bengaluru-based non-profit organisation, Janaagraha Centre for Citizenship and Democracy (Janaagraha) has released the 5th edition of its Annual Survey of India’s City-Systems (ASICS) 2017 report. The study evaluated quality of governance in cities by assessing laws, policies and institutional processes currently in place. In its 2017 edition, the survey covered 23 major cities in India across 20 states based on 89 questions. In it, Pune scored 5.1 out of 10 & topped the chart for the first time. It was followed by Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Bhubaneswar and Surat, with scores in the range of 4.6 to 4.5. The report addresses five major issues, and suggests solutions at the local body, State and Central government levels. It underlines the need for sharp focus on City-Systems or institutional reforms to city governance in our cities.

Notes:
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) and the Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University (RGNAU) on March 13, 2018 to strengthen human resource possibility over India’s aviation industry. Under the agreement, the signatory institutions would leverage the existing infrastructure for training in India to expand the reach of vocational training in aviation disciplines. The IATA is a trade association of the world’s airlines and is headquartered in Montreal, Canada.

Notes:
India will host the 17th Annual Conference of International Competition Network 2018 (ICN2018) for the first time from 21st to 23rd March 2018 in New Delhi. The ICN advocates adoption of superior standards and procedures in competition enforcement around the world, formulates proposals for procedural and substantive convergence, and facilitates effective international cooperation to the benefit of member agencies, consumers and economies worldwide.

Notes:
India has been ranked 78th among 114 on the World Economic Forum (WEF)’s Energy Transition Index (ETI) 2018. The report titled “Fostering Effective Energy Transition”, ranks countries on how well they are able to balance energy security and access with environmental sustainability and affordability. According to the report India has taken bold measures to improve energy access, energy efficiency, and to improve the deployment of renewable sources of energy. However, energy transition in the country will require large investments, and an enabling environment and robust regulatory frameworks to support the transition. The overall list was topped by Sweden, followed by Norway, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, the Netherlands and UK.

Notes:
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has launched a mobile app ‘Lost and Found’ for passengers at 59 airports across India through which travellers can register complaints to recover items they lost or forgot at various airports. The app can be downloaded from the website of the Information and Technology Ministry. The main advantage of this mobile app is that the passengers can directly register complaints and get status of their complaint immediately from the airports under CISF security cover. The mobile phone application can also be used to place a request for obtaining technical consultancy provided by the force. The CISF guards 59 civil airports across the country. It is directly under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs and its headquarters are at New Delhi.

Notes:
M Sukumaran (76), the well-known Malayalam writer, has passed away in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on March 16, 2018. The writer, whose works focused on the sufferings of the dispossessed, won the prestigious Kerala Sahitya Akademi award for his book ‘Marichittillathavarude Smarakangal’ in 1976. He later went on to win the award again in 1997 for Janathikam. In 2006, the writer won the Kendra (Central) Sahitya Akademi award for his short story collection ‘Chuvanna Chihnangal’. Another one of his seminal works is ‘Seshakriya’, which made into a film, and he won the State Government Film Award for Best Story in 1981. Two of his works ‘Sangha Ganam’ and ‘Unarthupattu’ were also made into feature films.

Notes:
Defending champion Purva Barve from India has clinched the Women’s Singles (Under-19) title at the Israel Junior Badminton tournament 2018 held in Rishon LeZion, Israel on March 17. She won the long drawn battle against third seeded and top-ranked Russian Anastasiia Pustinskaia in three sets 21-19, 19-21, 21-13. The title is her first in 2018 and third overall. Earlier she won the Israel Junior 2017, Italian Junior International 2017 apart from a bronze at the Russian Junior White Nights 2017.