General Awareness Updates – March 2010

Persons in News:

National Security Adviser M. K. Narayanan has been appointed Governor of West Bengal. He is among the five new Governors appointed. The other appointments are Shivraj Patil as Governor of Punjab as well as Administrator of Union Territory of Chandigarh, M.O.H. Farook as Governor of Jharkhand, Urmila Singh as Governor of Himachal Pradesh, and Shekhar Dutta, former Defence Secretary as Governor of Chhattisgarh.

Billionaire Sebastian Pinera (left) has been elected Chile’s President in a political shift to the right after 20 years of leftist rule. This is the first time the right has wrested power from the centre left since General Augusto Pinochet’s 1973-1990 dictatorship ended. Mr. Pinera defeated Eduardo Frei of the ruling leftist coalition.

Veteran journalist and writer Mrinal Pande has been appointed Chairperson of Prasar Bharati.

Lieutenant General V. K. Singh will be the new Chief of the Army staff. He will assume office on March 31 and will succeed General Deepak Kapoor. Lt. Gen. V. K. Singh, the senior most infantry officer, currently leads the Eastern Army Command. He took part in the 1971 operations in East Pakistan and IPKF Operations in Sri Lanka.

A. K. Matoo has resigned as the President of Hockey India (HI) following allegations made by hockey players against him. He has also resigned from his posts of Treasurer of IOA and Organising Committee of the Commmonwealth Games.

The former Foreign Secretary, Shiv Shankar Menon (right) has been appointed the new National Security Adviser (NSA). He succeeds M. K. Narayanan who has been designated Governor of West Bengal. He will be the fourth NSA. The post of NSA was created in 1998. Brajesh Mishra and J. N. Dixit who were previously NSA’s were also former Foreign Secretaries.

J. D. Salinger, the legendary author of ‘The Catcher in the Rye’, has died, aged 91.

The President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa (left) has been re-elected. He defeated the opposition consensus candidate retired General Sarath Foneska by a huge margin of over 17 per cent. Mr. Rajapaksa obtained 57.88 per cent of the vote.

Walter Fredrick Morrison, the man credited with inventing the Frisbee, has died. Mr. Morrison sold the manufacturing rights to his “Pluto Platter” in 1957. The flying disc was later renamed the ‘Frisbee’.

Special Director of the CBI, Sharad Chandra Sinha, has been appointed the second chief of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), succeeding R. V. Raju who retired on January 31. The 56-year-old Mr. Sinha will have a tenure till October 2013. His long tenure was likely to help the government in implementing various policies in countering the threat of terrorism, which includes setting up of a National Counter Terrorism Centre.

Hindi film icon Amitabh Bachchan (right) has accepted the Gujarat Government’s offer to be the brand ambassador for the state.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has won a second term in office trouncing united opposition candidate Sarath Fonseka, his one-time army chief in jointly eliminating the LTTE who later parted ways. Later, Mr. Fonseka was arrested on charges of treason.

American writer Erich Segal, 72, who captivated millions with his novel ‘Love Story’, has died. Mr. Segal was a classics professor at Yale University when he first wrote story about a wealthy Harvard student Oliver, who angers his father by marrying Jennifer, a woman from a poor background but their love story takes a tragic turn when Jennifer dies of cancer. The book, which coined the phrase ‘Love means never having to say you’re sorry’, became a staggering commercial success and was made into a 1970 hit film.

The President of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak was the chief guest at the Republic Day parade in New Delhi.

The pro-Russia presidential candidate, Viktor Yanukovych (left), has won Ukraine’s presidential election by a margin of 3.48 per cent. He bested current Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s 45.47 per cent.