CURRENT AFFAIRS 2009-10

National March 2009

The Election Commission announces that elections to the 15th Lok Sabha will be held in five phases, on April 16, 23 and 30 and May 7 and 13. The Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Sikkim will be held simultaneously.

The Boards of Directors of Reliance Industries Limited and its refinery subsidiary Reliance Petroleum Limited approve the merger of the firms, the nation's largest-ever corporate merger

The Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express the Country's first superfast passenger train completes 40 years of service.

India's light combat aircraft Tejas is bang on target in the first test sortie in the second phase of weapon testing under way at an Air Force base in the north-Western sector.

A new version BrahMos supersonic cruise missile meant to attack a particular target and out of a cluster on land is successfully tested at Pokhran, Rajasthan.

The DRDO successfully launches an interceptor missile from the Wheeler Island off the Orissa coast and it destroys a Dhanush missile at an altitude of 80 km over Bay of Bengal.

The SEBI gives nod for Satyam Computer Services for choosing a strategic investor to acquire 51 per cent stake in the company.

Manipur Human rights activist Irom Chanu Sharmila on a continuous fast for the past nine years demanding complete withdrawal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 is freed from judicial custody, in Imphal.

Air Marshal D.C. Kumaria takes charge as the first-ever Director General Operations at Air Headquarters in New Delhi.

India and Chile decide to explore the possibility of a free trade pact after talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Michele Bachelet.

Meghalaya is put under President's rule and the Assembly is kept under suspended animation. For the first time in 30 years, inflation plummets to its lowest level at 0.44 per cent for the week ended March 7.

Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata launches commercially Nano, the people's car at a function in Mumbai.

Sister Mary Prema is elected the new Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity in place of the ailing Sister Nirmala.

Venu Srinivasan, Managing Director, Sundaram-Clayton takes over as the Confederation of Indian Industry president for 2009-10, at the CII annual convention in New Delhi.

The Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Mediaperson for 2008 is conferred on Nirupama Subramanian, Islamabad Correspondent of the The Hindu and Vinita Deshmukh, Editor of Intelligent Pune in New Delhi.

The Atomic Energy Commission chairman Anil Kakodkar, actors Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Akshay Kumar, noted Tamil writer D. Jayakanthan among 62 persons presented with the Padma awards.