Daily Current Affairs Updates: 07 March 2015

1) Kerala Assembly speaker G Karthikeyan passed away:

--> Senior Congress leader and Kerala Assembly Speaker G Karthikeyan passed away in Bangalore, Karnataka. He was 66.

--> A prominent Congress leader in Kerala, Karthikeyan has entered into politics through Kerala Students Union, the student outfit of Congress.

--> He had been elected to the state assembly in 1982, 1991, 1996, 2001, 2006 and 2011.

--> In Congress government headed by A K Antony in 1995, Karthikeyan had been power minister. He had served as civil supplies minister in the Congress government in 2001.

2) Snooker shortlisted for Tokyo 2020 Olympics:

--> The green baize game of snooker, played with multi-coloured balls, has been short-listed among three sports to be included in the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, according to Captain P.V.K. Mohan, president of the International Billiards and Snooker Federation (IBSF). 

3) Saina Nehwal advanced to All England Badminton Final:

--> Saina Nehwal became the first Indian in 14 years to reach the final of the All England Open Badminton Championships by virtue of a straight games win over China's Sun Yu here on 7 March 2015.

--> The third seed became the first Indian woman to enter the summit clash of the prestigious $500,000 tournament by defeating the tall Chinese 21-13, 21-13 in 50 minutes at the Barclaycard Arena, taking a 2-1 lead in career meetings.

--> Only two Indians -- Pullela Gopichand (2001) and Prakash Padukone (1980) -- have won the tournament till date.

4) NASA's Dawn spacecraft reached dwarf planet Ceres:

--> NASA's Dawn spacecraft has created history by becoming the first mission to achieve orbit around the dwarf planet Ceres with an aim of providing new insights and capturing images from the distant world.

--> The spacecraft was approximately 61,000 kilometres from Ceres when it was captured by the dwarf planet's gravity, NASA said.

5) Walmart India appoints Ashwin Mittal as CFO:

--> Walmart India has appointed Ashwin Mittal as chief operating officer and Javier Rojo as real estate and business development head.

--> Mittal will replace Jill Anderson who will soon repatriate back to Walmart in US, said the company in a statement.