Daily Current Affairs Updates: 26 March 2015

1) Vikas Swarup appointed as the new MEA spokesperson:

--> Noted novelist Vikas Swarup, who made his debut with the bestseller novel "Q&A" (on which Slumdog Millionaire was based) is the new official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs.

--> Ministry of External Affairs is the only one which has full-fledged spokesperson holding regular briefing.

--> Swarup will succeed Syed Akbaruddin who will head for an ambassadorial post.

--> Mr. Vikas Swarup is currently the Joint Secretary (UN-Political) at the MEA in Delhi.

--> Apart from Q & A he has two more novels named Six Suspects and The Accidental Apprentice to his name.

2) Google Inc appointed Ruth Porat as its Chief Financial Officer:

--> The world's largest search engine, Google Inc has hired Ruth Porat as the Chief Financial Officer(CFO) on March 24, 2015.

--> She will succeed Patrick Pichette.

--> She will now directly report to Larry Page, who is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Co-Founder of Google.

3) Justice Ashok Bhushan sworn in Kerala Chief Justice:

--> Justice Ashok Bhushan was on 26 March 2015 sworn in as Chief Justice of Kerala High Court.

--> Governor P Sathasivam administered the oath of office to Justice Bhushan, who was serving as acting chief justice of the high court since August last.

--> Justice Bhushan, hailing from Uttar Pradesh, was enrolled as an advocate with the Bar Council of Uttar Pradesh in April, 1979.

--> He was transfered to Kerala High Court and sworn in as a judge on July 10, 2014.

4) Michel Platini re-elected as UEFA President:

--> Michel Platini was re-elected by acclamation as UEFA president for a third term on 24 March 2015.

--> The former France international, who has been president since 2007, was handed another four-year term by delegates of the 54-member nations after standing unopposed.

--> UEFA represents the national football associations of Europe, runs nation and club competitions including the UEFA European Championship, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, and UEFA Super Cup.

--> UEFA stands for: Union of European Football Associations

5) India lost to Australia in ICC World Cup Semi final:

--> Defending champions India lost by 95 runs to Australia in the Semi final match of the ICC World Cup 2015 played at Sydney on 26 March 2015.

--> Chasing 329, India faltered after a strong start, losing wickets at regular intervals and folding for 233.

--> Australia will play New Zealand in the World Cup final.

--> Australian batsmen dominated proceedings for the major part to become the first team to post a 300-plus score in a World Cup semifinal.

--> Smith was named Man of the Match.

6) Countdown began for launch of IRNSS-1D:

--> Countdown began on 26 March 2015 for the launch of India’s latest navigation satellite IRNSS-1D onboard PSLV-C-27 on March 28 from Sriharikota that would take the country closer to setting up its own navigation system on par with the GPS of the US.

--> The launch of IRNSS-1D, originally scheduled for launch on March 9, was deferred after an anomaly was found in one of the telemetry transmitters.

--> IRNSS 1D is the fourth in the series of seven satellites, the space agency is planning to launch to put in place the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).

--> The first three satellites in the IRNSS series were launched from Sriharikota on July 1, 2013, April 4 and October 16 last year respectively.

7) John F. Nash, Jr. and Louis Nirenberg shared Abel Prize 2015:

--> US mathematician John F Nash Jr and Canada-born American national Louis Nirenberg have been named the joint winners of the Abel Prize for 2015 for their contributions to mathematical sciences, the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters said.

--> The two mathematicians won the prize, dubbed the maths Nobel, "for striking and seminal contributions to the theory of nonlinear partial differential equations and its applications to geometric analysis.

--> Outside mathematics, Nash is best known for a paper he wrote about game theory, the mathematics of decision-making, which ultimately won him the 1994 Nobel Prize for economics and features strongly in the 2001 film about him, "A Beautiful Mind".

--> The Abel prize has been awarded annually since 2003 in memory of the Norwegian mathematics genius Niels Henrik Abel.