Daily updates 26 March 2015

1. Vikas Swarup to be new spokesperson of External Affairs Ministry

i. Senior Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer and noted novelist Vikas Swarup of Slumdog Millionaire-fame will be the new spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs.

ii. The Hollywood movie Slumdog Millionaire which won eight Oscar’s was based on Mr. Swarup’s successful debut novel “Q&A”.

iii. The third edition of the summit is scheduled to take place in India on October 29.

Daily Updates 25 March 2015

1. Govt launches Digital India initiative with Twitter Samvad

i. The Union government launched a new platform, in association with Twitter, for direct communication among leaders, government agencies and citizens through tweets and text messages, helping boost e-governance plans.

ii. Through Twitter Samvad, a set of curated Tweets will be delivered every day from the accounts of the government and the leaders to mobile-phone users across the country as text messages. 

The 62nd National Film Awards 2015

* The 62nd National Film Awards 2014 were announced on 24 March 2015 by the Chairpersons of the three juries on Feature Films, Non Feature Films and Best Writing on Cinema.

* Kangana Ranaut won the best actress award for her powerful performance in "Queen" where Bollywood movies "Haider" and "Mary Kom" bagged key honours while Chaitanya Tamhane's "Court" was named the best feature film.

Dadasaheb Phalke award -2014

* Veteran actor Shashi Kapoor, who has reigned and contributed to the Hindi film industry for almost five decades, has been honoured with Dada Saheb Phalke award 2014, India's highest honour in cinema.

* He will be the 46th Dada Saheb Phalke Award winner.

* The 2014 Dadasaheb Phalke award to Shashi Kapoor made him the third member of Kapoor family to receive the award after Prithviraj Kapoor and Raj Kapoor.

Current affairs Que.23 March 2015

1) Who was on 19 March 2015 appointed as the head of an innovation council of Indian Railways called ‘Kayakalp’?

(A) Azim Premji

(B) E. Sreedharan

(C) Ratan Tata

(D) APJ Abdul Kalam