1) Queen Elizabeth II is now world’s oldest monarch.
- Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is now the world’s oldest monarch following the death of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
- Abdullah (90), who passed away, was two years older than the Queen, who will be 89 in April this year.
- She is one of the eight octogenarian monarchs in the world, the others including the King of Thailand and the Emperor of Japan.
2) Pooja Thakur - first woman officer to lead guard of honour at Rashtrapathi Bhavan.
- Wing Commander Pooja Thakur has become the first woman officer to lead the ceremonial Guard of Honour at Rashtrapathi Bhavan.
- She led the ceremonial Guard of Honour which was inspected by the U.S. President Barack Obama at Rashtrapathi Bhavan.
About Pooja Thakur:
- She hails from Rajasthan.
- Currently she is posted at Disha - the publicity cell under the Directorate of Personnel Officers at the Air Force Headquarters.
3) Narayana Murthy donates £200,000 for U.K. Gandhi statue.
- The plans for erecting a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square have received a boost with a donation of £200,000 from N.R. Narayana Murthy, co-founder of Infosys.
- The donation goes a long way in meeting the target of £750,000 set by the Gandhi Statue Memorial Trust, a charity that was set up by the economist Lord Meghnad Desai for the purpose of commissioning and installing the statue.
4) Obama to meet Kailash Satyarthi.
- Mr. Obama met Satyarthi, who along with Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 “for their struggle against the suppression of children and young people and for the rights of all children to education.
- Satyarthi’s non-government organisation, the ‘Bachpan Bachao Andolan’, claims to have rescued over 83,000 children from bonded labour and slavery since its inception in 1980.
5) Google India MD Rajan Anandan to head South East Asia too.
- Rajan Anandan, Managing Director of Google India, has been given a larger mandate in the Asia Pacific region.
- He has been elevated as the new lead for Google in South-East Asia, in addition to the current role of heading the technology major’s India operations.
- The 46-year-old Anandan has been with Google India since 2011 when he joined as Vice-President of Sales & Operations.
6) Mamata dares Centre to amend Constitution.
- West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress Chairperson Mamata Banerjee dared the Centre to amend the Constitution and delete the word `secular` from the Preamble.
Preamble:
- The preamble to the Constitution of India is a brief introductory statement that sets out the guiding purpose and principles of the document.
- The preamble-page, along with other pages of the original Constitution of India, was designed and decorated solely by renowned painter Beohar Rammanohar Sinha of Jabalpur who was at Shantiniketan with acharya Nandalal Bose at that time.