*** Around INDIA ***
# The Union Ministry of Labour & Employment has proposed a preliminary draft of Labour Code to provide social security cover to the entire workforce in the country including self-employed and agricultural workers
# Manhar Valji Bhai Zala was appointed as the new Chairperson of the National Commission for Safai Karamcharis (NCSK)
# A Parliamentary panel (headed by BJP MP Bhagat Singh Koshyari) suggested merging state-run telecom firms BSNL and MTNL for their long-term survival and success.
# President, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated an international conference on the theme of “Universities of the Future: Knowledge, Innovation and Responsibility” at O. P. Jindal Global University (JGU), Sonipat, Haryana
# “2nd Agri Leadership Summit-2017” held at Surajkund, in Faridabad district of Haryana
*** TAMIL NADU ***
# State hit by the severe drought
# RSS's All India Meet to be held for the first time in the State in COimbatore
# State will not allow dams across the Cauvery at Mekedatu or the Bhavani: Chief Minister, Mr. Edappadi K. Palaniswami
*** STATES SCAN ***
# Haryana: the first edition of the Haryana Sahitya Sangam began in Panchkula
# Punjab:the first Cabinet meet under the new Chief Minister, Captain Amarinder Singh decided to put an end to the VIP culture in the State (to abolish beacon lights on vehicles), setting p a Special Task Force to deal with drug menace, formed a group of experts to assess the quantum of agricultural debt of farmers in the State
# Uttarakhand: Former Uttarakhand BJP chief Mr. Trivendra Singh Rawat was sworn in as the 8th Chief Minister of the state (5th BJP Chief Minister of the state)
# Uttar Pradesh: Mr. Yogi Adityanath (birth name is Mr. Ajay Singh Bisht), the controversial hardline advocate of Hindutva, will be the 32nd Chief Minister of the State; he is a Lok Sabha MP from Gorakhpur Constituency
- This time, it is two Deputy Chief Ministers for the State (i) BJP's State President Mr. Keshav Prasad Maurya and (2) Lucknow Mayor Mr. Dinesh Sharma
*** BILATERAL ISSUES ***
# India and Russia have inked two pacts for long-term maintenance support for Sukhoi-30MKI jets
# Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi to participate in major international economic event in St. Petersburg (Russia) on Jun 01-02, 2017; Prime Minister likely to participate in 18th India - Russia annual summit and also to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of Establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Russia
*** WORLD ***
# USA: US state of Kansas has declared to observe March 16 as “Indian American Appreciation Day” to honour Indian engineer Srinivas Kuchibhotla who was killed in an apparent hate crime
*** MISC ***
# Eleven Indian women were honored with the ‘Women Icons’ Award among 25 Asian Women in Singapore for dedicating their lives to social work.
# The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) have signed an agreement in New Delhi to work together for crop improvement and agronomy programmes for grain legumes and dryland cereals.
# National car racer Ashwin Sundar and his wife Niveditha were burnt to death after their BMW hit a tree and burst into flames
# Dev Raj Sikka, former director of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune passed away
- He was the first to link El Nino phenomenon and Indian Monsoon in 1982