1) Vienna World’s Best City in Quality of Life, Hyderabad Best Indian City: Mercer
•According to the Mercer’s 19th annual Quality of Living survey released Vienna, the capital of Austria has topped the list of cities offering the highest quality of life for the eighth year in a row.
•In India, Hyderabad emerged as the best city in terms of living standards among Indian cities for the third year in a row.
•Baghdad was ranked the worst place at 230 to live due to continuous violence in the city.
2) World Consumer Rights Day being observed today: 15 March
•World Consumer Rights Day is being observed today (15 March 2017) which is an awareness day and theme for this year is 'Building a Digital World Consumers can Trust’.
•Several functions are being organized across the country to mark the occasion. Consumer Affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan will also preside over a function in New Delhi. The day is an opportunity to promote basic rights of all consumers, demanding that those rights are respected and protected.
•On this day in 1962, President John F Kennedy formally addressed the issue of consumer rights in US congress. He was the first world leader to do so, and the consumer movement now marks that date every year as a means of raising global awareness about consumer rights.
•The first World Consumer Rights Day was observed on 1983, and has since become an important occasion for mobilizing citizen action. In India, besides the World Consumer Rights Day, we observe the National Consumer Day on 24th of December every year.
3) Digital push: Gujarat to provide e-marketplace for businesses
•The Gujarat government has entered into an agreement with a global cloud-based solutions provider cloudBuy.com to develop a B2B marketplace for small and large business units in the state.
•The e-marketplace will be used to promote businesses in the state on one single platform, where members can trade with each other and across India and globally.
•The project has been developed as part of the Centre’s ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’ initiatives.
4) Biren Singh selected as CM candidate in Manipur by BJP legislature party
Nongthombam Biren Singh on Monday was elected as the BJP’s legislature party leader in Manipur as the struggle for power in the insurgency-hit state continues. The 56-year-old, who was the face of BJP in Manipur, will meet Governor Najma Heptullah soon to stake claim to form the government. “I thank Amit Shah ji, Modi ji and senior leaders; left Congress due to misgovernance, sure that BJP will give good governance to Manipur,” Biren Singh was quoted as saying by ANI.
Confirming the same, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said Biren Singh has been elected as the leader of BJP legislature party and will be party’s chief ministerial candidate.
5) Indian-origin woman sues Scotland Yard over racism claims
•Usha Evans, Nighat Hubbard and Catherine Bell allege they had faced discrimination from white male officers
•Hubbard also alleged that male officers had made discriminatory comments on her and other women in the force
•An internal inquiry by Scotland Yard found the men had "no case to answer".
6) Lifetime ban of Sergei Portugalov upheld by CAS
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on 13 March 2017 upheld a lifetime ban levied against Sergei Portugalov for his role in providing illicit substances to Russian athletes.
Portugalov is former Chief of the Russian Athletics Federation's Medical Commission.
The CAS upheld the ban as part of an arbitration involving the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) and the Russian Athletics Federation.
In a statement, the CAS stated that there is a "clear evidence" that Portugalov violated IAAF doping rules governing possession and trafficking of prohibited substances.
In a 2015 report, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has stated that Portugalov supplied performance enhancing drugs to athletes and coaches, administered doping programmes and "even injected athletes himself".
About Court of Arbitration for Sport
• The Court of Arbitration for Sport is an international quasi-judicial body.
• It was established to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration.
• Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland.
• Its courts are located in New York City, Sydney and Lausanne.
• The CAS was originally conceived by International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch to deal with disputes arising during the Olympics.
• In 1984, the body was established as a part of the International Olympic Committee in 1984.
