1) President inaugurated 'Namami Brahmaputra' festival in Assam
•The biggest river festival of India, Namami Brahmaputra, begins in 21 districts of Assam.
•President Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate the festival on the banks of the river Brahmaputra, which is considered country's only male river.
•The main purpose of the 5 day festival (31st March to 4th April) is to give a boost to the investment and tourism prospect in the state. Prime Minister of Bhutan Tshering Tobgay and Governor of Assam Banwarilal Purohit will attend the inaugural ceremony.
2)Third meeting of G-20 framework working group held at Varanasi
•The 3rd G-20 Framework Working Group (FWG) Meeting under the G-20 German Presidency was held in Varanasi on 28th and 29th of March, 2017.
•The first two G-20 FWG meetings under the G-20 German Presidency have already been held at Berlin in Dec 16 and at Riyadh in Feb 17. Since the inception of the FWG in 2009, this is the fourth occasion that India is hosting this meeting.
•Previously, India had hosted the G-20 FWG Meetings in Rajasthan (2012), in Goa (2014) and in Kerala (2015) under different presidencies.
3)Union Government launches Online Film Certification System
•Information & Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu launched the online film certification system, 'e-cinepramaan' with an aim to censor corruption and promote clean cinema.
•The new system of Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) will make the entire process of certification transparent and efficient.
•The new online certification system will be an important step in making the CBFC office paperless and would enable effective monitoring and real-time progress tracking for both CBFC officials and the applicant (producers).The payments made during the process by the producers will go to Bharat Kosh portal.
4)El Salvador becomes first country in the world to ban metals mining
•El Salvador, Central America’s smallest nation, has become the first country in the world to ban metals mining nationwide.
•The new law, supported by 70 lawmakers, bans all exploration, extraction, and processing of metals both in open pits and mines. The level of environmental pollution in El Salvador is one of the highest in the region and the availability of drinking water is the lowest, according to UN data.
5) NASA, ISRO jointly working on project NISAR
•The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) are jointly working on the development of Dual Frequency (L and S band) Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging Satellite named as NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR).
•The L-band SAR is being developed by JPL/NASA, while ISRO is developing S-band SAR.
6) India's S V Sunil named player of the year for 2016 in Asian Hockey Awards
•Indian forward player S V Sunil was named the Asian Hockey Federation (AHF) Player of the Year for 2016.
•Drag-flick specialist Harmanpreet Singh was chosen as the Promising Player of the Year in the continental body’s annual awards. S.V. Sunil played a vital role in India's successful outing at the FIH Champions Trophy in London where the team earned a historic silver medal.
