Table of Contents:
1. Prime Minister Inagurated the Bengaluru – Mysuru Expressway 
2. Indian Navy Conducts Major Exercise TROPEX-23 
3. Colonel Geeta Rana became the First Woman Officer to Command a Field Workshop
4. Shyamaprasad Won Kerala's Prestigious Television Lifetime Achievement Award

Prime Minister Inagurated the Bengaluru – Mysuru Expressway 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 12 inaugurated the 118 km-long ten-lane expressway between Bengaluru and Mysuru and laid the foundation stone for four-lane highway between Mysuru and Kushalnagar. This expressway will help the people to easily commute between Bengaluru and Mysuru.” 

Features  

• Total length: 118km 

• It is built in two phases; with the first  stretch between Bengaluru-Nidaghatta and second stretch between Nidaghatta-Mysuru. 

•  It is constructed under the Government of India’s flagship programme called Bharatmala Pariyojana(BMP) 

•  The cost of construction is Rs. 8,480 crores.  

• It is expected to cut down the travel time between Bengaluru and Mysuru to 75 minutes from three hours. 

National Highways Authority of India 

• Formed in: 1995 

• Purpose: Development and Maintenance of National Highways and Expressways 

• Headquarters: Delhi 

• Chairperson: Santosh Yadav  

Chief Minister of Karnataka: Basavaraj Bommai 

Governor of Karnataka: Thawar Chand Gehlot 

Minister for Road Transport and Highways of India: Nitin Gadkari 

Indian Navy Conducts Major Exercise TROPEX-23 

Indian Navy’s major Operational level exercise TROPEX for the year 2023, conducted across the expanse of IOR over a duration of four months from Nov 2022 to Mar 2023 in the Arabian Sea. The overall exercise construct included Coastal Defence exercise Sea Vigil and the Amphibious Exercise AMPHEX. 

Tropex, the Indian Navy' biggest-ever biennial exercise "Tropex" witnessed the participation of around 70 ships, six submarines, and more than 75 aircraft, and it covered around 21 million square nautical miles on Thursday. TROPEX is being is conducted in many phases to test Navy’s transition from peacetime to hostilities. In the first phase, the Indian Navy had conducted coastal defence exercise ‘Sea Vigil’ along the entire coastline and Island territories of India. 

The culmination of exercise brings to an end an intense operational phase for Indian Navy. 

• The Chief of the Naval Staff, India: R Hari Kumar 

Colonel Geeta Rana became the First Woman Officer to Command a Field Workshop 
 

Colonel Geeta Ranaof the Indian Army's Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers has become the first woman officer of the Indian Army to command a field workshop on the forward front in eastern Ladakh. Ms. Rana is currently a Colonel in the Corps of Electronics and Mechanical Engineers (EME). The Indian Army has also approved women officers to take up the role of commanders.After this Colonel Geeta has become the first woman officer to achieve this achievement. She will command the independent field workshop deployed along the China border. 

• The Chief of Army Staff: General Manoj Pande 

Shyamaprasad Won Kerala's Prestigious Television Lifetime Achievement Award 

Filmmaker Shyamaprasad has been chosen for the Television Lifetime Achievement Award instituted by the State government for contributions to Malayalam television. The award consists of a cash prize of ?2 lakh, citation, and a statuette. A jury headed by veteran journalist Sasikumar, the recipient of the first edition of the award, and consisting of journalist Baiju Chandran, writer-journalist R. Parvathi Devi, and Kerala State Chalachitra Academy Secretary C. Ajoy Chandran chose him for the award. 

• Minister for Cultural Affairs, Kerala: Saji Cheriamn 

Shyamaprasad 

• One of the notable directors in Mollywood

• First film: Kallu Kondoru Pennu 

• Received National Film Award for Best Feature Film 1998 for his film Agnisakshi and then in 2004 for Akale and in 2007 for Ore Kadal  

• Winner of many awards including Kerala State Film Awards