• Hours from playing in the biggest final of his young career, Taylor Fritz was in severe pain. The prospect of having to withdraw against Rafael Nadal nearly had him in tears.
• His coach urged him not to potentially risk damaging his sore ankle further. Fritz stubbornly refused to bow out. His faith in himself paid off.
• Fritz upset Nadel 6-3 7-6 (5) on March 20  to win the BNP Paribas Open and snap the 21-time major champion's 20-match winning streak this year.
• Nadal's 20-0 start to the year included the Australian Open, his 21st major championship that broke a tie with Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. He also won titles in Melbourne and Acapulco.
• In an error-filled women's final, Iga Swiatek defeated Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-1. The 20-year-old Polish player and Fritz earned USD 1.2 million each for their victories.

• One of the world's top chess players has been banned from competitions for six months over his support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
• Russia's Sergey Karjakin, a former challenger for the world title, expressed "complete support" for Russian President Vladimir Putin in an open letter shortly after Russia sent troops into Ukraine last month and has posted regularly on social media in support of Russia's campaign.
• A disciplinary panel of the International Chess Federation, known as FIDE, ruled Karjakin had broken a rule against tainting the reputation of the game of chess or the organizations that administer it. He can appeal the decision but told Russian news agency Tass he does not plan to do that.
• The 32-year-old represented Ukraine until 2009 before switching allegiance to Russia and was born in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.
• He was at one time the youngest player to achieve the title of grandmaster and unsuccessfully challenged world champion, Magnus Carlsen, in 2016, losing on a rapid tie-break.

• Indian para-athlete Dharambir set a new Asian record in the men's F32/51 club throw event en-route winning silver on the opening day of the 13th Fazza International Para Athletics Championships in Dubai.
• India won three medals on an opening day with Devendra Singh also clinching a silver in the F44 men's discus throw event, while Jyoti Behera claimed a bronze in 400m women's final T37/38/47 final. In the club throw F32/51 men's final, Dharambir, the 2018 Asian Para Games silver medallist, threw the club to a distance of 31.09m in his second attempt to finish second behind Algeria's Walid Ferhah (37.42m).
• In the process, Dharambir also set a new Asian record. Great Britain's Stephen Miller took the bronze with an effort of 29.28m. Later, Devendra clinched the silver in the men's discus throw F44 after hurling the disc to a distance of 50.36m in the combined F42/43/44 category.
• Kuwait's Faisal Sorour, the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic bronze medallist, took the F42 gold with a throw of 47.61m, which was also a new Asian record, while France's Badr Touzi claimed the bronze in F42 with a 39.16m throw.
• The championships kicked off the World Para Athletics Grand Prix season with around 500 para-athletes from 43 nations in action at the Dubai Club for People of Determination grounds. The event holds significance as athletes will aim to achieve the Minimum Qualification Standard for this July's Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and Asian Para Games in Hangzhou this October.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on March 21 attended the second India-Australia virtual summit. Both discussed their commitment towards strengthening bilateral trade, migration and mobility and education.
• However, the much awaited Rs 1,500 crore investment package, which PM Morrison was expected to announce for India on Mar 21 , didn’t happen. There is no clarity on why this did not happen as no joint statement was issued.
• Australian High Commissioner to India Barry O’Farrel had on Mar 20  indicated that this investment package, which would have been the largest ever by Australia for India, would be announced during the summit.
• Unlike PM Modi who shared many tweets about the summit, the Australian PM didn’t share any.
• Meanwhile, the early conclusion of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) is on the cards.
• PM Modi also said India and Australia were collaborating well as part of the Quad.
• This was the second India-Australia virtual summit. The first one was held in June 2020.
• Meanwhile 29 antiquities — consisting of sculptures and paintings executed in a variety of materials — have been repatriated from Australia to India. These artefacts belong to six broad categories including the themes of ‘Shiva and his disciples,' ‘Worshipping Shakti,' ‘Lord Vishnu and his forms,' Jain tradition, portraits and decorative objects.
• PM Morrison talked about the threat of increasing change in the Indo-Pacific region, in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine conflict. He also said that Russia needed to be held accountable.

• Pushkar Singh Dhami will continue as the Uttarakhand chief minister, said the BJP on Mar 21 , ending the 11-day suspense over it.
• Dhami under whose leadership the BJP had contested the February 14 Assembly polls was the frontrunner for the post.
• The BJP's dilemma on the choice of a chief minister for Uttarakhand was caused by Dhami's loss in Khatima, a seat he had been winning since the 2012 Assembly polls.
• The party had won 47 of the 70 seats in the Assembly polls, the results of which were announced on March 10.

• BJP legislature party leader N Biren Singh was sworn in as the chief minister of Manipur for a second time , while his rival for the top job Thongam Biswajit Singh was accommodated as a cabinet minister in his ministry.
• Singh, along with BIswajit and four other cabinet ministers, were administered the oath by Governor La Ganesan.
• The cabinet ministers who took oath along with Biren and Bishwajit Singh, were Yumnam Khemchand Singh, Govindas Konthoujam, Nemcha Kipgen, all from the BJP, and Awngbow Newmai from the Naga People's Front (NPF).
• Two political parties, the JD (U) with six members, and the Kuki People's Alliance with two members and one independent, had also "extended their unconditional support to the BJP".
• Following this, the BJP-led government's strength rose to 41, a two thirds majority in the 60-member Manipur assembly.

• Seven of the 11 newly sworn-in ministers in Punjab have declared criminal cases against themselves, with four of them facing serious charges, poll rights group Association for Democratic Reforms said on Mar 21 .
• The 11 ministers include Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. Punjab Election Watch and the Association for Democratic Reforms analysed the affidavits of all 11 ministers, including the CM.
• The ADR said seven ministers (64 per cent) have declared criminal cases against themselves. Four of them (36 per cent) have declared serious criminal cases against themselves.
• Of the 11 ministers, nine are crorepatis and the average of their assets is Rs 2.87 crore. The minister with the highest declared total assets is Bram Shanker (Jimpa) from Hoshiarpur. He has assets worth Rs. 8.56 crore.
• Lal Chand from Bhoa (SC) constituency has the lowest declared total assets worth Rs 6.19 lakh. Nine ministers have declared liabilities. The minister with the highest liabilities is Bram Shanker, He has liabilities worth Rs 1.08 crore.

The Centre has postponed the earlier scheduled week-long event ‘Healthy boy-girl contest’ to start from March 21 and directed the states to instead begin a two-week-long campaign ‘Poshan Pakhwada' on nutritional challenges.

Poshan Pakhwada this year will be rolled out from March 21 to April 4 with the key focus on creating awareness on community-based activities, gender sensitisation, prevention of anaemia, encouraging traditional food for securing healthy mothers and children in the scheduled tribe areas.

To ensure wider people’s participation all the district collectors and the district project officers of the women & child development department have been asked to seek support from the other departments, local organisations and people’s representatives, panchayats, self-help groups, farmers’ groups, youth clubs to achieve the desired goals of 'Poshan Abhiyan'.

Ahead of the campaign, the Chhattisgarh government claimed to have achieved remarkably in the fight against malnutrition. “In the year 2019, 4.33 lakh malnourished children were identified and Mukhyamantri Suposhan Abhiyan was launched. So far, 1.72 lakh children are out of the vicious cycle of malnutrition”, CM Bhupesh Baghel said in the Assembly.

The scheme now is a target-based intervention programme, the children from 6 to 54 months were considered as ‘earmarked’ as per the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendation that the child growth standards can be effectively measured under the age of 5 years.

The number of malnourished children has declined by nearly 36 per cent in the state since the launch of the 'Mukhyamantri Suposhan Yojana’.

Arrangements were made to provide hot-cooked food for children under Suposhan Abhiyan, the supplementary nutritional food to the identified kids at anganwadi centre, distribute free nutritious food at local-level to the malnourished women and children.