22 FEBRUARY 2014

Ø  Rishang Keishing, 94, India’s oldest parliamentarian gives up politics. He was the member of 1^st lok sabha 1952. He belongs to Manipur.

Ø  The Army on Friday successfully flight-tested Akash, the surface-to-air missile developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, from the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, Odisha.

Ø  Nandan Nilekani, Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), on Friday said he would quit the organisation by March-end to contest the Lok Sabha election on Congress ticket.

Ø  Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson Rajmohan Gandhi joined the Aam Aadmi Party.

Ø  Maharashtra will be the first State to appoint one as the Maharashtra Housing (Regulation and Development) Act, 2012, received Presidential assent this week.

Ø  Eminent journalist and Prasar Bharati chairperson Mrinal Pande has been nominated chairperson of the Advisory Council of Haridev Joshi University of Journalism and Mass Communication, Jaipur. 

Ø  Japan's curiously-named Pocari Sweat is to be sent to the moon, its Japanese maker has said, in what the firm claims will make it the first sports drink on the celestial body.  Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co said it will take part in a private rocket launch in October that is intended to explore Earth's cratered satellite, and hopes to put some of its flagship beverage onboard. The firm said it got involved with the project after scientists discovered traces of water on the moon.

Ø  Popular music director Bappi Lahiri has been appointed the goodwill ambassador of Unesco Nepal’s “Education For All” in a unique honour.

Ø  Liu Yingxia, who was listed as China’s 46th richest woman with assets of four billion yuan ($660 million) by wealth publisher the Hurun Report last year, was removed as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the Xinhua news agency reported late on Thursday.

Ø  With the Lok Sabha elections round the corner, Gujarat Finance Minister Nitin Patel, on Friday, preferred to present in the State Assembly a Rs.1.20 lakh crore vote-on-account budget for 2014-15.  Mr. Patel, who pegged a revenue surplus of Rs.7,697 crore, told the State Assembly that though the fiscal deficit had been estimated at Rs.17,611 crore, it was just 1.93 per cent of the gross state domestic product (GDP). The interim plan allocation for 2014-15 is Rs.61,940 crore. The provision for social sectors in the new financial year in areas such as education, health and family welfare, women and child development, and tribal and social welfare has been stepped up by more than 120 per cent each.  The Minister said total receipts were estimated at Rs.1.20 lakh crore, a rise of 10 per cent over that of 2013-14. Revenue receipts had registered an increase of 12 per cent with estimates of Rs.95,440 crore. The government expected to mop up Rs.63,068 crore from taxes in the new financial year, while it estimated a non-tax revenue of Rs.7,214 crore. The per capita income in Gujarat in 2012-13 stood at Rs.96,976, compared to the national average of Rs.67,839. The per capita income in the country increased at the rate of 9.7 per cent between 2011-12 and 2012-13, while the rate in Gujarat was 11.2 per cent during the same period, Mr. Patel said. As against the collective net loss of Rs.2,702 crore in the State public sector undertakings (PSUs) in 2001-02, these bodies had registered a net profit of Rs.4,041 crore in 2012-13. The share of PSUs in GSDP was 13.09 per cent in 2012-13.