8 FEBRUARY 2014

Ø  The Attorney-General told the CBI on Friday that it could not prosecute the former Intelligence Bureau Special Director, Rajendra Kumar, and three other accused in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case without sanction from the competent authority.

Ø  Indian luger Shiva Keshavan’s lament on his blog three months ago that the three-member contingent at the Sochi Olympics would suffer the “dubious distinction” of being the first Indians not competing under the Indian flag at an Olympic event came true. As Mr. Keshavan, Alpine skier Himanshu Thakur and cross-country skier Nadeem Iqbal prepared to march under the Olympic flag at the inaugural ceremony at the Fisht Olympic Stadium in the Russian city, there was seething anger all over as disappointed sports lovers termed it a “national shame.” The International Olympic Committee had banned the Indian Olympic Association in December 2012. The Winter Olympics was scheduled for inauguration at the “Fisht” Olympic Stadium at 20:14 local time. It goes on till February 23.

Ø  ISRO’s commercial wing, Antrix Corporation, signed a contract with Singapore’s ST Electronics (Satcom & Sensor Systems) Pte Ltd. for putting in space its 400-kg TeLEOS-1 satellite, and entered into agreements with DMC International Imaging for launching three 350-kg DMC-3 disaster monitoring satellites.

Ø  The Defence Research and Development Organisation is developing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for the Central Reserve Police Force for use in Naxal-hit areas of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. It would demonstrate the operational capability of the first vehicle, Nishant, in a couple of months in Jagdalpur. He said that for UAVs meant to operate in thick forests, the DRDO was working on “lower frequency radars”

Ø  Frog Find, an Android app available on Google Play, brings 55 species of the amphibian from the Western Ghats to the cellphone. The app, which helps you accurately identify and report frogs of the Western Ghats, was the result of research and development by scientists at the Centre for infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning (CiSTUP) at the Indian Institute of Science and at Gubbi Labs, a research collective, among others.

Ø  India was among key players in generic drug market with eight of its companies figuring among the top 25 companies in the world that accounted for 28 per cent of global generics market.

Ø  The Hong Kong police today successfully dismantled the largest World War II bomb yet found in the city. The nearly one-tonne U.S. Navy ANM66 bomb was discovered by building workers late on Thursday in the Happy Valley district.