1 APRIL 2014

Ø  The Supreme Court commuted the death sentence awarded to Devendra Pal Singh Bhullar to life imprisonment in view of the inordinate delay in the disposal of his mercy petition and his mental illness.

Ø  U.S. Ambassador to India Nancy Powell resigned.

Ø  Archaeologists have unearthed a 3,300-year-old tomb which had a 7-metre-high pyramid at its entrance in an ancient cemetery in Egypt. The tomb, found at the site of Abydos, contained skeletal remains from three to four men, 10 to 12 women and at least two children. Within one of its vaulted burial chambers, archaeologists found a finely-crafted sandstone sarcophagus painted red.

Ø  The UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) asked Japan to stop its whaling programme in the Antarctic. Japan catches about 1,000 whales each year in the region for what it calls scientific research. Australia in May 2010 filed a case with the ICJ, arguing that Japan’s programme — under which it kills whales — is actually commercial whaling in disguise. Presiding Judge Peter Tomka on Monday ordered a temporary halt to the Japanese programme. The court said it has decided, by 12 votes to four, “that Japan shall revoke any extant authorisation, permit or licence granted in relation to whaling programme in the Antarctic and refrain from granting any further permits in pursuance of that programme”. The court also in a statement said that “the programme is not for scientific purposes”.

29 MARCH 2014

Ø  A recent and most modern acquisition of the Indian Air Force from the United States, the C-130J Super Hercules military transport aircraft, crashed on Friday near Gwalior, killing all five IAF personnel on board.The wreckage was strewn along the Madhya Pradesh-Rajasthan border, near Karauli district, about 165 km from Jaipur. 

Ø  Justice R.M. Lodha, the seniormost judge of the Supreme Court, has been recommended to be the 41st Chief Justice of India to succeed CJI P. Sathasivam, who retires on April 26.

Ø  Former Norwegian premier Jens Stoltenberg was named the next NATO chief on Friday, stepping in to take over from current Secretary- General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Ø  European space experts said on Friday they had reawakened a fridge-sized robot designed to make the first-ever spacecraft landing on a comet. The 100-kg. Philae lander was revived after more than three years of deep space hibernation. The mission was launched over a decade ago. The National Centre for Space Studies said the spacecraft had re-established contact with Earth.

28 MARCH 2014

Ø  The Supreme Court on Thursday suggested the appointment of the former India cricket captain, Sunil Gavaskar, as the interim president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to replace N. Srinivasan until its final order on the Indian Premier League spot-fixing and betting scandal.

Ø  The U.N. Human Rights Council launched an inquiry into alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka, despite Colombo’s fierce efforts to block an investigation. In a 23-12 vote, the council backed a Western-sponsored resolution that said it was time for a “comprehensive investigation into alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes by both parties in Sri Lanka.” India, for the first time, abstained from voting on a resolution against the island nation at the UNHRC.

Ø  The discovery of two more mounds in January at the Harappan site of Rakhigarhi in Hisar district, Haryana, has led to archaeologists establishing it as the biggest Harappan civilisation site. Until now, specialists in the Harappan civilisation had argued that Mohenjo-daro in Pakistan was the largest among the 2,000 Harappan sites known to exist in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The archaeological remains at Mohenjo-daro extend around 300 hectares. Mohenjo-daro, Harappa and Ganweriwala (all in Pakistan) and Rakhigarhi and Dholavira (both in India) are ranked as the first to the fifth biggest Harappan sites. With the discovery of two additional mounds, the total area of the Rakhigarhi site will be 350 hectares.

Ø  ANNUAL REPORT OF AMMENESTY INTERNATIONAL: Despite a marked global trend towards the abolition of the death sentence, the pattern was disrupted by a sharp spike in the number of executions in Iran (369) and Iraq (169) in 2013, leading to a 15 per cent increase in the global figure for executions as compared to 2012. In India 72 new death sentences were known to have been imposed throughout the year and at least 400 people were believed to be on death row at the end of the year, Excluding China, at least 778 executions are known to have been carried out worldwide in 2013, compared to 682 in 2012. Amnesty International says that it stopped publishing Chinese execution numbers from 2009 in protest against the Chinese government’s refusal to provide the organisation with figures. Nevertheless, it claims China accounts for the single largest number of executions, running “into thousands. There has been a steady decline in the number of countries using the death penalty over the last 20 years. Twenty years ago, 37 countries actively implemented the death penalty. This number fell to 25 by 2004 and to 22 last year. Only nine of the world’s countries have executed year on year for the past five years. Significantly, the USA is the only country to have carried out executions in the Americas, although the numbers fell by four between 2012 and 2013 that saw 39 executions. There were 3108 people on death row last year, with Texas accounting for 41 per cent of all executions in the country.

Ø  Outgoing Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has threatened action by India against Switzerland at global forums such as G20 for its persistent denial to share information on Indians stashing money in its banks. The G20 can impose sanctions for the protection of the member countries’ public finances and financial systems.

27 MARCH 2014

Ø  A French satellite scanning the Indian Ocean for remnants of the missing MH370 jetliner found a possible debris field containing 122 objects.

Ø  Russian mathematician Yakov Grigorevich Sinai (78), one of the most influential mathematicians of the 20th Century, has been chosen for the 2014 Abel Prize, the mathematician’s Nobel Prize, by the Norwegian Academy of Science Letters. The President of the Academy, Nils Chr. Stenseth, announced this in Oslo.

Ø  Approximately seven million people died of air pollution around the world in 2012, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has estimated in its new study.

Ø  Astronomers found rings around an asteroid, the smallest object known to have this feature and only the fifth after Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The twin rings around a rock called Chariklo were spotted in June last year as it passed in front of a star, scrutinised by seven telescopes dotted over a 1,500-kilometre stretch of South America.

Ø  Nearly a month after announcing $19 billion acquisition of instant messaging firm WhatsApp, Facebook reached a definitive agreement to acquire virtual reality technology company Oculus VR, Inc., for about $2 billion in a cash and stock deal. The California headquatered Oculus’ flagship product — Oculus Rift — is a goggle like ‘virtual reality headset’ for video gaming.

26 MARCH 2014

Ø  The G8 group of top economic powers has suspended Russia for annexing Crimea, and has threatened to impose far-reaching sanctions if Moscow continued its incursion into Ukraine. The U.S. and six other economic powers also scrapped the G8 summit to be hosted by Russia in Sochi in June to build pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin. At an emergency summit in the Hague on Monday, the leaders of the U.S., Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and Japan also decided to convene in Brussels without Russia.

Ø  More than a year after the shocking Delhi gang rape, the Indian Ordinance factory today launched a light-weight revolver, “Nirbheek,” designed especially for women to defend themselves from assault. “Nirbheek,” a .32 bore revolver, weighing 500gm, can be carried by women in their purses or handbags. The nomenclature of the light-weight revolver is inspired by ‘Nirbhaya,’ the name given by the media to a paramedical student who was brutally gang raped (and who died later) in a bus in Delhi in 2012. The revolver, priced at Rs 1,22,360, is made of titanium alloy.

Ø  Shigeru Ban, Japanese architect known for his creative and inexpensive designs for disaster relief shelters, has won the 2014 Pritzker Architecture Prize. The annual award, considered the most prestigious prize in the world of architecture, is given to designers who have “significantly contributed to humanity” and for “excellence in built work.”

Ø  Thirty-five countries on Tuesday committed to bolstering nuclear security, backing a global drive spearheaded by U.S. President Barack Obama to prevent dangerous materials falling into the hands of terrorists. In a joint statement issued on the sidelines of the third biennial Nuclear Security Summit (NSS), the countries pledged to work closer together and submit to “peer reviews periodically” of their sensitive nuclear security regimes.

25 MARCH 2014

Ø  The missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 aircraft, was found to have ended its flight in the remote waters of the southern Indian Ocean, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said.

Ø  Leading string-theorist Professor Rajesh Gopakumar of the Department of Physics, Harish-Chandra Research Institute (HRI), Allahabad, has won the 23rd G.D. Birla Award for Scientific Research for 2013.

Ø  Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the third International Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, Mr. Sharif there was no consensus on granting India MFN status and he had asked all stakeholders to discuss the matter.

Ø  At a time when serviceability of submarines operated by the Indian Navy has come under scrutiny, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is said to be developing a system to carry out structured health monitoring of the under-development nuclear submarines and future conventional submarines of the Navy.

critically endangered pygmy hog

Ø  A survey conducted by the Assam Forest Department in the Manas National Park (MNP) has detected an estimated 21 nests of the critically-endangered pygmy hog ( Porcula salvania ). The nests of pygmy hog — the smallest and rarest wild pig — were found in three separate locations. The survey also found pellets of the Hispid hare ( Caprolagus hispidus ) in almost all of 17 camp site locations, where the study was conducted for grassland species. Manas is known to be the last remaining wild habitat of the pygmy hog in the world.

24 MARCH 2014

Ø  INS Sumedha, the latest New Generation Offshore Patrol Vessel to join the Indian Navy, arrived at the port here on Sunday, and was accorded a warm reception by senior officers of the Eastern Naval Command and families of the crew. Designed and built at the Goa Shipyard Limited, INS Sumedha is the third ship of the NOPV Project and the first to join the Eastern Fleet. 

23 MARCH 2014

Ø  Recent satellite imagery reveals that nearly 2,500 hectares of land have been destroyed by forest fires at Bandipur and Nagarahole National Parks since they began over a week ago. An additional 450 hectares have been ravaged in Bandipur and 70 hectares in Nagarahole in the last three days alone, according to images captured by the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) remote sensing satellite on Thursday. The images were analysed by the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) in Hyderabad.

Ø  After a good start two years ago, solar capacity addition seems to be hitting the slow growth lane. India is forecast to see flat capacity addition in 2014 when compared with 2013 even as the global market may improve capacity by about 24 per cent in the current calendar year. The total new solar power capacity addition in the country is forecast at about 1,000 MW for 2014. But, there was very little growth in installations year-over-year and the solar installations in India stood at 1,004 MW for 2013 when compared with 986 MW in 2012, points out Mercom Capital, a global clean energy communications and consulting firm. As on January 31, 2014, cumulative grid-interactive solar power installed capacity in the country stood at 2,208 MW, which was 7 per cent of India’s total renewable power capacity. Several factors are being cited for the slow growth in solar capacity addition. With a few exceptions, there are no Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) PV projects expected to come online until at least mid-2015. Most CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) projects have stalled, while India is now in a trade dispute with the U.S. in the World Trade Organization.

22 MARCH 2014

Ø  Shubhranshu Choudhary, independent journalist and author of the controversial Let’s call him Vasu , has won the 2014 Digital Activism Award from the U.K.-based charity organisation Index on Censorship.

Ø  President Vladimir Putin signed into law Crimea’s absorption into Russia as his defence chief dispelled concerns about Russia’s possible invasion of Eastern Ukraine. Shortly after the Russian Parliament’s upper house on Friday ratified Crimea’s accession treaty, Mr. Putin signed the ratification act and a law creating two new administrative units in Russia: Crimea and separately, the city of Sevastopol, home to the Russian Black Sea Fleet. It took the Kremlin less than a week to complete legal formalities for making Crimea a part of Russia following an overwhelming vote in Crimea last Sunday for breaking with Ukraine and rejoining Russia. 

21 MARCH 2014

Ø  Writer, historian and columnist Khushwant Singh died of cardiac arrest at his residence here on Thursday morning. He was 99.

Ø  India on Thursday urged the visiting President of the 68th United Nations General Assembly John W. Ashe to maintain the momentum on expansion and reform of the Security Council so that there would be a concrete outcome by next year, 70th anniversary of the U.N. At his meeting here with Mr. Ashe, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid called for “clearly identifiable progress” during the Intergovernmental Negotiations.

Ø  Indian business honchos Anand Mahindra and Lakshmi Mittal are among the world’s 50 greatest leaders, according to Fortune magazine. The list of leaders, which includes Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis, through their leadership are “energising” their followers and making the world better.

Ø  Sulaiman Abu Ghaith (48), a Kuwaiti preacher known for provocative anti-American rhetoric in numerous post-attack videos, said to Osama, “America, if it was proven that you were the one who did this, will not settle until it accomplishes two things: to kill you and topple the state of the Taliban.”

Ø  The Central Government will sell 4.2 crore shares or 9 per cent stake in Axis Bank on Friday. The merchant bankers for the deal have proposed the price band at Rs.1,290-1,357 per share for the sale. The closing price for the Axis Bank scrip on Thursday on the Bombay Stock Exchange was Rs.1,356.85 or 2.1 per cent lower than the previous day. The government holds about 20.72 per cent of the shares of the third largest Indian private sector bank through the Specified Undertaking of UTI (SUUTI), an offshoot trust fund of the erstwhile UTI that was formed in 2003. The SUUTI also holds stakes in other private companies. It holds 11.32 per cent stake in tobacco-to-hotels giant ITC and 8.2 per cent in the engineering company L&T. However, the government is unlikely to sell its stake in other SUUTI companies this financial year.

20 MARCH 2014

Ø  Pro-Russian forces seized two Crimean navy bases and captured Ukraine’s naval chief as Moscow tightened its grip on the flashpoint peninsula despite Western warnings its “annexation” would not go unpunished. Dozens of despondent Ukrainian soldiers — one of them in tears — filed out of the Ukraine’s main navy headquarters in the historic Black Sea port city of Sevastopol after it was stormed by hundreds of pro-Kremlin protesters and masked Russian troops.

Ø  United Nations General Assembly President John Ashe has informed Italy that he will raise the issue of two of their marines on trial for the killing of two Kerala fishermen during his three-day visit to India.

Ø  Serving as electronic eyes, unmanned aerial vehicles to be deployed by the police will keep a constant vigil during the Lok Sabha elections in Kolkata and erstwhile in West Bengal during elections. The UAVs, equipped with self-activated cameras, will man the skies during elections in sensitive constituencies to be identified by the Election Commission.

Ø  Sansarchand, accused of killing 200 tigers and often blamed for wiping out the entire big cat population of the Sariska Tiger Reserve, died of prostrate cancer.

Ø  The former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden emerged from his Russian exile Tuesday in the form of a remotely-controlled robot to promise more sensational revelations about U.S. spying programmes. Mr. Snowden’s face appeared on a screen as he manoeuvred the wheeled android around a stage at the TED gathering, addressing an audience in Vancouver without ever leaving his secret hideaway.

Ø  book : “What Pakistan knew about Bin Laden” by Carlotta Gall

Ø  Less than a week after Britian’s five biggest banks shelled out close to $100 million each to keep their outdated software secure, the Reserve Bank of India has warned all domestic banks to take steps before Microsoft ends its Windows XP software support. The U.S software giant will stop issuing updates and patches for bugs in its Windows XP operating system from April 8, 2014.

19 MARCH 2014

Ø  Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has lifted the ban on pain-killer and anti-pyretic drug Analgin and all formulations containing analgin. The drug can now be sold with a warning in India, but it is banned in most parts of the world.

Ø  The release for the first time of the classified Henderson Brooks 1962 war report, first reported by The Hindu on Monday, has been welcomed by scholars as a move that would enable a more transparent understanding of the India-China war and also prompt the government to rethink its long-held reluctance to declassify important historical documents. A 126-page section of the first volume of the Henderson Brooks report, which includes an operational review of India’s failure in the war with China, was made public by veteran Australian journalist Neville Maxwell.

Ø  Ludhiana and Kanpur are among the 10 most polluted cities in the world, says the World Health Organisation. According to a 2011 WHO report, Ludhiana made it to the fourth position along with Quetta in Pakistan. Kanpur made it to the ninth position. The most polluted city in the world is Ahvaz in Iran. The pollution is measured as the microgramme (mcg) concentration per cubic metre of air of particulate matter smaller than 10 micrometres (PM10), the Express Tribune reports.

Ø  The XLRI-Xavier School of Management, Jamshedpur, is all set to confer the Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal for Industrial and Social Peace on Arundhati Bhattacharya, the first woman chairperson of the State Bank of India.

Ø  Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday signed a treaty on Crimea’s accession to Russia after delivering a defiant speech defending his move and blasting the West for pursuing “containment” of Russia and flouting international law. President Vladimir Putin thanked India for taking a “restrained and objective” stand on Russia’s muscle flexing in Ukraine. Addressing a joint meeting of the Russian Parliament on Tuesday on the occasion of Crimea’s reunification with Russia Mr Putin singled out China and India as the countries that showed understanding for Russia’s role in the Ukraine crisis.

Ø  Natco Pharma, on Tuesday, announced that it had received tentative approval from the U.S. health regulator to sell generic version of Roche’s Tamiflu, used to prevent and treat flu.

18 MARCH 2014

Ø  India and China will discuss in Beijing counter strategies to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership being negotiated by the U.S. Montek Singh Ahluwalia is leading the Indian delegation.

Ø  For the second time, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party has found an echo in Pakistan. First it was Arsalan ul Mulk from Gujranwala whose Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was registered by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and now it is a former foreign services officer and lawyer Adnan Randhawa, 34, who wants to follow in Mr. Kejriwal’s footsteps. Mr. Randhawa applied to the ECP for formal registration of his Aam Aadmi of Pakistan Party (AAPP).

Ø  Doctors and scientists at a hospital Chennai have reported the very first occurrence of a rare disease, Haim-Munk Syndrome (HMS) — found only among specific Jewish populations — in a woman of Dravidian descent. Genetic analysis has identified the same gene mutation as the causative factor.

17 MARCH 2014

Ø  Malaysia’s Premier Najib Razak on Sunday spoke to PM Manmohan Singh, seeking India’s help in searching for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 even as India put on hold its search operations, saying it was awaiting instructions from Malaysia.

Ø  The State government has in principle decided to spare 121 hectares of revenue land for the Rs. 1,000-crore Missile Test Launch Facility project proposed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Nagayalanka mandal of Krishna district.

Ø  Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Sunday said the Char Dham yatra would be regulated but not restricted. Pilgrims would be registered through a biometric registration system. Emergency helicopter services would be provided if the yatra routes were blocked by landslips.

Ø  A project for building a 70-storey temple, billed to be the tallest shrine in the world, was inaugurated in Vrindavan coinciding with the Holi festival. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav and Minister of Sate for Parliamentary Affairs Rajeev Shukla participated in the foundation stone laying ceremony of the skyscraper temple ‘Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir’ The project will cost more than Rs. 300 crore and ISKCON is hoping to conclude the temple construction within the next five years. Calling it a historic moment for Mathura-Vrindavan, Mr. Yadav said the project exemplified the goodness of religion.

16 MARCH 2014

Ø  Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Saturday that the missing Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 had been “deliberately” diverted from its course and it had flown for seven hours after its last known point of contact over the Gulf of Thailand.

Ø  Bharatiya Janata Party announced that the party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi would contest the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Varanasi while party president Rajnath Singh would be shifted from Ghaziabad to Lucknow.

Ø  The Supreme Court on Saturday stayed till March 31 the execution of death penalty of two of the four convicts in the December 16 gang-rape and murder case, a couple of days after the Delhi High Court upheld their punishment awarded by the trial court.

Ø  India has nominated Rani-ki-Vav, a 11th-century step well located in Patan, Gujarat, and the Great Himalayan National Park in Himachal Pradesh as candidates for UNESCO’s World Heritage Site status this year. The World Heritage Committee, which will convene in Doha, Qatar, in June, will review the nomination and take a final decision.

Ø  Maruti Suzuki India, which has come under pressure from institutional investors over the proposed takeover of its Gujarat plant by parent Suzuki Motor Corp (SMC), has tweaked its proposals related to the plant and has decided to seek the approval of minority shareholders for the same.

15 MARCH 2014

Ø  The multinational search for the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft carrying 239 passengers is now being extended to the seas east of the Bay of Bengal. The Malaysian authorities have requested for a search in the Bay of Bengal, [the] expanse of [the area to be combed] is approximately 9,000 sq kms (15 km X 600 km). This area is approximately 900 km due west of Port Blair.

Ø  The new Harry Potter-themed area opening at Universal Orlando Resort this summer will allow fans to ride the Hogwarts Express train and experience the British countryside just as the characters did in the book and movie series. Guests will appear to magically pass through a brick wall and board a train with steam and a whistle, according to a Friday news release from Universal Orlando Resort.

Ø  Bharatiya Janata Party is wooing women with the launch of a safety mobile application on Friday. Named Raksha (security), the application allows women to sound an alarm in an emergency.

Ø  Goldman Sachs Asset Management (India) has announced the launch of CPSE (Central Public Sector Enterprise) ETF new fund offer (NFO) which would open for retail investors on March 19. CPSE ETF, an open-ended Index Exchange Traded Scheme NFO, will open on March 18 for anchor investors. It would be listed on the exchanges in the form of an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), which tracks the central public sector enterprises (CPSE) index.

Ø  Amazon has rolled out a pilot project— for physical pick-up of packages— in partnership with Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL). The physical pick-up service allows its users to order an item online, and pick it up from a physical store that Amazon has tied up with. This kind of service is primarily used by customers who may not be at home to collect the package or need a certain package urgently enough to go pick it up themselves. In Mumbai and Delhi, the company has chosen to deal with state-owned oil marketing firm Bharat Petroleum. BPCL operates a retail chain known as In&Out at some of its filling stations across the country. It is through some of these In&Out stores that customers are allowed to pick up their packages.