12 APRIL 2014

Ø  BOOK- Accidental Prime Minister: Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh by his former media adviser Sanjaya Baru.

Ø  India has decided to send the naval stealth frigate INS Shivalik to participate in an international fleet review and maritime exercise hosted by the Chinese Navy on April 23 — an exercise that has acquired particular diplomatic significance with the United States declining to join the review after Japan was excluded from the event. China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy is hosting the review and exercise in the northeastern port of Qingdao, the headquarters of its North Sea fleet, as it prepares to mark its 65th anniversary with great fanfare. Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to preside over the celebrations. At least 10 countries have so far confirmed their participation in the fleet review and exercise, including India, Australia, South Korea, New Zealand, Indonesia and Pakistan, according to a provisional list. With India and Pakistan taking part, the review and exercise will also provide a rare instance of both countries jointly taking part in a naval exercise. The fleet review and maritime exercise will take place along with the annual meeting of the Western Pacific Naval Symposium (WPNS) — a U.S.-established grouping of 20 countries, including Australia, Canada, Russia, Japan, South Korea and China, and three observers, India, Bangladesh and Mexico.

Ø  Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh will travel to Beijing and Moscow next week. India’s last high-level political interaction with China took place towards the end of last year and another is unlikely till 2014 end when its President Xi Jinping is likely to visit India. With Russia, a lot has changed in the past couple of months due to the turmoil in Ukraine. Late last year, the Indian Ambassador in Moscow reported no response to an Indian request for oil blocks. Last month, when Russia was in need for support after annexing Crimea, a top energy official Igor Sechin flew into India to promise oil wells and even a pipeline.

Ø  In its first night trial, the Agni-1 surface-to-surface nuclear-capable ballistic missile was test-fired for its full 700-km range from the Wheeler Island off the Odisha coast.

Ø  British comic author Sue Townsend, the creator of teenage angst-ridden Adrian Mole , has died after suffering a stroke. She was 68.

Ø  Foreign exchange reserves continued to increase in the new financial year, gaining $2.974 billion to reach $306.647 billion for the week ended April 4, as currency assets rose.

11 APRIL 2014

Ø  The third phase of polling in 91 Lok Sabha constituencies spread over 14 States and Union Territories on Thursday registered a record turnout, ranging from 80 per cent in Lakshadweep to 51.49 per cent in Naxal-dominated Bastar district of Chhattisgarh.

Ø The UN Security Council voted unanimously to send 12,000 U.N. peacekeepers to Central African Republic, where violence between Christians and Muslims has triggered fears of genocide. The resolution, submitted by France, pledged to deploy up to 10,000 military personnel and 1,800 police to the former French colony, where sectarian violence has killed thousands in the last year. The resolution was adopted by the 15-member Council by a show of hands in a vote called by Nigeria, which holds the body’s rotating presidency.The resolution authorises French soldiers to “use all necessary means” to provide support to the U.N. Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA).

Ø  Russian cargo ship Progress M-23M successfully docked with the International Space Station, bringing the crew crucial supplies and water. The unmanned ship, which was launched from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, docked with the ISS at 21:14 GMT. The station was flying over the west coast of Peru at the time of Progress M-23M's docking. The ship is packed with some 2.4 tonnes of supplies for the station’s six-member international crew, including fuel, water, oxygen, and parcels from friends and family. The ISS is currently under the command of Koichi Wakata, the first Japanese astronaut to hold the post. 

10 APRIL 2014

Ø  Three personnel of the Commando Battalion for Resolute Action unit of the Central Reserve Police Force were killed and three others injured in a Maoist ambush in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district.

Ø  A massive fire had broken out on Sindhurakshak followed by a series of explosions, killing all 18 Navy personnel, including three officers. The 3,000-tonne submarine sank in the South Breakwater in Mumbai’s naval dockyard within hours of the incident. Sabotage is one of the six possible reasons for the sinking of kilo-class submarine INS Sindhurakshak in August 2013, a preliminary report of the board of inquiry (BoI) has held. According to the report, submitted to the Defence Ministry and accessed by The Hindu , the BoI, chaired by Commodore Deepak Bisht, cited five other probable reasons as well. The other reasons include human error (inadvertent mishandling of ammunition), malfunctioning of equipment or an accident. The BoI can submit a final report only when the submarine is pulled out and is subjected to a forensic and chemical test. The first explosion, which was minor, could be because of malfunctioning of equipment. The subsequent explosions were major, probably due to the triggering of torpedoes, which also led to the sinking of the ship. This is impossible without a human element. This is why the inquiry panel has deliberated on the point of sabotage. One of the other possibilities could be that the sailors were not able to load the missiles properly.

9 APRIL 2014

Ø  Thirteen people were killed and 35 injured in a bomb blast on a train in Pakistan’s restive southwestern Balochistan province on Tuesday. The blast took place inside coach number 9 of passenger train Jaffar Express, which was on its way to Rawalpindi from Quetta.

Ø  The Navy last week sold the iconic INS Vikrant to a ship-breaking company here for Rs. 63.2 crore. The decommissioned aircraft carrier, which played a major role in the 1971 war and was retired in 1997, is now the property of IB Commercial Private Ltd. INS Vikrant (formerly HMS Hercules) was purchased by India from the United Kingdom in 1957. It was operated from 1961 to 1997.

Ø  The coming Commonwealth Games in Glasgow will emulate the security apparatus India used when it hosted the tournament’s last edition, according to organising officials. A Scottish Police team was in Delhi recently as part of a “transfer of knowledge” exercise on security provisioning.

Ø   The number of Indian tourists visiting the U.S. is likely to cross 10 lakhs in 2015 and Indian visitors will register the third fastest growth after Chinese and Columbians from 2013 to 2018. The Department of Commerce in its latest report on international visitors and their projections, said 69.8 million international visitors travelled to the US in 2013, generating a record USD 181 billion in receipts.

8 APRIL 2014

Ø  An Australian naval ship hunting for MH370 has detected fresh underwater signals consistent with aircraft’s black boxes, in what officials on Monday said was the “most promising lead”,raising hopes of solving the unprecedented month-long aviation mystery.

Ø  Doyen of cinematography V.K. Murthy, who carved a niche for himself by presenting striking images in black and white to the celluloid world, passed away at his residence. He was 91. Murthy’s demise marks the end of a glorious chapter in Indian celluloid history. 

Ø  Two Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) men were killed in a blast while defusing an improvised explosive device planted by Maoists in Aurangabad district.

Ø  The Arunachal capital Itanagar was on Monday put on the country’s railway map with the first passenger train of about 400 commuters arriving at Naharlagun near here.

Ø  The 135th death anniversary of one of India’s freedom fighters, Begum Hazrat Mahal, was observed at a major mosque in Kathmandu. A wreath-laying ceremony was organised by the Embassy of India at the Jame-e-Masjid amid a gathering of community leaders and the embassy staff. This is the first-ever ceremony in the memory of the wife of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah of Awadh (Uttar Pradesh), who rests in the tomb in the heart of the capital.

Ø  Pro-Russia activists in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk have proclaimed independence from Ukraine and asked Russia to send in troops to protect them from the government in Kiev.

Ø  United States Defence Secretary Charles Hagel on Monday was given an unexpected tour around China’s first aircraft carrier soon after arriving here on a three-day visit aimed at building trust between the two countries amid rising regional tensions. Mr. Hagel, who arrived in the northeastern port city of Qingdao from Japan, was escorted around ‘Liaoning’, China’s first aircraft carrier, which is close to becoming fully operational, by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

7 APRIL 2014

Ø  In a first of its kind initiative, the Tamil Nadu police have joined hands with the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and Anna University here to enhance technology applications in policing to world-class standards. The police department signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Anna University for technology collaboration and knowledge transfer.

Ø  The World Boxing Council (WBC) awarded an honorary championship belt to a former Japanese boxer who was freed from death row last month after 48 years in prison following a murder conviction. WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman handed the belt to Iwao Hakamada (78), who has been receiving hospital treatment since his release from a Tokyo prison on March 27. A portrait of Hakamada was sewn into the green belt.

6 APRIL 2014

Ø  Afghans voted in large numbers in the country’s first democratic transfer of power as US-led forces end their 13-year war. Despite Taliban threats, voting was largely peaceful with long queues in cities.

Ø  Bhupal Man Damai alias Yusuf Nepali, who was jailed in connection with the hijacking of Indian airlines flight IC-814 to Kandahar in December 1999, was released after a court exonerated him.

Ø  A Chinese patrol ship, the Haixun 01, searching for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 picked up a pulse signal from its black box detector in the southern Indian Ocean, China’s official media reported, in a possible breakthrough in the nearly month-long multinational hunt for the jet.

Ø  Asia’s largest tulip garden on the banks of Dal Lake here was thrown open to visitors on Saturday, even as inclement weather has delayed blooming of a majority of the bulbs. Formerly known as Siraj Bagh, the Indira Gandhi Memorial Tulip garden was opened in 2008.

Ø  The total grid-connected solar capacity, commissioned under the National Solar Mission, crossed the 2,500-MW mark and stood at 2,632 MW as on March 31, 2014. Of the total, a little over a third of capacity was commissioned in Gujarat. Gujarat (916 MW) topped the cumulative capacity table, followed by Rajasthan (730 MW), Madhya Pradesh (347 MW) and Maharashtra (249 MW), among others.

5 APRIL 2014

Ø  A sessions court here awarded the death penalty, under a new IPC section, to three repeat offenders — Vijay Jadhav, Qasim Sheikh, alias Bengali, and Salim Ansari — who gang-raped a photojournalist on the Shakti Mills compound in 2013.

Ø  India marched towards establishing its own navigation system when its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C24) put into precise orbit the country’s second navigation satellite, the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS-1B). The 1,432-kg IRNSS-1B will form part of a constellation of the seven navigation satellites.

Ø  It is recently found that weather prediction was done in ancient Egypt some 3,500 years ago! A new translation of a 40-line inscription on a six-foot-tall 3,500-year-old calcite block from Egypt — called the Tempest Stela — describes rain, darkness and “the sky being in storm without cessation, louder than the cries of the masses”.

Ø  A five-member committee set up by the Union Home Ministry to recommend the location of a new Capital for the residuary State of Andhra Pradesh will be headed by former Union Urban Development Secretary K. Sivaramakrishnan. Among the others appointed as members of the committee are former School of Planning and Architecture dean K.T. Ravindran, National Institute of Urban Affairs director Jagan Shah, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy director Rathin Roy and Indian Institute for Human Settlements (Bangalore ) director Aromar Revi.

Ø  A U.S. Navy “black box” detector made its much-anticipated debut in the oceanic hunt for flight MH370 on Friday but Australia’s search chief warned it was crunch time with the box’s signal set to expire soon. The Australian naval vessel Ocean Shield arrived with a “towed pinger locator” capable of homing in on signals from the black box, as 14 planes scoured the remote Indian Ocean search area for signs of a crash site. The plane disappeared March 8, and Australian authorities coordinating the search have rushed the device into place with the black box’s roughly 30-day location signal set to expire.

Ø  NPAs of banks touched an all-time high of over 5 per cent as of the December quarter, while 2013-14 saw banks recasting as many as Rs.1 lakh crore worth of loans, taking the overall corporate debt restructuring loan book to close to Rs.4 lakh crore. NPAs and CDR (corporate debt restructuring) loans put together is over 10 per cent of the system. 

4 APRIL 2014

Ø  As deadline for creation of separate Telangana nears, the Centre on Thursday decided to extend the term of the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal headed by retired SC Judge Brijesh Kumar till July 31 this year.

Ø  The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is looking forward to the liftoff of its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C24 from Sriharikota. The IRNSS-1B is India’s second dedicated navigation satellite. The first, IRNSS-1A, was put into orbit on July 1 last year. All the seven satellites, which form the IRNSS, will be in orbit by 2016.

Ø  Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said he has scrapped the last discount on gas price granted by Moscow to Ukraine, effectively raising the price by $100 to $485 for every 1,000 cubic metres.

Ø  Japan said it was cancelling its annual Antarctic whaling hunt for the first time in more than a quarter of a century after a U.N. court ruled that the programme was a commercial activity disguised as science. A “deeply disappointed” Tokyo earlier this week said it would honour Monday’s judgment by the United Nations’ Hague-based International Court of Justice but did not exclude the possibility of future whaling programmes. 

3 APRIL 2014

Ø  The real cause behind the mysterious disappearance of Flight MH370 may never be known, Malaysian police warned as the frustrating search for the crashed airliner continued in the Indian Ocean without any headway. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is in Australia on a two-day tour to oversee the search for the plane. On the 25th day of the multinational search operations, a British nuclear submarine joined the hunt, about 1,500 km northwest of Perth. Up to 10 planes and nine ships participated in Wednesday’s search.

Ø  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), on Wednesday, granted ‘in-principle’ approval to two applicants, IDFC Limited and Kolkata-based Bandhan Financial Services Private Limited, to set up banks. The RBI has also accepted the recommendation of the High-Level Advisory Committee (HLAC), set up by the RBI, to consider the application of the Department of Posts, separately in consultation with the Central Government. These licences would be issued under the guidelines on Licensing of New Banks in the Private Sector issued on February 22, 2013 (Guidelines), said RBI in a release.

Ø  Financial Services Secretary Gurdial Singh Sandhu has been nominated as a director on the Reserve Bank’s central board.

2 APRIL 2014

Ø  Communications satellite INSAT-3E has completed its life and gone out of service. Built to last 15 years, it has completed ten-and-a-half years in orbit. The third-generation satellite was launched in September 2003 with 36 transponders — 24 C-band and 12 extended C-band transponders — but only 25 of them have been working since 2009. The ISRO had apparently expected that the satellite, positioned at 55 degrees E longitude, would last a few more months and that it would be smoothly replaced with GSAT-16.

Ø  The largest land crab is called robber crab, but in reality only its life is being robbed by youth, and habitat destruction after the 2004 tsunami. The population of this crab, also called coconut crab, in the wild archipelagos of Andaman and Nicobar, the only place in India where they are found, is severely fragmented. What is remarkable about this crab is that it climbs a coconut tree, cuts a fruit and drops it. On descending, it de-husks the fruit and, using its pincers, eats the kernel or endosperm, piercing through the eyes in the nut. And it uses the fibre as a bed in its burrow. The NCF team conducted the study in South Sentinel and Little Andaman in Andaman Islands; and Car Nicobar, Little Nicobar, Great Nicobar, Camotra, Menchal and Cabra Islands in Nicobar Islands. It held discussions with Nicobari communities to examine how to conserve this species and conducted timed searches in areas where these crabs are likely to be found. The interactions revealed social taboos against hunting the crab in most of the Nicobar Islands. However, in some islands, the community members, particularly the youth, hunted them and consumed them. Although the crab is under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, none of the villagers are aware that hunting this species is illegal. The Zoological Survey of India has submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Environment and Forests to study the habitat of these crabs, survey their population in the wild and assess threats they face.

Ø  The Geographical Indications (GI) Registry has put on hold the decision to grant registration to products such as Dharmavaram handloom silk sari, Firozabad glass, Kannauj perfume, Moradabad metal craft and Saharanpur woodcraft due to code of conduct in force.

Ø  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Raghuram Rajan, said that the central bank had adopted the new Consumer Price Index (CPI) (combined) as the key measure of inflation. Some recommendations of Urjit R. Patel Committee report have been implemented.  This also includes explicit recognition of the glide path for disinflation, transition to a bi-monthly monetary policy cycle, progressive reduction in access to overnight liquidity at the fixed repo rate, and a corresponding increase in access to liquidity through term repos, and introduction of longer-tenor term repos as well as, going forward, term reverse repos. Following on the recommendations of the high-level advisory committee chaired by Bimal Jalan, and after consulting the Election Commission, the RBI will announce in-principle approval for new bank licences.

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”.

31 MARCH 2014

Ø  Nineteen of the 98 Tamil Nadu fishermen arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy and ordered to be released by the Lankan government were repatriated. Indian Coast Guard (ICG) vessel Abheek received the fishermen with their four boats at the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) after they were repatriated by the Lankan Navy.

Ø  British actor (female) Kate O’Mara, best known for her role in the 1980s soap opera “Dynasty,” died Sunday at the age of 74.

30 MARCH 2014

Ø  The BJP on Saturday announced the expulsion of senior leader Jaswant Singh and Subhash Mahariya for six years. The decision comes in the wake of Mr. Singh’s decision to contest as an Independent from Barmer and Mr. Mahariya’s announcement to do the same from Sikar in Rajasthan. 

Ø  The council of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) selected, as its 20th director, Anurag Kumar, who is now the Chairman of the Electrical Sciences Division at the institute. IISc.’s present director, P. Balaram, retires on July 31 after an eight-year tenure.

Ø   Astronauts’ hearts grow rounder while they are in space, suggesting that spending lots of time in microgravity could lead to heart problems, according to U.S. research. 

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.