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).

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.

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.