National:
Socialist thinker Mastram Kapoor passes away
Eminent socialist
author and thinker Mastram Kapoor passed away. Mr. Kapoor, 87, suffered from
Kidney
cancer. Author of
over 100 publications on socialist thought, he was known for penning Ram
Manohar
Lohia’s
biography. He was recently awarded the Yash Bharati award, which was revived
after six years by
Uttar Pradesh
Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.
Justice Khanwilkar to take oath as Chief Justice of Himachal High Court
Bombay High Court
judge Ajay Manikrao Khanwilkar will become the Chief Justice of the Himachal
Pradesh
High Court. He
would be administered the oath of office by Governor Urmila Singh. Previous
Chief Justice of
the High Court
Kurian Joseph was elevated as a Supreme Court Judge. Mr. Khanwilkar hails from
Pune. He
was appointed
Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court in March 2000 and confirmed as
permanent
judge in April
2002.
Wi-Fi, Internet facility in Howrah Rajdhani launched
You can now use
the Internet using Wi-Fi facility free of cost while travelling in Howrah-bound
Rajdhani
Express train
from New Delhi. The facility was launched by railways in the premier train as a
pilot project.
Railway Minister
Pawan Kumar Bansal said the Wi-Fi service was launched as a pilot project and
the
passengers will
be availing the service free of cost. All three rakes of Howrah Rajdhani are
being equipped
with the facility
as part of the project. It cost Rs 6.3 crores to the Railways to equip the
train with the facility.
To log on,
passengers will have to access the Indian Railway Wi-Fi network. Passengers
will be able to
register by
providing the PNR and other details like mobile number . On validation of the
data entered by the
passenger, the
login ID and password will be sent through text message to the registered
mobile number.
The login ID and
password will remain valid for the entire journey.
Defence Minister A K Antony approves Rs 2,800 cr night-vision devices'
proposal
The Defence
Ministry has approved a Rs 2,820 crore proposal to provide night-vision devices
to the Army to
enable its tanks
and infantry combat vehicles to have capability to fight in both day and night
conditions.
Defence
Acquisition Council (DAC) headed by Defence Minister A K Antony also approved
proposals to
upgrade the 130
mm artillery guns of the Army along with amendments in procurement procedure to
boost
indigenisation in
defence production. Under the plans to do away with the night blindness of
Army's
mechanised fleet
including the Russian-origin T-90 and T-72 tanks and the BMP Infantry Combat
Vehicles
(ICV), around
5,000 thermal imaging sights would be procured from defence PSU Bharat
Electronics limited.
Arrest warrant against HRD Secretary
The National
Commission for Scheduled Castes has issued arrest warrant against Secretary,
Higher
Education of the
Union Ministry of Human Resource Development Ashok Thakur for disobeying
summons to
appear before it
for a hearing. The arrest warrant has been issued by Chairperson of the
National
Commission for
Scheduled Castes P.L. Punia .
Supreme Court grants Tamil Nadu time to respond to Centre’s stand on Ram
Sethu
The Supreme Court
has made it clear that it would examine the Pachauri Committee report on ‘Ram Sethu’
and granted three
weeks time to Tamil Nadu to reply to the Centre’s stand on the project. A Bench
of Justices
H.L. Dattu and
J.S. Khehar told the Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy that it would
examine the
report. Senior
counsel L.N. Rao, appearing for Tamil Nadu, sought time to file the State’s
response. Solicitor
General Mohan
Parasaran appeared for the Centre. Earlier, Dr. Swamy argued that the
Sethusamudram
project was
wholly illegal, arbitrary, unreasonable and economically unviable, lacked
proportionality and was
violative of
national security. He said a committee headed by Dr. R. K. Pachauri, a Nobel
Laureate, “has
found the
Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project, whether carried out along Alignment 4A or
the original
Alignment 6, or
any of the other five suggested Alignments non-viable from its economic as well
as
ecological
angles.”
Tobacco products still don’t carry new picture warning
Despite the
Government order requiring all tobacco product packages in the country to carry
the new
pictorial health
warnings from April 1, 2013, a snap survey conducted in the Capital indicated
that “almost no
cigarette, bidi
packets or any other chewing tobacco products have the new picture warnings”.
As per the
Union Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare notification dated September 27, 2012, three sets of
warnings
each were
notified for smoking as well as smokeless forms of tobacco product packages. As
per the
Government order,
the tobacco product retailers and distributors who fail to comply will face legal
consequences with
a fine extending up to Rs. 1,000; imprisonment up to one year or both under
Section 20
of Cigarettes and
Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003 (COTPA). Tobacco product manufacturers can
face
fines up to Rs.
5,000 or imprisonment up to two years or both on the first conviction.
International:
Indian-American to be first South Asian circuit court judge in US
Described by US
President Barack Obama as a 'trailblazer', Indian-American Srikanth Sri
Srinivasan has
moved closer to
become the first South Asian circuit court judge in the history of the United
States. A year
after he was
nominated by Obama on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia
Circuit, the
Senate Judiciary
Committee announced its decision to hold his confirmation hearing on April 10,
which was
immediately
welcomed by the White House. Srinivasan, 46, born in India and raised in
Lawrence, Kansas, is
currently serving
as the Principal Deputy Solicitor General of the US.
U.N. passes historic arms trade treaty
The U.N. made
history when it passed an unprecedented arms trade treaty (ATT) to better
regulate the
international
sale in weapons. It was passed in the General Assembly with 154 members voting
‘Yes’; three
Iran, Syria and
North Korea voting no; and 23, including India, abstaining. The treaty’s
passage came after
negotiations
failed last July when the U.S. pulled out abruptly. Its adoption implies a
major step forward in
controlling the
$70-billion flow of arms across borders, particularly restricting its movement to
and from areas
where groups are
suspected of violation of human rights. In addition to India, the nations that
abstained
included China,
Egypt, Myanmar, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Sri Lanka. Pakistan voted in favour of
the treaty
though its
representative expressed concerns over the imbalance in obligations between
arms exporters and
importers.
Caroline Kennedy may be next US ambassador to Japan
President Barack
Obama is leaning toward picking Caroline Kennedy to be the next US ambassador
to
Japan. The 55-year-old
daughter of former President John Kennedy would be the first female US
ambassador to
Japan. She was one of the earliest backers of Obama in his first presidential
campaign in
2008 and her
endorsement was significant in helping him defeat Hillary Clinton in the
Democratic
presidential
primary that year. She would replace the current ambassador, John Roos, the
former chief
executive officer
of Silicon Valley-based law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
Angelina Jolie opens school in Afghanistan
Hollywood star
Angelina Jolie has opened a school in Afghanistan through her foundation The
Education
Partnership for
Children of Conflict. She has funded the girls only educational establishment,
which caters to
between 200 and
300 students, just outside of Kabul and hopes it will be the first of many
schools she sets
up. Joile plans
to fund more schools by selling her own self-designed accessories collection,
the Style of
Jolie, to retail
stores for the first time with 100 per cent of the profits going to her new
foundation, The
Education
Partnership for Children of Conflict. The United Nations Goodwill Ambassador is
known for her
charity work.
Business & Economy:
Gold tariff value hiked
In a bid to check
unbridled imports of gold and, thereby, contain the widening current account
deficit (CAD),
the government,
has raised the tariff value of gold to $521 per 10 grams to render its imports
costlier.
According to a
notification issued by the Central Board of Excise and Customs, the fortnightly
tariff value of
gold the base
price on which customs duty is determined to prevent under-invoicing stands
increased to
$521 from $516
per 10 grams in March. The tariff value for silver, however, has been lowered
to $920 from
$930 a kg.
Axis Bank launches special home loan scheme for self-employed
The third largest
private sector lender Axis Bank has launched a dedicated home loan product for
the selfemployed.
At 1 per cent
above the base rate to start with, borrowers will pay higher than the ones in
the
salaried class,
but lower than the going rates in the market, Axis Bank's head for consumer
lending and
payments Jairam
Sridharan said. The interest rate will get reduced by 0.25 per cent each in
three phases at
the end of the
second, third and the fifth year, at 0.25 per cent over the base rate, a
self-employed person
will be at par
with a salaried borrower by the fifth year.
GAIL inks 20-yr deal with US co for LNG liquefaction capacity
GAIL India Ltd
said it has booked capacity at a proposed LNG production plant in at Lusby in
Maryland, US
that the
State-owned gas utility plans to use to convert shale gas it will produce in US
into liquid (LNG) for
shipping to
India. GAIL Global (USA) LNG LLC, a US affiliate of GAIL, signed a 20-year
terminal service
agreement with
Dominion Resources Inc to book 2.3 million tonnes per annum liquefaction
capacity in the
Cove Point LNG
project. Dominion plans to start construction on the 5.25 million tons per
annum facility in
2014 and put the
liquefaction facilities in service in 2017.
DIPP Secy to head inter-ministerial panel on MSME
The Government
has set up an Inter-Ministerial Committee to look into issues faced by small
units and
suggest ways to
boost the manufacturing in the sector. The committee will be headed by Department
of
Industrial Policy
and Promotion (DIPP) Secretary Saurabh Chandra.
Farooqui takes over as DoT Secretary
MF Farooqui has
replaced R Chandrashekhar at Department of Telecom (DoT). Farooqui, a 1978
batch
Indian
Administrative Service officer from the Tamil Nadu Cadre, was serving as
Secretary, Department of
Heavy Industry
before this. Farooqui will have a 15 month tenure in DoT before he attains
superannuation
age of 60 years
in June 2014.
India, Singapore sign enhanced air services agreement
India and
Singapore has signed an enhanced air services agreement, immediately raising
airline seats by 10
percent on each
way in a response to growing passenger traffic between the two countries. Under
the
agreement, both
sides have increased seats by 10 percent. Indian airlines would have 29,300
seats per
week and
Singapore 28,600, which would mean using more flights. Currently, Singapore is
linked by air
services to 12
Indian cities, with 216 flights weekly between the two countries, making it the
most connected
destination in
Southeast Asia.
Sci. & Tech:
World's first solar plane 'Impulse' to fly across US
A first of its
kind ultra-lightweight plane powered completely by the sun is set to fly
coast-to-coast this spring.
The Solar Impulse
plane will stop in Dallas city in Texas during its historic cross-country
journey that begins
on May 1. The
plane, which requires zero fuel and relies solely on solar panels and battery
power, would be
the world's first
plane powered purely by solar energy. The two Swiss pilots of the plane,
Bertrand Piccard
and Andre
Borschberg, want to complete a flight from Moffett Field to New York City,
after spending 10 years
designing it. The
US flight is the latest step towards the ultimate goal of Solar Impulse team;
that of making a
flight around the
world by 2015. The plane uses creative engineering and physics to harness the
sun's
energy for power
even after the sun sets.
Sport:
Olympic champ gets doping ban
Russian hammer
thrower Olga Kuzenkova, the 2004 Olympic champion, has been handed a two-year
ban
for doping. The
federation said that the samples which Kuzenkova gave for testing at the 2005
athletics
World
championships in Helsinki, Finland, contained banned drugs, without
elaborating. All her results from
August 12, 2005 until
August 11, 2007 were cancelled. Shot putter Svetlana Krivelyova, who won the
bronze
medal at 2004
Olympics, was also banned for two years as samples she had given in Athens also
contained
prohibited
substances.
NADA refuses to test Vijender for heroin
The National
Anti-Doping Agency’s refusal to test star boxer Vijender Singh for heroin has
put the Sports
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