Introduction
The article Current Affairs One Liners April 2019 includes One Liners with an explanation, analysis and issues of current events, including political or industrial controversy or public policy issues in the month of April.
Apr 2019
1. Important Days
- Ayushman Bharat Diwas is celebrated on [latex]30^{th}[/latex] April across the country. It is a programme of the Government of India to provide the underprivileged and economically backward people access to government as well as private healthcare facilities.
- Japan's Emperor Akihito has declared his abdication and delivered his last public address as emperor, in a historic ceremony in Tokyo.
- US President Donald Trump has sued two banks in a bid to stop them handing over his financial records to Congress.
- The Islamic State group has released a video of a man it says is its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, vowing to seek revenge for its loss of territory.
- French courts have handed down 447 fines in the past eight months under new laws to tackle street harassment of women.
- New Zealand police said a man was arrested and bomb disposal officers found a package with a suspected explosive device at a vacant property in Christchurch, where 50 people were killed in attacks by a lone gunman on two mosques in March.
- A beluga whale found with a tight harness that appeared to be Russian made has raised the alarm of Norwegian officials and prompted speculation that the animal may have come from a Russian military facility.
- Sudden arrival of harvested wheat crop in large quantities to the mandis of Punjab is a cause of worry for the state government and its food and civil supplies department, as it has led to a glut.
- The Madurai bench of the Madras High Court said Puducherry’s Lt Governor Kiran Bedi cannot interfere with the daily functioning of the government in the Union territory.
- The National Testing Agency (NTA) declared the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) Main 2019 results in which 24 candidates scored 100 percentile. The first exam was held in January and second in April, and the best score of the two will be considered for admission.
- The Supreme Court directed the CBI to produced evidence to its satisfaction to revoke an earlier barring of custodial interrogation of former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar in the Saradha scam.
- A 37-year-old Indian national has been jailed for eight weeks and fined 800 Singapore dollars for accepting bribes to under-report the weight of passenger bags on a flight at country’s Changi Airport, a media report said.
- Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman attended a key conclave of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Kyrgyzstan and held bilateral meetings on its sidelines, including with her Chinese counterpart.
- The cyclone storm Fani was intensifying into a ‘Severe Cyclonic Storm’ over the south-east and adjoining south-west Bay of Bengal, the Eastern Naval Command (ENC) is on high alert to render necessary humanitarian assistance, a Navy spokesperson said
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a rally in Rohtak on May [latex]10^{th}[/latex], chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar said here.
- While the Opposition party in Himachal is showing off its solidarity, cracks in Congress were laid bare when its candidate from Kangra parliamentary constituency Pawan Kajal filed his nomination
- The second leg of three-phased polling for Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency witnessed around 10.32 % polling, amid stray incidents of stone pelting.
- 13 constituencies of Uttar Pradesh in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections amid reports of EVM malfunctioning and minor clashes from several areas.
- Glitches in electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) machines caused a delay in the voting process in many polling booths across the country, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi slammed the Opposition for casting aspersions on their efficacy.
- The bank has approached the Allahabad bench of the NCLT to extend the Corporate Insolvency Resolution Process (CIRP) as the deadline expires on May [latex]6^{th}[/latex], sources said. The NCLT has posted the matter on May 6 for the next hearing.
- The journey of RuPay cards has been fantastic, and the focus now will be on the One Nation One Card project, said Praveena Rai, Chief Operating Officer, National Payments Corporation of India.
- Standard Chartered Plc said it will buy back as much as $1 billion of shares, as Chief Executive Officer Bill Winters closes in on a long-term profitability target for the Asia-focused bank.
- The BSE benchmark Sensex plunged over 150 points to slip below the 39,000-mark in early trade amid capital outflows by foreign funds and mixed global cues.
- Amazon.com Inc, seeking to stem slowing sales growth, is plowing $800 million this quarter alone into its next-day package delivery project, something even Walmart Inc, the world’s biggest retailer, will be hard-pressed to duplicate.
- Hayley Carruthers, a 26-year-old British runner, collapsed inches before the finish line during the 42-km London Marathon but managed to finish the race by crawling to the finish line
- SunRisers Hyderabad defeated Kings XI Punjab by 45 runs to go fourth on the IPL 2019 points table with 12 points from 12 matches. Kings XI Punjab, who are sixth on the table, have lost three consecutive matches. SunRisers Hyderabad opener David Warner, who was playing his last match of IPL 2019.
- Young Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen made it to the main draw of New Zealand Open after getting the better of compatriot Ajay Jayaram and Malaysia’s Teck Zhi Soo in his qualifying round matches.
- Buoyed by their maiden victory, Chennaiyin FC will look to end their home campaign on a high when they lock horns with Bangladesh side Abahani Limited Dhaka in the AFC Cup
- Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk was named the PFA Players' Player of the Year for 2018-19 at a ceremony in London on Sunday night.
- 25 years old Indian wrestler Bajrang Punia became the first Indian wrestler to fight at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden.
- Indian Professional Golfer, Gaganjeet Bhullar has been awarded outstanding achievement as a player award at the 4th Edition of the annual India Golf Industry Association (GIA) award for the year 2019 at the Delhi Golf Club.
- Italian coach Fabio Cannavaro has announced he is resigning from steering the Chinese national soccer team after just two consecutive defeats and said he would continue to focus on his role as the Guangzhou Evergrande Club's manager.
- Air Marshal Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria will take over as the Vice Chief of Indian Air Force (IAF) on May [latex]1^{st}[/latex], an IAF official said. Bhadauria will be succeeding Air Marshal Anil Khosla who is superannuating on April [latex]30^{th}[/latex].
- The research team from IIT Madras has used a multi-lingual Optical Character Recognition (OCR) scheme to develop a method for reading documents in Bharati script.
- A white whale found off Norway's coast wearing a harness was probably trained by the Russian navy, according to Norwegian experts. The whale, described as tame, had a tight harness which reportedly seemed to be for a camera or a weapon.
- Samsung has unveiled a new 43-inch vertical TV dubbed 'The Sero' that can be synced to mirror contents of users' mobile phones via near-field communication (NFC).
- Journalist Saba Naqvi has composed a book named “Politics of Jugaad: The Coalition Handbook” in which she examines the possibility of a coalition government after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
- Pungam Kannan, former India’s ace footballer passed away at the age of 80 after suffering from prolonged illness. He was also facing huge financial crisis before his death.
1. Important Days
- In 1982 the Dance Committee of ITI founded International Dance Day to be celebrated every year on the [latex]29^{th}[/latex] April, the birthday of Jean-Georges Noverre (1727-1810), creator of modern ballet.
- Spain's governing Socialists won the country's third election in four years, but have fallen short of a majority.
- Sri Lanka has banned face coverings in public, following a spate of suicide attacks on Easter that killed at least 250 people and injured hundreds.
- Bangladesh security forces killed at least two people suspected of belonging to an Islamist militant group behind a deadly cafe attack in Dhaka in 2016, police said after a raid at a tin-shed hideout in the capital.
- A woman in Sri Lanka has gifted her five German Shepherd dogs to the Army for explosive detection training in the wake of the massive Easter.
- Pakistan and the US are working to resolve an issue that may lead to new visa restrictions on some Pakistani citizens if left unresolved, a media report .
- US President Donald Trump opened a new front in trade tensions with India as he complained about “big tariffs” charged by the latter on paper import, even as he continued to litigate his case on Harley-Davidson motorbikes.
- Tamil Nadu 10th Board results were declared on Monday by the Directorate of Government Examinations (DGE). More than 9 lakh students had appeared for the exams and overall pass percentage for 2019 stood at 95.2%. Girls outperformed boys with a pass percentage of 97% against 93.3%.
- The Supreme Court has said it will hear a plea filed by Congress seeking action against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah for allegedly violating the Model Code of Conduct during election rallies.
- The Delhi High Court dismissed a plea seeking to restrain the media from publishing allegations of sexual harassment against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi by a former Supreme Court employee.
- Cyclonic storm 'Fani' in southeast Bay of Bengal is likely to turn severe and intensify further into a "very severe" cyclonic storm before heading towards north coastal Andhra and Odisha coast, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD).
- The Election Commission of India (ECI) “strongly condemned” and warned Union Minister Maneka Gandhi for her remarks categorising development works based on the percentage of votes the BJP would get.
- Maharashtra during polling as the BJP and Congress with their allies seek to retain and win back the seats they lost in the last Lok Sabha election.
- Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of not respecting his mother and wife.
- NCP chief Sharad Pawar, who has been insisting that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance is unlikely to return to power, told a television channel that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, too, was a chief minister before becoming PM.
- Voting in nine states in the fourth phase of 2019 Lok Sabha elections began. Polling is being held at five seats in Bihar, 17 in Maharashtra, 13 in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, and six in Odisha and Madhya Pradesh.
- Polling for the fourth phase of Lok Sabha election in 72 parliamentary constituencies spread across nine States began on Monday.
- Supreme Court, the government has to amend the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act sooner or later and publish the names of loan defaulters periodically, a top official of the All India Bank Employees' Association (AIBEA) said
- The State Bank of India filed a recovery suit against Prashant and Ravi Ruia, before the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT) here in Gujarat.
- The number of farmers enrolled for the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) during kharif 2018 was 3.43 crore, marginally lower than the figure in the previous season, but officials said the number may go up as a few States are yet to submit the data.
- The Model Code of Conduct for the Lok Sabha polls is unlikely to have any bearing on issuance of a revised framework for resolution of stressed assets by the Reserve Bank and the guidelines are expected to be announced before May [latex]23^{rd}[/latex], sources said.
- Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has recommended the names of wrestlers, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia for Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award.
- India wrapped up their campaign at the Asian Wrestling Championships on a resounding note with 16 medals after Greco-Roman grapplers added a silver and a bronze on the concluding day in Xi’an
- England and Wales Cricket Board withdrew opening batsman Alex Hales from all England squads ahead of the international season, which also includes the 15-member provisional squad announced for the ICC World Cup.
- Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Mumbai Indians by 34 runs after smashing IPL 2019's highest total of 232/2. With this, Kolkata Knight Riders ended their six-match losing streak and jumped to the fifth place on the points table with 10 points from 12 matches.
- Former South African cricketer, Jacques Kallis has been honoured with the Order of Ikhamanga in the Silver Division for his contribution to cricket and for putting South Africa on the global sporting map by, Cyril Ramaphosa, President of South Africa during the National Orders ceremony at the Sefako Makgatho Presidential Guest House in Pretoria, South Africa.
- M S Yadav has been elected as general secretary of the newly formed, All India Federation of PTI Employees’ Unions (AIFPTIEU) by the 45 elected council members from different centres of PTI (Press Trust of India) during the two days meeting in Lucknow.
- Former Ethiopian president Negasso Gidada Solon passed away at the age of 75 in Germany for an unspecified illness.
1. Important Days
- This day is observed on [latex]28^{th}[/latex] April every year by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) since 2003.
- World Veterinary Day is observed on [latex]28^{th}[/latex] April globally to raise awareness in the public about the important roles veterinarians plays.
- The UAE government has given birth certificate to a nine-month old girl who was born to an Indian Hindu father and a Muslim mother, setting aside the country’s marriage rules for expatriates during the Year of Tolerance, according to a media report.
- Sri Lanka’s Catholics awoke preparing to celebrate Mass in their homes by a televised broadcast as churches across the island nation shut over fears of militant attacks, a week after the Islamic State-claimed Easter suicide bombings killed over 250 people.
- An Afro-American Iraq War veteran intentionally ran down a family of Indian descent in California thinking they were Muslims, according to police.
- Pakistan’s relationship with India remains the “only problem” for peace and stability in the region, Prime Minister Imran Khan has said and expressed hope of establishing a “civilised relationship” with New Delhi after the Lok Sabha elections are over.
- Hundreds of people gathered outside the historic Southall Town Hall to mark the death of teenager Gurdip Singh Chaggar and the race-fuelled riots in the late 1970s that sparked off a series of protests and equality laws in the UK.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his stance on caste and his “origins as a chaiwala”, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram asked ifthe PM considers people a “bunch of idiots” who have suffered memory loss.
- Air India’s check-in software, which occurred, is still causing its ripple effect as the airline said 137 flights will be running with a delay.
- The CBI filed two FIRs, one on sexual assault by the gang and the other pertaining to the attack on the victim’s brother, who had approached the police and lodged a complaint.
- Gautam Raghuvanshi (91.17%) of Kanpur and Tanu Tomar (97.80%) of Baghpat topped the high school and intermediate examinations respectively of the UP Board, the results of which were declared
- The Indian Air Force said there was no connection between the progress of a probe into the crash of its chopper in Srinagar and the timing of the LS polls.
- Shatrughan Sinha has stirred a controversy by saying that Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah was among the leaders of the Congress “family” who had the “biggest” role in India’s Independence and progress, evoking sharp attack from the BJP.
- Voter turnout figures released by the Election Commission of India show that polling percentage in Kerala was 77.6%, highest in Lok Sabha elections since 1991.
- With four more phases of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections still left, cash seizures have already surged 156.3% from the 2014 polls.
- Elections in Jammu and Kashmir, especially in the three parliamentary constituencies (PC) of Kashmir valley – Srinagar, Baramulla and Anantnag – are more than a contest among political parties.
- Praveen Chakravarty, chairperson of the Congress’s data analytics department, believes that the fear of retribution is preventing anti-BJP voters in the Hindi belt from voicing their true opinion to pollsters.
- Bank of Baroda the recently created banking behemoth post its three way amalgamation with Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank—is going in for organisation structure revamp to improve the overall efficiency of operations and have better control and monitoring mechanisms in the combined entity.
- The Centre has nominated seven directors, commonly referred as RBI directors, to the Boards of various public sector banks (PSBs).
- Public sector lender Canara Bank and its life insurance partner Canara HSBC Oriental Bank of Commerce Life Insurance announced the launch of ’Webassurance’
- India drew blank on the final day but still topped the chart for the second consecutive ISSF World Cup, third time in two years, by bagging three gold and a silver at the Beijing edition of the Rifle/Pistol event here.
- Lionel Messi clinched an eighth La Liga title for Barcelona in 11 seasons on Saturday as he scored the only goal in a 1-0 win at home to Levante.
- Akane Yamaguchi became the first Japanese to win the Badminton Asia Championships women’s title on Sunday with an emphatic victory over China’s He Bingjiao.
- Managing Director, Heidelberg Prominent Fluid Controls India Pvt. Ltd., Prasanna Kumar Rao, received the Corporate Excellence award in the Manufacturing Industry, from Enterprise Asia of Malaysia for 2019, at event in Andaz, Hyatt Hotel, New Delhi.
- Arunachalam Muruganantham, inventor of a low-cost sanitary pad-making machine and grassroots mechanism has been featured in Fortune magazine’s 2019 list of world’s 100 greatest leaders. He is a social entrepreneur from Tamil Nadu.
- Mizoram Derek C Lalchhanhima, who saved life of a chicken he accidentally ran over, has been awarded the ‘Compassionate Kid’ award 2019 by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals(PETA) India. Derek accidentally ran over his neighbour’s chicken.
- Romanian football manager, DoruIsac has been appointed as as the new technical director for Indian football team.He succeeds Savio Madeira, who has been the interim technical director since 2017.
- Former Himachal Pradesh minister and senior BJP leader Chaudhary Vidyasagar died at his home in Zamanabad area in Kangra near Dharamshala at the age of 84 due to age-related ailments.
1. International News
- The bodies of 15 people including six children were found after an explosion at a suspected Islamist militant hideout in east Sri Lanka, police said.
- The Sri Lankan police kill two suspected IS gunmen in the preceding gunfire Colombo - Sri Lankan security forces exchanged fire with suspected Islamic State affiliated militants and killed at least four of them in the east of the country, according to the police and the military
- The US has imposed sanctions on Pakistan after Islamabad refused to take back its citizen deportees and visa over-stayers from America, warning that it may withhold visas of Pakistanis beginning from its senior officials.
- UN General Assembly in 2013, the ATT covers all types of weapons and seeks to stop them from reaching regimes abusing human rights or parties in civil wars, armed and terrorist groups.
- Chinese President Xi Jinping said that the Belt and Road Initiative should benefit all around the world and deliver common development by following the established international norms.
- A depression over the Indian Ocean and southeast Bay of Bengal has intensified and moved further northwestwards, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
- Unidentified criminals shot dead two mahadalits as they were sleeping on a plot outside their home at Nadiyona village under Deepnagar police station area in Nalanda district late last night.
- West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who the Prime Minister claimed gifted him kurtas and sweets, senior Congress leader Raj Babbar wondered how the Trinamool Congress leader knew the size of Modi’s kurta.
- Puducherry is expected to get heavy rain during the next few days due to a low pressure area over Bay of Bengal which could transform into a cyclone Fani.
- The father of eightmonth-old Karishma, the first beneficiary of the much-hyped Ayushman Bharat scheme, is alleging that they are running from pillar to post for her treatment under the scheme.
- Rates of special pujas in Kedarnath shrine are being changed from this year as a result of which devotees may have to spend more money.
- The court was hearing the matter of a petitioner named Sabari (an alias, since the petitioner is a minor), who was convicted by a Fast Track Mahila Court in Namakkal, Tamil Nadu, in June 2018,sentencing him to 10 years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 3000, under POCSO.
- The Delhi high court (HC) said the Delhi Pollution Control Committee’s (DPCC) order, imposing a fine of Rs 1 lakh on Mayapuri traders as environmental damage compensation (EDC), is a “blanket order which has been passed without identifying the units”, and that such an order cannot be allowed.
- AIIMS Jammu’s proximity to LoC, the masterplan has a provision for two bunkers with at least 50 beds for patients to handle mass casualties during disaster situations.
- “The Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government also spent crores on irrigation projects, then how come 28,000 villages are drought-affected. Where did the money go,” Raj Thackeray said.
- At least one of every two candidates, who filed their nomination to contest the Lok Sabha elections in Delhi, either saw their papers being rejected by the poll body after a scrutiny or withdrew their nominations
- BJP president Amit Shah said five generations of the Nehru-Gandhi family have paid only lip service to removing poverty in India while Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is working for its removal.
- Cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir must face action for “holding a political rally without taking permission”, the Election Commission said.
- A large quantity of water, allegedly used to wash roads to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Banda in the parched Bundelkhand region, has brought into focus the prevailing ‘water crisis’ that is otherwise not a major political issue in the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh.
- Liquidity conditions could remain tight till the end of May even though the Reserve Bank of India has conducted two forex swap auctions in a month, a new report has said.
- Private sector lender YES Bank posted a net loss of ₹1,506.64 crore in the fourth quarter of 2018-19 as provisions jumped more than eight-fold.
- The Centre has nominated seven directors, commonly referred as RBI directors, to the Boards of various public sector banks (PSB).
- The Reserve Bank of India, extended the coverage of Ombudsman Scheme for Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) 2018 to eligible non-deposit taking NBFCs with asset size of over ₹100 crore.
- Abhishek Verma secured India’s fifth Olympic quota place in shooting by winning the 10m air pistol gold medal at the ISSF World Cup here.
- Manchester City face Burnley at the start of a four-match spell that could see Pep Guardiola write a remarkable new chapter in English football history.
- US golfer Tiger Woods, who won his 15th major title at Augusta National earlier this month, has insisted that it is still possible for him to chase down Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 major titles.
- MI defeated CSK by 46 runs in Chennai to hand them their first home defeat of IPL 2019. This was also CSK's first defeat in Chennai since they lost to MI in 2015.
- British Indian novelist Rana Dasgupta has been awarded the second edition of Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize 2019 for his 2010 novel “Solo”, deals with a tale of estrangement and the ultimate failure of material existence.
- Dawn editor and Columnist Cyril Almeida from Pakistan has won the IPI’s (International Press Institute) World Press Freedom Hero award in 2019. He won this award for his “critical” and “tenacious coverage” of the civil-military relations in Pakistan.
- Dr. Benny Antony has been honoured with the National Intellectual Property Award, 2019 in the category of Top Individual for Patents and Commercialization. Dr. Antony has over 80 international patents to his credit.
- Derek C Lalchhanhima, a six-year-old Mizoram boy who rushed a chicken to hospital after he accidentally ran over it with his cycle, has received 'Compassionate Kid' award by PETA India.
- Master Deenanath Mangeshkar Award 2019 was awarded to National Award-winning filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, popular scriptwriter Salim Khan and dancing diva Helen.
- Former executive director of LIC of India, Siddhartha Mohanty has been appointed as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of LIC Housing Finance.
- Dalbir Singh Suhag has been appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to the Republic of Seychelles. He will soon be taking over the new position. General Suhag was the 26th Army Chief of the Indian Army from July 2014 to December 2016.
- MD & CEO Karnam Sekar is set to take over as the new Managing Director and CEO of Indian Overseas Bank from July 1, 2019. He will take over from R Subramaniakumar.
- Terry Rawlings, a British film editor, who earned BAFTA nominations for his work on ‘Alien’ in 1980 and ‘Blade Runner’ in 1983 as well as Oscar nomination for ‘Chariots of Fire’ in 1982, died at his home in Hertfordshire, England at the age of 85.
1. Important Days
- World Intellectual Property Day is celebrated worldwide every year on [latex]26^{th}[/latex] April to spread the awareness about the role of Intellectual property rights in encouraging, innovation and creativity.
- Chinese President Xi Jinping sought to allay growing concerns that his trillion—dollar Belt and Road project was pushing poor countries in a “debt trap” and pledged to make the connectivity scheme transparent.
- White House hopeful Joe Biden called Anita Hill the woman at the centre of emblematic sex harassment hearings three decades ago to voice regret for “what she endured,” US media reported.
- Hundreds of Muslim refugees in western Sri Lanka have taken refuge in mosques and a police station after facing intimidation following the deadly Easter bombings, activists said.
- Air Canada has said that its fleet of Boeing 737 MAX jets will remain grounded until at least August [latex]1^{st}[/latex], pushing back a previous estimate for their return to service.
- Two people were injured in a massive explosion at a Tata Steel plant in the United Kingdom. The steel plant is located in Port Talbot, South Wales. Tata Steel in Europe confirmed on Twitter that two of their employees were "slightly injured" in the accident.
- India's domestic crude oil production plunged over 4% in 2018-19, registering its seventh consecutive yearly fall. India produced 34.2 million tonnes of crude oil in FY19, down from 35.7 million tonnes in the previous year, according to data released by the government.
- The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested two Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists who are residents of Pulwama district, Jammu and Kashmir.
- A fire broke out at a four-story building, which houses a number of offices and residential flats, at a busy crossing in south Kolkata, officials said.
- Narayan Sai was arrested from Pipli near Haryana’s Kurukshetra in December 2013 after two sisters from Surat filed rape complaints against him and his father Asaram in October that year.
- The Supreme Court put on hold proceedings before judicial commission set up by the Tamil Nadu government to probe AIADMK Chief J Jayalalithaa’s death.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi led a massive show of strength in his Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi, with a roadshow, ‘Ganga aarti’ and an address to his constituents where he said the first condition for economic progress was national security.
- Two Hizbul Mujahideen militants were killed in an operation in the Anantnag Lok Sabha constituency, where two phases of elections are scheduled in the coming weeks.
- PM Narendra Modi filed his nomination for the Lok Sabha elections from his current parliamentary constituency Varanasi, following a roadshow.
- The Supreme Court refused to interfere with the Election Commission on the biopic “PM Narendra Modi”. The poll panel told the court that movie should be released only after the Lok Sabha elections got over.
- BJP leader Fatima Rasool Siddiqui said she would campaign for Malegaon blast accused and BJP candidate Sadhvi Pragya Thakur if she apologises to Muslims for her recent statements.
- A handful of candidates across party lines have pledged to recycle existing poll material, and clean up walls where political pamphlets and posters were plastered, after polling for all the 20 Lok Sabha constituencies in Kerala ended on April [latex]23^{TH}[/latex].
- The Election Commission has appointed 400 police and state armed forces personnel in Madhya Pradesh to act as “runners” in areas with no mobile and internet connectivity.
- The Supreme Court directed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to disclose information pertaining to its annual inspection report of banks under the Right to Information (RTI) Act unless they are exempted under law.
- Reserve Bank of India’s commitment to deepening financial inclusion in the country, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said recent developments in fintech have given a fresh impetus to the process, but noted that they also raise challenges for central banks across the globe.
- Axis Bank seems to be back on track with a net profit of ₹1,505.6 crore in the fourth quarter of 2018-19, against a net loss of ₹2,188.74 crore in the same period a year ago.
- Microsoft Corp. shares jumped pre-market, with the company’s stronger-than-expected March quarter results set to lift its market capitalization “to $1 trillion and beyond,” in the words of Morgan Stanley.
- The Reserve Bank has divested its entire stake in National Housing Bank (NHB) and the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD).
- According to Allahabad Bank, the government has increased its authorised capital by Rs 5,000 crore to Rs 8,000 crores.
- The rupee slumped 39 paise to close at more than six-week low of 70.25 against the US dollar due to rising crude oil prices and a late sell-off in domestic equity markets.
- Indian boxer Amit Panghal has added a fresh feather into his already illustrious cap as he won the gold medal in the 52 Kg category at the Asian Boxing Championships in Bangkok.
- Rafael Nadal showed no mercy towards an emotional David Ferrer as he eased into the quarter-finals of the Barcelona Open, describing his compatriot who is winding down his career as a “pleasure to watch”.
- Stephanie Frappart, a French football referee, will become the first female referee, who will take charge of a Ligue 1 Conforama match in French football history.
- Tiger Woods said Jack Nicklaus’s record of 18 major championships is in his sights following his triumph at the Masters as he enjoys a career “extension” after a prolonged period of injury woes.
- Dawn editor and Columnist Cyril Almeida from Pakistan has won the IPI’s (International Press Institute) World Press Freedom Hero award in 2019 for his “critical” and “tenacious coverage” of the civil-military relations in Pakistan.
- The prestigious Master Deenanath Mangeshkar Award 2019 was awarded to National Award-winning filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, popular scriptwriter Salim Khan and dancing diva Helen.
- Dr. Benny Antony, Joint Managing Director and co-founder of the Kochi-based Arjuna Natural Ltd, has been honoured with the National Intellectual Property Award, 2019 in the category of Top Individual for Patents and Commercialization.
- General (Retd.) Dalbir Singh Suhag has appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to the Republic of Seychelles. He will succeed Ausaf Sayeed.
- Shri Rajendra Kumar Nayak (Indian Defence Accounts Service - 1983 batch) took over as the 52nd Controller General of Defence Accounts.
- Uday Kumar Varma resigned from the post of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) Secretary-General.
- A team of international astrophysicists has found that quasars, a type of active galactic nuclei (AGN) that were previously thought to have essentially fixed positions in the sky, aren't entirely motionless.
- Japan creates first artificial crater on asteroid. Japanese scientists have succeeded in creating what they called the first-ever artificial crater on an asteroid, a step towards shedding light on how the solar system evolved, the country's space agency
- A parrot was taken into custody after it warned its owners, two drug dealers, of a police raid in Brazil's Piauí. As soon as the police got close, the bird, who has now been handed over to a zoo, repeatedly shouted, "Mama, police.
1. Important Days
- World Malaria Day is celebrated every year on [latex]25^{th}[/latex] April to raise awareness about the disease malaria, how to control it and how to eradicate it completely. In 2008, first Malaria Day was celebrated.
- The UAE's flag carrier Etihad Airways has become the first major airline to operate a flight without any single-use plastics on board. Over 95 single-use plastic items including cups, cutlery and headset bags were removed from the Brisbane-bound Earth Day flight which landed on April [latex]22^{nd}[/latex].
- A Japanese woman was arrested at the Melbourne airport for allegedly trying to smuggle 19 lizards out of the country in her suitcase. An X-ray of the 27-year-old woman's suitcase found 17 Shingleback lizards and two Blue Tongue lizards tightly packed in mesh package.
- A 61-year-old Indian national has been sentenced to five years in prison in the US for illegally helping 400 foreigners, including Indians, enter the US between 2013 and 2015.
- Saudi Arabia and the UAE owe their existence to Iran because it had refused to help former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invade the two countries, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said.
- Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the country can export as much oil as it intends. "America's efforts in sanctioning the sale of Iranian oil won't get anywhere," he added.
- China announced that it has formally arrested former Interpol President Meng Hongwei on suspicion of accepting bribes.
- The world’s first malaria vaccine has been rolled out in Malawi to protect 360,000 children under two in Malawi, Kenya and Ghana in Sub-Saharan Africa from the mosquito-borne disease that causes 435,000 people global deaths each year.
- Prime Minister Imran Khan faced criticism in parliament for conceding that Pakistani soil had been used in the past by terrorists to carry out attacks in Iran.
- Sri Lanka’s Muslim community warned authorities about a firebrand cleric. Now it seems Zahran Hashim may have played a key role in one of the worst attacks in the country’s history.
- Kim’s first trip to Russia comes about two months after his second summit with U.S. President Donald Trump, which failed because of disputes over U.S.-led sanctions on the North.
- More than half a million children in the UK were not given a crucial measles jab between 2010 and 2017, an analysis by children's charity Unicef reveals.
- Hong Kong's democracy movement were jailed for their role in organising mass protests in 2014 that paralysed the city for months and infuriated Beijing.
- Two militants were killed in Bijbehara in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district after a gun battle with security forces morning, officials said.
- The Delhi High Court directed the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to develop a temporary parking facility next to the T-5 parking lot at Red Fort to address the congestion problem at Chandni Chowk.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a roadshow in Varanasi before he files his nomination papers from the holy city in the ongoing 2019 general elections.
- Supreme Court signalled its determination to get to the bottom of the claims made by a lawyer, Utsav Bains, who alleged there was a larger conspiracy behind the sexual harassment allegations against the Chief Justice of India (CJI).
- A Delhi to San Francisco (Boeing 777) Air India flight caught fire in Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) at the time of repair work.
- Zakir Naik, the controversial Islamic preacher, has again claimed he is a victim of a witch-hunt by the Modi Government. Zakir Naik is wanted by the National Investigative Agency (NIA) on charges of propagating terrorism.
- Indonesia has released a special commemorative stamp on the theme of Ramayana to mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of its diplomatic ties with India.
- Poonam Mahajan president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) youth wing, and sitting Member of Parliament from Mumbai North-Central seat, spoke to Kumar Uttam.
- The state chief electoral officer (CEO) has decided to give cash prize in the range of Rs 3,000-5,000, T-shirts, caps and pen drives to voters who post pictures on the social media account of CEO MP or send pictures on a dedicated Whatsapp number.
- A video of Madhya Pradesh's BJP President Rakesh Singh is going viral, where he can be heard saying at a rally that the people who wear saffron coloured clothes can't be terrorists.
- After reportedly facing criticism within Congress for describing BSP supremo Mayawati and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav as "Prime Minister material," MP Shatrughan Sinha on Wednesday said anyone having successfully ruled a state is competent enough to lead the country.
- The Election Commission has for the first time decided to give sanitary pads to women voters at Sakhi Matdan Kendras in suburban Mumbai on April [latex]29^{th}[/latex].
- Giriraj Singh, BJP candidate from Begusarai Lok Sabha seat and a Union minister, demanded that the Election Commission ban green flag, claiming it gave an impression of Muslim-related political or religious institutions.
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it has divested its entire stake in NABARD and National Housing Bank (NHB) for ₹20 crore and ₹1,450 crore, respectively.
- Reliance Industries' retail arm Reliance Retail is reportedly testing its food and grocery app among its employees before the commercial launch of its e-commerce venture.
- Muthoot Capital Services Ltd (MCSL) has posted a net profit of ₹18.4 crore for Q4 of 2018-19, down 15 per cent from ₹21.5 crore during the same period last year.
- The stock was down 12.3 per cent this year as of the last close. Shares of Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd fall as much as 2.6 per cent to Rs 730.
- The Reserve Bank of India has asked banks to declare details of their exposure and provisions related to troubled Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services as part of their quarterly results.
- Bangladesh's World Cup-bound batsman Soumya Sarkar became the first ever Bangladeshi batsman to hit a double century in List A cricket.
- Team India and Delhi Capitals opener Shikhar Dhawan has said that there is no debate about who will bat at number four for India at 2019 World Cup.
- Asian Games bronze medallist PU Chitra won gold in women’s 1500m at the Asian Athletics Championships in Doha. Asian Games silver medallist Dutee Chand clinched the bronze medal in 200-metre sprint after clocking 23.24 seconds.
- United States Cricket Team beat Hong Kong by 84 runs in the WCL Division 2 to attain ODI status on Wednesday. After losing their first game at WCL2, USA came back to win their next three to secure the status.
- RCB defeated KXIP by 17 runs at Bengaluru to register their third straight victory in IPL 2019. RCB scored 64 runs in their last three overs, while KXIP managed just 18.
- Malayalam film "Bhayanakam" (English: Fear) has won the best cinematography award at the 2019 Beijing International Film Festival in China.
- Shri.Rajendra Kumar Nayak has been appointed as the 52nd Controller General of Defence Accounts (CGDA). Nayak, who is from the Indian Defence Accounts Service of 1983 batch, will succeed Smt. Madhulika P Sukul.
- AmitJain, Uber’s Asia-Pacific region Head, announced his resignation at the end of May 2019 after four-year service to spend time with his family, while Uber’s head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty will take over the additional charge of APAC.
- Madison Media announced that it has appointed Amol Dighe as chief executive officer of its Mumbai-based Madison Media Ultra based which handles the Godrej and Marico accounts.
- The president of Wipro’s banking monetary services and insurance (BFSI) business unit, Shaji Farooq has resigned from the company after 5 years due to health reasons. He will precede Angan Guha, who will take over as senior VP and global head of the BFSI unit from 1st July.
- A team including Trinity College Dublin zoologists has discovered two new bird species dubbed 'Wakatobi white-eye' and 'Wangi-wangi white-eye' in Indonesia's Wakatobi Archipelago.
- Researchers at the Lund University Diabetes Centre have discovered how lifestyle affects genes and disease development in a human body in a new study called ‘Epigenetic Mechanisms’.
- The newly built Coast Guard Vessel ICGS C-441 was commissioned into the service by Tom Jose, Chief Secretary of Kerala at Vizhinjam Harbour, Thiruvananthapuram. It is the seventh Interceptor vessel amongst the series which is built by M/s. L and T Ltd,Surat.
- The Mangaluru Bishop Peter Paul Saldanha has released A Konkani translation of the Indian Constitution at the Rosario cathedral.
- Luxembourg’s Grand Duke Jean passed away at the age of 98 due to pulmonary infection. He was born on 5th January 1921 at Berg Castle.
- Veteran lady mountaineer Rama Sengupta Paul passed away at the age of 66 at a city hospital due to cardiac arrest.
1. Important Days
- National Panchayati Raj Day is celebrated every year on [latex]24^{th}[/latex] April in India. "The Panchayats" and a new Eleventh Schedule consisting of 29 subjects within the functions of Panchayats were also added.
- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has arrived in the far east of Russia for a summit with President Vladimir Putin.
- Prime Minister Imran Khan faced criticism in parliament for conceding that Pakistani soil had been used in the past by terrorists to carry out attacks in Iran.
- US President Donald Trump and his businesses filed a lawsuit seeking the quashing of a subpoena issued by the chairman of a committee of the Democratic-led House of Representative seeking financial statements from Trump’s accountants.
- The first-past-the-post electoral system used in the United Kingdom, India and elsewhere is broken and can even abet extreme politics instead of ensuring such elements are kept away in favour of moderate, consensual politics, according to a key report released
- Saudi Arabia said it executed 37 of its citizens after they were convicted of “terrorism” in the kingdom, which is one of the world’s top executioners.
- Sri Lanka’s prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said that some people with explosives were on the run and that more attacks are possible.
- As many as 70 chairmen of local Conservative associations signed a motion calling for an emergency session of the party’s grassroots forum to express no confidence in Prime Minister Theresa May, bringing the Brexit debate back to Westminster after the Easter break.
- China showed off the first of its new generation of guided missile destroyers as President Xi Jinping reviewed a major naval parade through mist and rain to mark 70 years since the founding of China’s navy.
- A woman from the UAE named Munira Abdulla woke up from a 27-year-long coma last year after treatment in Germany, her son Omar has revealed. Munira went into a coma after getting seriously injured in a road accident in 1991.
- China is debating legalising euthanasia or assisted death after a group of legislators argued for it this week during a review of a draft amendment to the country’s civil laws.
- The Supreme Court has summoned chiefs of the CBI, Intelligence Bureau and Delhi Police to its chambers after a lawyer filed an affidavit claiming there was a conspiracy behind framing Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi in a sexual harassment case.
- Delhi Police said they have arrested the wife of Rohit Shekhar Tiwari, the son of former Uttar Pradesh chief minister ND Tiwari, in connection with his murder.
- Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao fumed over the inter results goof up which claimed the lives of around 10 students until now. The CM directed the minister Jagadeesh Reddy to look into the matter and take serious action over it.
- Passengers travelling short distances from Lucknow are set to experience another level of inter-city travel as Northern Railway (NR) is going to replace the old Memu trains with a fresh set of air-conditioned coaches.
- The Supreme Court said it would hear in August the appeals filed by Congress President Rahul Gandhi and his mother Sonia against the Delhi High Court order allowing re-assessment of their Income Tax for 2011-12 in connection with the National Herald case.
- The Jammu and Kashmir high court admitted a petition filed by a woman, a permanent resident of the state but divorced from her husband who is from West Bengal, seeking permanent resident certificates (PRCs) for her two sons, turning the focus onto the contentious Article 35-A of the Constitution that has been challenged before the Supreme Court .
- India sent as many as three alerts to Sri Lanka, including one on the day of the Easter attack that left 321 people dead and 500 injured, according to senior intelligence officials familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.
- The National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested – Mohammad Faiz, a resident of Delhi’s Jaffrabad area, for a conspiracy to carry out terror attacks in the national capital region (NCR) and Uttar Pradesh by an Islamic State inspired module.
- Polling for 38 Lok Sabha seats in the state (the one in Vellore was deferred, following widespread bribing of voters), and by elections or 18 assembly constituencies happened on April [latex]18^{th}[/latex].
- Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray said that industrialist Mukesh Ambani’s endorsement of Congress candidate Milind Deora is an indication of which way the political wind was blowing.
- A 68-year-old man, who is suffering from last stage of cancer, cast his vote in Assam's Guwahati
- BJP MP Udit Raj joined Congress in the presence of party President Rahul Gandhi. This comes a day after BJP denied him ticket to contest the Lok Sabha elections and instead fielded singer-turned-politician Hans Raj Hans from the North West Delhi parliamentary seat.
- As the third and the largest phase of Lok Sabha elections ended, an overall voter turnout was recorded at 64.99% till 7:30 PM. A total of 117 seats in 13 states and two Union Territories went to polls in this phase.
- At least 50 farmers in Telangana’s Nizamabad district are planning to file their nominations against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi to highlight their demand for a turmeric board to ensure higher crop price.
- The central government has increased the authorized capital of state-owned Allahabad Bank from Rs. 3,000 crore to Rs. 8,000 crore after consultation with the Reserve Bank of India.
- Japan's Softbank is reportedly looking to make a USD 2-3 billion investment in India's fastest-growing telecom firm Reliance Jio as billionaire Mukesh Ambani looks to deleverage business by selling stakes.
- Ahead of the postal ballot for sale of assets by Hotel Leelaventure Ltd to Canadian fund Brookfield on [latex]24^{th}[/latex] April, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has put a pause on the hotel chain's plans.
- Small business loans disbursed under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) have fallen short of the target set for 2018-19.
- The men have already equalled their best ever medal haul, while the women have maintained their consistent domination to put India on top of the standings ahead of the semifinals of the Asian Boxing Championships here.
- Lionel Messi started on the bench at Mendizorrotza in a move that made clear just how comfortable Barca are in this title race, its conclusion surely now only a matter of when rather than if.
- The India off-spinner picked up the two crucial wickets of David Warner and Jonny Bairstow in Chennai Super Kings’ six-wicket win over Sunrisers Hyderabad here.
- World number one Bajrang Punia logged 10 points in a row in the gold medal bout to reclaim his Asian Championship crown, defeating Kazakhstan’s Sayatbek Okassov 12-7 in a nail-biting 65kg men’s free style final.
- Three organizations All India Radio, Publication Division and Children’s Film Society of India conferred Swacchta Pakhwada Award 2019.
- Vikas Khanna, Michelin-star chef has been named brand ambassador of Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC), a leading cultural organisation which will organise the annual New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF)
- Uday Kumar Varma, a former bureaucrat retired from the post of Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, resigned from the post of The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) Secretary-General.
- Scientists revealed that they might have detected the first known seismic tremor on Mars. The audio was recorded by a dome-shaped seismometer on April [latex]6^{th}[/latex] that landed with NASA's InSight spacecraft last November.
- A team of amateur French astronomers has captured separately and then stitched together a photo of Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) worth 1,060 hours of exposure time.
1. Important Days
- UN English Language Day is observed annually on [latex]23^{rd}[/latex] April. The event was established by UN's Department of Public Information in 2010 "to celebrate multilingualism and cultural diversity as well as to promote equal use of all six official languages throughout the Organization".
- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will visit Russia for a summit with President Vladimir Putin, North Korean state media confirmed. Putin and Kim are on track to meet by April end, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters
- Nepal Supreme Court stayed a ban on online multiplayer game PUBG ordered by the Nepal government, saying, "it could adversely impact people's rights to freedom".
- Chinese President Xi Jinping urged closer ties between the world’s navies, amid tensions over China’s rapid expansion of its naval forces and forceful assertions of territorial claims in the South China Sea.
- Ms. Harris’ unexpected support for impeachment follows Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s push for Congress to begin the process to remove the Republican president.
- Myanmar’s Supreme Court rejected the final appeal of two Reuters journalists and upheld seven-year prison sentences for their reporting on the military’s brutal crackdown on Rohingya Muslims.
- The US has announced it won't grant any more sanctions exemptions to India and seven other nations importing oil from Iran.
- India's first Lokpal, the anti-corruption ombudsman, will work from a five-star luxury hotel in Delhi, officials said, All the nine members including Lokpal chairperson Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose are being allocated space at 'The Ashok' hotel in Chanakyapuri.
- Supreme Court claiming he was offered up to ₹1.5 crore by a man identified as ‘Ajay’ to frame a “false case of sexual harassment” against Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi.
- The Supreme Court asked the Madras High Court to hear and decide a plea to lift its prohibition on short-form TikTok mobile video application.
- The Supreme Court sought responses from the Centre and Jammu and Kashmir on a plea seeking quashing of an order which restricts civilian traffic two days a week on the national highway (NH) stretch from Udhampur to Baramulla for movement of security forces.
- The Supreme Court ordered the Gujarat government to pay a compensation of Rs 50 lakh to Bilkis Bano, who was gangraped during the 2002 riots, and to provide her a government job and accommodation.
- A senior US diplomat is headed for New Delhi to hold discussions on a “free, open and prosperous Indo-Pacific region”, a phrase often used while dealing with China’s aggressive posture in the region.
- Ten Indians were killed in the serial blasts that Sri Lanka, says India’s external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj tweeted.
- India and China should be sensitive to each other’s concerns as they work to enhance trust, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale said during talks with key Chinese officials in Beijing.
- Voting was largely smooth in the first three hours of polling in phase three, the biggest of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections for 117 parliamentary constituencies across 13 states and two Union Territories.
- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Himachal Pradesh, its three-time MP Suresh Chandel, who was caught in a sting operation in cash-for-query scam in Parliament in 2005, joined the Congress
- As India votes in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections, leaders of political parties will continue their campaign for the next four phases.
- Former J&K chief minister Mehbooba Mufti is among the 18 candidates, whose fate will be decided by 5.3 lakh voters in the Anantnag district who will go out to vote.
- Kannur has been the heart and soul of the communists, notably the Communist Party of India (Marxist) for decades. Padmanabhan’s own parents were “comrades”, he says.
- The Congress and regional parties in Jammu and Kashmir too hit out at Modi for his remark that India’s nuclear arsenal is not for Diwali, calling it “boastful” and “irresponsible”.
- Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded cricketer Gautam Gambhir from East Delhi replacing its sitting MP Maheish Girri, Congress has fielded Olympic medal-winning boxer Vijender Singh from South Delhi.
- The FIR against Abdullah was lodged under Section 171(G) (making a false statement in connection with an election) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 125 (trying to influence voters using religion) of the Representation of People’s Act.
- Private equity firm Blackstone Group will acquire a majority stake in Mumbai-based packaging company Essel Propack for $460 million (₹3,200 crore).
- Sales of Indian junk bonds have made a big comeback in 2019, almost tripling to hit a five-year high, boosted by a risk-on rally prompted by a dovish US Federal Reserve that has given the Asian market a record start to the year.
- Lakshmi Vilas Bank’s (LVB) board on Monday approved a proposal for an allotment of 1.68 crore shares on a preferential basis to lndiabulls Housing Finance Ltd at ₹112 per share.
- Industry sees losses under the scheme at over 20%; seeks a hike in premium. Low premium life cover scheme, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY), has become a ‘white elephant’ for insures.
- State Bank of India announced the country’s first ‘Green Car Loan’ (Electric Vehicle) to encourage customers to buy electric vehicles. The new scheme will offer loan at 20 basis points lesser than the interest rate on the existing car loan schemes.
- Delhi Capitals defeated Rajasthan Royals by six wickets at Jaipur on Monday to go top of the IPL 2019 points table. Batting at number four, Delhi Capitals wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant scored an unbeaten 78 off 36 deliveries and finished off the chase with a six.
- Bowling all-rounder Gulbadin Naib will lead Afghanistan in the 2019 World Cup despite having never captained in international cricket.
- Shiva Thapa became the first Indian boxer to be assured of a fourth successive medal at the Asian Championships by advancing to the semifinals here.
- Olympic medallists P V Sindhu and Saina Nehwal will now train their eyes on ending India’s 54-year-old title jinx at the Asia Badminton Championship beginning here .
- The Intellectual Property Rights Cell (IPR Cell) of Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) has been selected for the National Intellectual Property Award 2019.
- India was ranked 19th out of 28 countries in the Index of Cancer Preparedness (ICP) released by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU).
- Ukrainian presidential election 2019, Comedian Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky defeated incumbent Petro Poroshenko of Petro Poroshenko Bloc “Solidarity” party. Mr. Zelensky, 41-year-old, received 73% of the vote. He becomes the sixth president of Ukraine,
- Former Network 18 Digital CEO, Manish Maheshwari has been appointed as Managing Director of Twitter India with effect from [latex]29^{th}[/latex] April 2019.
- Former Chief Election Commissioner of India (ECI), and ex-civil aviation secretary, Nasim Zaidi has resigned from the post of non-executive and non-independent director of Jet Airways with effect from [latex]21^{st}[/latex] April 2019, due to personal reasons.
- A new species of East Asian birds ‘Horsfield’s Bronze Cuckoo’ (Chalcites basalis) have been spotted at Andaman And Nicobar. This species is a native of Australia and New Guinea.
- MIT researchers have developed a new particle learning system to improve robots' abilities to mould materials into target shapes. The team said it may have "fun applications" in personal robotics, such as rolling sticky rice for sushi.
- Lucknow Door Darshan Kendra Director Ms.KismatSagar has passed away at the age of 47 during her treatment in a hospital in Mumbai.
1. Important Days
- Earth Day is an annual event celebrated on April [latex]22^{nd}[/latex]. Worldwide, various events are held to demonstrate support for environmental protection. First celebrated in 1970.
- The death toll in Sri Lanka has soared to 290 after a wave of blasts hit churches and luxury hotels across the country.
- Ukrainian comedian Volodymyr Zelensky has scored a landslide victory in the country's presidential election. With nearly all ballots counted in the run-off vote, Mr Zelensky had taken more than 73% with incumbent Petro Poroshenko trailing far behind on 24%.
- Tesla said it is investigating a video on Chinese social media that appears to show one of its vehicles bursting into flames in Shanghai.
- Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale, who is in Beijing for “bilateral consultations,” said that as they go forward, India and China should remain “sensitive to each other’s concerns”.
- The source confirmed a report by a Washington Post columnist that the administration will terminate the sanctions waivers it had granted to some importers of Iranian oil late last year.
- Singapore and Australia arrived in eastern Chinese city of Qingdao to take part in a maritime parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army Navy .
- The death toll from attacks on churches and luxury hotels across Sri Lanka rose significantly to 290, and about 500 people were also wounded, police said. Five Indians were among those killed in the bombings in Sri Lanka, confirmed EAM Sushma Swaraj
- Kashmiri students of a Dehradun-based private engineering college have alleged that the college authorities have been coaxing them to present the college in ‘good light’ in front of members of Kashmir’s civil society.
- The Election Commission submitted its detailed report to the Supreme Court on the biopic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
- Pakistan has put on display rare documents of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre to mark its 100th anniversary.
- A massive fire broke out at a factory in Bhiwandi area of Maharashtra’s Thane district early as firefighters managed to control the blaze after five and a half hours.
- The Indian foreign secretary is visiting Beijing days ahead of the second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation (BRF), which India will skip because of concerns over territorial sovereignty related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
- Indian airports have recorded a steady increase in number of bird hits and aircraft run-ins with stray animals over at least the past five years, according to official data.
- The Supreme Court will this week hear a series of important cases — the National Registry of Citizens for Assam, a criminal defamation case against Congress president Rahul Gandhi, whether or not a film on Modi can be released during the elections
- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has fielded its minister of state for labour and employment, Nayab Saini, from the Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat to counter the criticism it faced after its sitting MP Raj Kumar Saini turned rebel and “failed to fulfil the expectations of the people”.
- Election Commission officials was brutally attacked night during a raid on the farmhouse of former minister and the BJD’s candidate for the Pipili assembly constituency Pradeep Maharathy in Odisha’s Puri district, in a fresh incident of violence in the state during elections.
- PM Narendra Modi is scheduled to address multiple rallies in Maharashtra and Rajasthan while BJP national chief Amit Shah will be addressing four public meetings in West Bengal.
- Maneka Gandhi was embroiled in a controversy for allegedly making communal remarks, BJP candidate Varun Gandhi said that it won’t be a problem if Muslims will not vote for him.
- Srinagar parliamentary constituency, Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani asked people to completely boycott elections on April [latex]23^{rd}[/latex] in south Kashmir.
- India’s central bank to study its capital structure is likely to identify excess reserves of up to ₹ 3 lakh crore ($43 billion), or 1.5 percent of gross domestic product, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
- Deposits in Jan Dhan accounts fast inching towards Rs 1 lakh cr mark. The total deposits in bank accounts opened under the Jan Dhan scheme, which was launched about five years ago by the Modi-government
- The total deposits in accounts opened under the Jan Dhan scheme are set to cross ₹1 lakh crore. The total balance in the accounts stood at ₹97,666 crore as on April [latex]3^{rd}[/latex]
- Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic led France to their sixth Fed Cup final as they won the doubles to seal the two-time champions’ dramatic 3-2 victory over Romania in their semi-final
- Krishnamachari Srikkanth is perhaps one of the very few Indians who can claim to have won two ICC World Cup titles. He was the opening batsman of the team that won the world title in 1983.
- The International Association of Athletics Federation Disciplinary Tribunal (IAAF) has banned the 2008 Olympic 1,500m champion and 3-time world champion Asbel Kiprop of Kenya for 4 years for doping until February 2022.
- Prof. Sree N Sreenath, President of Sewa International since 2009, has been inducted into the 10th class of Cleveland Hall of Fame along with five other inductees – Paul Burick, Ingrida Bublys, Dr. Akram Boutros, Richard Fleischman and Marilyn Madigan from over 100 nominations.
- The Intellectual Property Rights cell (IPR cell) of Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) has been selected for the National Intellectual Property Award 2019 for its contributions in best facilitation for registration of Geographical Indications and promotion of registered GI in the country.
- Malayalam film Bhayanakam (Fear) which was directed by Jayaraj won the best cinematography award at the Beijing International Film Festival and had also won the best cinematography award at the 65th National Film Awards.
- Head Coach of the India National Cricket Team, former Indian Cricketer and TV commentator, Ravi Shastri, also known as “Champion of Champions” was appointed as Exclusive Corporate Ambassador to the Indian Business Community of Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (RAKEZ) in Dubai.
- Amar Paul, an eminent Bengali folk singer passed away due to cardiac arrest in SSKM Hospital at Kolkata, West Bengal at the age of 97.
1. Important Days
- The Civil Service Day is celebrated on [latex]21^{st}[/latex] April every year. The purpose for this day is to rededicate and recommit themselves to the cause of the people. It is observed by all Civil Services.
- The Oscar winner then branded the POTUS as a “dumbbell”, adding that even gangsters had morals and ethics. Hollywood veteran Robert De Niro once again took a jibe at US President Donald Trump, this time calling him a “wannabe gangster“.
- Sri Lanka orders curfew with immediate effect after blasts hit Colombo. Nearly 160 people were killed in eight attacks targeting churches and hotels across the country, with hundreds of people injured.
- Heavy fighting has erupted south of Tripoli after Libya's UN-backed government announced a counter-offensive against insurgent forces. It comes after days of limited advances by either side, in clashes which have killed 220 people.
- Labour must promise another Brexit referendum to counter the electoral challenge posed by Nigel Farage, the party's deputy leader has said. Writing in the Observer, Tom Watson said his party could not "sit on the fence" about the biggest issue to face the UK for a generation.
- The Met Police has requested about 200 extra officers from neighbouring forces to help deal with the Extinction Rebellion protests in central London.
- Battleships from India, Singapore and Australia were among several foreign navies to arrive in the eastern port city of Qingdao to take part in a maritime parade to mark the 70th anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN).
- India has strongly condemned the serial blasts at multiple locations in Sri Lanka in which 160 people have been killed and over 400 injured.
- A private bus on its way to Varanasi from Delhi collided with a truck on the Agra-Lucknow Expressway, killing seven passengers and injuring 34 others, police said.
- Film and Television Institute of India in Pune, a leafy campus that was once the site of one of the country’s first studios, and where, even today, a wide arterial road leads off to a lake built for a film set in the 1940s.
- The India Meteorological Department’s southwest monsoon forecasts provide critical information to at least 700 million people in India who depend, directly or indirectly, on agriculture for a livelihood. Yet, the predictions are, quite often, far from accurate.
- The National Testing Agency (NTA), which recently released admit cards for National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for undergraduate (UG) medical and dental seats, has laid down a dress code for candidates to minimise instances of cheating.
- From security system that detects changes in pressure to ring an alarm, to a device that could help the paralysed to move again, the IIT-Delhi showcased around 60 innovations by its students and faculty.
- East Tripura constituency, one of the two Lok Sabha seats of the state, is due to go for polls, the opposition parties have demanded that the Election Commission of India (ECI) should conduct polls afresh in the West Tripura constituency.
- Tear my son’s clothes if he does not deliver, says Madhya Pradesh chief minister Kamal Nath as he campaigns for his son Nakul who is fighting his first elections from Chhindwara.
- BSP president Mayawati said the people of Uttar Pradesh who helped Narendra Modi become the prime minister are ready to remove him from the post in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
- Gauripur in Assam, three local residents discuss the elections and the prospects of the main contenders for the Dhubri Lok Sabha seat in Assam which will go to polls on April [latex]23^{rd}[/latex].
- The Election Commission special observer, Ajay V Nayak said the situation in West Bengal is similar to what it was in Bihar around 10 to 15 years ago and had lead to the voters’ demand for deployment of central forces in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
- Narendra Modi’s ascension to Prime Minister in 2014 to calling for his ouster in 2019, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray’s political objective has changed quite dramatically in five years.
- The controversy around remarks made by Malegaon blasts accused and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from Bhopal, Pragya Singh Thakur, about slain IPS officer Hemant Karkare continued
- The total deposits in bank accounts opened under the Jan Dhan scheme, which was launched about five years ago by the Modi-government, are set to cross Rs 1 lakh crore soon. The total balance in the Jan Dhan accounts, which has been steadily rising, was at Rs 97,665.66 crore as on April [latex]3^{rd}[latex], as per the latest government data.
- SoftBank Group International Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Alok Sama will step down from his post.
- The country's largest private sector lender HDFC Bank posted a 22.6 per cent increase in its net profit to Rs 5,885.1 crore for the fourth quarter of 2018-19 on the back of robust revenue and stable asset quality.
- Bankers are hoping the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will be somewhat liberal when it brings out a fresh circular on the resolution of stressed assets.
- Shiva Thapa inched closer to adding a record fourth medal by entering the 60kg pre quarterfinals while World Championships bronze medallist Lovlina Borgohain (69kg) and Deepak (49kg) made it to the last-eight stage in the Asian Boxing Championships at Bangkok
- Australia powered into its first Fed Cup final since 1993 with Ashleigh Barty and Samantha Stosur clinching the deciding fifth rubber in Brisbane against Belarusian pair Victoria Azarenka and Aryna Sabalenka.
- Sunil Kumar Gautam, Special Commissioner of Police (Operations) was honoured with ‘Pandit Govind Ballabh Pant Award‘ for 2018-19 by the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D) under the Ministry of Home Affairs, for his book titled ‘Samvidhan Kavya‘.
- The retail arm of the Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries became India’s first retail company to cross the Rs.1 lakh crore annual revenue.
- Kaushik Shaparia has been appointed as chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank as India’s head with effect from May 2019. He will succeed Ravneet Gill who is the MD & CEO of YES BANK.
- Recently, Export Promotion Council for Handicraft (EPCH) board has elevated Ravinder Kumar Passi (previously a vice chairman of EPCH), to the post of Chairman of EPCH. He will take charge for the post of Chairman shortly from his predecessor O P Prahladka.
- Sairee Chahal having extensive experience of customer service ecosystem has been appointed to Board of Directors in Paytm Payments Bank (PPB).
- Mukesh Kumar, chief of former Judo Federation of India was re-elected as general secretary of Judo Union, the Asian governing body, at its ordinary congress at Fujairah, UAE.
- Lorraine Warren who investigated haunted houses and other manifestation of paranormal activities throughout her life with her late husband Ed. Warren, died in her home at Monroe, Connecticut at the age of 92.
1. International News
- Two teenage men have been arrested in connection with the killing of journalist Lyra McKee. The pair, aged 18 and 19, were detained under the Terrorism Act.
- Engineering works on the West Coast Main Line are set to cause severe disruption for rail passengers over the Easter bank holiday weekend.
- A blind Japanese sailor completed his non-stop Pacific voyage, local media reported, becoming the first sightless person on record to navigate a vessel across the vast ocean.
- The blast followed several months of relative calm in Kabul, which coincided with talks between U.S. and Taliban officials aimed at opening the way for formal peace negotiations to end more than 17 years of war in Afghanistan.
- Thirteen people, including a child, were killed when a group of unidentified gunmen opened fire on a party in the violence-wracked eastern Mexican state of Veracruz, officials said.
- The redacted version of the Mueller report ‘leaves most of Congress in the dark’, says House Judiciary Committee chair
- Nearly a year after he was expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for sexual misconduct, director Roman Polanski has filed a case to have his membership restored.
- United Arab Emirates has found himself entangled in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on US President Donald Trump and Russian interference in America’s 2016 election.
- The Supreme Court held an urgent hearing after a former employee of the court accused Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment. Meanwhile, Justice Gogoi said.
- At least 13 people have been injured after 12 coaches of the Howrah - New Delhi Poorva Express derailed in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday. While a 45-member NDRF team is present at the spot, Indian Railways said an "Accident Relief Train" and medical equipment have also been sent to the site.
- A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed in Allahabad High Court seeking deletion of Congress' NYAY scheme from the party's manifesto.
- Recently, Rs. 4315.15 crores budget has been approved by Union Cabinet headed by PM Narendra Modi, to create over 2 lakhs additional seats in 158 central education institutions.
- Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued an order to suspend the LOC (Line of Control) trade between Jammu & Kashmir and Pakistan occupied Jammu & Kashmir (POJK).
- The Election Commission has banned Himachal Pradesh BJP president Satpal Singh Satti from campaigning for 48 hours for his remarks on Congress President Rahul Gandhi at a rally.
- Addressing an election rally in Uttar Pradesh's Mainpuri, 79-year-old Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav said,
- Delhi AAP leader Gopal Rai said the party has postponed its nomination process from give "one last chance" to Congress to discuss an alliance for LS polls.
- Actor-turned-politician Ravi Kishan, who is contesting from Gorakhpur Lok Sabha seat on a BJP ticket, promised to set up Bhojpuri film industry in the district if BJP was voted to power again.
- Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati, Tittal has been on a whirlwind tour of the state’s Agra district over the past few weeks on a unique mission – reach out to the Valmikis, a Dalit sub-caste that the BSP wants to bring to its fold.
- Chief minister Raghubar Das hammered the opposition parties for carrying the sole agenda of ‘Modi Hatawo’ (remove Modi) saying their corrupt leaders know that some of them will go to Hotwar and some to Tihar jails in Ranchi and New Delhi if Modi were voted to power again.
- Union minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot spoke to Amandeep Shukla about a range of issues, including reservation for economically weaker sections (EWS), the Modi government’s record.
- Central bank working on revised rules to replace Feb 12 circular. Bankers are hoping the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will be somewhat liberal when it brings out a fresh circular on the resolution of stressed assets.
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) notified that Exim Bank has proffered soft loans worth 266.6$ million to Rwanda for various projects.
- Life Insurance Corporation of India registered 5.68 per cent growth in premium at ₹1,42,192 crore. The first-year premium of life insurers increased by 10.73 per cent to ₹2,14,673 crore in FY19 from ₹1,93,866 crore in FY18.
- Siyadath, joined Gopichand in the mid-2000s, was there at the start of the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy (PGBA) and has been India assistant coach since 2010.
- An erratic Novak Djokovic suffered a surprise defeat against Daniil Medvedev in the Monte Carlo Masters quarterfinals.
- RCB defeated KKR by 10 runs on Friday to register their second victory in nine matches in IPL 2019. KKR have now lost four successive matches in IPL 2019
- Padma Bhushan awardee Yusuf Hamied (82) who is the chairman of Cipla pharmaceutical company was honoured in the 2019 list of new fellows of the UK’s Royal Society.
- Malakal, South Sudan, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) awarded 150 Indian peacekeepers with Medals of Honour for serving the mission with extreme dedication and sacrifice.
- Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPB) said it has appointed entrepreneur Sairee Chahal to its board of directors. Chahal is the founder and CEO of SHEROES a community platform for women.
- Deputy chief of mission in the embassy of India in Riyadh, Dr.Suhel Ajaz khan has been appointed as the next Ambassador of India to the Republic of Lebanon.He hails from Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He will succeed Sanjiv Arora.
- A 1987-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer Jaideep Sarkar, currently serving as India’s ambassador in Bhutan, appointed as the next High Commissioner of India to the Republic of South Africa. He will succeed Ruchi Ghanashyam.
- The Mali government resigned after criticism over the handling of the rising violence in the country and Ogossagou massacre that resulted in the deaths of 160 people on March 2019. Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga‘s Goverment came to power in December [latex]31^{st}[/latex], 2017.
- V.P. Pathak took over as Member (Materials Management) Railway Board on [latex]16^{th}[/latex] April, 2019. Previously, he had been working as Director General (RS), Railway Board since June 2018, and General Manager of Chittaranjan Locomotive Works since December 2016.
- A book containing English translation of the 100 year old classic Punjabi poem about Jallianwala Bagh massacre, ‘Khooni Vaisakhi’ has been released in Abu Dhabi and was commended by India’s Ambassador to the UAE Navdeep Singh Suri.
- pilot Jerrie Cobb, who was NASA’s first female astronaut candidate passed away at the age of 88 in Florida due to illness.
1. Important Days
- The World Liver Day (WLD) is observed every year on April [latex]19^{th}[/latex] to build awareness and understanding importance of liver in human body and how liver ailments are treated.
- Democrats have vowed to continue pursuing Donald Trump over allegations he obstructed justice, following the release of a report into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
- Mueller Report finally out, at least in redacted form, publishers are hurrying to release book editions. Two Mueller Report books already are in the top 100 on Amazon.com even though free pdfs are available online.
- China said it was preparing for a summit meeting with India despite New Delhi boycotting next week’s high-profile Belt and Road forum touted to be Beijing’s biggest diplomatic event of the year.
- A federal judge in Florida has sentenced an Indian citizen to eight years and six months in prison for his involvement in an India-based call centre scam, according to the US Justice Department.
- Prime Minister Imran Khan reshuffled his Cabinet amidst mounting criticism at the lackluster performance of the government.
- Priyanka Chaturvedi, who quit Congress to join Shiv Sena, in her farewell message to her colleagues said her decision was ‘thought over very thoroughly.’
- The crime branch of the Delhi Police has lodged a case of murder against unknown persons in connection with the death of Rohit Shekhar, who won paternity suit against late Narayan Dutt Tiwari, the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
- The Bombay high court dismissed a petition seeking directions to the government to provide interim funding to Jet Airways.
- Supreme Court (SC) issued directions on electoral reforms, including one on having a permanent machinery to monitor the wealth of lawmakers, the Centre is yet to take a final call on establishing such a mechanism.
- The Enforcement Directorate has seized 145.89 kg of gold jewellery worth Rs 82.11 crores from multiple locations belonging to Musaddilal Jewllers Pvt Ltd and others in connection with a money laundering probe filed during demonetisation.
- The Home Ministry denied that the Assam government had been asked to act on a complaint against journalists.
- The Chandigarh Consumer Commission recently ordered Bata India Ltd to pay Rs 9,000 in fine for charging Rs 3 from a customer for a paper bag to carry the shoebox.
- The National People’s Party (NPP) candidate Nazia Yasmin Mazumdar grabbed eyeballs, for, despite the BJP’s amazing rise and the Congress’ sharp decline in the past three years, it is the regional party that has emerged as the biggest player across the seven states in the northeast.
- The Barak Valley are Hindu refugees from Bangladesh. According to locals, they form the majority of the over 200,000 names excluded from the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Cachar district—a move that has angered many, say local leaders.
- Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati emerged morning from her 48-hour gag order with all guns blazing, targeting the BJP and the election commission.
- Tripura unit chief Pradyot Kishore Deb Burman for slapping a man accused of attacking the convoy his party’s candidate from the East Tripura Lok Sabha constituency.
- Congress leader Hardik Patel had to cancel his helicopter ride to Lunawada in Mahisagar district of Gujarat at the last moment after the farmer on whose field the chopper was to land did not give his nod for its use as a helipad, an official said.
- The Banks Board Bureau (BBB), the apex body for selection of whole-time directors of state-owned lenders, has identified 75 senior management personnel of public sector lenders to take over leadership role in the future.
- This insurance will be available on My Airtel app and at over 40,000 Airtel Payments Bank -- banking points, with presence even in rural India.
- The Reserve Bank of India has released a draft framework for setting up a regulatory sandbox (RS) or live testing of products or services by fintech firms.
- Air India Chairman Ashwani Lohani is likely to meet State Bank Chairman Rajnish Kumar on Friday over the national carrier’s plans to lease five wide-body Boeing planes from the now grounded Jet Airways.
- India’s top woman weightlifter, 2017 World Championships gold medallist Mirabai Chanu, will have to lift in excess of 200kg way above her personal best in order to win a medal at the Asian Championships commencing in Ningbo, Chinese.
- Bangkok, April [latex]19^{th}[/latex] (IANS) Asian Games gold-medallist Amit Panghal will make his competitive debut in the new weight class of 52 kg in the Asian Boxing Championship
- Reporters Without Borders released World Press Freedom Index 2019 in which Norway topped the index in third consecutive year and India drops down by two positions (138th rank in 2018) to be ranked 140th out of 180 countries in 2019.
- Recently TIME Magazine has released 100’s most influential people list in which Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani, public interest litigators Arundhati Katju and Menaka Guruswamy who fought the legal battle for LGBTQ rights are among Indians have been named.
- McAfee, an American global computer security software company has appointed Sanjay Manohar as its next MD for India operations. Before joining McAfee, Sanjay Manohar worked at Akamai Technologies as regional vice president – Asia Pacific & Japan Carrier Business and MD of the Greater China region. He will succeed Venkat Krishnapur.
- The premier Industry body India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) committed to the development of a vibrant Indian Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) ecosystem, has appointed Jitendra Chaddah, Intel India senior director for operations and strategy, as its Chairman.
- Nepal has launched its first satellite “NepaliSat-1″ into space from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s East Shore.
- Sri Lanka launched its first satellite ‘Raavana-1’ weighing 1.05 kg into space from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s East Shore. Raavana 1 was bordered to the Antares rocket carrying Cygnus cargo spacecraft.
- Alan Garcia, 69, who served two terms as Peru’s president, from 1985 to 1990 and from 2006 to 2011, shot himself in his bedroom at his home in Lima, the capital, as police waited outside his door to take him to jail over bribery allegations with Brazelian construction company Odebrecht.
1. Important Days
- World Heritage Day is celebrated every year on [latex]18^{th}[/latex] April to raise the awareness about the preserving human heritage, diversity and vulnerability of the world’s built monuments and heritage sites.
- North Korea says it has test-fired a new "tactical guided weapon" with a "powerful warhead", the first such test since talks between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un ended without agreement.
- New Zealand's former top military official in the US has been found guilty of planting a secret camera in a unisex bathroom at the country's embassy in Washington DC.
- At least 29 people have died after a bus carrying German tourists plunged off a road and overturned on the Portuguese island of Madeira.
- A man has been arrested after walking into New York's St Patrick's Cathedral carrying two full petrol cans, lighter fluid and lighters, police say.
- Gunmen killed at least 14 people after forcing them to disembark from buses in Pakistan’s restive southwestern Balochistan province, officials.
- Taiwan's richest person Terry Gou announced that he will contest the country's 2020 presidential election after being urged to do so by a Chinese sea goddess.
- Indonesia’s Joko Widodo was on track to be re-elected leader of the world’s third-biggest democracy as unofficial results put him in a comfortable lead over firebrand ex-general Prabowo Subianto after voting closed across the 17,000-island archipelago.
- Sudan’s military ousted Mr. Bashir after weeks of mass protests that climaxed in a sit-in outside the Defence Ministry compound.
- France announced it would invite architects from around the world to submit designs for replacing the spire of Notre-Dame Cathedral after a devastating blaze, as the government braced for a mammoth restoration challenge.
- Hyderabad woman stuck in Jordan with expired passport, brother seeks Sushma Swaraj’s help. The woman’s family has now sought assistance from External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj to bring her back.
- India's unemployment rate has doubled in the eight years since 2011, as per a report by Azim Premji University. After remaining at about 2-3% during the decade to 2011, the country's unemployment rate increased to more than 6% last year, it added.
- Himachal Pradesh BJP chief Satpal Singh Satti was served another notice by the Election Commission for allegedly violating the model code of conduct.
- Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman exuded confidence that the Narendra Modi government will be voted back to power in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
- The BJP and the BSP engaged in a bitter war of words over ‘burqa-clad voters’ in Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha constituency during the second phase of polling for Lok Sabha elections.
- In an election rally in Gujarat , Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s statue in Gujarat was not intended to disrespect former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
- “Nyay” is the social welfare scheme announced by the Congress party in its election manifesto that promises to pay Rs 72,000 per annum to families living below the poverty line.
- Union home minister Rajnath Singh was addressing a rally in Shahjahanpur, seeking votes for BJP candidate Arun Sagar, for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
- Mohammed Mohsin, a 1996-batch IAS officer, was suspended after he checked the vehicle in Sambalpur, where the PM addressed an election rally. It wasn’t immediately clear who was travelling in the vehicle that was checked.
- The Allahabad High Court had taken cognisance of the recent spurt in crimes in the district and expressed concern over the violence at Allahabad University and its hostels.
- The meeting, held to prepare for the May [latex]12^{th}[/latex] Lok Sabha elections in Haryana and Delhi was attended by Gurugram police commissioner Muhammad Akil, four deputy commissioners of Delhi Police and police commissioners from Rohtak and Faridabad.
- BJP’s commitment to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is the party’s main poll plank in Assam unlike in other parts of the northeast. Silchar is among the five Lok Sabha seats in the state that are voting on April [latex]18^{th}[/latex], the second phase of parliamentary polls.
- 2nd Phase Lok Sabha Elections 2019 Updates: Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, Senior Congress leader Veerappa Moily, BJP lawmaker Hema Malini and National Conference President Farooq Abdullah are among the prominent candidates contesting in the phase 2 elections.
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) could consider evolving a table of repo rate changes mapped to its monetary policy stance, according to the State Bank of India’s economic research department.
- CRISIL Ltd, a diversified global analytics company, will transfer its ratings business to its proposed new wholly-owned subsidiary.
- The issuances of GoI-FSBs (Government of India - fully-serviced bond) significantly shot up during FY2019 to ₹64,192 crore, compared to ₹15,095 crore during FY2018, according to credit rating agency ICRA.
- Private sector lender RBL Bank reported a jump of 39 per cent in its net profit to Rs 247.2 crore for the fourth quarter ended March [latex]31^{st}[/latex], 2019.
- SunRisers Hyderabad defeated Chennai Super Kings by six wickets to end the Chennai-based side's four-match winning streak and move to the fifth place on the IPL 2019 points table.
- Tottenham Hotspur (Spurs) knocked Manchester City out of Champions League on away goals despite losing the quarter-final second leg 3-4 in Manchester.
- Liverpool thrashed Porto 4-1 in the quarter-final second leg to reach the Champions League semi-final with a 6-1 aggregate victory.
- Tokyo 2020 organisers launched a portal detailing prices and timings for Olympic events, as they prepare to throw open ticket applications via lottery for Japanese residents.
- NASA has awarded three teams of Indian students in its 25th Annual Human Exploration Rover challenge 2019 at the US Space and Rocket Centre in Huntsville, Alabama
- Yusuf Hamied, scientist and chairman of Indian pharmaceutical major Cipla, has been awarded an honorary fellowship of the Royal Society
- The US Department of Interior inducted its very first Indian, Delhi-based Sanjay Kumar, CEO of Geospatial Media and Communications and Secretary General of World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC), to its prestigious National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC).
- Cyber security company McAfee announced the appointment of Sanjay Manohar as its Managing Director for India operations.
- Adani Enterprises said Rakesh Suryakant Shah has stepped down as the company's Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Shah, who has been working with the Gautam Adani-led group since May 2007, took over as the company's CFO in May 2018.
- Left-handed batsman Dimuth Karunaratne has been appointed Sri Lanka's ODI captain and will lead the side during their campaign in the 2019 World Cup.
- Helium hydride, the universe's first type of molecule believed to be formed around 1,00,000 years after Big Bang has been detected in space for the first time after decades of searching, NASA revealed.
- Chinese scientist He Jiankui, who was banned after he claimed the birth of world's first gene-edited 'HIV-resistant' babies in 2018, is on the TIME magazine's 100 Most Influential People 2019 list.
1. Important Days
- World Haemophilia Day is observed on [latex]17^{th}[/latex] April every year to increase awareness about haemophilia disease and other inherited bleeding disorders.
- While the world marvels at Indonesia's staging of the most complex single-day election in history, the real challenge for the country runs far deeper.
- Pakistan has reached an "agreement in principle" with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over a bailout program which will be worth $6-$8 billion, Pakistan's Finance Minister Asad Umar said.
- China's economy grew slightly faster than expected in the three months to March, official figures released showed.
- Climate change activists aiming to "shut down London" have entered their third day of protests. Extinction Rebellion protesters have been blocking traffic at Marble Arch, Waterloo Bridge, Parliament Square and Oxford Circus
- A Japanese university professor could face up to 10 years in jail after allegedly getting his students to produce ecstasy, officials said Wednesday, in an echo of TV hit series “Breaking Bad”.
- UK universities are being accused of using "gagging orders" to stop bullying, discrimination and sexual misconduct allegations becoming public. Dozens of academics have told BBC News they were "harassed" out of their jobs and made to sign non-disclosure agreements after making complaints.
- India and the United Kingdom this week signed a memorandum of understanding on defence and security equipment described as a ‘step change’ in the long-standing defence relationship between the two countries.
- Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is serving a 72-hour ban from poll campaigning imposed by the Election Commission for violation of the Model Code of Conduct.
- Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that onus to prove whether a terrorist camp was hit or not during the Balakot air strikes was on Pakistan.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a scathing attack at Rahul Gandhi at his Maharashtra rally, accusing the Congress president of targeting him and his community because he was from a backward community.
- The Catholic priest in Goa, who warned people against voting for the BJP, called the party’s president Amit Shah a devil and blamed former chief minister Manohar Parrikar’s cancer on the “wrath of god”, has apologised after a probe by the Election Commission against him.
- BJP president Amit Shah, who met five of their six demands, the 111 farmers of Tamil Nadu who decided to contest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have cancelled their plans, said National South Indian Rivers Inter-Linking Farmers Association Tamil Nadu president P Ayyakkanu.
- Election Commission of India temporarily barred four leaders UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Union minister Maneka Gandhi, BSP chief Mayawati and SP leader Azam Khan from campaigning for violating model code of conduct, the focus is back on the powers that the Commission enjoys to ensure free and fair polls.
- Unfazed by the Income Tax raids at her house, DMK leader Kanimozhi said the BJP cannot stop her from winning the Lok Sabha elections.
- IDBI Bank has launched ‘NRI-Insta Online’ account opening process for NRIs residing in Financial Action Task Force (FATF)member countries to open an account in the Bank without visiting the branch or submitting paper documents such as physical documents as well as KYC proofs.
- Asian Development Bank (ADB) agreed to provide a total of USD 3.88 billion in sovereign loans to India in 2018, which is the highest ever loan amount since sovereign operations began in the country in 1986.
- United Nation Secretary General (UNSG) Antonio Guterres voiced concern that the UN owes India USD 38 million, the highest amount which has to be paid by any country for peacekeeping operations as of March 2019.
- Sankara Narayanan and Karnam Sekar are well-positioned to set the ball rolling for a fresh amalgamation, say banking experts
- India has became a net importer of steel in the fiscal year 2018-2019 that ended on 31 March for the first time in 3 years, as the 25% import duty on steel products imposed by the US diverted supplementary supplies to India.
- Rookie swing bowler Abu Jayed is pleasantly surprised by his selection in Bangladesh’s 15-member World Cup squad despite being an uncapped one-day player but now faces the challenge of making the playing XI in England and Wales.
- Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri announced he would be staying on as coach with the Italian giants next season despite another Champions League disappointment.
- FC Goa, nicknamed as ‘Gaurs’, emerged as champions of the 2nd edition of Hero Super Cup 2019 after beating Chennaiyin FC 2-1 at the Kalinka Stadium in Bhubaneswar.
- International cricket council (ICC) cricket for good in partnership with UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund), launched #OneDay4Children, a tournament-wide campaign to help construct a better world for all children, at the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2019.
- Former Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) president Jose Maria Marin has been banned for life from all football activities by FIFA as he had breached the art. 27 (Bribery) of the FIFA Code of Ethics.
- The Pulitzer Prize is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine and online journalism, literature, and musical composition in the United States.
- Fincare Small Finance Bank (SFB) has been honoured with the prestigious Celent Model Bank 2019 Award in Financial Inclusion category, for ‘Redesigning Lending to Reach Small Businesses’.
- PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers) India announced the appointment of Padmaja Alaganandan as the firm’s new Chief People Officer (CPO). She takes over the role from Jagjit Singh.
- Ace cricketer Mithali Dorai Raj, Captain of the Indian women’s cricket team, has been named as the goodwill ambassador of the Indian team for the Street Child Cricket World Cup (SCCWC) 2019. Mithali joins IPL franchise Rajasthan Royals and former captain SouravGanguly in supporting the team.
- Cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been appointed as the brand ambassador of Bus ticketing platform redBus to strengthen the redBus brand.
- Punjab National Bank (PNB) has appointed Rajesh Kumar Yaduvanshi as the Executive Director of the bank. Rajesh Kumar Yaduvanshi had joined PNB as a management trainee in 1985.
- The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered an Earth-sized planet, HD 21749b and a “sub-Neptune” world, revolving around the star, HD 21749. The star lies 53 light-years from Earth.
- The researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), US created a 3D-printed device that that can produce electricity from falling snow. The device is small, inexpensive, thin, flexible like a plastic-sheet and can work anywhere because it provides its own power and does not need batteries.
- A team led by San Diego State University astronomers has discovered a third planet in a two-star system named Kepler-47, which is seven times the size of the Earth and the largest in its system.
1. International News
- French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to rebuild the medieval cathedral of Notre-Dame after a major fire partially destroyed the Paris landmark.
- A US local newspaper has won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of a mass shooting in its own newsroom. But there was no celebration as the Capital Gazette in Maryland learned it had won the most prestigious prize in American journalism.
- Whistleblowers across the European Union are set to win greater protections under a new law aimed at encouraging reports of wrongdoing. The legislation being considered calls for whistleblowers to be shielded from retaliation.
- The number of measles cases reported worldwide in the first three months of 2019 has tripled compared with the same time last year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
- Notre Dame Cathedral went up in flames in a roaring blaze that devastated the Parisian landmark, one of France’s most visited places.
- Rusdi Kirana said a recent apology by Boeing over the 346 lives lost in the two disasters, firstly at Lion Air in October and then at Ethiopian Airlines last month, stood in contrast to what he viewed as hasty earlier criticism of Lion Air’s pilots.
- The US has advised its citizens to reconsider their travel to Pakistan due to terrorism and asked them not to travel to restive Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), identified as the most dangerous areas due to terror attacks.
- The Trump re-election campaign said it has raised more than $30 million in the first quarter of 2019, far ahead of amounts reported by Democratic contenders for 2020.
- The Ahmedabad District Collector's office, in collaboration with India Post, has sent more than one lakh postcards to first-time voters, urging them to cast their votes in the Lok Sabha elections.
- Indian Railways has suspended two employees after tickets with the photo of PM Narendra Modi printed on them were issued to passengers at Barabanki railway station in Uttar Pradesh
- Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is on a campaign trip to Kerala, visited Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in hospital after he sustained a head injury during a temple ritual
- Kishore Samrite, who is contesting as an independent candidate from Madhya Pradesh's Balaghat constituency, has requested the Election Commission to either provide ₹75 lakh or permit him to sell his kidney to gather funds for contesting the polls.
- Ecuador said that it has suffered 4 crore cyber attacks on the webpages of public institutions since stripping WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of political asylum.
- Referring to the February 27 aerial dogfight with Pakistan following the Balakot air strikes, Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa said, "The results would have been further skewed in our favour had we inducted the Rafale aircraft in time."
- The Supreme Court has issued notices to the centre and others on a petition filed by a Maharashtra couple that wanted to let women offer prayers in mosques.
- Punjabi singer and actor Ammy Virk has started training with former India cricketer Balwinder Singh Sandhu for the upcoming film "'83", a movie based on India's 1983 Cricket World Cup win.
- Jet Airways founder Naresh Goyal has decided not to bid for acquiring stake in the cash-strapped airline, sources said.
- The fate of Jet Airways (India) Ltd remained uncertain with no revival plan or interim funding in sight. Jet Airways lenders, led by State Bank of India (SBI),
- a unique proposition to pay electricity bill on EMIs has been launched by Bajaj Finserv through its lending arm Bajaj Finance Ltd. through the campaign of #BijliOnEMI.
- Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has tossed its hat in the ring for the taking over of Air India's iconic tower at Nariman Point in Mumbai.
- Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) said it plans to allot nearly 5 per cent equity shares on a preferential basis to Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd.
- A foreign brokerage, said the Reserve Bank of India will cut its key policy rates by another 25 basis points, after Governor Shaktikanta Das’ weekend speech focussing on ways to revive growth.
- The Team India squad for ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 has been announced. Virat Kohli will lead the squad, while Rohit Sharma will be the Vice-Captain.
- Chilean professional tennis player Christian Garin won his first ATP title in 10 years in the final of the US Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston. He beat Norway’s Casper Ruud.
- Bangladesh named their 15-member squad for the 2019 World Cup, which will take place in England and Wales from May [latex]30^{th}[/latex] to July [latex]14^{th}[/latex].
- Chennai Central Railway station in Tamil Nadu, officially known as Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G. Ramachandran Central Railway Station with its 57-character count missed the chance of having the title of world’s longest railway station name by an alphabet.
- Reuters journalists, Kyaw Soe Oo and Wa Lone have been selected for UNESCO/Guillermo Cano Press Freedom Prize 2019 for recognizing their commitment, courage and resistance to freedom of expression.
- Cairn Oil & Gas, a subsidiary of Vedanta Ltd, has appointed Ajay Dixit as its chief executive officer. Ajay Dixit succeeds Sudhir Mathur, who quit earlier this month.
- NASA’s latest planet-hunting probe has discovered its first Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting a star 53 light-years away.
- Former Director of Indian Space Research Organisation Satellite Centre (ISAC), SK Shivakumar died at the age of 66 in Bengaluru. He hailed from Mysuru, Karnataka.
1. International News
- Sudan's transitional military council has arrested members of the former government and promised not to disperse protesters.
- Dozens of journalists and major news outlets in Australia have begun defending accusations that they breached a reporting ban on the sexual abuse trial of Cardinal George Pell.
- Democrat Pete Buttigieg, who is the Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and is also openly gay, has announced that he was running for President in 2020 and proclaimed his hometowns revival was the answer to sceptics who ask how he has the “audacity” to see himself in the White House.
- China has successfully tested the world’s first armed amphibious drone boat which the Chinese military analysts claimed could be used in land assault operations and is capable of forming a combat triad with aerial drones and other drone ships, according to a media report.
- Iran’s parliament approved the outlines of a bill to retaliate for the US designation of the Revolutionary Guards Corp as a terrorist organization, Ali Najafi-Khoshroudi, spokesman for parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission
- Billionaire Jack Ma again encouraged tech workers to embrace the industry’s extreme-overtime culture, defying a growing social media backlash.
- The BJP’s leader in Telangana T Raja Singh denied allegations of the Pakistan army that he copied one of its songs and described the claim by its chief spokesperson as a “cheap gimmick”.
- SpiceJet announced the launch of non-stop flights from Mumbai to Colombo, Dhaka, Riyadh, Hong Kong and Kathmandu. The no-frills airline would start the services from the end of May.
- Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati hit out at BJP leaders Maneka Gandhi and Yogi Adityanath over their recent comments and said this “anti-people attitude” of the BJP needs to be defeated in the Lok Sabha elections.
- The Supreme Court took note of the alleged hate speeches made by BSP supremo Mayawati and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during poll campaign and sought to know from the Election Commission the action initiated against them so far.
- Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s cavalcade was attacked on Monday by stone-pelters in Anantnag district.
- The Supreme Court has asked the Election Commission to watch the ‘PM Narendra Modi’, a biopic on the prime minister, and review its decision to put the movie on hold.
- The National Commission for Women strongly condemned the “extremely derogatory” remarks made by SP leader Azam Khan against actor-turned politician Jaya Prada and issued a show cause notice to him.
- Key equity indices opened marginally higher led by gains in metal and auto sector stocks. All the sectoral indices on the BSE traded in the green.
- Mutual fund investment options, you might think that it is an easier bet to just pick a well-performing sector that has delivered double-digit returns. According to data by Value Research, the technology sector delivered an average returns of 19.55% in the last year.
- The new financial year comes a new income tax return (ITR) form . The income tax (I-T) department has said that the new ITR-1 and ITR-4 form for assessment year 2019-20 is available for e-filing on the website.
- Life Insurance Corporation(LIC), the largest insurance company in India, got 12 years from RBI for cut down stake in IDBI Bank.LIC is the lender’s major shareholder, and it has a 51 per cent stake in the Bank.
- The Reserve Bank of India sanctioned reinsurance brokers to initiate non-interest bearing foreign currency accounts with banks for undertaking transactions.
- Ball-tamperers Steve Smith and David Warner were selected for Australia’s ICC World Cup 2019 squad, but there was no room for Josh Hazlewood or Peter Handscomb.
- Liverpool powered back to the top of the Premier League after Mohamed Salah’s stunning strike clinched a 2-0 win over Chelsea.
- FanDuel Group, which ran a refund promotion tied to its fantasy product, said it lost $2 million when Tiger Woods secured his first major victory in more than a decade.
- Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism has selected Mint’s Teena Thacker as the winner of the 2019 Citi Journalistic Excellence Awards.
- Col (Dr) Bibhu Kalyan Nayak, a native of the temple City, became the first Indian to be appointed Chair of International Hockey Federation (FIH) Health and Safety Committee by the world governing body. He will serve a two-year cycle lasting until 2020.
- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbasaccepted the oath of office from the new 24-member cabinet headed by Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtayeh.
- The world’s largest airplane a Stratolaunch’s behemoth named “Roc” has made its first test flight in California, over the Mojave Desert .
- Bharti Airtel has launched a mobile app, “My Circle” in collaboration with FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) to assist women in case they face any panic situation or problem.
1. Important Days
- B.R. Ambedkar Remembrance Day is also known as Ambedkar Jayanti or Bhim Jayanti which is observed on [latex]14^{th}[/latex] April to commemorate the memory of B.R Ambedkar.
- Jeremy Corbyn has been warned Labour will "haemorrhage" votes in the EU election unless the party explicitly backs a further referendum.
- A Democratic congresswoman says she will not be silenced after facing a barrage of criticism over comments she made about the 9/11 attacks - including from Donald Trump.
- Finland is tipped to turn left in election, with the Social Democrats leading in polls. Should they be successful, the country will have its first left-wing leader in 20 years.
- The world's largest aeroplane by wingspan has taken flight for the first time. Built by Stratolaunch, the company set up by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2011, the aircraft is designed to act as a flying launch pad for satellites.
- In a major archaeological discovery, Egypt unveiled the tomb of a Fifth Dynasty official adorned with colourful reliefs and well preserved inscriptions.
- The Mariana Trench is located in the Western Pacific Ocean and reaches a depth of approximately 11,000 metres. By comparison, Mount Everest is 8,848 metres high.
- The world’s largest airplane a Stratolaunch behemoth with two fuselages and six Boeing 747 engines made its first test flight in California.
- A 25-year-old woman from Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district, one of the worst-hit Maoist regions in the country, has got the 12th rank in the civil services exam, the result of which was declared recently by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
- Spicejet is now hiring engineers and pilots at much lower pay than their current salaries at the financialy-troubled Jet. Industry sources told IANS that pilots from Jet Airways are being asked to take salary cuts of 25-30 per cent while engineers have been advised to settle at 50 per cent of their current pay package.
- Princess Diana, Naresh Gujral’s garment export firm would, perhaps, have remained just one of many. But a pattern of Scottish checks caught Diana’s fancy and she wore a Gujral dress on a visit to Australia.
- Mukesh Sharma alias Malaudh, Amandeep Kaur, Bhupinder Singh Longowal and Paramjit Kaur — have deliberately chosen to marry inter-caste aiming to demolish caste taboo in the Malwa region, where Dalits have been fighting for 33% share of common land.
- Chandrababu Naidu’s Telugu Desam Party and the Election Commission are involved in a war of words over performance of electronic voting machines in the Andhra Pradesh assembly polls.
- Gujarat water supply minister Kunvarji Bavaliya was caught on camera telling a group of women who complained about drinking water woes in their village that they should have voted for him.
- Bank of Baroda, which has become the country's second largest bank by merging Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with itself, will undertake evaluation of its board and has invited bids from consultancy firms by early-May.
- Bank fixed deposits (FDs) continue to be popular investment products among people who are looking for guaranteed income. The TDs limit on bank FDs and Post office deposits was raised to ₹40,000 from the current ₹10,000 in interim budget 2019.
- Lewis Hamilton won the Chinese Grand Prix to seize the overall lead from his Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas in Formula One’s 1,000th world championship race.
- Pep Guardiola laughed off suggestions that he may be tempted to match Roy Hodgson’s remarkable longevity in the game as he prepares to pit his wits against the 71-year-old Crystal Palace manager.
- Nikhat Zareen sweated her shadow work, watching herself in a large mirror. Punjabi music blared out from a bluetooth speaker.
- An image of a little girl crying, as she and her mother have been taken into custody by US border officials in Texas won the prestigious World Press Photo of the Year.
- Dr A K Singh, director at Life Sciences, DRDOhas been honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award 2019 during 4th APJ Abdul Kalam Innovation Conclave at Chandigarh University, Mohali.
- National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration Professor Najma Akhtar has been appointed as the first women vice-chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia University (JMI) for a period of five years by the President of India. She will succeed Talat Ahmad.
- A paper on ‘NASA Twins’ has revealed that spaceflight has an effect on the gut microbiome; the effects however appear to be significant and temporary.
- Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US have manufactured a tiny spectrometer that can be used in smartphone-sized devices to identify dangerous chemicals based on a unique “fingerprint” of emitted and absorbed light. The study has been published in the JournalNature Communications.
- Jeff Kinney, an eminent author has emerged out with a new book titled “Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid Rowley Jefferson’s Journal”. The book is written from the opinion of Rowley Jefferson, the best friend of ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ supporter Greg Heffley.
- Liverpool legend Tommy Smith who was famously nicknamed the ‘Anfield Iron’ passed away at the age of 74 at Green Heyes nursing home in Park Road, Waterloo, Crosby after fighting a prolonged battle with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
1. Important Days
- The Jallianwala Bagh Massacre On April [latex]13^{th}[/latex] 1919 some 50 British Indian army soldiers began shooting at unarmed civilians who were taking part in a peaceful protest against oppressive laws enforced in the Punjab region.
- The head of Sudan's military council has stood down a day after leading a coup that toppled long-time leader Omar al-Bashir amid a wave of protests.
- North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has said he would take part in a third summit with Donald Trump - but only if the US brought the "right attitude".
- Facebook Inc more than doubled the money it spent on Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg’s security in 2018 to $22.6 million, a regulatory filing showed.
- The United States, France and the United Kingdom are reported to have posted a deadline for China to lift its hold on their proposal for a UN Security Council body to blacklist Masood Azhar, founder of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad, which has claimed responsibility for the Pulwama terror attack.
- US defense department told lawmakers that India conducted an anti-satellite test because “they are concerned about threats to their nation from space”, adding to growing support and acceptance of a development that raised concerns in some quarters about the spatial debris it left behind.
- Jeremy Corbyn has piled more pressure on PM May to tender an apology on behalf of the state for the April 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre in Amritsar, for which she and her ministers have so far confined themselves to expressing ‘deep regret’.
- US President Donald Trump has said that the sanctions on North Korea will remain in place. However, he deemed it unnecessary to increase them further.
- Rabri Devi claimed that Kishor had met her husband Lalu Prasad with the proposal that the RJD and Nitish Kumar’s JD-U merge and the new entity thus formed declare its “prime ministerial candidate” ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
- Vinay Kumar said that the fire took place due to a short circuit in the basement of the building. Due to the presence of cylinders, an explosion took place and four nearby buildings collapsed.
- Two militants were killed in a gunfight with the security forces in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian district, police said.
- India is hopeful it will avoid US sanctions over its purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile system, defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman told AFP.
- The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Madhya Pradesh Police will probe alleged financial irregularities at Bhopal-based Makhanlal Chaturvedi Journalism University which, it believes, were committed during the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime, senior government officials
- The President’s office said it had not received the missive and two of the eight former chiefs initially denied that they were signatories to the letter, but later admitted that they endorsed its content.
- French newspaper Le Monde claimed France waived off over ₹1,100 crore taxes of Anil Ambani's France-based telecom company 'Reliance FLAG Atlantic France' after PM Narendra Modi announced Rafale deal in April
- The first edition of Forbes World’s Best Bank survey, HDFC Bank has been recognized as number 1 bank by customers in India.
- PAISALO Digital Limited signed the first co-origination loan agreement (designed at Rs.10,000 to 2 lakh) with State Bank of India (SBI). The company expects to pay out 200,000 loan applications in FY20.
- Delhi Capitals defeated Kolkata Knight Riders by seven wickets at Kolkata's Eden Gardens in the IPL 2019. The match witnessed Delhi Capitals opener Shikhar Dhawan score his 50th T20 fifty and register his highest individual T20 score of 97*(63).
- Sindhu looked completely out of sort as just 15 minutes into the match and she was crestfallen after meekly surrendering the first game following a heap of unforced errors, mainly at the net and sidelines.
- United recovered from two consecutive defeats to beat Leicester City 1-0 with an Ayoze Perez header and moved 10 points clear of the Premier League relegation zone.
- The Chairman and Managing Director of the General Insurance Corporation of India (GIC), Alice G. Vaidyan has been honoured with the Freedom of the City of London for the recognition of her work to promote insurance ties between India and the UK.
- Asian Athletic Association (AAA) has declared Indonesian Eni Nuraeni as the best athletic coach in Asia for the short-haul run category in 2019. It was published by the Indonesian Athletic Sports Association (PB PASI).
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred with the “Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle”, by Russia for exceptional services in promoting bilateral ties.
- The West Bengal government, namely, “Utkarsh Bangla” (Skill training of the youth) and “Sabooj Sathi” (cycles for students) have won the distinguished World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) awards of the United Nations (UN).
- Telugu poet K Siva Reddy has been honoured with the prestigious Saraswati Samman, 2018 with a cash prize of 15 lakh rupees for his collection of poetry titled ‘Pakkaki Ottigilite’.
- Gargi Kaul, a 1984-batch officer of the Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IA&AS) was appointed as the secretary, Defence Finance as part of a bureaucratic reshuffle. The senior bureaucrat, Kaul currently serving as Financial Advisor (Defence Services), Ministry of Defence.
- A new technique named dual-PWS, has been developed by the researchers to study the movement of cells without using labels or dyes.
- SpaceX carried out its first commercial operational mission by launching its Falcon Heavy rocket to place a Saudi telecoms satellite into orbit operated by Arabsat.
- A booklet of the ‘Selected speeches of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar in the Constituent Assembly’ was released by Prasar Bharati Chairman, A Surya Prakash to mark 128th birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar (April [latex]14^{th}[/latex]), at an event in New Delhi.
1. International News
- Australia said it would oppose the death penalty for Julian Assange if he’s extradited to the United States, as protesters in Sydney called for his release and Australia’s journalists’ union voiced its strong support for him.
- China will dispatch millions of youth “volunteers” in the next two years to develop villages, state media says, raising the spectre of Chinese leader Mao Zedong’s methods when he launched the Cultural Revolution five decades ago, triggering massive social and economic upheavals.
- Ecuador’s decision to abruptly end Julian Assange’s seven-year asylum in its London embassy followed a long deterioration in relations, driven in part by suspicions he was secretly fuelling corruption allegations against President Lenin Moreno.
- Disney CEO Bob Iger called upon US politicians to reject hate in the run up to the 2020 election -- and claimed that Adolf Hitler would have “loved social media” as a tool to spread extremist propaganda.
- The US is currently undergoing a review of its assistance to Pakistan which is expected to be finalised soon, a top Trump administration official has told lawmakers.
- China and Russia are determined to replace the current free and open world order with an insular system, John Richardson, Chief of Naval Operations asserted.
- South Korea’s Constitutional Court (local time) ruled as unconstitutional a 66-year-law that made abortion a crime punishable by two years imprisonment, signalling a major victory for those who campaigned extensively for the abolition of the strict and controversial legislation.
- The United States turned down nearly a third of all new H-1B petitions processed in the first quarter of the 2019 cycle, continuing the squeeze on the work visa programme that started in 2017 with the Trump administration’s “Buy American, Hire American” executive order.
- British Prime Minister Theresa May faced down a call to resign as she implored MPs to resolve the Brexit impasse at last after the EU granted a new six-month delay.
- The Israeli spacecraft Beresheet crashed onto the moon after a series of technical failures during its final descent, shattering hopes of a historic controlled landing on the lunar surface.
- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange sought refuge in the Ecuadorean embassy in central London, he was arrested following withdrawal of his asylum status and an extradition request from the United States.
- An Indian-origin man in Singapore has been jailed for three weeks and fined 5,000 dollars for setting off fireworks close to a housing complex during Diwali celebrations in the country last year.
- Undertrials, as people held in prison during or awaiting trial are referred to, account for two out of every three people in prisons in India, and 1,942 children, whose mothers are undertrials or convicts, continue to languish in jails.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi continued his spate of attacks on the Congress saying that the party is “not concerned” about protecting the interests of the nation. PM Modi said the people have given a new slogan, “remove Congress to remove poverty”.
- A bipartisan group of half a dozen influential American lawmakers has reintroduced an important legislation in the House of Representatives which seeks to advance the US-India strategic relationship.
- BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi moved the Supreme Court seeking contempt action against Congress president Rahul Gandhi for attributing his remarks on the recent Rafale verdict to the apex court.
- The Central Bureau of Investigation told the Supreme Court that it had closed probe against Mulayam Singh Yadav in 2007 disproportionate assets case, days after the Samajwadi Party patriarch said the allegations levelled at him were politically motivated.
- The Supreme Court has turned down a plea for interim stay on electoral bonds and asked the political parties to share details of the donations received through this instrument.
- A day after an FIR was lodged in the Rs 3,000-crore e-tendering case, three officials of Osmo IT Solutions were arrested by the economic offences wing (EOW), police said.
- The TRS swept the assembly polls, including all seven assembly seats in this Lok Sabha constituency. The Congress, which is supported by the TDP, has fielded former MP Madhu Goud Yaskhi.
- SoftBank Group Corp leader Masayoshi Son has much bigger ambitions for transportation than simply seeing his investment in Uber Technologies Inc turn into more than $13 billion when the company goes public next month.
- Private lender Kotak Mahindra Bank has cut interest rate on savings account deposits up to ₹1 lakh. The rate of interest has been lowered to 4.5% from 5% earlier, according to the bank’s website.
- Jet Airways, which broke into the monopoly of state-run Air India Ltd. in the early 1990s, had successfully managed to hold its own in a tough market before a slew of budget airlines started offering ultra-low fares about a decade back.
- Maharashtra fell for the first time in close to 30 years in 2017-18, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data showed. This assumes significance as Maharashtra accounts for 28% of all industrial loans in India.
- The Indian trio of P V Sindhu, Saina Nehwal and Kidambi Srikanth continued their impressive run, progressing to the singles quarterfinals of the USD 355,000 Singapore Open here.
- Unai Emery warned Arsenal to expect a strong response from Napoli after his side seized the initiative with a 2-0 win in their Europa League quarter-final first leg.
- ‘Dost Education’, which is India’s education technology startup won a $25,000 (Rs 17 lakhs) tech prize for its ability to empower parents to take charge of their child’s early education.
- The 48-year-old, Rio Paralympics silver medalist Deepa Malik has been honoured with the New Zealand Prime Minister’s Sir Edmund Hillary Fellowship for 2019 in recognition of her “inspiring achievements”.
- Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), Shiv Das Meena has been appointed as the Chairman cum Managing Director (CMD) of National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC).
- Fantasy 11, Gaming startup, has roped in Murali Kartik, former Indian Cricketer as its brand Ambassador.He was the’ official Fan Management Partner’ for recently concluded Premier Badminton League (PBL).
- Google has launched a new open platform named ‘Anthos’ to run and manage apps from anywhere. It lets users run applications on the public cloud or on existing on-premise hardware investments.
- NASA has announced it'll fund 18 concepts including smart spacesuit with self-healing skin under NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts program.
- A new state of matter which can be solid and liquid at the same time has been discovered by scientists of the University of Edinburgh.
- Indian Actor Navtej Hundal passed away after suffering from chronic Hepatitis B disease. He was 86. The news was shared on Cine And TV Artist Association’s (CINTAA) official Twitter handle. He hailed from Mumbai, Maharashtra.
- Actor-director Raj Kumar Kapoor, who directed Shah Rukh Khan's debut television show 'Fauji' in 1988, passed away on Thursday at the age of 87.
1. Important Days
- Safe Motherhood Week supports International Day for Maternal Health and Rights. Today marks International Day for Maternal Health and Rights, which is observed every year on April [latex]11^{th}[/latex].
- Australian actor Geoffrey Rush has won a defamation case against the publisher of a Sydney newspaper which accused him of inappropriate behaviour towards a former co-star.
- European Union leaders have granted the UK a six-month extension to Brexit, after five hours of talks in Brussels.
- South Korea's ban on abortion has been ruled unconstitutional in a historic court decision. The country's constitutional court ordered that the law must be revised by the end of 2020.
- A train carrying bauxite owned by China’s biggest state-controlled aluminium producer, Chinalco, derailed night, local government said in a statement on the Twitter-like Weibo.
- Algeria will hold presidential elections on [latex]4^{th}[/latex] July, interim leader Abdelkader Bensalah has announced.
- Sudan's armed forces will make an important announcement soon, state television said as troops were deployed in Khartoum amid speculation that a coup attempt was underway against President Omar al-Bashir after months of protests.
- Akram Kanaan looked toward an Israeli military position on a snow-capped mountain that overlooks the village of Chebaa in southern Lebanon, pointing toward the scenic area captured by Israel more than five decades ago.
- Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has pledged to facilitate the exhumation and burial of victims killed in a state crackdown in the 1980s.
- Four parliamentary and 28 assembly constituencies are voting in the first phase of the Lok Sabha election in Odisha, where Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has held the fort for nearly two decades now.
- The Supreme Court fined Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee government Rs 20 lakh for a shadow ban on socio-political satire, ‘Bhobishyoter Bhoot’ that was withdrawn from the state’s theatres a day after its release in February 16.
- The Bharatiya Janata Party is looking to keep in its kitty the four out of five Lok Sabha seats in Assam that are polling in the first phase of Lok Sabha election 2019.
- The Indian embassy advisory came after over 100 Indians landed in trouble for enroling at a fake educational institution set up by US authorities to expose immigration fraud.
- The eight Lok Sabha constituencies of western Uttar Pradesh, where polling is being held in the first of the seven-phase general elections, registered 11.40 per cent voter turnout till 9 am, an official said.
- The Dalai Lama is “doing very well” and will likely be discharged from hospital in New Delhi on Friday as he recovers from a chest infection, his spokesman told AFP.
- The government last week said civilian traffic on the highway would be banned from 4 am to 5 pm every Sunday and Wednesday exclusively for troop movement until May [latex]31^{st}[/latex]
- Adding to the woes of the crippled Jet Airways, a European cargo services provider has seized one of its Boeing planes at the Amsterdam airport for non-payment of dues.
- State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, has reduced its one-year marginal cost of fund based lending rate (MCLR) by 5 basis points (bps) to 8.50% per annum from 8.55% per annum effective.
- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has cut India’s growth forecast for the current fiscal, following similar action by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
- AMFI (Association of Mutual Funds in India), India’s asset management companies have owned assets under management worth Rs. 24.46 trillion.
- The Reserve Bank of India’s brand new liquidity-management tool -- a dollar-rupee swap window -- is likely to lift the country’s foreign exchange reserves toward record highs, helping it tide over external risks, economists at HSBC Holdings Plc said in a note.
- Annual maintenance charges levied on debt securities held through basic services demat accounts will be revised from June [latex]1^{st}[/latex], according to Sebi.
- Fourth seeded Sindhu took 39 minutes to get the better of world number 22 Mia 21-13 21-19, her second straight win over the Danish girl, who had clinched the Spain Masters this year.
- The executive committee meeting of the UPAA, scheduled on Sunday, will officially announce its decision on Suman and other dope offenders in the recent past.
- Manchester United face an even tougher task to turn around the 1-0 deficit from the first leg of their quarter-final with Barcelona than their miraculous comeback away to Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16, coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted
- The Nizamabad Lok Sabha constituency, where polling was underway along with 16 other constituencies in Telangana, may make it the Guinness World Records for the maximum number of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) used.
- Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack 2019 has named Virat Kohli and Smriti Mandhana as the Leading male and female cricketer of the year 2019 respectively.
- The acting Prime Minister of Haiti, Jean Michel Lapin confirmed as the country’s new Prime Minister by the President Jovenel Moise. He succeeds Jean-Henry Ceant.
- Centre made important management appointments to several public sector banks. According to the Department of Personnel and Training, Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved the appointment of Karnam Sekar as MD and CEO in Indian Overseas Bank.
- The speaker of the upper house Abdelkader Bensalah (77) has been appointed as Algeria’s first new president in 20 years by the Lawmakers of Algeria. He has been appointed as the interim President of the country.
- National Green Tribunal (NGT) has imposed a penalty of Rs 100 crore on the Andhra Pradesh government for illegal sand mining in the state. Penalty has been imposed on the lines of plea filed by Andhra Pradesh resident Anumolu Gandhi
- The first-ever image of a black hole was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope, a global network of eight radio telescopes that created an Earth-sized virtual telescope.
- After the first-ever direct image of a black hole was revealed, NASA released images of galaxy M87, showing the same black hole at its centre.
- Holkhomang Haokip, veteran politician and former minister of Manipur passed away on 8th April 2019. Holkhomang Haokip was a leader of the Kuki community (of North-east India) and being elected to the 13th Lok Sabha (in 1999).
1. Important Days
- World Homoeopathy Day to commemorate the 264th birth anniversary of Dr Samuel Hahnemann on [latex]10^{th}[/latex] April is slated to be held across many countries including India.
- Newcomer Emma Corrin has been cast as Princess Diana in the fourth season of The Crown. Netflix confirmed the decision in a press release, adding filming will begin later this year.
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to carry on to a fifth term in office and beat rival Benny Gantz in Israel's election, the latest results indicated early morning.
- European Council president Donald Tusk says the EU should consider offering the UK a "flexible" delay to Brexit of up to a year, with the option of leaving earlier if a deal is ratified.
- Wreckage from a Japanese F-35 stealth fighter jet has been found, a day after it disappeared from radar over the Pacific Ocean. The pilot of the plane, however, is still missing, Japanese military officials said.
- Algerian police used water cannon to disperse crowds demonstrating against the appointment of a new interim president. Abdelkader Bensalah, the speaker of parliament's upper house, succeeds long-term President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.
- Sri Lanka opened a new railway line, the first to be constructed since the independence of the country in 1948. The 26.75-kilometre railway extension connects the cities of Matara and Beliatta in the southern part of the island nation.
- Nepal is sending a team of government-appointed climbers up Mount Everest, the world's tallest peak, to remeasure its height. Scientists suspect the 2015 earthquake in Nepal may have altered the mountain's height, with a possible shift in its position.
- The income tax department has written to the Chief Electoral Officer seeking legal action against Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara and a host of his cabinet colleagues for allegedly intimidating tax officers and obstructing them from discharging duties
- Pakistan is prepared to talk to whoever comes to power in India’s general election to work towards the normalisation of bilateral relations and to move things forward from where they had stopped, information minister Fawad Chaudhry
- Former Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, serving life term in Tihar jail, accused the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) before a Delhi court, of tutoring a key witness in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
- The board of governors of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur decided not to revoke the PhD degree of an assistant professor who is facing allegations of plagiarism but decided to get his thesis examined by an independent committee of experts.
- The National Investigative Agency (NIA) has summoned former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) legislator, Ajaz Ahmad Mir over the theft of weapons from his official residence last year.
- India’s population grew at 1.2% a year between 2010 and 2019, marginally higher than the global average of 1.1% a year in this period, but more than double China’s 0.5% a year, according to the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) State of the World Population 2018 report released
- The Congress alleged that government officials and BJP leaders were involved in a money laundering scam that exchanged demonetised currency notes past the deadline set by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for a commission of 40 per cent.
- Nirmohi Akhara, one of the main contenders in the Ayodhya title dispute appeals, objected to the Centre’s plea in the Supreme Court to return ‘superfluous’ land acquired around the disputed 0.313-acre Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid area to its rightful owners.
- The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved a slew of proposals of the Department of Financial Services (DFS), providing new postings for the top brass of erstwhile Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank.
- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut the growth forecast for India by 20 basis points for the fiscal 2019-20.
- Reserve Bank of India cut its policy repo rate by 25 basis points, State Bank of India pared its benchmark lending rate by 5 basis points across all tenors, making loans in segments such as home and vehicles cheaper.
- SBI has reduced the interest rate on housing loans of up to ₹30 lakh by 10 basis points to a range between 8.60% and 8.90% per annum. India's largest lender also cut its benchmark lending rates by five basis points across all tenors.
- Bajaj Finserv, a diversified financial services major, will, over the next 12 months, significantly ramp up the digital presence of its insurance businesses, said Sanjiv Bajaj, Managing Director and CEO.
- International women athletes, shot-putter Manpreet Kaur and javelin thrower Suman Devi, have been handed a four-year ban by the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) after being caught for doping in 2017, an Athletics Federation of India official said
- Defender Mahinder Singh and raider Manjeet Singh fetched highest bids as category B players in their respective classes on day two of the Pro Kabaddi League player auctions that ended in Mumbai
- Son Heung-min once again proved there is more to Tottenham Hotspur than Harry Kane as the South Korean’s late goal sealed a 1-0 home win over Manchester City in an absorbing Champions League quarter-final first leg
- Former Australian striker Kieran Govers has joined the Indian men’s hockey camp as part of the team’s preparations for the 2020 Olympic Qualifiers.
- The All India Management Association (AIMA) Managing India Awards 2019 was held on 2019 at Durbar Hall, Hotel Taj Palace, New Delhi
- Vikramjit Singh Sahney, Chairman of SUN Group, elected as the President of International Chamber of Commerce- India.
- NASA scientists found a new magnetic structure, Raining Null-Point Topologies, with coronal rains where giant plasma blobs drip from Sun's outer atmosphere back to its surface after cooling down, similar to rains on Earth.
- Astronomers have made the first-ever direct image of the dusty, doughnut-shaped ring called 'torus' around a black hole. The torus is around a black hole 2.5 billion times more massive than the Sun, at the centre of the galaxy Cygnus A, which is around 760 million light-years away.
- Hungary-based researchers have claimed a Martian meteorite contains numerous mineralised 'biosignatures' of bacteria that serve as proof of the existence of life on the Red Planet.
1. International News
- Nine pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong have been found guilty of public nuisance charges for their role in a civil disobedience movement that called for free elections in the city.
- Israelis are voting in the country's most closely-fought general election in years. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the right-wing Likud Party, is seeking a fifth term in office.
- Theresa May is to hold last-minute Brexit talks with the leaders of Germany and France later, four days before the UK is due to leave the EU.
- An ambitious project to retrieve a continuous record of Earth's atmosphere and climate stretching back 1.5 million years is officially "go".
- President Donald Trump has said the US is designating Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organisation, the first time an element of a foreign state has been officially named a terrorist entity.
- The Supreme Court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to file the case diary and the status report in the investigation carried out in the 2017 SSC exam paper leak case.
- The separatist leader will be questioned on the matter of funding of his own party. Awami Action Committee and Hurriyat Conference
- The Indian Air Force (IAF) presented two radar images of the engagement with Pakistan Air Force (PAF) on February 27 to prove that a Pakistani F-16 was shot down by a MiG-21 piloted by Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman.
- The Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) handed over the first batch of six Dhanush artillery guns to the Army. Dhanush is the indigenously upgraded gun of the Swedish Bofors gun procured in the 1980s.
- Suspected militants shot at and wounded an RSS leader, Chandrakant Singh, and killed his persoonal security officer in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar.
- Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency has approached Islamabad High Court to seek the cancellation of bail of the alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, the operations commander of the Lashkar-e-Taiba.
- The Election Commission met the revenue secretary and the chairman of central board of direct taxes to discuss ongoing income tax raids.
- President Ram Nath Kovind paid tributes to the police and paramilitary personnel killed in the line of duty, including the 40 CRPF men killed in the February 14 Pulwama terror attack, at the National Police Memorial here.
- Pakistan said that it will hold a technical meeting with India on April [latex]16^{th}[/latex] to discuss the modalities for the corridor linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district of Punjab.
- State-run State Bank of India (SBI) said that it has put non-performing assets (NPAs or bad loans) worth ₹423.67 crore on auction to recover unpaid dues.
- Rupee opened marginally weaker against US dollar while 10-year government bonds were trading lower for the fourth consecutive session today to hit a near six-week low after continued rising crude increased inflationary and fiscal slippage fears.
- The stock market regulator has expanded its investigation into the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE) co-location case and brought 13 more broking firms under its probe.
- The airlines each guarantee as much as 20 percent of the bonds, making regular contributions into a cash pool from which coupons are paid to investors who bought the securities.
- Bankers say that there has been 12-18% rise in the used car loans as well. If you are also planning to buy a used car, here are a few things that you need to focus on.
- The World Bank notified that India’s consistent hold in investment sector, mainly private-improved export performance and resilient consumption, has led its GDP growth forecast to mount to 7.5 per cent for fiscal year 2019-20.
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) cut repo rate – the rate at which the central bank lends to commercial banks – by 25 basis points (bps) to 6%, it sent out hope that your loans will get cheaper. One bps is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
- Siddharth Desai was bought by Telugu Titans for the highest winning bid of Rs 1.45 crore on day one of the season 7 players’ auction of the Pro Kabaddi League (PKL)
- The Indian women’s hockey team overcame a 2-4 setback in the third quarter to level the scores 4-4 in their third match against Malaysia in the five-match series in Kuala Lumpur
- Spanish tennis player Garbine Muguruza retained the title at the Monterrey Open after former world number one Victoria Azarenka retired in the final
- The Guwahati Railway Station has become the first ever railway station in the Indian Railways to get an ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) certification from the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
- Late Indian footballer Gostha Pal's son, Nirangshu, has claimed that Mohun Bagan has misplaced as many as eight awards of his father, including the Padma Shri award.
- Israeli Isaak Hayik set a new world record as the world’s oldest person to play in a professional soccer match. He played a match for FC Ironi Or Yehuda against FC Maccabi Ramat Gan.
- Odisha cadre IAS officer, Usha Padhee, has been given additional charge as the Chairman & Managing Director of Pawan Hans Ltd, helicopter services providing company. Currently , she is serving as the Joint Secretary of Department of Civil Aviation.
- Vice Admiral Bimal Verma moved the Armed Forces Tribunal over his supersession and appointment of Vice Admiral Karambir Singh as next Chief of Naval Staff.
- A new species of jumping spiders named “Habrocestum longispinum” has been spotted in Ernakulam’s Illithodu forests, Kerala by the arachnologists from Kochi’s Sacred Heart College, Thevara.
- Scientists from Tsinghua University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Genetics and Development Biology have discovered a mechanism named “death switch” in the plant’s immune system that can keep the plant healthy.
- Nadja Regin, who featured in 'From Russia With Love' (1963) and 'Goldfinger' (1964) from the James Bond film franchise, has passed away, aged 87.
1. Important Days
- The International Romani Day is [latex]8^{th}[/latex] April a day to celebrate Romani culture and raise awareness of the issues facing Romani people.
- Pakistan says it has "reliable intelligence" India is planning a military attack this month, something India dismissed as "war hysteria".
- Elements of Sudan's military have acted to protect protesters in Khartoum after security forces fired tear gas to break up a mass sit-in, eyewitnesses say.
- Libya's UN-backed government says 21 people have been killed and 27 wounded in fighting near the capital, Tripoli.
- Nissan shareholders have voted to oust the company's former boss Carlos Ghosn from its board.
- The Chinese Footbinding Culture Museum (CFCM) in Wuzhen, a water town close to Shanghai in eastern China, is a somber, musty place where visitors are usually an uneasy, silent trickle of domestic tourists.
- The Kensington Palace said that the Duke of Cambridge, Prince William has finished a three-week attachment to the UK’s Security and Intelligence Agencies (MI5, MI6 and GCHQ).
- The high court has rejected controversial businessman Vijay Mallya’s application for permission to appeal against home secretary Sajid Javid’s February 4 order to extradite him to India.
- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is working overtime to woo women electorate, who outnumber men in 16 assembly segments of four Lok Sabha constituencies of Himachal Pradesh.
- The Jammu and Kashmir government restored the security cover of 400 politicians and political activists which had been withdrawn last month.
- An Uttar Pradesh man has lodged a complaint with the police against Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan for allegedly calling chief minister Yogi Adityanath ‘neech’ or lowly during an election campaign in the state’s Rampur.
- The Delhi government promised to provide all families in the building with ration cards so that they could avail the government’s food security schemes.
- More of India’s smaller banks may become acquisition targets if the regulator gives a nod to the proposed merger of Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd. and Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd.
- Lakshmi Vilas Bank were locked in 5% upper circuit of ₹97.35 in noon trade on BSE, the third straight day when shares of the private lender hit the 5% upper circuit.
- Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu will look to shrug off the disappointment of her recent early exits when she spearheads Indian challenge at the USD 355,000 Singapore Open, starting here
- All India Football Federation president Praful Patel may consider appointing a big name as national team coach only if the candidate fits their criteria, saying the appointment will be done at the earliest.
- Novak Djokovic moves into his 20th week as world number one on Monday as the clay season gets under way.
- Tata Steel bagged the “Global Slag Company of the Year” award at the 14th Global Slag Conference and Exhibition 2019, for its innovative practices in the development of new applications for Steel by-products (Slag).
- US Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, who oversaw President Donald Trump's immigration policies, resigned amid a surge in the number of migrants at the border with Mexico.
- Vice Admiral Karambir Singh will take over as the new Navy Chief after Admiral Sunil Lanba will complete his three-year term on May 31 this year.
- South African Born biologist, Sydney Brenner passed away at the age of 92. He was born in Gauteng, South Africa.
1. Important Days
- The World Health Day is a global health awareness day celebrated every year on [latex]7^{th}[/latex] April, under the sponsorship of the World Health Organization, as well as other related organizations.
- Commemorations have begun in Rwanda to mark the 25th anniversary of the genocide that killed about a tenth of the population.
- Prime Minister Theresa May has insisted she had to reach out to Labour in a bid to deliver Brexit or risk letting it "slip through our fingers".
- Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank if he is re-elected.
- The Duke of Cambridge has spent a "humbling" three weeks on work placements with three of Britain's security and intelligence agencies.
- Nagas fought on both sides with some helping the Allied Forces, while others including AZ Phizo, regarded as the Father of the Naga National Movement, along with Subhash Chandra Bose, were with the Japanese in quest for liberation from the British.
- Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman slammed Pakistan for not acting against terrorists operating from its soil despite India providing it evidence several times.
- The Income Tax department conducted raids on residences and offices of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath’s nephew and two close aides.
- The central agency stated that Kumar needed to be questioned to “unravel” the larger conspiracy and “money trail” in the scam. It has accused Kumar of being evasive and non-cooperative.
- The Bharatiya Janata Party- Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh want to “divide the nation” and on the other is the ideology of the Congress, which “believes that everyone should be treated with fairness”, the Congress chief said while addressing a rally in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said it has not yet approved a merger proposal of private-sector lender Lakshmi Vilas Bank Ltd and Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd.
- The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and global private infrastructure operator ROADIS (owned by Public Sector Pension Investment board abbreviated as PSP investment) have jointly set up a platform for investing up to $2 billion in road projects in India.
- The Income Tax Department launched pre-dawn searches on at least 50 locations in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh against people linked to state chief minister Kamal Nath on charges of alleged tax evasion,
- The players have been selected based on their performances at the recently held ninth Hockey India Senior Men National Championship 2019 A Division as well as their recent international showings.
- Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi scored twice in two minutes as Barcelona broke the resistance of 10-man Atletico Madrid to go 11 points clear of their La Liga title rivals.
- Champions Bayern Munich dismantled Bundesliga title rivals Borussia Dortmund 5-0, scoring four goals in a flawless first half to reclaim top spot and get back on course for a record-extending seventh straight league crown.
- Chairman and Managing Director of Kirloskar Systems Ltd, and Vice Chairman of Toyota Kirloskar Motor, Vikram Kirloskar was appointed as the president of Confederation of Indian Industry(CII) for the period 2019-20.
- NASSCOM (National Association of Software and services companies), an IT industry body has appointed Keshav Murugesh, CEO of WNS Global Services Group as its Chairman for 2019-20. This appointment of the Nasscom Chairman and Vice Chairman is done by the Executive Council.
- Germany scientists have warned that there is more Carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere than in the past three million years. The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has gone “unnatural”.
- An eminent economist and father of entrepreneurship movement in India, Dr. Viharidas Gopaldas Patel was passed away at the age of 79 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
1. Important Days
- The General Assembly of the United Nations decided to proclaim on [latex]6^{th}[/latex] April as "International Day of Sport for Development and Peace" This date commemorates the inauguration, in 1896, of the first Olympic games of the modern era, in Athens (Greece)
- Flood-hit Iran is evacuating more towns and villages as forecasts show further rain is expected
- Rumisa Lakhani and Rashida Shabbir Hussain created a placard for an International Women's Day march in Pakistan, they had no idea just how much it would place them at the centre of a fierce national debate.
- A Moroccan court has rejected an appeal against the prison sentences of activists who demonstrated against corruption and unemployment.
- The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said it has reached Congressionally-mandated 65,000 H-1B visa cap for the fiscal year 2020
- The lives and futures of more than 19 million Bangladeshi children are at risk from the colossal impact of devastating floods, cyclones and other environmental disasters linked to climate change, according to a report by the United Nations children’s agency released
- Pakistan has announced that it will release 360 Indian prisoners, who have completed their sentence, on “humanitarian ground”, Radio Pakistan reported
- A Delhi court issued notice to the Enforcement Directorate on plea of Christian Michel, alleged middleman arrested in the Agusta Westland VVIP chopper case, alleging the agency of politicising the case by leaking the charge sheet copy to the media.
- The Tamil Nadu government released an official notification that Chennai Central railway Station has been officially named after former state chief minister and ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam(AIADMK) founder MG Ramachandran.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks about various issues such as his government’s track record, BJP’s prospects in Lok Sabha elections and demonetisation.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that India will not allow its differences with China to turn into disputes.
- Indian Railways has installed cameras on the exterior of Vande Bharat Express — also known as Train 18 — to detect and curb stone-pelting incidents and prevent damage to the country’s first semi-high speed train, two officials familiar with the matter said.
- The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has revealed that some rogue cadres of a Naga outfit, the Isak-Muivah faction of National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM), are supplying sophisticated weapons, smuggled from Myanmar, to Maoists, two senior officials handling investigations told HT.
- The Delhi government informed a city court that it needs time to assess whether the speeches made by former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students, including former JNU students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar and nine others, were seditious in nature.
- The US special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, Zalmay Khalilzad, has again skipped India during a multi-nation tour to brief leaders about his talks with the Taliban, creating an impression in some quarters that he is keeping New Delhi out of the loop.
- The Supreme Court put on hold eviction proceedings initiated against Associated Journals Limited (AJL), publisher of National Herald, staying the Delhi high court order evicting occupants of the Capital’s Herald House building.
- An increasingly tough environment after the NBFC crisis last year, higher cost of borrowing, and the flexibility and trust factor that come along with a banking tag, have led Indiabulls Housing Finance (IBH) strike a merger deal with Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB).
- Karnataka Bank has signed a pact with Bharti Axa Life Insurance Company Ltd to distribute the latter’s life insurance products to provide insurance solutions to the customers of Karnataka Bank.
- BSE (earlier called Bombay Stock Exchange) and INX (India International Exchange) are the first Indian exchanges to sign MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with MOEX (Moscow Exchange)
- Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has received the In-Flight Connectivity license from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for enabling in-flight and maritime connectivity (IFMC) within Indian airspace.
- Micromax co-founder Rahul Sharma has announced his incursion into smart mobility with the launching of an AI (Artificial intelligence) enabled electric motorcycle. This launch is expected to hit the roads by June this year.
- Kohli and de Villiers help the host put up a mammoth 205 but Knight Riders chase it down with five deliveries to spare
- The AIFF chief was one of the eight candidates vying for the spot in the election which was held during the 29th AFC (Asian Football Confederations) Congress in the Malaysian capital.
- The medallists of the 2nd Elite Women’s National Boxing Championship held in Rohtak in January last year certainly would have felt a sense of pride holding their dummy prize money cheques
- Indian Astrologer Dr. Sohini Sastri has been honoured with “D. Litt in Astrology” (Doctor of Letters) by National American University, USA at an event held in Mumbai at Classique Club for her immense knowledge and contribution towards Astrology.
- Olympic silver medallist P.V. Sindhu and star javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra were named as female and male sportsperson of the year in the ESPN India Multi-Sport Awards for their achievements in 2018.
- The non-executive director of IL&FS (Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services), Chandra Shekhar Rajan has been appointed as managing director of IL&FS. He will succeed Vineet Nayyar, who will be the executive vice chairman.
- A 12-member patrol team of the Indian Army along with a police official has discovered the wreckage of a World War II vintage US Air Force aircraft in Roing district of Arunachal Pradesh.
- Phayeng, a scheduled caste village of the Chakpa community in Imphal West district of Manipur has been tagged as India’s first carbon-positive settlement.
- South Korea has unveiled the world’s first nationwide 5G mobile networks. This has made South Korea to be the first providers of the super-fast wireless technology.
- “Kundan Saigal’s Life & Music”, book authored by documentary filmmaker and former DDG of Doordarshan Sharad Dutt was released on the 115th birth anniversary of Saigal.
1. Important Days
- The National Maritime Day (NMD) is observed every year on 5 April to commemorate the maiden voyage of the first Indian owned ship “SS Loyalty”(the first ship of the Scindia Steam Navigation Company Ltd)
- Eighteen Indian fishermen were arrested from Tamil Nadu for allegedly breaching the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and illegally fishing in Sri Lankan waters, the Navy said.
- The alarms started sounding just seconds after Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 took off on March 10 from Addis Ababa with 157 people on board.
- The world’s biggest furniture retailer is preparing to serve lettuce grown in high-tech containers outside its stores as part of efforts to improve its environmental profile.
- Prime Minister Theresa May has turned to the opposition Labour to help pass the crucial EU withdrawal package, but the party is also riven by differing views on Brexit, with many party MPs opposed to another referendum.
- The man accused of killing 50 people in last month's attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, has been ordered to undergo mental health tests.
- South Korea has declared a national emergency in response to one of the largest wildfires on record.
- The social media accounts of Brunei-owned luxury hotels have been deleted or made inaccessible amid an ongoing backlash over anti-LGBT laws.
- CBSE Board Results 2019 - The Board said that the marking scheme for evaluators highlights that priority has to be given to creative, correct and relevant answers given by students other than the ones mentioned in the marking scheme.
- Sumitra Mahajan, the Lok Sabha Speaker, has announced that she will not contest the Lok Sabha elections. Mahajan issued a statement to this effect wondering why there is “indecision” in the party over announcing Lok Sabha candidate from Indore seat.
- The Supreme Court stayed the Delhi High Court order asking the Associated Journals Ltd (AJL) to vacate the National Herald House building here.
- Two soldiers were killed and half a dozen others were injured in a freak fire accident at the Indian Army’s Bercha field firing range at Mhow near Indore on Thursday afternoon.
- The skirmish took place in the forest of Chameda village when a joint team of CRPF’s 211 battalion and District Force (DF) was out on an anti-Maoist operation.
- Union home minister Rajnath Singh said he said he was surprised by the Congress’s promise in their election manifesto to scrap the sedition law.
- Electoral bonds scheme allows anonymity to political donors to protect them from “political victimisation,” the government informed the Supreme Court.
- NaMo TV made its debut on March [latex]31^{st}[/latex] on DTH platforms, and created a stir among political parties regarding the content it aired.
- Bank of India said it will sell 25.05 per cent stake in its insurance JV Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance Co for at least Rs 1,106 crore.
- The RBI also announced that banks will now be permitted, in a phased manner, to use an additional 2 per cent of securities under the Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR) for the purpose of maintaining the liquidity coverage ratio, offering relief to banks struggling with high credit-deposit ratios.
- The Reserve Bank of India, announced that it will soon set up a committee to assess the state of housing finance securitisation market in the country.
- The RBI has given banks a breather on external benchmarking of new floating rate loans. The central bank said it will hold further consultations with stakeholders and work out an effective mechanism for transmission of rates
- A fighting Kidambi Srikanth suffered a straight-game loss to Olympic champion Chen Long of China to bow out of the men’s singles quarterfinals at the Malaysia Open
- Manchester City are strong favourites to take another step towards an unprecedented quadruple of trophies in FA Cup semi-final against Brighton at Wembley.
- Champions Juventus turn their focus to nailing down an eighth consecutive Serie A title in record time this weekend, days after a row erupted over racist abuse aimed at starlet Moise Kean in Cagliari.
- Sunrisers comfortably beat Delhi Capitals by five wickets on a track where run-scoring was difficult and suited the visiting team bowlers even more.
- Belgium hold on to top spot in the latest FIFA world football rankings released while England are on the rise, snatching fourth place from World Cup finalists Croatia.
- UAE honoured PM Narendra Modi with its highest civilian award, the Zayed Medal for boosting the bilateral ties between both of the nations.
- Shah Rukh Khan was felicitated with an honorary doctorate in Philanthropy from the University of Law in London.
- Vipin Anand has assumed the charge of Managing Director of the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC). He was appointed by Centre as the LIC MD.
- Vinod K. Dasari has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Royal Enfield and also became an executive director in the board of Eicher Motors, parent organization of Royal Enfield.
- Shri Rakesh Malhotra, currently serving as Consul General, Consulate General of India, Melbourne has been appointed as the High Commissioner of India to the Republic of Cameroon.
- Japan's space agency said its Hayabusa2 spacecraft released a 2-kg copper explosive onto asteroid Ryugu to make an impact crater. JAXA added the spacecraft safely evacuated and remained intact.
- University of Central Florida researchers have claimed to develop a way to control the speed of a light pulse in free space.
- NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said the space agency is aiming for a Mars landing in 2033. "We can move up the Mars landing by moving up the Moon landing,"
- ISRO has revealed that the lander of India's second Moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, suffered minor damage during a drop test in February. Mission engineers found its legs were not strong enough to support its weight.
1. Imporatnt Days
- The United Nations International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action is observed on April [latex]4^{th}[/latex] each year.
- A preliminary report into the crash of an Ethiopian Airlines plane last month says the aircraft nosedived several times before it crashed.
- One of China’s top film festivals has clubbed five Indian films, including Satyajit Ray’s 1955 landmark, Pather Panchali, under the category of movies from countries that are seemingly aligned with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
- Mexico established a prison on the Maria Islands a Pacific archipelago eight hours by boat from the mainland the country’s new government has decided to close it.
- US secret service, which protects current and past presidents and their families, arrested a woman from China who had entered President Donald Trump’s Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, last going through layers of security.
- The world’s health facilities lack basic water services, impacting 2 billion people, the United Nations said on Wednesday, warning that unhygienic conditions could fuel the global rise of deadly superbugs.
- Trump has been pushing NATO members to increase their defence spending since he took office and has at times seemed prepared to leave the alliance, calling it “obsolete”.
- Farmers in Punjab are continuing to commit suicide despite the debt-waiver scheme launched by chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh.
- Two-term MLA Pawan Kajal will be the Congress candidate from Kangra constituency in Himachal Pradesh in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
- Four Border Security Force (BSF) personnel were killed and two injured in an encounter with Naxals in Chhattisgarh, police said.
- Businessman Ratul Puri is being questioned by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper case, a government official
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi was conferred with United Arab Emirates’s highest civilian decoration, the Order of Zayed, awarded to those who contribute to international leadership in strengthening relations with the country.
- Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh has launched sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying that people have started shouting “hai, hai Modi; bye, bye Modi” in the public rallies.
- Union commerce & industry and civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu spoke to Shishir Gupta and Rajeev Jayaswal about trade, privitisation of Air India, ease of doing business, among other issues.
- The government is likely to give tax exemption on ration money and risk and hardship allowances to the jawans of central paramilitary forces Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Sescurity Force (CISF), Border Security Force (BSF)
- The Reserve Bank of India cut the repo rate by another 25 basis points to 6 per cent.
- Governor Shaktikanta Das emphasised that RBI stands committed to maintain and enhance the momentum of resolution of stressed assets and adherence to credit discipline.
- RBI will come out with fresh set of ideas for checks and balances, says Finance Minister
- The bank had posted a lower operating profit of ₹38,503 cr in the first nine months of FY19
- Dwayne Bravo, who defended 12 off his last over and gave away only three runs in the win against Rajasthan Royals in Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) previous game at home, leaked 29 runs off his final over against Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede Stadium.
- The Indian women’s national team registered a 2-0 win over Indonesia in its opening match of the Olympic Qualifiers Round 2, going a step closer to making it to the 2020 Tokyo Games.
- Pep Guardiola counted the cost of a comfortable 2-0 victory over Cardiff that took his team to the top of the Premier League as he faced the prospect of an FA Cup semi-final without a fit left-back.
- Dr. Pawan Munjal has been honoured by the Asian Tour with a “Special Achievement Award” for his contributions to Asian Golf, at the concluding ceremony of Hero Indian Open Golf tournament, held at Gurugram, Haryana.
- Vikram patel, a psychiatrist and professor of global health at Harvard Medical school, has been honoured with prestigious John drinks Canada Gairdner Global Health award with prize money of $100,000 by The Gairdner Foundation.
- Air Marshal D Choudhury AVSM VM VSM has been appointed as Senior Air Staff Officer, Western Air Command.
- Microsoft has reportedly identified the bug which automatically answers Skype calls, even if the "answer incoming calls automatically" feature is turned off.
- NASA head Jim Bridenstine said the anti-satellite test created 400 pieces of space debris, some as big as 10 cm, increasing risk of collision with the International Space Station.
1. International News
- Canada's prime minister has kicked two MPs from his party's caucus after they accused him of meddling in a criminal case involving an influential company.
- The US city of Chicago has made history by electing an African-American woman as its mayor for the first time.
- Malaysia's government has agreed to sell a seized superyacht allegedly bought with money stolen from the 1MDB state fund for $126m (£95.9m).
- Malaysia's former Prime Minister Najib Razak has gone on trial for his role in a financial scandal that has sent shockwaves around the world.
- The Australian Senate has formally censured a lawmaker who sparked outrage by blaming the New Zealand mosque attacks on Muslim migration.
- Chicago became the biggest US city to elect a black woman its mayor, as voters put their faith in an openly-gay political novice to tackle difficult problems of economic inequality and gun violence.
- Theresa May will meet Jeremy Corbyn later to see whether there is common ground to break the Brexit deadlock, Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay says.
- DCP of Special Cell of Delhi Police, Pramod Kushwaha, had earlier told the court that the agency has already sent a request to the Delhi government seeking sanction and added that sanction was an administrative action and the charge sheet can be filed without that.
- The burden of Type 2 diabetes contributed by exposure to fine particulate pollution is the highest in India, according to the State of Global Air 2019 report released. Air pollution lowers insulin sensitivity, contributing to diabetes.
- The PMO stepped in after Khaitan Holdings (Mauritius) Ltd, a company named by CBI and ED in the 2G case, invoked arbitration proceedings at the International Arbitral Tribunal (IAT) in The Hague against the government.
- The Calcutta high court will examine the legal validity of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act as well as that of the CBI which derives its power to investigate from the legislation.
- The ED had arrested advocate Gautam Khaitan in January this year, in a case of money laundering based on a case lodged by the Income Tax Department.
- The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will offer about 500 seats to candidates from economically weaker sections this year, IIT officials familiar with the matter said.
- The Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank of India is currently having its first meeting for the fiscal year 2019-20 and the monetary policy announcement will happen tomorrow. It is widely being expected that the committee will recommend another rate cut of 25 bps.
- Indian rupee was trading marginally higher against US dollar as foreign investors continued to buy in local equity and debt markets.
- The Asian Development Bank downgraded economic growth forecasts for India and Southeast Asia for 2019 as global risks from trade tensions to Brexit mount.
- Total Gross GST revenue collected in the month of March, 2019 has crossed the Rupees One Lakh Crore mark as it has recorded the collection of Rs.1,06,577 crore of which CGST is Rs. 20,353 crore, SGST is Rs.27,520 crore, IGST is Rs.50,418 crore (including Rs. 23,521crore collected on imports) and Cess is Rs. 8,286 crore (including Rs. 891crore collected on imports).
- Suryoday Small Finance Bank Ltd has raised ₹248 crore from a clutch of investors including development finance institution DEG, a subsidiary of Germany’s KfW Group, and Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance Co.
- Indian women’s hockey team coach Sjoerd Marijne believes that self-discipline and taking ownership will be the key to success in the five-match bi-lateral series against Malaysia.
- Wolverhampton Wanderers repeated their FA Cup defeat of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United thanks to a Chris Smalling own goal that gave them a 2-1 comeback win in a pulsating Premier League game
- Lionel Messi is the best player ever and Barcelona owe their success to their evolution to a more direct style from a possession-based passing game, the club’s former player David Villa has said.
- New ZealandM opted for experience in a 15-man squad named Wednesday for this year’s cricket World Cup, with rookie Tom Blundell’s inclusion as back-up wicketkeeper the only real surprise.
- Russell Westbrook had 20 points, 20 rebounds and 21 assists to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 119-103 home win over the Los Angeles Lakers
- Kandhamal Haldi (turmeric), Odisha’s locally grown turmeric in its Kandhamal district has received the Geographical Indications (GI) tag from Intellectual Property India.
- Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is resigning after weeks of mass protests, state media report.
- IPS Officer Prabhat Ranjan Deo had filed plea in Delhi high court, claiming that he was overlooked in the process of empanelment for the post of DGP.
- The Indian Publishing company, Garuda Prakashan Private Limited, launched its two books “#Modi Again” and “Saffron Swords – Centuries of Indic Resistance to Invaders”.
1. Important Days
- World Autism Awareness Day 2019 Autism can be defined as a complex neurobehavioural condition which causes problems with language and communication skills.
- A no-deal Brexit is now more likely but can still be avoided, the EU's chief negotiator has said.
- A second woman has accused former US Vice-President Joe Biden of inappropriate touching, as the leading Democrat mulls a White House bid.
- Boeing Co said it planned to submit a proposed software enhancement package for the grounded 737 MAX in “the coming weeks” after the company had previously said it planned to deliver the fix for government approval by last week.
- Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi have received multimillion-dollar homes and are being paid thousands of dollars per month by the kingdom’s authorities, The Washington Post reported
- On a barren hillside in northern Albania lies a portal to the country’s communist past a massive steel door creaks open to reveal a hidden former air base burrowed into the heart of the mountain.
- The investigations had been ordered in a letter dated March [latex]13^{th}[/latex] from the cybercrime wing of the Federal Investigation Agency, part of the interior ministry, the group said in a statement.
- Former US Vice-President Joe Biden was accused of inappropriate touching by a second woman raising questions about his qualification to run for the Democratic presidential ticket.
- Talib Hussain had emerged as the face of the campaign for justice to the eight-year-old girl who was abducted, raped and murdered in Rasana village near Kathua.
- Haryana BSP chief Prakash Bharti said the alliance will field BSP’s Naresh Saran from Ambala, Kishan Lal Panchal from Rohtak, Pankaj Chaudhary from Karnal and LSP’s Ramesh Rao Pilot from Bhiwani- Mahendragarh.
- An Indian national was sentenced to eight years and nine months in prison for his involvement in an India-based call centre scam, the US Department of Justice said.
- The Supreme Court told the counsel appearing for Hardik Patel that there was no urgency in hearing the matter as the high court order was passed in August last year.
- Three Indian-origin consultants have been charged in the US with visa fraud for allegedly submitting sham applications for H-1B visas to gain a competitive advantage over competing firms.
- Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati defended in the Supreme Court the construction of life-size statues of herself in Uttar Pradesh, saying they represent the “will of the people”.
- Indian markets closed at record high today, extending gains to the fourth day. Driven by gains in auto, banking and IT stocks, Sensex settled 184 points higher at 39,056, after hitting a new intra-day high of 39,121 during the session.
- The Supreme Court quashed the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) 12 February circular which prescribed rules for recognising one-day defaults by large corporates and called for insolvency action as a remedy.
- Indian rupee opened marginally weaker against US dollar after crude oil jumped to its highest level in nearly five months after strong data from US and China.
- The bank achieved a business turnover of ₹1.23 lakh crore, registering a growth rate of 12 per cent on year-on-year basis
- India’s Sameer Verma put up a daunting effort before going down in three games in a pulsating opening round clash against World number 2 Chinese Shi Yuqi in the Malaysia Open in Kuala Lumpur.
- Unai Emery challenged revitalised Arsenal to write their own history after they climbed to third place in the Premier League with a 2-0 win against Newcastle.
- Pep Guardiola must decide how to shuffle his Manchester City line-up for Wednesday’s visit of struggling Cardiff to the Etihad, with an eye on the weekend FA Cup semi-final against Brighton.
- Batman will become the first Inductee of Comic-On Museum’s Character Hall of Fame,in a ceremony at 50th Annual Comic-Con International in San Diego, USA on [latex]17^{th}[/latex] July 2019.
- Former ESPN Star Sports MD, Manu Sawhney has formally joined International Cricket Council (ICC) as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO).
- Google India head Rajan Anandan has resigned from his post to “focus full-time on investing in promising early-stage technology startups across India and Southeast Asia”.
- China successfully launched its first second generational data relay satellite named Tianlian II-01 with the help of a Long March-3B Carrier rocket from Xichang Satellite Launch Centre in Sichuan Province.
- International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species added hump-backed mahseer, also known as ‘Tor remadevii’ or ‘tiger of water’ in critically endangered species list.
- Tamil filmmaker Mahendran, who made his directorial debut with Rajinikanth’s Mullum Malarum in 1978 passed away at a private hospital in Chennai on April [latex]2^{nd}[/latex].
1. International News
- A Vietnamese woman accused of killing Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korea's leader, has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of causing hurt by potentially deadly means.
- A comedian with no political experience has won the most votes in the first round of Ukraine's presidential elections, early results indicate.
- The party of Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lost control of the capital, Ankara, in local elections in a setback to his 16 years in power.
- China said it was making “some positive progress” to resolve differences on listing Masood Azhar as a global terrorist, and rejected Washington’s alternative move to ban the head of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) through a resolution at the UN Security Council.
- Singapore’s private residential prices fell the most in two-and-a-half years in the first quarter, with values of high-end homes have the biggest decline in a decade, following last year’s surprise tightening of property market curbs.
- Johnson & Johnson’s baby shampoo samples failed quality tests conducted by Rajasthan, according to a public notice from the state’s drugs watchdog, findings that were rejected by the U.S. drugmaker.
- The Allahabad Museum is requesting individuals and organisations to donate to it the letters, documents written by freedom fighters.
- Nine medium intensity earthquakes, with a magnitude ranging from 4.7 to 5.2, hit the Andaman and Nicobar Islands morning, all in a span of two hours, according to the National Centre for Seismology.
- Four militants have been killed by security forces in an ongoing gun battle in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama district, an Indian Army spokesperson said.
- A village that is home to 660 households in Manipur is using its lush community-managed forest to develop itself as India’s first carbon-positive settlement.
- Kolkata’s Durga Puja is India’s official nomination for UNESCO’s 2020 list of cultural institutions from around the world that require protection and preservation, according to Sangeet Natak Akademi, an autonomous body under the Union ministry of culture that is the nodal agency for this purpose.
- Indian Navy officials say the maritime force was very clear about deployment of Pakistani naval assets after the Balakot strikes.
- A superintendent of police (SP) rank officer would lead convoys carrying the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel in Jammu and Kashmir, according to an official.
- The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) issued a discussion paper proposing a self-regulator for distributors and advisors of mutual fund products.
- The RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will meet from April 2 to 4 for the first bi-monthly policy statement for 2019-20, the central bank said in a release.
- As the merger came into effect, customers of Dena Bank and Vijaya Bank are now account-holders of Bank of Baroda, which has become India's third-largest bank.
- Revenue collection from Goods and Services Tax (GST) for the month of March was ₹1.06 lakh crore, highest ever in 2018-19, the finance ministry said on.
- The Sensex touched a record high on expectations of easing of concerns of a global economic slowdown after better than expected Chinese manufacturing data.
- The Swiss great switched places with Austria’s Dominic Thiem, who had briefly climbed to fourth after defeating Federer in the final at Indian Wells two weeks ago.
- Srikanth, who last won a title at the 2017 French Open, came close to ending the lean patch when he reached the finals of the India Open but Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen thwarted his challenge.
- The All India Football Federation President Praful Patel is set to become first Indian to be elected as a member in the FIFA Executive Council for a four-year term.
- Indian women’s hockey team is set to play a five-match series against Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, starting April
- lawyer Zuzana Caputova won Slovakia’s presidential election and become Slovakia’s first female president. She will succeed Andrej Kiska.
- Assam filmmaker Rima Das has been appointed as the official ambassador of Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)’s ‘Share Her Journey’ campaign.
- Rear Admiral Suraj Berry has been appointed as the Flag Officer Commanding Eastern Fleet. He will succeed Vice Admiral Karambir Singh, who will be the next [latex]24^{th}[/latex] chief of naval staff.
- Executive Director of ICICI Bank, Vijay Chandok has been appointed as MD and CEO of ICICI Securities, a subsidiary of ICICI bank. He will succeed Shilpa Naval Kumar.
- China’s Shanghai claimed to have the world’s first district with 5G coverage and a broadband gigabit network. It has conducted trial runs of the 5G network.
- ISRO launches Intel Satellite, days after ASAT. Space agency ISRO successfully launched the electronic intelligence satellite EMISAT along with 28 nano satellites of global customers from Sriharikota
- Artists including Drake, Rihanna and J Cole have paid tribute to Los Angeles rapper Nipsey Hussle, who has been shot dead in Los Angeles.