05 April 2014

National:
PSLV puts navigation satellite in orbit
India marched towards establishing its own navigation system when its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle
(PSLV-C24) on Friday put into precise orbit the countrys second navigation satellite, the Indian Regional
Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS-1B). The 1,432-kg IRNSS-1B will form part of a constellation of the
seven navigation satellites.
It was the 25th success in a row for the PSLV, after it majestically lifted off from the first launch pad at
Sriharikota at 5.14 p.m. K. Radhakrishnan, Chairman, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said
two more IRNSS satellites would be put into orbit before 2014-end and three more before mid-2015.
Mission Director P. Kunhikrishnan said the mission accuracy was such that the satellite achieved a
perigee of 283 km against the target of 284 km and an apogee of 20,630 km against the targeted 20,650
km. The IRNSS satellites will be useful for land, sea and air navigation. They have civil and defence
applications.
Three repeat offenders get death penalty in Shakti Mills rape case
A sessions court of Mumbai awarded the death penalty, under a new IPC section, to three repeat
offenders who gang-raped a photojournalist on the Shakti Mills compound in 2013. They were earlier
convicted of the gang rape of a telephone operator on the same premises.
Section 376 E of the Indian Penal Code, providing for the death penalty for repeat offenders, was
introduced under the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act following the December 2012 Delhi gang rape.
Delivering the judgment, Principal Sessions Judge Shalini Phansalkar Joshi termed it the rarest of the
rare cases. If not in this case, then in which case can death be awarded? The accused showed no
mercy towards the victim [photojournalist]. They were cruel in their conduct and had no remorse for the
crime they committed, she said.
Tagore honoured in House of Commons
India, Bangladesh and the United Kingdom joined hands to honour Rabindranath Tagore, one of the
greatest poets of the Commonwealth, at the House of Commons.
Bangladeshs High Commissioner Mohamed Mijarul Quayes declared: Tagore imparted greater glory to
the Nobel Prize than the Nobel did to him. The event was hosted by Virendra Sharma, Labour party MP
from the west London constituency of Ealing Southall, in collaboration with Nrityakala Dance Heritage.
Dengue and malaria add to poverty: WHO
Vector-borne diseases are adding to the vicious cycle of poverty and have a significant impact of socioeconomic status of communities, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.
On World Health Day April 7 the WHO has impressed upon countries to prevent and control vectorborne diseases including dengue, kala-azar, lymphatic filariasis and malaria, among others.
Malaria is endemic in 10 of the 11 countries of the region: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Democratic Peoples
Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Timor-Leste. Maldives is
the only country that has remained free of malaria since 1984. Sri Lanka has made remarkable progress
in controlling malaria by bringing cases down from 203 in 2000 to zero since November 2012.
It accounts for 17 per cent of the estimated global burden of all infectious diseases. Dengue is now the
Worlds fastest growing vector-borne disease, with a 30-fold increase in disease incidence over the past
50 years. Lymphatic filariasis, another mosquito-borne disease, is linked to poverty and creates
disfiguring and social stigma.

05 April 2014

International:
Malta gets new president
Maltas Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca was sworn in as the island states ninth president after being named
by the prime minister and approved by parliament. Coleiro Preca, a notary by profession, was previously
minister for social policy after the Labour party returned to power following March 2013 elections. The 55year-old is the second female president of Malta and was previously general secretary of Labour.
U.N. probe indicts Chad troops
Chadian soldiers killed at least 30 Central Africans and wounded 300 others including women and
children in an unprovoked attack on a packed market in Bangui last weekend, a U.N. probe showed.
Rupert Colville, spokesman for the U.N.s human rights office, said that an investigation on site learnt that
the troops had opened fire on the population without any provocation and had continued to shoot
indiscriminately at the fleeing crowd in the Central African Republics capital.

Business & Economy:

Reserve Bank shifts to CPI-based real effective exchange rate
Shifting focus to retail inflation, the Reserve Bank of India, said it would compute and release real
effective exchange rate (REER) only on the basis of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) as the price index
for India from this financial year.
REER indicates movements in exchange rates of the home currency against a basket of currencies of
trade partner countries and is considered to be an indicator of international competitiveness.
Till now, in the case of India, the RBI was providing the REER index using the Wholesale Price Index
(WPI) for India and CPI for partner countries.
The RBI, on Friday, released a monthly series on CPI-based REER for both six-currency and 36-currency
baskets for the period April 2004 to March 2014.
It said from this financial year, only the CPI-based REER would be compiled and released.
Doha Bank to open first branch in Mumbai
Doha Bank, the second largest Qatari lender, will be opening its first branch in Mumbai next month and
has set a target of $5 billion balance-sheet by the third year of operations in India.
The bank got permission from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to open the branch last December.
Initially, the bank would open a branch in South Mumbai with a workforce of around 50 people, said R.
Seetharaman, Chief Executive Officer, Doha Bank Group.
Sistema launches election tracker
Sistema Shyam Tele Services Limited (SSTL), engaged in providing telecom services under the brand
MTS, announced on Friday the launch of one of its kind MTS Election Tracker, a live dashboard that
showcases analysis of all conversations on the social media about political parties and politicians, giving
internet users a sense of the current political discourse in the country. The tracker provides real-time
analysis by collating data from across the web as well as social media platforms such as Facebook,
Twitter and YouTube and tracks mentions of leading political parties and politicians.

05 April 2014

Sports:
Kohli blitz powers India into the summit clash
India strolled home, victory by six wickets over South Africa at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium propelling it
into the final of the ICC World Twenty20- 2014. India won the ICC World Twenty20 cup in 2007 when it
was for the first time. India will be playing with the Sri-Lanka in the finals. Virat Kohli, the face of this fierce
run-chomping India, led the way with an innings of supreme force and confidence, an unbeaten 44-ball72. He was chosen as man of the match.