1. Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis won WTA Family Circle Cup
(i) Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis, the top-seeded Indo-Swiss pair of Tennis on 12 April 2015 won the 731000 US dollar WTA Family Circle Cup doubles title.
(ii) In the title clash played at Charleston in the United States, the duo defeated Australian-Croatian pair of Casey Dellacqua and Darija Jurak 6-0, 6-4.
(iii) This was third consecutive team title for the Indo-Swiss pair. Earlier, they won the Miami Open Tennis women's doubles title on 5 April 2015 and Indian Wells Open title on 21 March 2015.
(iv) Sania Mirza also became the first female tennis player from India to achieve the world number one rank in doubles. Sania is also first female player from the country to win Grand Slam tournaments.
(i) In order to make supply of healthy and hygienic food to the needy children in all the government schools, Puducherry government has drawn their guidelines for implementing the ‘Anna Dhanam’ scheme in the state.
(ii) The guidelines would encourage the community and its participants to supply the ration to the schools effectively and without hassle.
(iii) The HRD ministry has made the decision under which encouragement would be given to philanthropic schemes launched by involving member of the community who can help in supplying the nutritious and healthy food for the school children.
(iv) Any Anna Dhanam day would be necessarily a working day of the school and any of the donors can choose a school or a set of schools according to their own choices. There must not be any provision of junk food in the supply by the donors.
3. German Nobel laureate Gunter Grass dies at age 87
(i) Gunter Grass, the Nobel-winning German writer who gave voice to the generation that came of age during the horrors of the Nazi era but later ran into controversy over his own World War II past and stance toward Israel, has died. He was 87.
(ii) Grass was lauded by Germans for helping to revive their culture in the aftermath of World War II and helping to give voice and support to democratic discourse in the post war nation.
(iii) Grass drew partly on his own experience of military service and his captivity as a prisoner of war held by the Americans until 1946.
4. Union Home Ministry notified Governors (Allowances and Privileges) Amendment Rules, 2015
(i) Union Home Ministry on 10 April 2015 notified amendments to the Governors (Allowances and Privileges) Rules, 1987 and named these rules as Governors (Allowances and Privileges) Amendment Rules, 2015.
(ii) The rules were notified after President Pranab Mukherjee exercising his powers conferred under Section 13 of the Governors (Allowances and Privileges) Rules, 1982 amended the Governors (Allowances and Privileges) Rules, 1987.
Main Highlights of the amended rules
• The Governors can leave the State for a private visit to a foreign country or within India only after receiving the due approval of the President except in emergent or extraordinary circumstances.
• The requests for permission to travel outside the State will have to be sent to President Secretariat anywhere between two weeks (for domestic visit) and six weeks (for foreign visit) before the date of travel.
• It bars Governors to stay in their respective states for at least 292 days in a year.
• The Governor cannot undertake such visits even under any emergent or extraordinary circumstance. In such cases, the governors will have to provide details of the circumstances and compelling reasons why it was not possible to obtain prior permission.
• The intimation to the President Secretariat in emergency circumstances shall be given as soon as the programme is finalised.
• It also says that the duration of visits in extraordinary circumstances cannot exceed 20 percent of the days in calendar years.
• The Governors shall also obtain clearance under the Foreign Contributions Regulations Act (FCRA clearance) and Political clearance before undertaking any official foreign visit.
• The Governors shall endorse the copies of communications to President Secretariat related to visit outside their State to the Prinicipal Secretary to the Prime Minister and to the Home Minister.
• The rules also say that frequency of visit to the home State shall also be avoided or limited.
5. India successfully test-fired Dhanush ballistic missile
(i) Surface-to-Surface nuclear-capable Dhanush ballistic missile was successfully test-fired on 9 April 2015 from a naval ship off the Odisha coast.
(ii) The missile is a naval variant of India’s indigenously-developed Prithvi missile.
(iii) The missile was fired from an Offshore Patrolling Vessel (OPV) of Indian Navy by the Strategic Force Command (SFC).
(iv) SFC is a part of India's Nuclear Command Authority (NCA) which is responsible for the management and administration of the country's tactical and strategic nuclear weapons stockpile.
6. Punjab National Bank opens 121 ATMs in one day
(i) State-owned Punjab National BankBSE 1.35 % today opened 121 ATMs across the country to commemorate its 121th foundation day.
(ii) Its ATM network has grown to 6,421, the bank said in a statement.
(iii) The bank also started selling Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana, the special saving scheme of the government for the girl child.
(iv) It is available across designated 1,604 branches of the bank. The rate of interest on Sukanya Samriddhi Account was recently increased to 9.2 per cent.
(v) Electronic Pension payment Order(e PPO) project for Indian railway and PPF business through internet banking were launched by the bank MD Gauri Shankar.
7. Modi inaugurates German industrial fair
(i) Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened the world’s largest industrial fair, alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
(ii) Germany has done more than any other Western country to tap India's world of business,the Prime Minister said, urging trade and investment ties between the two nations to strengthen further.
(iii) India is the partner country of this year's trade fair, which brings together about 6,500 exhibitors from 70 nations. About 400 industry representatives are expected from India.
(iv) Part of a three-nation tour that includes France and Canada, Mr. Modi's visit to the fair will include a tour of the premises and an Indo-German Business Summit.
8. 800,000 children left homeless by Boko Haram
(i) A new UNICEF report says some 800,000 children have been forced from their homes in northeast Nigeria by an Islamic uprising, with many separated from their families and suffering abuse and emotional distress.
(ii) The report says children have become “deliberate targets,” subjected to sexual abuse and forced marriage, kidnappings and killings.
(iii) Some children have become weapons, made to fight with armed groups and sometimes used as human bombs.
(iv) The number of children not attending primary school in Nigeria has increased from 8 million in 2007 to 10.5 million.
9. India to clock 7.9% GDP growth in FY16: Morgan Stanley
(i) The country’s economy will grow at 7.9 per cent this fiscal and 8.4 per cent in FY 2016-17, on the back of policy reforms, spurt in domestic demand and lower inflation, according to foreign brokerage Morgan Stanley.
(ii) The country switched to a newer system of GDP growth computation, which made it the fastest growing major economy in the world.
(iii) Analysts still take the numbers with caution due to absence of back data.
(iv) Morgan Stanley said under the older series of growth, its FY16 growth estimate remains unchanged at 6.5 per cent.
(v) The Narendra Modi-led government has initiated a slew of reforms like opening up the defence sector for private and foreign investments, increasing foreign ownership caps in insurance etc to step up the growth.
10. BHEL commissions 600 MW thermal unit in Chhattisgarh
(i) Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has commissioned a second 600 MW thermal unit in Chhattisgarh’s Janjgir Champa District for the Dainik Bhaskar Power Limited.
(ii) This is the second unit of this power project, commissioned by BHEL.
(iii) The first 600 MW unit was commissioned in 2014. BHEL’s scope of work in the contract envisaged design, engineering, manufacture, supply, erection and commissioning of steam turbines, generators and boilers, along with associated auxiliaries and electricals, besides controls and instrumentation and electrostatic precipitators, the company said in a statement.
(iv) The Maharatna company, with a cumulative installed capacity of 11,400 MW, its share of the total installed capacity in the state stands at 68 percent.
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