ICC Team Rankings

Test Rankings (As on 07 April 2012)

1. England
2. South Africa
3. India
4. Australia
5. Pakistan
6. Sri Lanka
7. West Indies
8. New Zealand
9. Bangladesh

Zimbabwe is currently unranked as it has played insufficient matches.

One-Day International Rankings (As on 26 March 2012)

1. Australia
2. South Africa
3. India
4. England
5. Sri Lanka
6. Pakistan
7. New Zealand
8. West Indies
9. Bangladesh
10. Zimbabwe
11. Ireland
12. Netherlands
13. Kenya

Twenty20 International Rankings (As on 31 March 2012)

1. England
2. South Africa
3. Sri Lanka
4. New Zealand
5. Pakistan
6. Australia
7. India
8. Ireland
9. West Indies
10. Afghanistan
11. Netherlands
12. Zimbabwe
13. Scotland
14. Canada
15. Kenya

06 April 2012

• Gen VK Singh : Indian Army Chief
• Ram Baran Yadav : Nepal President
• Baburam Bhattarai : Nepal PM
• Gen Chhatraman Singh Gurung : Nepal Army Chief
• P Chidambaram : Union Home Minister
• Vladimir Putin : Russia PM
• Dmitry Medvedev : Russia President
• Lee Hsien Loong : Singapore PM
• Asif Ali Zardari : Pakistan President
• Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani : Pakistan PM
• Hina Rabbani Khar : Pakistan Foreign Minister
• Naveen Patnaik : Odisha CM
• Sushma Swaraj : Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha
• West Bengal to replace Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels, founders of Marxism & Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, with historical background of Latin America, Nelson Mandela & Chinese Revolution in their Higher Secondary syllabus
• Malabar : 10-days long Annual Naval Exercise between India & US
• 12th edition of Malabar to be held in Bay of Bengal
• Tougher UK Student Visa rules come into force
• Students from outside European Union will be required to have a firm job offer of minimum 20,000 Euro a year from a government approved employer if they wish to stay in Britain after completing their studies
• Currently students can stay up to two years after finishing their studies
• Kapil Sibal : Union Human Resource Development Minister
• Indian Institutes of Technology-Joint Entrance Exam (IIT-JEE) & All-India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE) to be merged into a common test from 2013
• Markandey Katju : Press Council of India (PCI) Chairman
• Mamata Banerjee : West Bengal CM
• Shah Rukh Khan : Bollywood Actor to be Brand Ambassador of West Bengal
• Embraer : Brazilian aerospace conglomerate
• Maiden flight of second fully modified Embraer Aircraft for India-developed Airborne Early Warning & Control (AEW&C) System took place at Sao Jose dos Campos facility, Sao Paulo in Brazil
• Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS), Bangalore, that comes under Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) is executing the system with other DRDO labs as partners
• S Christopher : Director of CABS & Programme Director of AEW&C System
• VK Saraswat : Adviser to Defence Minister & Director-General of DRDO
• Dr Alexander Kumar : British-Indian Doctor to walk across Antarctica carrying the Tricolour
• Will be first foreign national of Indian-origin to do it
• Expedition is scheduled for 2014
• Bashar al-Assad : Syrian President
• Alain Juppe : French Foreign Minister
• Thein Sein : Myanmar President
• Aung San Suu Kyi : Leader of Opposition of Myanmar & leader of National League for Democracy (NLD) of Myanmar
• Hillary Rodham Clinton : US Secretary of State
• US hails leadership of Thein Sein for the recent reforms
• US to open an office of US Agency for International Development in Myanmar
• US also preparing to send an Ambassador to Myanmar
• "Project Glass" : a pair of augmented reality glasses of Google that provides users real-time information right in front of their eyes
• Google X : a secret Google research lab working on future technologies
• British Broadcaster Sky News, in which News Corps Rupert Murdoch owns 39% stake, admits that it illegally hacked emails of two persons for stories
• Yutyrannus huali : New Tyrannosaurus species unearthed in North-eastern China that is believed to be lived 60 million years before Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex)
• The fossil record had fluffy & feathery remains making it the largest feathered dinosaur ever found
• Its name is a blend of Latin & Mandarin, which translates to "beautiful feathered tyrant"
• Square Kilometre Array (SKA) : a huge $2.5bn radio telescope which will be 50 times more sensitive & 10,000 times faster than any other telescope on the globe
• Australia & South Africa are competing to host the World's biggest radio telescope
• Construction is to be started in 2016 and to go fully operational by 2024
• Kuwait-Iraq flights to resume after more than 20 years
• Iraq has approved a request from Kuwait's Jazeera Airways to operate services to Baghdad & Najaf, Iraq
• Nouri al-Maliki : Iraq PM
• French Nuclear Reactor in Penly on the English Channel near port of Dieppe shut down automatically after small fires at the installation that firefighters quickly extinguished
• Electricite de France (EDF) : operator of the power plant
• France generates 75% of its electricity from Nuclear power making it World's Most Nuclear-Dependent Country
• Lalit Kumar Jain : President of Confederation of Real Estate Developers' Associations of India (CREDAI)
• Bachraj Bamalwa : Chairman of All-India Gems & Jewellery Trade Federation (AIGJTF)
• Pranab Mukherjee : Union Finance Minister
• Anand Sharma : Union Commerce & Industry Minister
• Ajit Singh : Union Civil Aviation Minister
• National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) added a record capacity of 2,820MW in 2011-12 taking its total capacity to 37,000MW
• Achieved 9,610MW capacity in 11th Five-Year Plan against its plan target of 9,220MW
• Toy Manufacturer Funskool (India) crossed Rs.100cr turnover mark for financial year 2011-12
• Beni Prasad Verma : Union Steel Minister
• Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) paid interim dividend of Rs.495.36crore, at 12% of paid-up equity capital, to Government of India for the year 2011-12
• Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh : elected President of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI)
• Raj Singh : elected Secretary-General of WFI
• 19th Federation Cup Carrom Championship
• Men's : K Srinivas (Petroleum Sports Promotion Board, PSPB) bt Yogesh Pardeshi (current World Champion)
• Women's : M Parimala Devi (PSPB) bt I Ilavazhaki (current World Champion)
• Jairam Ramesh : Union Rural Development Minister
• Montek Singh Ahluwalia : Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission
• Bharatiya Janata Party controlled Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation slaps Rs.16-lakh tax bill on Sabarmati Ashram
• Ajit Jadhav : Manager of Sabarmati Harijan Ashram Trust
• Narendra Modi : Gujarat CM
• Kamala Beniwal : Gujarat Governor

05 April 2012

• Gen VK Singh : Chief of Indian Army
• AK Antony : Union Defence Minister
• Shashi Kant Sharma : Defence Secretary
• Supreme Court raps former Maharashtra CM Vilasrao Deshmukh for giving 20 acres to film producer Subash Ghai in 2004 for his film institute
• Islamic seminary Darul Ulum Deoband issued a fatwa against beauty parlours saying that the profession is against Shariat
• INS Chakra : Nuclear powered attack submarine of Akula II class inducted into Indian Navy
• It was Russia's K-152 Nerpa of Soviet Charlie class commissioned in 2009 by Russian Navy
• It was leased to India in 2011 for 10 years at an estimated cost of $670m
• It was commissioned on 4 April 2012 as INS Chakra II at Vishakapatnam
• India enters into an elite group of six nations operating nuclear submarines : US, Russia, China, France, UK & India
• To be Commanded by Captain P Ashokan who got over 25 years experience in handling submarines
• Admiral Nirmal Verma : Chief of Indian Navy
• MM Pallam Raju : Minister of State for Defence
• VK Saraswat : Adviser to Defence Ministry
• Penkunju : Programme aired by Akashavani's Ananthapuri FM has entered final round of competition at the 12th Iran International Radio Festival
• Biju Mathew : Writer & Director of the Penkunju & Programme Executive at Ananthapuri FM
• Manik Sarkar : Tripura CM
• Salim Gangadharan : Appointed Regional Director of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Kerala & Lakshadweep
• David Cameron : British PM
• George Osborne : Chancellor of the Exchequer
• Asif Ali Zardari : Pakistan President
• P Chidambaram : Union Home Minister
• Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) alleged in Supreme Court that P Chidambaram as Finance Minister had equal role in fixing 2G spectrum license prices along with the then Telecom Minister A Raja
• Vayalar Ravi : Union Overseas Indian Affairs Minister
• Saqr Ghobash : Labour Minister of UAE (United Arab Emirates)
• India-UAE sign new protocol mandating informed approval by worker, employer & Indian authority of the full terms of work for work contract in UAE
• To streamline the employment process of Indian workers through an electronic contract registration & validation system to ensure welfare of workers and to control exploitation of Indian workers by recruiting agencies
• Excavaons at Moghalmari in West Bengal reveals Buddhist presence in India dating back to 6th century AD
• Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Videsh was invited for oil exploration in two blocks in South China Sea by Vietnam earlier
• ONGC Videsh facing threat from China claiming that the area belongs to them & if they go for exploration they will be facing political & economic risks
• Hafiz Mohammad Saeed : Chief of Jama'at-ud-Da'wah & Founder Chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba for whose head US has announced a reward of $10m
• Benjamin Netanyahu : Israel PM
• Salam Fayyad : Palestine PM
• Mahmoud Abbas : Palestine President
• Recep Tayyip Erdogan : Turkey PM
• Ayatollah Ali Khamenei : Supreme Leader of Iran
• Hillary Clinton : US Secretary of State
• Nicolas Sarkozy : French President
• Sudan & South Sudan agree on a ceasefire to secure their borders & oil rich areas during their talks in the Ethiopian Capital of Addis Ababa
• Sir James Munby : Chairman of the Law Commission for England & Wales
• UK Law Commission to scrap a large chunk of legislation in their Statute relating to construction & maintenance of railways across India
• Statute Law (Repeals) Bill to be introduced in UK Parliament this summer
• Pranab Mukherjee : Union Finance Minister
• He directed the apex Insurance regulator Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (IRDA) to address the suicidal competition between insurance companies through undercutting policy premiums
• Montek Singh Ahluwalia : Planning Commission Deputy Chairman
• RS Gujral : Finance Secretary
• Tata Power through it subsidiary Khopoli Investments enters in a 50:50 venture with Exxaro Resources Ltd of South Africa to launch a new energy company Cennergi Pty Ltd in South Africa
• Hiroshi Nakagawa : MD of Toyota Kirloskar Motor Pvt Ltd (TKM), joint-venture of Toyota & Kirloskar Group
• TKM began exporting its Etios cars manufactured at Bangalore plant to South Africa
• Kalanithi Maran : Chairman of SpiceJet Airlines picks up 5% more stake in no-frills airline
• "R Venkataraman - A Centenary Tribute" & "Reflections of a Statesman - Selected Post - Presidential Speeches of R Venkataraman" : Two books released on birth centenary of former President R Venkataraman
• Meira Kumar : Lok Sabha Speaker
• Karan Singh : Rajya Sabha Ethics Committee Chairman
• Rajendra K Pachauri : Director-General of The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI, formerly Tata Energy Research Institute)
• Karan Singh : President of Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR)
• India joins as the 11th member of the Multinational Design Evaluation Programme (MDEP) that was launched by National Regulatory Commission (NRC) of US & French Nuclear Safety Authority (Autorite de Surete Nucleaire, ASN)
• MDEP pools the resources & knowledge of national regulatory authorities in reviewing nuclear reactor designs that are proposed & under construction
• India's Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) was admitted as first new member of MDEP
• Dr SS Bajaj : Chairman of AERB
• Other MDEP members include Canada, China, Finland, France, Japan, Korea, Russia, South Africa, US & UK
• Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) of Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) provides technical support to MDEP
• International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) participates in many of the MDEP activities
• Andre-Claude Lacoste : MDEP Policy Group Chair & Chairman of ASN
• Parkash Singh Badal : Punjab CM
• KV Thomas : Union Food Minister

04 April 2012

• United India Insurance Company Ltd : Crossed 8,000 crore premium income
• Hafiz Muhammad Saeed : Chief of terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) & Chief of charity organisation Jama'at-ud-Da'wah that is considered to be cover organisation for LeT
• US declares $10m reward for giving information leading to arrest of the Lashkar Chief
• P Chidambaram : Union Home Minister
• SM Krishna : Union External Affairs Minister
• Asif Ali Zardari : Pakistan President
• To visit India, first by a Pakistan President since 1972 visit of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto
• Rahman Malik : Pakistan's Interior Minister
• Thein Sein : Myanmar President
• Aung San Suu Kyi : Leader of National League for Democracy (NLD) of Myanmar that won 40 of 45 seats in by-elections recently; She also won a seat to Parliament
• MT Enrica Lexie : Italian-flagged vessel that was detained off Kerala following killing of two fishermen by two Italian marines on board
• Manjula Chellur : Kerala Chief Justice
• Gordon Charles Pereira : Captain of Singapore-flagged vessel MV Prabhu Daya which was suspected to be involved in a mid-sea collision with fishing boat off Kerala killing 5 fishermen
• Vayojana Suraksha : scheme of Kerala State Police to protect senior citizens
• Pallekelle : Sri Lankan town where a monitoring station to detect nuclear explosions is being built by Vienna-based Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) Organisation
• CTBT bans all nuclear explosions in all environments, for military or civilian purposes
• CTBT was signed by UN Security Council in 1996 but has not entered into force as it expects ratifications by several signatories
• CTBT have 182 signatories out of which 157 ratifiers
• Eight ratifications of US, China, India, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Israel & North Korea will enable CTBT to enter into force
• Gen VK Singh : Chief of Indian Army
• Lt Gen Bikram Singh : Indian Army Chief Designate
• AK Antony : Union Defence Minister
• India released $20m of $100m Standby Credit Facility to Maldives & $50m treasury bond owed to State Bank of India by the Maldivian Government also has been rolled over for another year
• Mohammad Nasheed : Former President of Maldives of Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)
• Tuareg : Rebel people of Mali
• Bamako : Capital of Mali
• James Murdoch : Quits as Chairman of British Satellite Broadcaster BSkyB (Sky TV)
• Yousuf Raza Gilani : Pakistan PM
• Kofi Annan : UN & Arab League Special Envoy to Syria
• Nasser al-Kidwa : Deputy of Kofi Annan
• Bashar al-Assad : Syrian President
• Syria agrees to pull out its forces fighting armed rebels by April 10
• Susan Rice : US Permanent Representative to UN
• Bashar Jaafari : Syrian Ambassador to UN
• Jakob Kellenberger : President of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), based in Geneva, Switzerland
• Yves Daccord : Director-General of ICRC
• SM Krishna : Union External Affairs Minister
• Shah Rukh Khan : Bollywood Actor to deliver lecture at prestigious Yale University as its Chubb Fellow
• The Chubb Fellowship is among Yale's highest honours which in the past has been bestowed to heads of states & Nobel Prize winners
• D Subbarao : Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI)
• Pranab Mukherjee : Union Finance Minister
• Rajkumar Dhoot : President of ASSOCHAM (Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India)
• IT workers of Tata Sons in US proceed with a class action lawsuit against the Indian corporate giant over unpaid wages
• Shriprakash Jaiswal : Union Coal Minister
• Presidential directive to the state-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) to immediately sign Fuel supply Agreements (FSA) with power producers
• Mallika Srinivasan : Chairperson & CEO of Tractors & Farm Equipment Ltd (TAFE), world's third largest tractor maker
• TAFE, the flagship company of the Amalgamations Group, has embarked on a Rs.100cr expansion project at its Madurai plant
• Deepak Mehrotra : CEO of Micromax Informatics
• Rahul Sharma : Co-Founder of Micromax Informatics
• Homegrown mobile company Micromax entered tablet PC market with its FunBook tablet, positioned as an edutainment device aiming younger generation
• Micromax had tied up with leading education & entertainment content providers such as Pearson, Everonn & Vriti (educational), Bigflix, Indiagames & Zenga (entertainment)
• Cairn Energy India Pty Ltd (CEIL), wholly owned subsidiary of Cairn India Ltd (CIL)
• CEIL discovered oil in Nagayalanka SE-1 well in onshore block of Krishna-Godavari Basin
• GK Vasan : Union Minister of Shipping
• Pensacola International Wheelchair Tennis Championship : @ Pensacola, Florida
• Marcus Johannson (Sweden) bt Boniface Prabhu (Ind)
• Kapil Sibal : Union Human Resource Development Minister
• Pratibha Patil : Indian President, who is Chancellor of all Central Universities

WTA Ranking

WTA (Women's Tennis Association) World Rankings Top 10 
(As on 2 April 2012)

• Victoria Azarenka (Belarus)
• Maria Sharapova (Russia)
• Petra Kvitova (Czezh)
• Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland)
• Samantha Stosur (Australia)
• Caroline Wozniacki (Denmark)
• Marion Bartoli (France)
• Li Na (China)
• Vera Zvonareva (Russia)
• Serena Williams (USA)

ATP Ranking

ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Rankings Top 10 
(As on 2 April 2012)

• Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
• Rafael Nadal (Spain)
• Roger Federer (Swiss)
• Andy Murray (Scotland)
• David Ferrer (Spain)
• Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France)
• Tomas Berdych (Czech)
• Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia)
• Mardy Fish (USA)
• Juan Martin Del Potro (Argentina)

2012 Miami Masters

2012 Miami Masters (also known as Sony Ericsson Open as its sponsored by Sony Ericsson) is a part of ATP World Tour & WTA Tour. The 28th edition of the Miami Masters was held at the Tennis Centre at Crandon Park in Miami.

Men's

• Singles : Novak Djokovic (Serbia) bt Andy Murray (UK)
• It was Djokovic's 3rd Miami Title (2nd consecutive)

• Doubles : Leander Paes/Radek Stepanek (Ind/Czech) bt Max Mirnyi/Daniel Nestor (Belarus/Canada)

Women's

• Singles : Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland) bt Maria Sharapova (Russia)

• Doubles : Maria Kirilenko/Nadia Petrova (Russia) bt Sara Errani/Roberta Vinci (Italy)

03 April 2012

• April 2 : World Autism Day
• AK Antony : Union Defence Minister
• Shashikant Sharma : Defence Ministry
• Gen VK Singh : Chief of Army Staff
• Marshal NAK Browne : Chief of Air Staff
• Nirmal Verma : Chief of Navy Staff
• A 15-year Long Term Integrated Perspective Plan covering 12th, 13th & 14th Five-year defence plans (2012-2027) and the 12th Five-year Defence Plan cleared
• Central aim of 12th plan at requirements & modernisation plans of Armed Forces
• Ravi Rishi : Owner & Chairman of UK based Vectra Group questioned in connection with alleged Tatra-BEML deal
• VRS Natarajan : CMD of the Navaratna ranked Defence Public Sector Unit (PSU) Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML)
• Mullock's : Auction House in Shropshire, UK
• To auction some rare belongings of Mahatma Gandhi including a Grass with a drop of Mahatma Gandhi's blood and soil from the place where he was assassinated in 1948
• Rupert Murdoch owned Star Group bagged a Rs.3,851cr ($750m) BCCI broadcast, Internet & mobile rights for all international & domestic matches in India for next 6yrs
• The second highest bidder was Multi Screen Media (Sony) with Rs.3,700cr
• N Srinivasan : President of BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India)
• Sanjay Jagdale : BCCI Secretary
• SM Krishna : Union External Affairs Minister
• Enrica Lexie : Italian vessel from which two Italian marines shot dead two Indian fishermen off Kerala
• Pranab Mukherjee : Union Finance Minister
• George Osborne : UK Chancellor of Exchequer
• Stewart Beck : Canadian High Commissioner to India
• A four member team lead by the High Commissioner visited Kerala to discuss investment possibilities in Kerala
• First of its kind visit to Kerala by such a team
• Jst Markandey Katju : Chairman of Press Council of India (PCI)
• Nitish Kumar : Odisha CM
• Parkash Singh Badal : Punjab CM
• Bhupinder Singh Hooda : Haryana CM
• Delhi High Court stops Hubpages.com, US-based portal, from publishing material which is harmful to the reputation of India's spiritual guru Nirmaljit Singh Narula, also known as Nirmal Baba
• SH Kapadia : Chief Justice of India
• Jst Fakir Muhammad Ibrahim Kalifulla : Sworn in as Supreme Court Judge, taking the total strength of the apex court judges to 26
• He was Chief Justice of Jammu & Kashmir High Court earlier
• Manohar Parrikar : Goa CM
• Goa State Government nod for proposed Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), a specialised unit to combat terrorist strike in the State
• Computer Virus originated from China targeting users of India, China as well as Indian companies based in Dubai
• Abdul Samad Abdulla : Maldivian Foreign Minister
• SM Krishna : Indian External Affairs Minister
• 2 April 2012 : 27th Raising Day of Special Protection Group (SPG), executive protection agency of Government of India
• Indian PM Dr Manmohan Singh lauded SPG's excellence in charging duties and assured with full support to upgrade itself in terms of technology & training to meet challenges posed by new-age terrorists
• J Jayalalithaa : Tamil Nadu CM
• Kapil Sibal : Union Human Resource Development Minister
• Tamil Nadu ranks 1 for effective fund utilisation & effective coverage of hamlets with 76 points on the basis of its performance
• Madhya Pradesh at 2nd position with 74 points
• Karnataka & Gujarat at 3rd with 73 points
• Odisha & Rajasthan at 4th with 71 points
• Jairam Ramesh : Union Minister for Drinking Water & Sanitation
• Akhilesh Yadav : Uttar Pradesh CM
• Delhi High Court orders passport applicants to disclose names of Biological parents, not adopted parents if the adoption is not legally recognised
• Haren Raval : Additional Solicitor General
• A Bill to ban manual scavenging to be introduced soon
• Kim Jong-Un : Supreme Leader of North Korea
• David Cameron : British PM
• Julia Gillard : Australian PM
• Jimmy Little : famous Australian Aboriginal Musician; Passed Away
• Russian passenger plane ATR-72 operated by UTair crashed in Siberia killing 31
• Kofi Annan : UN/Arab League Special Envoy to Syria
• Bashar al-Assad : Syrian President
• Assad agreed on a deadline of April 10 put forward by Kofi Annan to start implementing  a peace plan in Syria
• Aung San Suu Kyi : Pro-Democratic Leader of Myanmar of National League for Democracy (NLD)
• She secured a seat in Parliament by winning in by-elections
• Her party secured 40 out of 44 seats it contested
• Osama bin Laden's three widows & two daughters sentenced to 45 days in prison and fined Rs.10,000 each for illegally entering & living in Pakistan
• Pal Schmitt : President of Hungary Resigned after he was caught for plagiarising his 1992 doctorate thesis
• Alain Juppe : French Foreign Minister
• $43.84m Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan for Tamil Nadu & Uttarakhand Tourism
• GK Vasan : Union Minister for Shipping
• UK based private equity firm Advent International to invest $105m in CARE Hospitals
• B Soma Raju : Founder of CARE Hospitals
• Government to borrow Rs.1.87 lakh crore through auctioning of Treasury-Bills in Q1
• D Sarkar : New CMD of Union Bank
• Was Executive Director at Allahabad Bank
• Bimal Jalan Committee : on Review of Ownership & Governance of Market Infrastructure Institutions (MIIs)
• Capital market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) allows listing of stock exchanges
• 51% stake of bourses could be held wih public
• Punj Lloyd Ltd's proposal to set up a manufacturing, assembly & repair unit of defence equipment at Malanpur, Gwalior has been shot down by Home Ministry despite clearance from Finance Committee
• Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) also turned down the proposal
• The proposal sent back to Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) for reconsideration
• India's Exports grew 4.2% & Imports grew 20.6% in February
• Trade deficit to touch $15.1bn
• Rahul Khullar : Commerce Secretary
• Rafeeque Ahmed : President of Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO)
• Chinese mulling over $50bn investment to build Hambantota Port & City in South Sri Lanka
• Vijaya Bank raised Rs.147cr by issuing preference shares to Life Insurance Corporation (LIC)
• LIC has pumped in four other Public Sector Banks also
• Rs.1,037cr in Bank of India
• Rs.650cr in Union Bank of India
• Rs.302cr in Indian Overseas Bank
• Rs.148cr in United Bank of India
• Jaipal Reddy : Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas
• India to get 30,000km Gas grid connecting consumption centres to fuel source by 2017
• World Series Hockey : Inaugural crown won by Sher-E-Punjab defeating Pune Strykers at the MHA-Mahindra Stadium, Mumbai
• The inaugural event was organised by Indian Hockey Federation & Nimbus Sport
• Ajay Maken : Union Sports Minister
• ATP Miami Masters : Novak Djokovic (Serbia) bt Andy Murray (Scotland)
• Djokovic's 3rd Miami Masters title also 2nd consecutive
• 2012 World Team Table Tennis Championships : @ Dortmund, Germany
• China cleansweeps Gold as Chinese Women's team beat Singapore & Men's team beat Germany
• China have bagged a total 36 medals since the Championships began in 1926
• Vijay Kumar Malhotra : Acting President of Indian Olympic Association (IOA)
• Ajit Pal Singh : former Hockey captain & three-time Olympian, who led the eight-time Olympic champions to their only World Cup win in1975
• He was appointed Chef-de-Mission for the 2012 London Olympics by IOA

02 April 2012

• Aung San Suu Kyi : Leader of National League for Democracy (NLD) of Myanmar
• Sushil Kumar Shinde : Union Minister of Power
• KC Venugopal : Minister of State for Power
• Kerala gets additional 50MW (Total of 100MW) from Central pool
• Gen VK Singh : Chief of Army Staff (COAS)
• Ravi Rishi : London-based NRI businessman & Chairman of Vectra Group, the major stakeholder of Tatra Group that is supplying Tatra trucks for Indian Army
• Arabinda Rajkhowa : Chairman of United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA)
• NKP Salve : Veteran Congress leader, cricket administrator & former BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) President; Passed Away
• CBI Day : April 1 since on this day of 1963 DP Kohli was appointed the first Director and the country's prime investigating agency was named Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
• First ever CBI Day reception was held, hosted by CBI Director AP Singh at 22 Tughlaq Crescent, his official residence
• Pratibha Patil : Indian President
• Hamid Ansari : Vice President
• Dr Manmohan Singh : Indian PM
• P Chidambaram : Union Home Minister
• Kapil Sibal : Union Human Resource Development Minister
• Salman Khurshid : Union Law Minister
• Veerappa Moily : Union Corporate Affairs Minister
• Arun Jaitley : Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha
• Sheila Dikshit : Delhi CM
• Ronald K Noble : Secretary General of Interpol
• Vinod Rai : Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) of India
• Kofi Annan : UN's & Arab League's Special Envoy to Syria
• Bashar al-Assad : Syrian President
• BRICS : Group of Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa
• Pranab Mukherjee : Union Finance Minister
• Asif Ali Zardari : Pakistan President to visit India; his first visit since he took over as President in 2008
• Vijay Bahuguna : Uttarakhand CM
• He kept 18 major portfolios with him while distributing portfolios to his cabinet members
• Indian netizens stay connected to Internet close to 8.4hrs a day : Survey by Norton security of Symantec
• Online users spend close to 12.9hrs a week browsing Web, 9.7hrs a week on social networking & 6.1hrs a week checking mails
• Hillary Clinton : US Secretary of State
• Asks US allies belonging to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to strengthen defences to cope up against Iran's ballistic missile programmes
• GCC comprise the six oil-rich nations Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar & Oman
• Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani : Pakistan PM
• Asks China's support for hydropower & civilian nuclear projects in Pakistan as its is currently facing energy crisis
• Asks for setting up an umbrella Pakistan-China Power Cooperation
• Raul Castro : President of Cuba
• Declared Good Friday as a holiday in recognition of a request by Pope Benedict XVI
• After Cuba's 1959 revolution, then leader Fidel Castro ended religious holidays
• He reinstated Christmas to honour a request by Pope John Paul in 1998
• Geeta won an Olympic Quota by winning Gold in 55kg category in the Asian qualifying event in Astana, Kazakhstan
• Geeta emerged first ever Indian woman wrestler to qualify for Olympics through qualification process
• Freestyle wrestlers Amit Kumar (55kg) & Yogeshwar Dutt (60kg) have got the Olympic berth earlier from the Asian qualifying event
• Sony Ericsson Open : @ Miami
• Men's Doubles : Leander Paes/Radek Stepanek (Ind/Czech) bt Max Mirnyi/Daniel Nestor (Belarus/Canada)
• Leander Paes : only 24th player in ATP World history to win 50 doubles titles
• Brother International Rally of Whangarei, New Zealand : Chris Atkinson (Aus) won the rally driving a Skoda Fabia for Team MRF of India
• Panasonic Open Golf : Digvijay Singh claimed the title
• New Central scheme proposed under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) for providing free generic drugs at a cost of Rs.30,000cr for next 5 years
• Highest ever hundi collection of Rs.5.73cr registered at Lord Venkateswara Temple, Tirumala
• 18th century portrait of the 18th century Indian artist Bagta sold at $302,500 at an auction at Bonham's Indian, Himalayan & Southeast Asian Art sale
• The remarkable work dates back to 1808 & measures 16x22 inches
• Mohamed Waheed Hassan : Maldivian President
• Mohamed Aslam (former Maldives Cabinet Minister) & Ibrahim Ismail (Adviser to the ousted President Mohamed Nasheed) urged International Community, led by India, to issue a diplomatic threat to current Mohamed Waheed regime
• They are on tour of India for campaigning support for early elections in Maldives & alert the world against human rights violation perpetrated by current Maldivian regime
• Sree Maheshwar Hydel Power Corporation Ltd (SMHPCL) asked Union Ministry of Environment & Forests to raise water level of Maheshwar Dam (in the plains of Narmada Valley, Madhya Pradesh) to 154 metres
• Madhya Pradesh State Government gave nod to raise levels
• Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) oppose government's move to raise water level that it could claim lives of hundreds & thousands of villagers of the area

01 April 2012

• Aung San Suu Kyi : Leader of National League for Democracy (NLD) of Myanmar
• P Chidambaram : Union Home Minister
• Pawan Kumar Bansal : Union Minister for Water Resources
• Sushil Kumar Shinde : Union Minister for Power
• South Indian Bank opens 700th branch in Thampanoor
• SIB 700 & SIB 700 Plus : new deposit schemes introduced following the branch expansion
• Jairam Ramesh : Union Minister for Rural Development
• Akhilesh Yadav : Uttar Pradesh CM
• MV Prabhu Daya : Singapore-flagged vessel detained for involving in collision with fishing boat off Kerala killing 5 fishermen
• ESL Narasimhan : Governor of Andhra Pradesh
• Naveen Patnaik : Odisha CM
• Union Home Ministry propose three amendments to Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) in the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS)
• The amendments would make arrest warrants mandatory; divest armed forces' power to open fire causing death; set up a grievance redress cell
• Mamata Banerjee : West Bengal CM
• Narendra Modi : Gujarat CM
• Dr VK Saraswat : Director General of Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO); also Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister
• Terms the performance of Tatra trucks as outstanding
• Gen VK Singh : Chief of Army Staff (COAS) of Indian Army
• AK Antony : Union Defence Minister
• Agni-V : Nuclear-capable three stage ballistic missile
• Places of worship outnumber educational institutions & health institutions in Punjab
• The 2.77cr population is met by 63,244 worship places but there are only 31,228 educational institutions (in ratio 2:1) and 14,494 health institutions (in raio 4:1)
• State has 76.7% literacy rate compared to national literacy rate of 64.8%
• Only 49.9% houses are in good condition
• 96.6% households have electricity
• 85.9% households have access to drinking water within the premises
• 82.6% have televisions & 12.8% have computers
• Jagir Kaur : former Punjab Cabinet Minister sent to jail for criminal conspiracy, forcible abortion & abduction in case of mysterious murder of her daughter
• SY Quraishi : Chief Election Commissioner
• VS Sampath & HS Brahma : Election Commissioners
• Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy : General Secretary of Communist Party of India (CPI)
• AB Bardhan : Outgoing General Secretary
• Thein Sein : Myanmar President
• US President Barack Obama approves new sanctions against Iran
• Says countries to cut down Iranian crude imports saying there is sufficient oil in world market to sideline Iran
• Iran has world's third largest oil reserves
• Kofi Annan : UN's & Arab League's Special Envoy to Syria
• Bashar al-Assad : Syrian President
• Rehman Malik : Pakistan Interior Minister
• Asif Ali Zardari : Pakistan President
• GL Peiris : Sri Lankan External Affairs Minister
• Mahinda Rajapaksa : Sri Lankan President
• Antonio Ereditato : Italian physicist head of OPERA team that made the claim that neutrinos travel faster than light
• OPERA is part of European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN)
• State-owned oil companies IOC, HPCL, BPCL hike Aviation Turbine Fuel (AFT)/jet fuel price by 3%
• Air India's Financial Restructuring Plan approved by SBI-led consortium of banks
• The Rs.67,520cr debt-ridden carrier signed four agreements with the consortium
• Mark Dolan : Country Manager (India) of Scottish Development International (SDI) which is engaged in promoting investments into Scotland & helping domestic companies explore new export markets
• SDI planning to expand its presence to South India
• For the first time in history India has qualified for World Track Cycling Championship to be held in Melbourne which is an Olympic qualification event
• O Bikram Singh, Amrit Singh & Amarjit Singh to represent India
• Rajender Kumar : Indian wrestler bagged bronze in an Olympic Asian Qualifying Event held in Astana, Kazakhstan
• Landmarks across the world observed Earth Hour by switching lights on March 31
• AS Kiran Kumar : appointed Director of Space Applications Centre (SAC) important facility under Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
• Indian scientists discovered anti-malarial compounds from various marine organisms mostly from Gulf of Mannar & Palk Bay
• Under a collaborative project titled "Discovering Anti-malarials from Marine Organisms"
• University of Kerala signs Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with International Centre for Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology (ICGEB), New Delhi for collaboration & sharing of intellectual property rights
• Dr K Padmakumar : Director of Centre for Marine Biodiversity under the University of Kerala
• Maharashtra Government raised objections to some portions of Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) last year report to Ministry of Environment & Forests

31 March 2012

• Gen VK Singh : Indian Army Chief
• AK Antony : Union Defence Minister
• Ghulam Nabi Azad : Union Health Minister
• Enrica Lexie : Italian ship detained off Kochi in wake of the killing of two fishermen by two Italian marines on board
• A division bench of Kerala High Court stayed a single High Court Judge's order allowing the ship to sail out of Indian waters
• Aung San Suu Kyi : Leader of National League for Democracy (NLD) of Myanmar
• Thein Sein : President of Myanmar
• Ghulam Nabi Fai : a US court sentenced him to two-year prison for conspiracy to defraud the US by concealing transfer of at least $3.5m from Pakistan's ISI to fund his illegal lobbying efforts on Kashmir
• Indian STEPS (Science Technology Entrepreneurship Park) & Business Incubators Association (ISBA) Awards 2011
• Kreara Solutions : Best Graduated company from a business incubator in biotech category
• Anoop P Ambika : MD Kreara Solutions
• Innoz Technologies : Best Incubate in IT category
• Mohammed Hisamuddin : CIO of Innoz Technologies
• Both companies were nurtured in the Technopark Technology Business Incubator (T-TBI), Thiruvananthapuram
• K Radhakrishnan : Director of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology (SCTIMST)
• Chosen for Asian & Oceanic Outstanding Achievement Epilepsy Award by Commission on Asian and Oceanian Affairs of the International League Against Epilepsy
• Bashar al-Assad : Syrian President
• National Green Tribunal suspends Environment Ministry's nod for the country's single largest FDI venture of Rs.51,000 crore POSCO Steel Project in Odisha
• POSCO Steel : South Korean firm
• Jayanthi Natarajan : Minister of Environment & Forests
• VRS Natarajan : CMD of Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML), defence public sector unit
• BEML Headquarters : BEML Soudha, Bangalore
• BEML has assembled, manufactured & supplied 7000 trucks of Czech company Tatra for Indian Army over past 26 years
• Allegations going in defence department on basis of BEML-Tatra deal
• AK Antony : Union Defence Minister
• Ghulam Nabi Azad : Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare
• A Sivathanu Pillai : CEO & MD of BrahMos Aerospace Ltd
• New developmental flight test of India's supersonic cruise missile BrahMos turned successful at the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in Odisha
• It reached its full range of 290km
• Salman Khurshid : Union Law Minister
• Lok Sabha passed Judicial Standards & Accountability Bill 2010 which provides mechanism for investigation against judges
• Shrien Dewani : Indian origin British businessman won his appeal against his extradition to South Africa over allegations of having arranged the murder of his wife Anni
• Bibi Jagir Kaur : Punjab Minister sentenced 5-year prison & Rs.5000 fine for forcing her daughter for abortion that lead to the death of her daughter
• Christof Heyns : UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions
• UN asked India to repeal Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA)
• AFSPA is in force in North-Eastern states & Jammu and Kashmir
• Pranab Mukherjee : Union Finance Minister
• Robert Zoellick : President of World Bank
• Robert Zoellick backs India's tax proposals
• Narendra Modi : Gujarat CM
• Comptroller & Auditor General (CAG) slammed Modi government for financial irregularities resulting in loss of Rs.16,000 crore
• Nicolas Sarkozy : French President
• Hamid Karzai : Afghanistan President
• Benjamin Netanyahu : Israel PM
• Land Day : Observed by Palestinian activists on Israeli borders to commemorate the killing of 6 people over a land dispute with Israelis in 1976
• Mariano Rajoy : Spain PM
• Hundreds of Thousands of protesters swamped Spanish streets as the Spanish Government unveiled an austerity budget for 2012 with cuts more than $36bn to rein its public deficit
• Consumer Price Index (CPI) for industrial workers (Base : 2001=100) rose by one point to 199 in February
• India's total external debt rose by 9.4% ($28.8bn) to $334.9bn at the end of December 2011
• India's current account deficit (CAD) nearly doubles to $19.6bn (4.3%) in December against $10.1bn (2.3%) a year ago
• Jst BR Deshmukh : Chairman of Company Law Board
• Norwegian firm Telenor is holding 67.25% stake in Indian telecom venture Uninor
• Remaining 32.75% stake is held by realty firm Unitech
• Telenor to transfer joint venture Uninor's assets to a new equity
• Unitech seeking injunction against Telenor's move
• World Bank backs proposal of forming BRICS Bank
• India-ADB (Asian Development Bank) ink $876m pact to shore up country's power transmission systems
• $500m sovereign-guaranteed loan & $250m non-sovereign corporate loan for establishing more than 1300km inter-regional transmission link for bulk-transfer of electricity from producer in Chhattisgarh to high power demand areas in North
• $76m sovereign loan for connecting western power grid to Union Territories of Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli
• Tax exemption for overseas investments in stock markets through P-Notes (Participatory Notes)
• Subir Gokarn : RBI Deputy Governor
• "Goods & Services Tax (GST) will help control inflation"
• Adi Godrej : President-designate of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) & Chairman of Godrej Group
• Essar Oil completed Rs.8300 crore expansion of its Vadinar refinery
• Vadinar refinery is now India's second largest single location refinery with a capacity of 18 million tonnes
• Naresh Nayyar : CEO Essar Energy
• Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemical Ltd (MRPL), a subsidiary of Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) raised its capacity to 15 million tonnes per annum
• Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is country largest refiner with 65.7m tonnes of total refining capacity
• IOC building 15 million tonne refinery at Paradip, Odisha
• Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) last year commissioned 6 million tonne refinery at Bina, Madhya Pradesh
• SK Srivastava : Directorate-General of Hydrocarbons (DGH)
• DGH joining hands with German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) at Postdam & Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research (GEOMAR) at Keil, in Germany for National Gas Hydrate Programme (NGHP) 02 in Andaman & East & West Coast areas
• 13th National Beach Volleyball Championship
• Men : Tamil Nadu (M Pradeep John & P Mohan) bt Tamil Nadu (Sivabalan & Dhamodharan)
• Women : Indian Railways (Minimol Abraham & Soumya) bt Andhra Pradesh (Maheswari & Mahalakshmi)
• Naveen Patnaik : Odisha CM
• CAG slammed Naveen Government for misusing Land Acquisition Act for acquiring land for several big industrial projects including proposed steel plant by South Korean steel major POSCO Steel
• Arbind Singh : Indian development activist & head of National Association of Street Vendors of India was given the prestigious Skoll Foundation Social Entrepreneurship Award at Oxford for his work in the informal labour sector
• Jeff Skoll : Founder of Skoll Foundation, a philanthropist & social entrepreneur
• Nothapodytes Nimmoniana : Large shrub plant known for its anti-cancer, anti-HIV & anti-fungal properties mostly found in most deciduous, evergreen & shola forests of India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia & China
• National Biodiversity Authority to give it threatened species label to conserve it from unregulated & unscientific exploitation