·
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh paid a three-day
visit to Germany on April 11,2013.The two countries signed six pacts including
one under which a German loan of Euro one billion(Rs.7000 crore) will be
provided for a green energy corridor in India.
·
India on April 7, 2013 successfully test-fired
its nuclear-capable Agni-II strategic surface to surface ballistic missile of
range 2000km from Wheeler Islands off the coast of Odisha.
·
ISRO of India and NASA of US have agreed to
explore further cooperative space exploration work, including future missions
to Moon and Mars. ISRO-Indian Space Research Organisation, NASA-National
Aeronautical and Space Administration.
·
ISRO has plans to allow entry of private sector
within the next 5 years.
·
President Pranab Mukherjee has given his assent
to the anti-rape bill, which says that rapists can be sentenced for 20 years
and even death sentence to offenders who have been convicted earlier for such
crimes, besides stringent punishment like 10 year jail term for offences such
as acid attacks.
·
An increasing number of Chinese submarines has
ventured into the Indian Ocean Region(IOR) posing danger to India’s security
and economic interests. Severe rivalry between the two navies may arise within
the next three years as China ramps up its strategic manoeuvres in the IOR.
·
India and Africa ties get stronger with youth
participation of about 72 students(36
Indians and 36 Africans) in New Delhi under the initiative “India-Africa: A
Shared Future” in the first week of April, 2013. The Indian government
increasingly views Africa as a fertile land for furthering India’s commercial
interests there.The leadership of India and African nations have set a
bilateral target of $ 100 billion by 2015.
·
In an effort aimed at taking Ayurveda to the
world by helping it get recognization as a full-fledged system promoting
research, clinical practice and teaching institutions in Switzerland and India
have set up the Indo-Swiss Ayurveda Foundation. Switzerland has passed the
legislation which recognizes Ayurveda doctors as ‘complementary therapist’ and
‘medical practioner’.
·
Indo-China Border Tiff: China has incurred India
along the Line of Actual Control(LAC) in the Ladakh sector, Arunachal Pradesh
and Sikkim along the disputed border for
more than 600 times since 2010.India’s Ministry of External Affairs sees it as
a face to face situation and asks China to revert to status quo.
·
Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman P.J.Kurien was on
April 11, 2013 was unanimously elected as the Chairman of the prestigious Asian
Forum of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (ATPPD) in Bangkok.
·
China has announced plans to launch cruises for
tourists to a chain of disputed islands in the South China sea claimed by the
Vietnam and Taiwan.
·
World powers failed to convince Tehran to
refrain from using Nuclear Technology to produce weapons.
·
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has
called Pakistani education activist Malala Yousufzai “a daughter of the United
Nations”.
·
Britain’s first woman Prime Minister Margaret
thatcher known as the Iron Lady passed away on April 8, 2013 in London
following a stroke. She was 87.
·
Situation in Korean Peninsula worsens. North
Korea said on April 9, 2013 that the Korean peninsula was headed for a
“Thermo-nuclear” war and advised foreigners in South Korea to consider
evacuation.
·
Japan’s defence ministry deployed Patriot PAC-3
anti-missile air defence units to defend against possible North Korean missile
strikes.
·
South Korea and US forces raised their alert
status to ‘vital threat’ on April
10,2013 ahead of an expected North Korean Missile test.
·
Pakistan on April 10,2013 successfully test
fired nuclear-capable Hatf-IV ballistic missile with a range of 900 km that can
hit targets in India.
·
Nicolas Maduro elected as President of
Venezuela.
·
Polio Vaccine Developer Dr.Hilary Koprowski
dies. The Polish-born researcher who developed the first successful oral
vaccination for polio, died in the second week of April 2013.
·
Serbia agreed to cede its last remaining hold in
the country’s former province of Kosovo on April 19,2013. The deal was brokered
by European Union(EU).
·
ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations)
puts effort to manage Chinese intransigence(Meaning: adjective (of people)
unwilling to change their opinions or behaviour in a way that would be helpful
to others SYN STUBBORN)
·
S.Gopalakrishnan, co-founder and executive
co-chairman of Infosys, has been elected as the President of Confederation of
Indian Industry (CII) for the year 2013-14. He succeeds Adi Godrej, Chairman of
the Godrej Group.
·
N.Ravi, director of Kasturi and Sons Limited
publisher of The Hindu, and a former Editor of the Paper was unanimously
elected President of the Editors Guild of India.
·
Nepali TV presenter Rabi Lamichhane, 36, has set
a new world record by hosting a talk-show for more than 62 hours at a stretch.
The show was based on the theme ‘Buddha was born in Nepal’.
·
Kamala Harris, becomes the first ethnic Asian
Indian American to become Attorney General in US.
·
Indian Navy’s Lt.Cdr.Abhilash Tomy became the
first Indian to circumnavigate the globe, solo and non-stop, over a 150 day
voyage.
·
Timothy Donor,17, attracted worldwide attraction
after mastering 23 languages including Hindi. Experts have classified him a
Hyperpolyglot a person who can learn a language in a short time.
·
Perilla Bhandari Swartz is the only Indian woman
in the US marine. She hails from Sikkim.
·
Renowned Filmmaker Les Blank who had won a BAFTA
died of cancer in April 2013.
·
A self-exiled Business Tycoon of Russia,
Berezovsky died in England.
·
Nigerian novelist and poet Chinua Achebe, widely
known as the grandfather of modern African literature passed away in Logos on
March 22, 2013.
·
Veteran Playback Singer P.B.Srinivas died on
April 14, 2013 following brief illness. He was 82.
·
Roger Ebert, a popular film critic of America
passed away on April 4, 2013. He was 70.
·
Industrialist Rama Prasad Goenka passed away in
Kolkata on April 14, 2013.
·
The former Chief Justice of India, J.S.Verma,
who headed a three-member panel to examine laws
dealing with crimes against women in the aftermath of the December 16,
2012 gang rape of a Delhi Student died in New Delhi on April 22, 2013 following
multiple organ failure.
·
Mathematical Genius Shakuntala Devi, nicknamed
‘human computer’ died in Bangalore on April 21,2013.
·
Violinist Lalgudi G. Jayaraman passed away in
Chennai on April 22,2013.
·
Salam Fayyad quit as Palestinian PM after tiff
with President Mahmud Abbas.
·
Telugu writer Ravuri Bharadwaja selected for the
Prestigious Jnanpith Award 2012. Ravuri is the third recipient of the highest
literary award from Andhra Pradesh.
·
Pulitzer Prize 2013 for Fiction is awarded to
Adam Johnson’s novel “The Orphan Master’s Son” set in North Korea.
·
Pulitzer Prize 2013 for public service is
awarded to “The Sun Sentinel” for its coverage of off-duty police officers who
recklessly speed and endanger the lives of citizens.
·
Pulitzer Prize 2013 for Biography is awarded to
Tom Reiss “ The Black Count “ about Alexander Dumas’s father who was born to
black slaves in Haiti.
·
Legendary Actor Pran Krishan Sikand, 93, awarded
with Dada Saheb Phalke award 2012. He is the 44th Dada Saheb Phalke
award winner.
·
ICSI(Institute of Company Secretaries of India)
Lifetime Acheivement Award for the year 2012 was conferred upon Deepak Parekh ,
Chairman of the Housing Development Finance Corporation Ltd.
·
UN Report says that Fast-growing India is slow
to spread to Benefits.
·
India stands 7th in the Nature
Publishing Index which considers the number of research articles published and
scientific progress among 16 countries in Asia Pacific. Japan tops the List
followed by China.
·
Samoa Air becomes the first airline in the world
to charge passengers by weight.
·
Vedanta Group discovers oil for the 26th
time in the Barmer region of Rajasthan.
·
Cricket: Gujarat clinches Syed Mushtaq Ali
Twenty-20 Championship Title after defeating Punjab. The trophy is named after
Indian cricketer Syed Mushtaq Ali.
·
Chris Gayle hits fastest century from just 30
balls in IPL 2013.
·
Hockey: Chandigarh wins North Zone Sub-Junior
National Championship by beating Punjab. Meanwhile, Haryana won the Women’s
title by beating Railways
·
Tennis: Serena Williams wins the Family Circle
cup 2013 by beating Jalena Jankovic in Charleston.
·
Tennis:American Serena Williams tops the Women
Tennis Ranking. The top 10 are (1) Serena Williams, USA (2)Maria Sharapova,
Russia (3) Victoria Azarenka, Belarus (4) Agnieszka Radwanska, Poland (5) Li
Na, China (6)Angelique Kerber, Germany (7)Sara Irrani, Italy (8) Petra kvitova,
Czech Republic (9) Samantha Stosur, Australia (10) Caroline Wazniacki, Denmark.
·
Tennis: Russia’s Anastia Pavlyuchenkova won
final of the Moneterrey Open Tennis tournament after defeated Germany’s
top-seeded Angelique Kerber in Mexico.
·
Tennis: Novak Djokovic(Serbia) defeated Rafael
Nadal(Spain) in the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters Tournament.
·
Tennis: Maria Sharapova beat Li Na to defend her
WTA Porsche Grand Prix title.
·
Tennis: Rafael Nadal wins Eighth Barcelona Open
title by beating Nicolas Almagro.
·
Tennis: German duo Sabine Lisicki and Mona
Barthel won the Women’s double title of WTA Porsche Grand Prix. The Germans
defeated Bethanie Mattek Sands and Sania Mirza.
·
Grand Prix: Sebastian Vettel wins Bahrain Grand
Prix 2013.
·
Golf: Adam Scott wins the Augusta Masters Golf
Championship.
·
Billiards: Rupesh Shah becomes Asian Billiards
Champion
·
Badminton: Thailand’s Ratchanok Intaton clinched
the India Open title after defeating higher-ranked German Juliane Schenk.
·
WeightLifting: India’s Jamjang Deru won Silver
in the 50kg boy’s category at Tashkent, Uzbekistan on April 8, 2013 in the
World youth Championships 2013.
·
Boxing: Prayag Chauhan wins Gold Medal at ASBC
Asian Confederation Junior Boxing Championships in Kazakhstan. He defeated Azat
Ilyubayev in the lightweight Category.
·
Archery:Assam on April 21, 2013 topped the medal
tally of the 20th National Archery Championship that was held at
Raipur in Chhattisgarh.
·
18th National Games for the Deaf:
Volleyball Men’s Title won by Andhrapradesh(by beating Tamilnadu) and Women’s
Title won by Karnataka(by beating Andhrapradesh)
·
The Planning Commission of India on April 19,
2013 launched IBIN (India Backbone Implementation Network ) for effective
implantation of its core programmes and policies. IBIN will address the need to
improve implementation of policies and programmes chartered out in the 12th
Five Year Plan as critical necessity for accelerating more inclusive and faster
growth.
·
International Monetary Fund(IMF) has slashed the
growth projection of India from its earlier prediction of 5.9 percent for the
calendar year 2013.
·
The Government of India has approves the project
for creation of National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) connecting all the 250000
Gram Panchayats in the country through Optical Fibre(OFC).
·
Aruna Bahuguna, Senior IPS Officer on April 18,
2013 was appointed as the new Special Director-General of CRPF, India’s largest
paramilitary force.
·
The Union Cabinet of India has cleared the
proposal to increase Dearness Allowance (DA) for the Central government
employees from 72 percent to 80 percent.
·
The Union Cabinet of India recently approved The
National Policy for Children, 2012.
·
NASA’s Kepler Mission has discovered two
earth-like planets. These planets are named Kepler-62f and Kepler-62e.
·
The US House of Representatives passed the Cyber
Information Sharing and Protection Act, also called CISPA.
·
The New York Times won four Pulitzer Prizes
including the award for investigative reporting for stories that detailed how
Wal-Mart used bribery to expand in Mexico. The other awards included two awards
for its reporting on the actions of companies like Apple and Wal-Mart overseas
and another for an examination of the hidden wealth of the Chinese premier’s
family.
·
Recently, China’s Western Sichuan Province was
recently hit by an earthquake measuring 7 on Richter Scale.
