1) 102 years of Jallianwala Bagh Massacre
•The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, also known as the Amritsar massacre, took place on 13 April 1919. This year we commemorate the 102nd anniversary of the terror that shook the entire country to a standstill. The Jallianwalabagh garden has been converted into a memorial. And thousands of people on this day come to pay their respects to the martyred men, women, who were killed on that fateful day for the nation.
2) Election Commissioner Sushil Chandra named as next Chief Election Commissioner
•The incumbent Election Commissioner (EC) Sushil Chandra has been named to become the next Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of India. He will assume charge with effect from April 13, 2021. He will replace incumbent CEC, Sunil Arora, who will retire on April 12, 2021.
•The Election Commission of India consists of three members, namely Chief Election Commissioner and two Election Commissioners. The two ECs are Rajiv Kumar and Sushil Chandra.
3) Nomura slashes India’s GDP forecast to 12.6% in FY22
•The Japanese brokerage company Nomura has revised the GDP forecast of India in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22) to 12.6 per cent from the previous estimate of 13.5 per cent, amid rising coronavirus cases and higher inflation. Nomura has pegged the calendar year GDP growth at 11.5 per cent, a decline from 12.4 per cent estimated earlier.
4) Russian Vaccine Sputnik V gets emergency use authorisation in India
•The Central drug regulator, DCGA has approved emergency use authorisation of the Russian Vaccine, Sputnik V. It has now become the third vaccine to get emergency use authorisation from the drug regulator after Covishield and Covaxin. The Vaccine was developed by Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology last year in Russia.
5) Poonam Gupta to head NCAER as its first woman DG
•Poonam Gupta will be the new director-general of the policy think tank National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER). Gupta will succeed the current head of the think tank, Shekhar Shah, to become the first woman to hold the post. Currently, Gupta is the lead economist at the World Bank in Washington DC.
•Prior to joining the World Bank in 2013, she was the Reserve Bank of India Chair Professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) and a professor of macroeconomics at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER).
6) Ghaziabad issues India’s first municipal green bonds
•Ghaziabad Nagar Nigam (GNN) has announced successfully raising and listing India’s first Green Municipal bond issue. GNN raised ₹150 crores at a cost of 8.1 per cent. Money will be used to clean up dirty water by setting up a tertiary water treatment plant and supply piped water through water meters to places like Sahibabad. Ghaziabad is debt-free and has maintained a revenue surplus position in the last few years, according to India Ratings.
7) Sanskrit learning app ‘Little Guru’ unveiled in Bangladesh
•A Sanskrit learning app ‘Little Guru’ has launched in Bangladesh by the Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre (IGCC) of the High Commission of India. The Sanskrit learning app is part of the campaign being run by the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) to promote the Sanskrit language among students, religious scholars, Indologists and historians across the world.
