1.
National Technology Day is being
observed today
ii. The day is celebrated in recognition of a
major technological breakthrough of conducting successful nuclear tests at
Pokhran on this day in 1998.
iii. The first indigenous aircraft Hansa-3 was
also test flown at Bangalore
on the day.
iv. Besides this, India successfully test-fired the Trishul
missile on the same day.
v. The President Pranab Mukherjee will preside over the
celebratory function in New Delhi
today and give away the National Technology awards.
2. Kapil Sibal gets additional charge
of Law & C.P. Joshi gets Railway
i. Telecom Min Kapil
Sibal was
given additional charge of Law Ministry while Road and Transport Min C P
Joshi the Railways portfolio following the resignation of Ashwani Kumar and
Pawan Bansal.
ii. A
Rashtrapati Bhawan communique made these announcements on Saturday after Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh recommended these changes to President Pranab
Mukherjee, who accepted the resignations of Ashwani Kumar and Pawan Bansal.
iii. Sibal, an eminent lawyer himself, will get an
opportunity to handle the Law ministry for the first time, while Joshi has held
the Railway portfolio as temporary charge last year after the exit of Trinamool
Congress nominee Mukul Roy.
NOTE: Railway Minister
Bansal resigned on Friday following the arrest of his nephew Vijay Singla last
week for allegedly accepting Rs.90 lakh for fixing promotion in Railway Board
while Ashwani Kumar quit in the wake of a raging controversy over his vetting
the CBI probe report in the coal block allocations scam.
3.
Eighth
India-Seychelles Joint Commission Meet concluded at New Delhi
i.
The eighth India-Seychelles Joint
Commission Meeting (JCM) was held on 8 May 2013 at New Delhi. The Joint Commission exchanged
views on bilateral, regional and international matters of mutual interest
during the meet.
ii. Review of the ongoing cooperation between the two
nations in different fields was also done and views were exchanged for
expanding and strengthening the perimeter of the cooperation between the two
sides.
iii. The
Indian Delegation to the meeting was led by Sudhir Vyas, Secretary (West),
Ministry of External Affairs and the Seychelles delegation was headed by
H.E. Ambassador Maurice Jean Leonard Loustau-Lalane, the Principal Secretary in
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Seychelles.
iv. The next meeting of the Joint Commission will be
held in Seychelles
at mutually convenient date.
4.
India Bagged 2 Silver and 7 Bronze Medals in Commonwealth
Championship
i. India on 10 May 2013 finished their candidature in the
tournament with a record haul of 2 Silver and 7 Bronze in the 19th Commonwealth
Table Tennis Championships that concluded in New Delhi.
ii. One silver medal on behalf of India was won
by Soumyajit Ghosh and Mouma Das in the mixed doubles event, and the other one
was won by the men's team earlier in the tournament.
iii. Indians represented
the country in atl east six of the eight tournaments that included doubles too,
but didn’t turned up to be successful in securing a gold medal for the country.
5. Serena Williams beats Errani to reach Madrid final
i. Top-ranked Serena Williams will have
a chance to win her 50th career title after beating Sara Errani of Italy 7-5, 6-2
Saturday to reach the final of the Madrid Open.
ii. After a skittish start, Williams
dominated Errani and broke her final service game in both sets.
iii. Williams will play the winner of
the other semifinal between second-seeded Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic. If
Sharapova makes the final, the No. 1 ranking will also be at stake.
6. Classical singer Girija Devi admitted to hospital in
UP
i. In Uttar Pradesh, 85 year old eminent classical
singer Girija Devi has been admitted to hospital in Varanasi for infection in the gall bladder.
ii. Girija Devi from the Banaras Gharana has been
credited with preserving and elevating the "Thumri" form of Indian
classical singing.
iii. She has been awarded the Padma Shri and Padma
Bhushan.
7. MiG-29K fighter planes commissions into Navy
i.
Defence Minister AK
Antony on
Saturday commissioned warfare aircraft MiG-29K Black Panther squadron into the
Indian Navy
ii. The commissioning was held at INS
Hansa which would be the base for Black Panther squadron along with other
fighter aircraft squadrons of Indian Navy.
iii. The squadron initially comprising 16
aircraft would be known as IANS 303.
iv. The aircraft tagged as new era
fighter were inducted into the Indian Navy in February 2010 following which it
underwent trials before the actual commissioning.
v. MiG-29 K is a potent carrier borne
fighter, which, once integrated with INS Vikramaditya will bolster the Navy's
punch with its multi-role capability.
vi. The aircraft is armed with its
arsenal of weapons including advanced anti-aircraft and anti-ship missiles,
precision bombs and sophisticated system to support weapon delivery.
vii. Aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya
is likely to be commissioned later this year.