1. Former member of parliament C Silvera passes away

a. C Silvera, the former Union Minister & Congress party leader recently passed away in Mizoram.

b. He was the Union minister of state for Health & Family Welfare in 1994. He was the first Mizo in the Union Council of ministers ever in the history of Indian Parliament.

c. Before becoming the union minister he was appointed in the Rajya Sabha for the term 1984-1990 from Mizoram. He was also the member of 9th, 10th & 11th Lok Sabha.

2. Priyadarshini Chatterjee becomes FBB Miss India World 2016

a. In the 53rd edition of FBB Femina India world beauty pageant, Delhi’s Priyadarshini Chatterjee became the FBB Miss India World 2016.

b. She was crowned by former Femina Miss India World 2015 winner Aditi Arya.

c. Bangalore based Sushruthi Krishna was crowned Femina Miss India Supranational 2016 while Lucknow girl Pankhuri Gidwani became Femina Miss India Grand International 2016.

d. Priyadarshini Chatterjee will participate in the Miss World 2016 pageant and Pankhuri Gidwani will participate in Miss Grand International Beauty Pageant.

3. Fire accident at Puttingal temple in Kerala

a. An unfortunate fire accident in the Puttingal Devi temple in Kerala killed at least 110 people.

b. The fire broke out in the temple when people had gathered for the festival celebrations in the Paravur in Kollam district in Kerala.

c. The state government of Kerala has already ordered a judicial inquiry by a retired high court Judge along with investigation of the incident by Crime branch of the Kerala state police.

4. UNESCO Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom award conferred upon Khadija Ismayilova

a. UNESCO/ Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom award is conferred upon veteran investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova of Azerbaijan.

b. She will be awarded in Finland on 3rd of May 2016 on World Press Freedom Day for her outstanding contribution to press freedom in difficult circumstances.

c. She is a freelance journalist and a contributor to the Azerbaijani service of Radio Free group.

d. The Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom prize was established in 1997 by UNESCO’s executive board to honour people or organizations who have made a significant contribution to the defence and, or promotion of press freedom in the world, and in the face of danger.

e. The prize is founded by the Cano foundation of Colombia and Helsingin Sanomat Foundation of Finland.

5. Japanese Badminton player Kento Momota removed from Rio Olympics

a. Japanese Badminton player Kento Momota, the 2nd ranking badminton player in the world cannot participate in the Rio Olympics 2016.

b. The Nippon Badminton Association banned Kento for an indefinite time after he was found associated with gambling at an illegal casino.

c. He was the first japanese badminton player to win a World Championship Medal in Jakarta in August 2015.

d. The Nippon association also removed Momota’s team mate Kenichi Tago for guilty of placing illegal bets.

6. Lee Chong Wei emerged victorious in the Malaysian Open 2016

a. Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei emerged victorious in the Malaysian Open 2016 after defeating China’s Chen Long in the finals.

b. It is Wei’s 11th Malaysian Open crown after having won in 2004, 2005, 2006 and consecutively from 2008-2014.

c. Currently he is on the 4th rank. He is the 3rd Malaysian player to be in top ranks after Malaysia’s veteran badminton players like Rashid Sidek & Roslin Hashim.

d. Wei had previously won silver medal in 2008 as well as 2012 Olympics.

7. Anthony Joshua bagged the International Boxing Federation Title

a. By defeating Charles Martin, British boxer Anthony Joshua bagged the International Boxing heavyweight title in London.

b. Anthony Joshua had previously won the British and commonwealth Heavyweight titles.

c. He has bagged the silver medal in 2011 World Championships. He was ranked as the world’s 8th best heavyweight boxer by the Ring magazine. He continues to hold the 100% knockout ratio in his career.

8. Housing finance companies exempted from XBRL filings

a. Union Corporate Affair Ministry had exempted the Housing Finance companies from XBRL filings.

b. This exemption was carried out after the ministry had amended the Companies Rules regarding the filing of Documents and Forms in Extensible Business Reporting Language.

c. Banking, insurance, power sector and non-banking finance companies are already exempted from XBRL filings.

d. XBRL filings is a worldwide standard which was developed by XBRL International Inc. It is a extensible Business Language which provides a common electronic format for business reporting.

e. XBRL helps to communicate information between the users of financial information such as analytics, investors and regulators.

9. Ceasefire in Yemen

a. Due to efforts of United Nations, a ceasefire has come into force between Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen and the Saudi-led coalition supporting government forces.

b. The Shiite Houthi rebels had seized a large part of Yemen including its capital Sanaa in 2014.

c. The core objective of this ceasefire is the peace talks between these two parties which are to be held in Kuwait on 18th April 2016.

d. A large number of people are killed and displaced from the country during the beginning of this bloody battle in Yemen. United Nations Security Council had adopted the resolution 2201 which demanded the withdrawal of Houthis from government institutions of Yemen.

10. 2% employment for meritorious sportspersons reserved in Jharkhand

a. 2% employment will be reserved in various departments in Jharkhand for meritorious sportspersons of the state.

b. At present, only the state police department has the 2% job reservation for the meritorious sportspersons.

c. As per other proposals made by the state cabinet to promote the talented sportspersons a kamal club will be set up in every panchayat , block and district level.

d. State Government will also set up a football training centre in Kharsawan & an archery training centre in Chaibasa.

11. US Masters golf championship won by Danny Willett

a. British golfer Danny Willett bagged the US masters golf championship 2016 after defeating the defending champion Jordan Spieth.

b. After this win, he became the 2nd British golfer to win this title after Nick Faldo’s win in 1994.

c. It was the 80th Master’s tournament to be held in 2016 in Augusta Georgia.

d. Willet had bagged his first win on the European tour in june 2012 at the BMW International open in cologne.

e. He won his 3rd European tour title in July 2015 by defeating Matthew Fitzpatrick.

12. Six agreements signed between India & Maldives

a. Total six agreements were signed between India & Maldives to boost the bilateral relationship between these two countries.

b. An agreement is signed specifically to avoid the double taxation of income derived from the international Air transport.

c. These two countries have agreed to exchange the information related to the administration and enforcement of the domestic laws concerning taxes.

d. An agreement related to Orbit Frequency Coordination of South Asia Satellite proposed at 48 oE is also signed to perform intersystem orbit frequency coordination for the operation of ‘South Asia Satellite’.

e. A MoU signed to cooperate with each other in the conservation and restoration of ancient mosques and joint research and surveys in Maldives.

f. Both the countries have also signed an MoU to cooperate with each other in the field of tourism by exchanging the information related to tourism.

g. India and Maldives have also signed an action plan for defence cooperation between these two to boost the strategic and security interests of these two countries in the Indian ocean region.

13. G7 foreign ministers meet concluded

a. G7 Foreign minister’s meet was concluded in Hiroshima on 11th April, 2016.

b. In this meeting, Hiroshima Declaration, a joint Communique and two other statements on nonproliferation and maritime security were approved.

c. The Hiroshima Declaration is five principles or five pillars proposed by the Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida at NPT review conference in April, 2015. These five principles include, transparency of nuclear force, deeper reduction of all types of nuclear weapons, common recognition of the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, and the visit to Hiroshima and Nagasaki by political leaders and youths.

d. A joint Communique has released in the G7 Foreign ministers meet which highlighted the descending security level in regions such as Syria, Ukraine & in North Korea. It has condemned the north Korea’s nuclear tests, terrorist attacks in turkey & Belgium.

e. G7 Foreign ministers meet is the ministerial meet of the foreign ministers of member countries in advance to the actual G7 summit. The discussion held in these G7 Foreign minister summit becomes the core base for the discussions which are to be held in actual G7 summit.

14. Hemant Kumar Ruia appointed as CFO of Indus towers

a. India’s Largest telecom tower firm Indus towers has appointed Hemant Kumar Ruia as it’s new Chief Financial Officer.

b. Before joining as the new CFO of Indus tower, Hemant Ruia was the CFO at the Reliance retail Ltd. where he was the business partner with various brands with reliance retails. He had also served as a CFO of Agro Tech Food Ltd. for seven years.

c. Indus Tower company was established in 2007 which offers passive infrastructure services to all the telecom operators and other wireless service providers.

15. Sachin Tendulkar will endorse ‘I Support skill India’ campaign

a. Sachin Tendulkar has agreed to officially endorse the ‘I support skill India’ campaign.

b. The aim of such endorsement is to reach out to the Indian youth and to build the importance of skill development.

c. It is the campaign of the Union Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) which is launched to boost the stakeholders in India respect the country’s skill and to standardize the need of Human Resource requirements.

16. President Conferred Padma Awards 2016

a. In a civil investiture ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan, President Pranab Mukherjee conferred 5 Padma Vibhushan, 11 Padma Bhushan and 40 Padma Shri awards.

b. Some prominent personalities who received the awards are as follows :

c. Padma Vibhushan : Dr Vasudeva Kalkunte Aatre, Dr Girija Devi, Rajinikanth, Ramoji Rao, Dr V Shanta

d. Padma Bhushan: Ravindra Chandra Bhargava, Robert Dean Blackwill, Indu Jain, Udit Narayan Jha, Heisnam Kanhailal, Sania Mirza, Yarlagadda Lakshmi Prasad, Dayananda Saraswati (Posthumus), Ram Vanji Sutar, NS Ramanuja Tatacharya, Swami Tejomayananda.

e. Padma Shri : Priyanka Chopra, Salman Khan, SS Rajamouli (Director of Baahubali), Veena Tandon

17. A new way to forecast earthquakes discovered by Scientists.

a. Scientists from Nanyang Technical University have discovered a new way to forecast earthquakes based on the tremors or earthquakes below a Richter scale of 2.

b. The observation were led by Indian Origin scientist Deepa Mele Veedu which was published in scientific journal Nature.

c. The team of scientists have also observed that the larger earthquakes are unlikely to occur following tremors or earthquakes below a Richter scale of 2 that are caused by small vibrations or slow fault movements.

d. The findings of this team can be applied in the seismic monitoring of the area to help better forecast large earthquakes in the region.