National Political News:
1. The 1800 km long gas pipe line project from Mary – 311 km from Ashgbat, capital of Turkmenistan (on the old Chinese silk ) to Fazilka in India gets a commissioning nod as welding of pipes ceremony takes place, where India’s Vice President Hamid Ansari, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani and Turkmenistan President Gurbangly Berdimuhamedow press the inaugural buttons. The much needed gas for Power plants in India shall come from the gas field known as Galkynysh fields which has 16 trillion cft of gas reserves and Afghanistan will get 14 mmscmd, Pakistan 38 mmscmd and India 38 mmscmd of gas for the next 30 years.
2. CBI raids Delhi CM’s office after securing warrants from the courts, which has triggered BJP–AAP war. CBI claims it to be a raid against principal secretary and IAS officer Rajendra Kumar, an IIT alumnus and winner of PM’s awards for excellence. He is a accused by the CBI of giving contracts worth crores of rupees to his favorites.
Arvind Kejriwal annoyed with the raids calls the Prime Minister a coward and a psychopath.
3. Arunachal Pradesh Governor J.P. Rajkhowa is accused by the Congress Party of toppling its government in Arunachal Pradesh and aiding the formation of a parallel BJP sponsored government in Itanagar.
4. AAP and Congress demand the resignation of finance minister ArunJaitleyover the alleged irregularities in Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) functioning. AtunJaitley is the former president of DDCA and has termed the allegation as baseless.
5. Haryana LokAyukta orders filing of FIRs against 5 former MLA’s of the congress party for being involved in the cash for change in land use (CLU) scam principally in Gurgaon and Faridabad. An FIR has also been registered against former chief minister B. S. Hooda in the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) scam of 2012–13 for favorable allotment of industrial plots.
6. Sonia and Rahul Gandhi along with their other associates in the National Herald case secure a bail from the Trial Court in Delhi after a personal appearance.
International Political News:
1. Pakistan’s tribal region of Kurram city has had a bomb blast near a cloth market in which 23 people have been killed and another 55 hurt. Kurram is near the Pakistan– Afghan border.
2. The Central Philippines has been devastated by Typhoon Melor in which over 7 lakh people have been affected.
3. Saudi Arabia announces the formation of a 34 nation Islamic alliance to fight terrorism. Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt’s, Libya, Yemen, Mali, Chad, Somalia, Nigeria will be its members amongst others. The Shia Islamic republic of Iran shall not be a part of this alliance.
Business News:
1. USFED chairperson Janet Yellen has raised the American bank interest rates by 0.25%. The Dovish commentary of the chairperson in the FOMC meet has spiked the world markets in a relief. The markets were expecting a harsh commentary.
2. The Supreme Court of India has banned the registration of 2000 cc and above diesel cars in the NCR–Delhi region for 3 months on account of pollution woes.
3. Startup Housejoy raises a funding of Rs. 150 crores lead by e-commerce giant Amazon. Housejoy shall cater to electrical, sanitary–plumbing, computer repair, painting etc. in households.
4. Finance ministry lowers India’s growth estimates for FY 16 GDP to 7–7.5% in line with IMF, World Bank and other institutions.
5. The Indian unit of online search engine Google also known as Alphabet has shown a 30% increase and revenue over the last year. Advertising traffic is the biggest source of its revenue and was at Rs. 4108 crores for 2015 against Rs. 3050 crores for 2014.
6. SEBI attaches Pearls Groups (PACL) assets of over Rs. 60,000 crores for failure to refund 5 crore investors. PACL was operating Ponzi schemes pooling money of investors promising a very high rate of returns and land plots.
7. Mahindra and Mahindra and Tech Mahindra jointly acquire controlling stake in Italian automobile design house Pininfarina for a deal of $165 million (Rs. 1,000 crores). This design house has designed iconic models for Ferrari, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Bentley, BMW and Maserati.
Science and Technology:
1. US, Japanese and Chinese scientists are in the race to perfect satellite technology to measure greenhouse gas emissions over various regions. These satellites shall then serve as climate policemen. Overall carbon concentrations are being currently monitored by European and Japanese satellites since 2002. There is a margin of error for country wise calculations in this method.
Misc.
1. Padma Vibhushan presented to 93 year old legendary actor Dilip Kumar in Mumbai by Home Minister Rajnath Singh in the presence of Maharashtra Governor C. VidyasagarRao and Chief Minister DevendraFadnavis.
