1.

ISRO to build orbiter for NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has asked the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to build an orbiter that will provide the communication between the soil samples collected from the far side of the moon and the earth. This joint venture between the ISRO and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, would be part of the Moonrise missions planned by the NASA. The ISRO would provide an orbiting communicator to the NASA for this mission, scheduled for 2016. Chandrayaan-2 would be put in an orbit around the moon by a Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) in 2013 and the project would cost Rs.462 crore. 2. Nod for e-district project The Union Cabinet's Committee on Infrastructure approved the rollout of the e-district mission mode project in all 640 districts of the country, including the 41 districts where pilot projects of the scheme have been initiated. The project is estimated to cost Rs.1,663 crore, of which the government's share is put at Rs. 1,233 crore. The States will bear Rs. 430 crore. The project envisages modernisation of offices and sub-offices of district administration and automation of various government processes. Citizens would be able to track their applications and requests for government services online. 3. Well-being survey puts India in 71st spot With only 17 per cent people describing themselves as "thriving", India ranked 71, in a new Gallup study on overall well-being conducted in 124 countries. According to the study, which combined the results of Gallup's 2010 global well-being surveys, majority of Indians (64 per cent) believe they are "struggling" while 19 per cent think they are "suffering". The surveys asked people to rate themselves on a ladder with steps labelled 0 to 10. People who rate their current lives a 7 or higher and say they expect their lives in five years to be an 8 or higher are considered to be thriving. Those who rate their lives between 4 or less are considered "suffering", while "struggling" respondents fall between the two groups. Interestingly, strife-torn Pakistan whose economy is in tatters ranked as the 40th happiest nation in the world with 32 per cent of its citizens saying they are thriving. 4. Poverty rate declines from 37.2% to 32% The latest data of the Planning Commission indicates that poverty has declined to 32 per cent in 2009-10 from 37.2 per cent five years ago. The preliminary estimates are based on the formula suggested by the Tendulkar Committee for computing the number of poor. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia on Wednesday told reporters that the 2009-10 data shows a decline in poverty from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05 to 32 per cent in 2009-10 as the per the preliminary data worked out by the Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen. 5. Pop star Michel Martelly declared Haiti president Haiti: Michel Martelly, a Haitian popular singer known by the stage name "Sweet Micky," was officially declared the earthquake-devastated country's next president, election officials said Wednesday.

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A spokesman for Haiti's electoral commission, Pierre Thibault, said Martelly won the presidency with 67.57% of the vote, defeating rival candidate Mirlande Manigat. The announcement ends a long, drawn-out election that began on November 28 and was marred by fraud and other irregularities, several days of rioting and numerous delays. After election officials released preliminary results on April 6 showing that Martelly, 50, defeated his opponent with nearly 68% of the vote, Manigat said she wouldn't contest the results. Since then, Martelly has spoken about the need for reconciliation in this bitterly divided nation as he's sought to put together a transition team. On the campaign trail, he called for free education for all children, a renovation of the agricultural sector, and the restoration of the disbanded Army. 7. $785 million to seal Chernobyl under new shell Governments from around the world on Tuesday pledged $785 million (550 million) to seal the stricken nuclear reactor at Chernobyl within a 20,000-tonne steel shield that would be large enough to enclose St. Paul's Cathedral in London. The huge arch is designed to prevent any further radiation from escaping for 100 years. The pledges, made at a conference in Kiev ahead of the 25th anniversary of the disaster on 26 April 2011, bring the total raised for the Chernobyl safety works to $1.8 billion and will enable efforts to finally secure the reactor which caught fire in April 1986. Twenty-eight governments have so far offered money. The European commission was the biggest contributor with 110 million. The U.S. pledged 86 million and Britain which still has more than 300 hill farms in Wales under radiation restrictions following fallout from Chernobyl will contribute 35 million. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced an extra 120 million. Japan, Italy and Canada are considering whether to contribute to the fund. The planned arch-shaped structure, which at 190 metres wide and more than 100 metres tall, will take five years to build. It will replace a hastily built concrete sarcophagus erected around the reactor in 1987. This now has serious cracks in it, raising fears that 95 per cent of the original nuclear material which is left inside the reactor could escape. 8. SBI withdraws teaser home loan scheme Amid concerns expressed by the Reserve Bank of India, State Bank of India (SBI) announced the withdrawal of special home loan schemes or teaser rates with effect from May 1. SBI Easy Home Loan and SBI Advantage Home Loan (teaser rate products) will be replaced by floating interest rate schemes on a par with other commercial banks. Under the teaser home loan scheme, SBI was offering lower interest rate of 8-8.5 per cent for the first three years. 9. Chennai to host Automation Expo 2011 A three-day AutomationExpo 2011 will be held from April 21 to 23 at the Chennai Trade Centre. The exhibition will cover factory automation, process automation, building automation, drives and controls, robotics, instrumentation, sensors and solutions. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working on a new system through which the entire surface area of a building's windows could be used to generate electricity, without interfering with the ability to see through them. The key technology is a photo-voltaic cell based on organic molecules, which harnesses the energy of infrared light while allowing visible light to pass through. Page 2 of 4 21st April 2011

Coated onto a pane of standard window glass, it could provide power for lights and other devices, and would lower installation costs by taking advantage of existing window structures. Vladimir Bulovic, Professor of electrical engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science has developed a transparent photo-voltaic system with Richard Lunt, a postdoctoral researcher in the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT. 10. Kris, Kamath top contenders for Infosys chairman post S D Shibulal will be appointed the new CEO of Infosys Technologies on April 30 is a foregone conclusion. That it will also leave the chief operating officer's (COO) post vacant for a while to prevent heartburn among its nextGen leaders is also certain. Hence, the main topic of interest is what role will the current CEO, Kris Gopalakrishnan, get to play? Will he be made vice-chairman, co-chairman or chairman. If the nominations committee of the company headed by Infosys independent director and Cornell University professor, Jeffery Lehman, opts for an insider, then Kris is the only candidate. That Kris is definitely a chairman prospect is augmented by the fact that he's currently industry body CII's vice president, which puts him in line to take over as its president after Adi Godrej. According to CII's rules, its president has to be an active industry leader, not an honorary one. But there are indications that the company may go for a co-chairmen model, with one from the inside and another from the outside. 11. DTAA with 3 nations approved In an effort to bring back black money stashed abroad, the government is learnt to have approved signing of Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAA) with three countries. Sources in the Government said here that the Union Cabinet gave its nod to the Finance Ministrys proposal to sign DTAAs with Ethiopia, the Netherlands and Singapore. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had recently said that to deal with the black money menace, India had completed DTAA renegotiations with 23 countries, including Switzerland. Of the 65 countries, we have been able to complete the DTAA with 23 countries, he had said. The Centre had recently informed the Supreme Court that it cannot make public names of the people who have stashed black money in foreign banks, saying it is not possible to disclose information received from foreign governments under Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement. Besides providing solutions to avoid double taxation of same income, the agreements generally provide for other matters of common interest of the two countries such as exchange of information, mutual assistance procedure for resolution of disputes and for mutual assistance in effecting recovery of taxes. Treaties being international agreements, their consequences are determined according to the rules of Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969.

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Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are working on a new system through which the entire surface area of a building's windows could be used to generate electricity, without interfering with the ability to see through them. The key technology is a photo-voltaic cell based on organic molecules, which harnesses the energy of infrared light while allowing visible light to pass through. Coated onto a pane of standard window glass, it could provide power for lights and other devices, and would lower installation costs by taking advantage of existing window structures. Vladimir Bulovic, Professor of electrical engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science has developed a transparent photo-voltaic system with Richard Lunt, a postdoctoral researcher in the Research Laboratory of Electronics at MIT.

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