National School of Banking : 1 : Ptr-0320 Points to Remember

NATIONAL SCHOOL OF BANKING : 1 : PTR-0320 POINTS TO REMEMBER

CONSTITUTION - Supreme Court -  The Supreme Court on 13th November 2019, upheld the disqualification of 17 dissident Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) legislators by then Karnataka Assembly Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar under the Tenth Schedule (anti-defection law) but held that their ouster is no bar from contesting repolls. Neither under the Constitution nor under the statutory scheme it is contemplated that disqualification under the Tenth Schedule would operate as a bar for contesting re-elections, a Bench led by Justice N.V. Ramana said in a judgment. The court said Section 36 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 does not contemplate such disqualification. On the provisions introduced in the 91st Constitutional Amendment, it said they were brought in specifically to ensure that a legislator disqualified for defection was not appointed as a government Minister or to any remunerative post from the date of his disqualification either till the expiry of his term of office or till he was re-elected to the legislature, “whichever is earlier”. In the light of the existing constitutional mandate, the Speaker is not empowered to disqualify any member till the end of the term. However, a member disqualified under the Tenth Schedule shall be subjected to sanctions provided under Articles 75(1B), 164(1B) and 361B of the Constitution, which provides for a bar from being appointed as a Minister or from holding any remunerative political post from the date of disqualification till the date on which the term of his office would expire or if he is re-elected to the legislature, whichever is earlier, the court held.

 The Supreme Court on 13th November 2019, struck down the provisions in the Finance Act, 2017, which altered the terms and conditions of appointments and service of members in key judicial tribunals as unconstitutional. The court said Section 194 of the Finance Act, under which Rules were formed to alter the service conditions of tribunal members, suffered from "various infirmities". It said the Centre's 'control' of different facets of functioning of tribunals would affect judicial independence. A majority judgment delivered by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, however, refrained from taking a decision on whether the Lok Sabha speaker had acted right in allowing the Finance Act 2017, especially the parts which changed the character of the conditions and service of tribunal members, to be passed as a money bill in Parliament. A money bill is tabled in Lok Sabha and can be passed circumventing the Rajya Sabha. However, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud dissented with the majority on sending the question of money bill to a larger Bench. Justice Chandrachud said it was wrong to pass the provisions as a money bill. He said there was no bar on the court's powers to judicially review the Speaker's discretion to certify a bill as a money bill.

 The Supreme Court on 14th November 2019, did not alter its ruling allowing women of all ages to enter the Ayyappa temple at Sabarimala but asked a seven-judge bench to evolve guidelines to decide cases involving a clash between the right to equality and the right of denominations to follow their customs - a tussle that has been brought to the fore by the campaign to let women into temples, mosques and Parsi agyaris (fire temples). A five-judge bench of CJI Ranjan Gogoi and Justices R.F Nariman, A.M Khanwilkar, D.Y Chandrachud and Indu Malhotra, by a 3-2 majority, said the seven-judge bench would evolve a comprehensive judicial policy to guide the court in future adjudication of cases of conflict between citizens’ right to equality and a believer’s faith in religious practices and customs.

 The Supreme Court on 22nd January 2020, refused to stay the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, declining to take note of protests and anti-CAA resolutions by the Kerala and Punjab assemblies, and brushed aside repeated pleas for deferment of processes relating to the National Population Register as a corollary of CAA. The court said the petitions would be heard by a five-judge Constitution bench. A bench of Chief Justice S.A. Bobde and Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and Sanjiv Khanna had a tough time dealing with a record 144 petitions represented by nearly 300 advocates leading to a packed courtroom and a cacophonous atmosphere.

 The protection of anticipatory or pre-arrest bail cannot be limited to any time-frame or “fixed period” as denial of bail amounts to deprivation of the fundamental right to personal liberty : 2 : PTR-0320 in a free and democratic country, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court ruled on 29th January 2020. A five-judge Bench, led by Justice Arun Mishra, acknowledged that anticipatory bail helps thwart influential powers from implicating their rivals in false cases. Section 438 (anticipatory bail) of the Code of Criminal Procedure protects people from the ignominy of detention in jail for days on end and disgrace to their reputation. The court recorded its amicus curiae and senior advocate Harin Raval’s argument that anticipatory bail is all the more needed now because there is an accentuation of political rivalry and “this tendency is showing signs of steady increase”. “The life or duration of an anticipatory bail order does not normally end at the time and stage when the accused is summoned by the court, or when charges are framed, but can continue till the end of the trial,” the court held.

 The Supreme Court on 4th March 2020, scrapped a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) circular preventing banks from providing services in support of cryptocurrencies, lifting a de facto ban on trading in bitcoin and other such instruments. Cryptocurrency exchanges welcomed the decision and startups said they will revive plans to invest and expand their businesses in India. The move may set the tone for a more calibrated regulatory approach toward digital currencies. A three-member bench headed by Rohinton F Nariman said the central bank hadn’t demonstrated that trading in such currencies was deleterious in any manner, while pointing out that there was no ban on them. “While we have recognised… the power of RBI to take a pre-emptive action, we are testing in this part of the order the proportionality of such measure, for the determination of which RBI needs to show at least some semblance of any damage suffered by its regulated entities. But there is none,” the bench said.

 A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on 6th March 2020, held that land acquisition proceedings under the 1894 Act will not be deemed to have lapsed under Section 24(2) of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, if the authorities have tendered the compensation by deposit in the Treasury. A five-judge Bench, led by Justice Arun Mishra, held that landowners, who had refused to accept compensation or who sought reference for higher compensation, cannot claim that the acquisition proceedings had lapsed under Section 24(2) of the 2013 Act. With this, the Constitution Bench has affirmed the February 2018 ruling on Section 24 by a three-judge Bench, led by Justice Mishra himself, in the Indore Development Authority case. The Bench has overruled an earlier co-ordinate Bench ruling in the Pune Municipal Corporation case of 2014. Bills & Acts -  Despite strong protests by the LGBTQ community as well as Opposition MPs in Parliament, the Rajya Sabha on 26th November 2019, passed the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill 2019 through a voice vote. Opposition MPs from the DMK and Congress requested the ruling BJP to send the Bill to a select committee for further legislative scrutiny and to come up with a more ‘comprehensive’ bill and also moved a motion in this regard, but it was defeated in a vote. The Bill had been passed in the Lok Sabha on August 5 during the monsoon session with barely any debate. However, when it came to the Upper House, several MPs raised strong apprehensions regarding implications for the transgender community. As per the Bill, sexual abuse of a transgender person is punishable by only two years jail whereas under the IPC, minimum punishment is seven years. Congress MP Rajeev Gowda pointed out that ‘discrimination’ against transgender persons has not been defined adequately. Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot said apprehensions raised by the members were unfounded if the related provisions were studied in detail. He maintained that ‘wider consultations’ have been held.

 The Modi government has decided to expand the definition of care-givers under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, by making not just biological children, but even sons-in-law and daughters-in-law responsible for looking after family members. The amendments to the Act, cleared by the Union Cabinet on 4th December 2019, have been expanded to include parents-in-law and grandparents, whether or not senior citizens. Care-givers who fail to comply can face a jail term of up to six months instead of the current maximum of three months. The definition of “maintenance” is proposed to be expanded to include housing, safety and security. The quantum of maintenance may be decided on the basis of earning and standard of living of senior citizens and parents, children : 3 : PTR-0320 and relatives. The amendment proposes a provision for registration of “senior citizens’ care homes” and the central government will prescribe the minimum standards for their establishment, running and maintenance. The draft bill proposes to register agencies providing ‘home care services’. To reach out to senior citizens, every police station will have to appoint a nodal officer. It is proposed that applications for monthly allowance for maintenance and expenses for proceedings shall be disposed of within 90 days from the date of their receipt by the Tribunal (not from date of service of notice as given in the Act currently). Also, such applications shall be disposed of within 60 days in case of senior citizens who are over 80 years old.

 The Lok Sabha on 9th December 2019, passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) that seeks to give citizenship to refugees from the Hindu Christian, Buddhist, Sikh and Zoroastrian communities fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The Bill was passed 311-80 with zero abstentions, after the Opposition put up a spirited attack against it. Responding to the five hour debate that saw nearly 48 speakers from various parties participate, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said it was a "historic Bill" that sought to complete what the "Nehru-Liaqat pact could not do". To repeated questions on the National Register for Citizens (NRC), he said it would be done soon. According to him, the Bill abided by the Constitution and "there is no violation". "Under the principle of reasonable classification citizenship can be granted and there is no violation of Article 14." he said. Home Minister Amit Shah told the Lok Sabha that Manipur would be brought under the Inner Line Permit (ILP) system, thus exempting it from the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. With Manipur joining the list of ILP-protected north-eastern States, the Bill will apply only to some parts of Tripura and Assam.

 The Union Cabinet on 12th February 2020, approved the Pesticides Management Bill, 2020, which, the government claims will regulate the business of pesticides and compensate farmers in case of losses from the use of spurious agro-chemicals. “If there is any loss because of the spurious or low quality of pesticides then there is a provision for compensations. This is the unique feature of this Bill. If required, the government will form a central fund which will take care of compensation,” said Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar. Mr. Javadekar said farmers would also be empowered to get all information as the data would be in open sources and in all languages. In February 2018, the Centre had released a draft of the pesticides Bill that aims to replace the existing Insecticides Act of 1968. A key proposal in the 2018 version was to raise penalties on the sale of prohibited or spurious pesticides to Rs.50 lakh and up to five year's imprisonment, from the current Rs.2,000 and up to three years' imprisonment. It is unclear if these provisions have been retained in the latest version of Bill that was cleared by the Union Cabinet.

 The Union Cabinet on 26th February 2020, approved the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2020, allowing a “willing” woman to be a surrogate mother and proposing that the Bill would benefit widows and divorced women besides infertile Indian couples. The Cabinet approved the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill after incorporating the recommendations of a Rajya Sabha Select Committee. The 15 major changes suggested by the 23-member committee to the Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2019, also included deleting the definition of “infertility” as the inability to conceive after five years of unprotected intercourse on the ground that it was too long a period for a couple to wait for a child. General -  The Cabinet on 24th December 2019, cleared a scheme for updating the National Population Register at a cost of Rs.3,900 crore to the exchequer. The exercise, for the first time, will involve gathering details regarding date and place of birth of a usual resident’s parents, as well as his/her identity details like Aadhaar number, passport number, driving licence number and voter ID. A ‘usual resident’ is someone who has been living in a place for six months and intends to spend the next six months at the same place. Sharing one’s identity card details will be voluntary. The details for census and NPR will be collected by the same enumerator, either through an app or by manually filling up a form. All fields are to be recorded as declared by the respondent - or self-certification, as said by I&B minister Prakash Javadekar - and no proof or supporting documents shall be sought. No biometrics will be collected, though they may be sourced from UIDAI. : 4 : PTR-0320

 The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) recently stayed a recent order by the National Company Law Tribunal’s New Delhi Bench, which prohibited appointing a former bank official as independent resolution professional (IRP) of a bankrupt company because of the possibility of “bias”. The NCLT order had cast a doubt on debt resolutions of several companies including Videocon Industries and Essar Projects, where former bank officials are working as IRPs. During the NCLAT proceedings, the lender's position was that while anyone after retirement could practise as a professional if qualified to do so, the person could not be assumed to be biased just because she or he happened to be a former bank official. In its January 4 order in the State Bank of India vs Metenere case, the NCLT said the resolution professional proposed by the lenders for Metenere had worked with State Bank of India for more than 39 years of there was "an apprehension of bias" against the appointment. It is evident that such an IRP is unlikely to act fairly and cannot be expected to act as in independent umpire, the tribunal had observed. Accordingly, the tribunal said the financial creditors must replace the person by a new one. Legal experts say this order will have a wide-ranging impact and slow the resolution of some big-ticket cases including the ones of Videocon Industries, which owes banks Rs.40,000 crore, and Essar Projects, which has a debt of Rs.7,700 crore. The NCLT order would have put a question mark on several accounts where the IRP has been appointed and the resolution has reached an advanced stage. Videocon Industries has seen the appointments of four IRPs, including those from Price, Waterhouse, KPMG, and now Deloitte, which is managing the asset sale. Its debt resolution is going on since January 2018, when the RBI recommended Videocon on its second list of 29 companies for debt resolution.

BANKING NATIONAL - RBI -  The RBI on 5th December 2019, dashed market expectations by keeping the benchmark interest rate unchanged citing inflationary pressures while slashing GDP growth forecast for FY20 to 5% from the earlier projection of 6.1%. The central bank, however, kept the doors open for rate cuts depending on the “unfolding situation” amid an uncertain economic climate that’s left policy makers torn between prioritising growth and containing prices. The GDP growth forecast was lowered owing to slumping demand and increased inflation projections for the current fiscal owing to rising sugar, onion, pulses and milk prices that may remain elevated for the next few months. It also retained an ‘accommodative’ policy stance although many analysts believe interest rate reductions may be off the table at least until April as inflation expectations are rising, as is the possibility of the government missing revenue targets.

ECONOMY - NATIONAL - General Information -  In a bold privatisation move, the government has approved strategic stake sale in five PSUs, including BPCL and Shipping Corporation of India, power companies THDCIL and NEEPCO and logistics firm Concor. The decision will help raise up to Rs.85,000 crore from just the sale in three listed entities.

 The NK Singh-led 15th Finance Commission has recommended performance-based incentives in the form of additional grants to states based on the agricultural reforms undertaken by them after a series of efforts by the centre failed because of reluctance at the state level to adopt these laws. The commission, on 5th December 2019, submitted its report for financial year 2020-2021 to the President for further necessary action. The recommendations will be effective from next financial year. While the first model legislation facilitates entry of private players into contract with farmers across the value chain, the second model legislation proposes single-point levy of market fee across a state and a united single trading licence for cost- effectiveness of transactions. Agriculture is a state subject and no matter how much the centre intervenes through model legislations, the states have to adopt them in totality to bring about reforms in the sector. Other proposals in the model APMC Act, 2017, include promotion of national market for agriculture produce through provisioning of inter-State trading licence, grading and standardisation and quality certification, rationalisation of market fee and commission charges, provision for special commodity market yard and promotion of e-trading to increase transparency. : 5 : PTR-0320

 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on 5th November 2019, announced a stimulus package to support growth in an economy contending with an export slump, natural disasters and the fallout from a recent sales tax increase. The package will include 13 trillion ($119 billion) in fiscal measures. With the package, Abe looks intent on minimising the risk of a recession that would tarnish the record of his Abenomics growth programme, while shoring up his own political support after recent scandals. To that end, an array of measures with a large price tag that can be paid for with the bare minimum of extra borrowing would fit the bill for a country with the developed world’s largest debt load. Japan’s economy is forecast to shrink 2.7% in annualised terms this quarter, following the tax hike and a destructive typhoon, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg. The package would aim to get Japan's economy up and running again and avoiding a further deterioration in global demand triggering a recession early in 2020. Finance -  The Union cabinet has extended the term of the 15th Finance Commission, which is to decide on devolution of tax and other resources between the Centre and states, by one year to October 30, 2020. The extension comes in the wake of the creation of the new Union territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. The government had notified the Commission, headed by N.K Singh, on November 27, 2017, to give its recommendations on issues including the formula for devolution of funds by the Centre to states for five years commencing April 1, 2020. The Commission has to be specifically mandated to look at award to Union territories. While Union territories are administered by the Centre and usually get their resources from the central government’s share of the divisible pool, the Jammu and Kashmir reorganisation legislation provides for a reference to be made to the Commission. The extension to the Commission also became imperative in the backdrop of several medium-term uncertainties as the slowing economy takes its toll on revenues. While most states want goods and services tax compensation period extended with revenues slowing down, the Centre’s own fiscal position due to fall in nominal GDP growth rate may not be able to sustain such levels of compensation. The extension of the term will enable the Commission “to examine various comparable estimates for financial projections in view of reforms and the new realities to finalise its recommendations for the period 2020-2026”, the statement said. The proposed increase in coverage of the period for which the Commission’s recommendations are applicable will help medium-term resource planning for the Central and State governments. Taxation -  The GST Council broke its tradition of taking decisions by consensus at its 38th meeting on 18th December 2019, with a first-time vote on a proposal to tax all lotteries at the uniform rate of 28%. After being pushed for a division, States voted 21-7 in favour of the proposal. There is a dual rate regime on lotteries at present, with State-run ones being taxed at 12%, while State authorised lotteries (run by private players) face a 28% tax rate. The vote had been taken on the request of one member. Several people present in the meeting confirmed that it was Kerala Finance Minister Thomas Isaac who pushed for the vote.

ECONOMY - INTERNATIONAL - Finance -  The US Federal Reserve slashed its policy rate by 50 basis points in March 2020 to help inoculate the global economy against a slowdown caused by the Covid-19 outbreak that continues to spread across the world. The cut raised expectations of similar moves by global central banks for the first time since they coordinated to tackle the 2008 financial crisis. Malaysia and Australia have already cut rates while central banks in Britain, Japan and France have signalled willingness to ease policy measures. General -  Mauritius, the tax haven that has been used by foreign investors for three decades to bet on Indian stocks, is now on the ‘grey list’ of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) - a policymaking body setting anti-money laundering (AML) standards. FATF announced its decision on 21st February 2020. With the jurisdiction coming under FATF’s close monitoring, India will shut the doors to new foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) setting up shop in Mauritius but may : 6 : PTR-0320 allow existing FPIs registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to trade till the market regulator takes a final decision on the subject.

SCHEMES/INITIATIVES - Government Schemes -  The Lok Sabha on 4th March 2020, passed the Bill to implement the ‘Vivad se Vishwas’ scheme with estimates suggesting that the government could mop up Rs 1.5 lakh crore from the latest project to settle pending direct tax disputes. The Centre had tasted success with a similar scheme for indirect taxes last year, prompting it to go for the ‘Vivad se Vishwas’ scheme in the Budget. Apart from cutting litigation, the plan could help the government mop up massive revenue at a time when tax collections have been muted. The Bill was cleared by the lower House through a voice vote. Over 4.8 lakh direct tax cases involving Rs.9.3 lakh core in disputed amount are locked in appellate forums. Over 4.8 lakh direct tax cases involving Rs.9.3 lakh core in disputed amount are locked in appellate forums such as commissioner (appeals), ITAT, debt recovery tribunals, high courts and the Supreme Court, with the amount topping 80% of the government’s direct tax revenue in 2018-19. Not just in case of tax disputes, the scheme can also be availed of in search and seizure operations where the recovery is up to Rs.5 crore. While the government is going all out to get taxpayers to come forward and settle the dispute, industry representatives, too, said the scheme is an attractive offer, especially for the “early birds”. Under the scheme, a taxpayer who pays the disputed tax before March 31, will get complete waiver of interest and penalty. The scheme would remain open from March 1 to June 30, 2020, and those who avail of it after March 31 would have to pay some additional amount. EPFO -  Salaried employees are set to get 0.15% less in interest on provident fund deposit for 2019-2020, with the Central Board of Trustees of the Employees' Provident Fund on 5th March 2020, reducing the interest rate from 8.65% to 8.5%. At the meeting chaired by Minister for Labour and Employment Santosh Kumar Gangwar, the "Central Board recommended crediting of 8.5% annual rate of interest on the EPF accumulations in the EPF members' accounts for 2019-20, the Ministry said.

SECTORS - Infrastructure - Roads/Aviation/Shipping/Ports/Auto/Railways/National Highways/Water/Sanitation/ Health Care -  A Bridge too far ? - As of 2019 China plans to spend $10 trillion on projects in 71 countries. - These economies received 35% of global FDI and accounted for 40% of global merchandise exports. - For the 70 BRI "corridor economies" (excluding China), projects in all sectors (executed/under construction and planned) are worth about $575 billion. - Projects mainly related to infrastructure development in transport, energy, mining, IT and communications sector. In India's neighbourhood PAKISTAN : 46 projects including China - Pakistan Road link BANGLADESH : 3 including two port projects. SRI LANKA : 3 including development of International Financial Centre. Oil & Gas - Petrol/Diesel/LNG/CNG -  Russia and China on 2nd December 2019, launched a giant gas pipeline linking the countries for the first time, one of three major projects aimed at cementing Moscow’s role as the world’s top gas exporter. Presiding by video linkup over an elaborate televised ceremony, Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping hailed the “Power of Siberia” pipeline as a symbol of cooperation. : 7 : PTR-0320 Companies/IT -  On 20th November 2019, Reliance Industries, which is fast nearing the Rs 10-lakh-crore market value mark, overtook BP Plc to become the world’s sixth-largest energy company in terms of market capitalisation. The RIL stock has rallied 6% in the previous two days after the group’s telecom arm Reliance Jio Infocomm said it will increase call and data charges. The stock - which has risen 36% so far in 2019 - is trading at 21 times FY20 estimated earnings and 3.5 times book value. The RIL stock ended up 2.47% at Rs.1,547 on the BSE on 20th November 2019. RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani, with a net worth of $58 billion, remains the richest Asian. Alibaba’s Jack Ma is a distant second with a net worth of $42.8 billion. Ambani is the world’s 12th richest person on a list topped by Microsoft’s Bill Gates. TOP 10 ENERGY COMPANIES BY MCap Company MCap($ billion) YTD* Returns P/E ExxonMobil 286.95 7.47 19.21 Royal Dutch Shell 233.07 10.07 11.52 Chevron Corp 220.19 14.84 17.40 Total 144.16 9.60 14.73 PetroChina 137.71 18.11 14.63 Reliance Industries 133.21 35.39 23.14 BP 131.53 12.35 27.09 Petrobras 93.93 23.44 15.36 Gazprom 91.78 94.20 3.35 China Petroleum 81.15 10.55 10.63 *Year to date RICHEST ASIANS Net World ($ b) Company Mukesh Ambani 58.0 Reliance Industries Jack Ma 42.8 Alibaba Group Ma Huateng 34.7 Tencent Holdings Tadashi Yanai 31.5 Fast Retailing Co. LI Ka-Shing 28.3 CK Hutchison Holding

THE WORLD'S RICHEST

Net Worth ($ b) Company

Bill Gates 110.0 Microsoft Jeff Bezos 109.5 Amazon Benard Arnault 101.5 LVMH Warren Buffett 86.4 Berkshire Hathaway Mark Zuckerberg 76.1 Facebook

 Reliance Industries 28th November 2019, became the first Indian company with a market cap of over Rs.10 lakh crore, as its shares continued the record-breaking run that has made it the world’s top-performing major energy stock in 2019. RIL, India’s most valuable company, has overtaken PetroChina to enter the top five club of global energy giants (by M-cap). It is now the world’s 67th most valuable stock and has risen 41% in 2019. At the end of trade that day, RIL’s market cap stood at $139.69 billion compared with PetroChina’s $139.32 billion. RIL’s contribution to India’s total M-cap is now at a decade high of 6.5%. In May 2009, the figure had touched 8.62%. The Mukesh Ambani company has contributed one-third of the total Nifty gains so far in 2019, and outperformed the benchmark index by 30%.

 Three years after Cyrus Pallonji Mistry was unceremoniously removed from the post of executive chairman of Tata Sons, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on 18th December 2019, ruled that the decision was “illegal”, paving the way for his reinstatement. : 8 : PTR-0320 The replacement of the present ‘executive chairman’ and the reinstatement of Mr. Mistry will, however, come into effect after four weeks, during which Tata Sons has the option to challenge the tribunal’s verdict before the Supreme Court. Additionally, the tribunal clarified that Mr. Mistry will be reinstated as director of ‘Tata Companies’ with immediate effect. The tribunal also ordered Ratan N. Tata and the nominee of the ‘Tata Trusts’ to desist from taking any decision in advance which requires a majority decision of the board of directors or in the annual general meeting. It also declared as illegal the conversion of Tata Sons Limited from a ‘public company’ to a ‘private company’ by the Registrar of Companies. The tribunal remarked that the decision to convert the company as private was “prejudicial” and “oppressive” to the minority shareholders, including the Shapoorji Pallonji Group. For better protection of the interest of all stakeholders, the tribunal said that in future at the time of appointment of the executive chairman, independent director and directors, the Tata Group, which is the majority group, should consult the minority group - the Shapoorji Pallonji Group. It also barred Tata Sons from invoking its power under Article 75, which empowers Tata Sons Limited at any time to transfer “ordinary shares” of any of the shareholders, against Mr. Mistry and others.

DEFENCE - Army -  The Trump administration on 19th November 2019, approved sale to India of up to 13 MK 45 naval guns and related equipment worth an estimated cost of $1billion. The Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency delivered the required certification notifying Congress of this possible sale on November 19 after the state department made a determination approving a possible foreign military sale to India of the big naval guns and related equipment. The MK 45 is a naval artillery gun designed for use against surface warships, anti-aircraft and shore bombardment to support amphibious operations. The gun mount features an automatic loader with a capacity of 20 rounds that can be fired under full automatic control. The DSCA said in a statement that the Indian government has requested to buy up to 13 MK 45 5 inch/62 calibre (MOD 4) naval guns, 3,500 D349 projectile ammunition, plus other ammunition, spare parts, personnel training and equipment training, publications and technical data, transportation, US government and contractor technical assistance and related logistics support worth $1billion. The proposed sale will improve India’s capability to meet current and future threats from enemy weapon systems, the DSCA explained, adding that the MK 45 gun system will provide the capability to conduct antisurface warfare and anti-air defence missions while enhancing interoperability with US and other allied forces. India will use the enhanced capability as a deterrent to regional threats and to strengthen its homeland defence. Navy -  Sub Lieutenant Shivangi became the first woman pilot to join the Indian Navy, on 2nd December, 2019. Hailing from Muzzafarpur in Bihar, she was awarded the coveted 'golden wings' and joined operational duties at the Kochi naval base. General -  The armed forces of Singapore, which use Indian military facilities for training of their mechanised forces, artillery and F-16 fighter jets, will soon begin to use the integrated test range for firing of missiles at Chandipur in Odisha as well. The 4th India-Singapore dialogue, led by defence minister Rajnath Singh and his counterpart Dr. NG Eng Henon on 20th November 2019, agreed to explore bilateral cooperation in fields of artificial intelligence, geo-spatial data sharing and cyber security. The two countries exchanged "a letter of intent to register their commitment" to ink a MoU to facilitate the use of the Chandipur test range, with Singh also offering setting up of joint test facilities.

 India continues to languish in the strategically-vulnerable position of being the world’s second-largest arms importer, just behind Saudi Arabia. The only silver lining is that India has clawed its way to the 23rd position among the top 25 weapon exporters, with Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Mauritius being its biggest clients, though it constitutes a negligible 0.2% share of the total global figure. The latest data on international arms transfers released by the Stockholm : 9 : PTR-0320 International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on 9th March 2020, shows India accounted for 9.2% of the total global arms imports during 2015-2019, while Saudi Arabia registered 12%. China stood at the fifth position (4.3%), while Pakistan was at 11th (2.6%).

POLITICS - NATIONAL -  Former health minister Jagat Prakash Nadda was elected unopposed as the 11th BJP president on 20th January 2020, with support of 21 states units and the parliamentary party. He replaced home minister Amit Shah, who held the position for five-and-a-half years. After his inauguration, Nadda said BJP would aim for states where it hasn’t registered electoral success yet. The 59-year-old, who was elected unanimously, said a simple worker like him, hailing from a village, could become party president only in BJP. Nadda applauded his predecessor Amit Shah for his work as party chief and said under his leadership, BJP became the world’s largest party.

 Ending decades of insurgency demanding a separate state of Bodoland, the Centre and the Assam government on 27th January 2019, signed a tripartite agreement with the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). The All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU), which has been spearheading a movement for a Bodoland state since 1972, and another group called United Bodo People's Organisation were also signatories to the accord.

 The ruling BJP led by Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa firmed up its majority in the Karnataka Assembly with a victory in 12 out of 15 constituencies that went to by polls. The results declared on 9th December 2019, saw Congress managing to win just two seats, while Janata Dal (Secular) drew a blank. Of the 13 disqualified legislators from the Congress and JD(S) fielded by the BJP, 11 retained their seats from the new party. The victory not only assures stability to its government, but also makes 76-year-old Yediyurappa stronger within the party. Following Congress's dismal show, two top leaders of the party announced their resignations, owning moral responsibility. Siddaramaiah quit as leader of the Congress Legislature Party, while Dinesh Gundu Rao stepped down as Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee Chief. The Congress secured victory only in Shivaji Nagar (Rizwan Arshad and Hunsur (H.P. Manjunath). The only two defectors to the BJP to be defeated were former Congress MLA Nagaraj (MTB), who lost in Hoskote to BJP rebel and Independent candidate Sharath Bachegowda, and former JD(S) State unit president A.H. Vishwanath, who lost to Congress candidate and former legislator H.P. Manjunath.

 The Jharkhand results on 23rd December 2019, delivered a morale-boosting victory for the opposition, with the JMM-Congress-RJD alliance winning a comfortable majority of 47 seats in a House of 81, and another state slipping out of BJP’s hands after its big sweep in the Lok Sabha elections that returned Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a record second term. BJP slipped to 25 seats from 37 it held in 2014, its decision to contest alone after failed negotiations with regional ally AJSU Party backfiring and the party ceding the status of “single-largest party” for the first time. The contrast to the sweep in the LS elections a little over six months earlier - BJP won 11 and AJSU one of Jharkhand’s 14 seats - was astonishing. Till late in the evening, the JMM-led alliance had 47 out of 81 seats. While JMM had 30 seats, Congress had 16 and RJD one. JMM and Congress posted their best-ever shows. Soren, the working president of JMM, won from Dumka and Barhait seats in the tribal heartland of Santhal Pargana. The saffron loss seems to be the fallout of several factors. The break with AJSU Party may have proved critical as the vote share of the two parties - BJP (33%) and AJSU (8%) - suggests that they could have made a fight of it if the alliance had held. Incumbency woes returned to haunt BJP with chief minister Raghubar Das losing his own Jamshedpur East seat to BJP rebel Saryu Roy by a margin of over 15,000 votes.

 Arvind Kejriwal took the oath of office as Delhi chief minister with six cabinet colleagues at Ramlila Maidan on 16th February 2019, calling for unity following a divisive election campaign that led to a sweeping victory for his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). He sought to set the tone for the next five years, pledging to be “everyone’s CM” and asking for the “blessings” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the central government.

 Maharashtra’s month long political drama finally came to end as Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray (59) was sworn-in as the Chief Minister in an event attended by the Who’s who : 10 : PTR-0320 of India’s political spectrum on 28th November, 2019. He was administered the oath by Governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari at Shivaji Park. Six other ministers - two each from Shiv Sena, NCP and the Congress - also took oath.

 Senior Congress MLA Nana Patole was elected unopposed as the Speaker of the Maharashtra Assembly on 1st December 2019, after the BJP withdrew its candidate Kisan Kathore. At the special session of the Assembly, former Chief Minister and BJP legislature party leader Devendra Fadnavis was named Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly by Mr. Patole. Minister and NCP MLA Jayant Patil said he appreciated the spirit of understanding shown by the Opposition BJP in withdrawing its candidate and ensuring that Mr. Patole is elected unopposed.

 After Kerala, Punjab, Rajasthan and West Bengal, the Puducherry Assembly on 12th February 2020, adopted a resolution urging the Centre to repeal the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). The ruling Congress went a step ahead, adopting another resolution condemning the “BJP government’s attempts to destroy India’s secular fabric”. At a special session, Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy moved the resolutions and said the CAA, along with the plan to prepare a pan-India National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR), would destroy India’s unity and secular character. Terming the CAA “discriminatory and unconstitutional”, the Chief Minister said that by excluding Muslims from the purview of the Act, the Centre was preparing the ground for a “Hindu Rashtra”, as envisaged by the RSS. The aim was to whip up communal passions and divide people on religious lines to reap political dividends, he said. Mr. Narayanasamy underscored his government’s intention to carry out the Census without seeking additional information from people, such as their religious identity, date of birth and the details of parents. EVENTS - INTERNATIONAL - Asia -  Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who spearheaded the brutal crushing of Tamil Tigers a decade ago, stormed to power on 17th November 2019, but promised to be a president for all Sri Lanka’s races and religions after a divisive election. Seven months after Islamist extremist attacks that killed 269 people, Rajapaksa was elected on the back of a nationalist campaign promising security and to crush religious extremism in the Buddhist-majority country. However, Rajapaksa’s triumph will alarm Sri Lanka’s Tamil and Muslim minorities as well as activists, journalists and possibly some in the international community following the 2005-15 presidency of his older brother Mahinda Rajapaksa. Election results showed minority Tamil and Muslim communities voting overwhelmingly for the ruling party candidate Sajith Premadasa who came a distant second with 41.99 per cent.

 Paris, London and Berlin on 30th November 2019, welcomed six new European countries to the INSTEX barter mechanism, which is designed to circumvent U.S. sanctions against trade with Iran by avoiding use of the dollar. “As founding shareholders of the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), France, Germany and the U.K. warmly welcome the decision taken by the governments of Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, to join INSTEX as shareholders,” the three said in a joint statement. The Paris- based INSTEX functions as a clearing house allowing Iran to continue to sell oil and import other products or services in exchange. The system has not yet enabled any transactions. In 2018, U.S. withdrew from the international agreement governing Iran's nuclear programme and reinstated heavy sanctions against Tehran. The accession of the six members “strengthens INSTEX and demonstrates European efforts to facilitate legitimate trade between Europe and Iran”, it said. Cuba -  Cuba’s first prime minister in more than four decades - long-serving tourism minister Manuel Marrero - took office as the country resurrected a post last held by Fidel Castro. The appointment of Marrero, 56, as head of government is part of a process of decentralisation and generational change from the revolutionary old guard that is aimed at extending Communist Party rule. “This proposal was duly approved by the political bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba,” President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on 21st January 2019, presenting it to the country’s National Assembly, which unanimously signed off. Marrero served as tourism minister from 2004, later in revolutionary hero Fidel Castro’s : 11 : PTR-0320 administration, continuing in the post under Fidel’s brother Raul and the current president, Diaz-Canel. USA -  The US Senate unanimously passed a bill on 19th November 2019, aimed at supporting protesters in Hong Kong and warning China against a violent suppression of the demonstrations - drawing a rebuke from Beijing. China reiterated on 20th November 2019 a threat to impose unspecified retaliation if the bill became law and urged the US to stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs. Ma Zhaoxu, vice minister of foreign affairs in Beijing, later summoned William Klein, a US embassy official, and raised strong objections about the bill. Separately, Hong Kong’s government expressed “extreme regret” and the legislation would negatively impact relations with the US. The Senate measure would require the State Department to certify annually whether Hong Kong remains sufficiently autonomous from Beijing to justify special trade privileges, as well as protect US citizens from rendition to China through measures including sanctions on mainland officials.

 U.S. President Donald Trump, impeached by the house of Representatives, was acquitted by the Senate on 5th February 2020, bringing to a close a bitter process that lasted close to five months. Senators voted 52 to 48 to acquit Mr. Trump of the abuse of office charge, with Republican Mitt Romney voting alongside all 47 Democrats. They voted 53-47 as per party lines to acquit the President of the charges of obstruction of Congress. The President is guilty of an appalling abuse of public trust, Mr. Romney said before the vote. "Corrupting an election to keep oneself in office is perhaps the most abusive and destructive violation of one's oath of office that I can imagine". he said. Mr. Romney is the first senator in the U.S. history to vote to convict a President from his own party. Mr. Trump was impeached by the House for conditioning $391 million in military assistance to Ukraine and a crucial White House meeting with its President Volodymyr Zelensky on the Ukrainians publicly announcing investigations into Mr. Trump's rival and former vice-president Joseph Biden and his son Hunter. Europe/UK -  Finland’s Social Democrats elected a 34-year-old former Transport Minister to the post of Prime Minister on 8th December 2019, making her the youngest head of government in the country’s history. Sanna Marin narrowly won the 8th December 2019 vote to replace outgoing leader Antti Rinne, who resigned on 10th December 2019, after losing the confidence of the coalition partner Centre Party over his handling of a postal strike. At 34, Ms. Marin also becomes one of the world’s youngest state leaders, ahead of Ukraine’s prime minister Oleksiy Honcharuk, who is currently 35. Former PM Antti Rinne had headed Finland’s centre-left five-party coalition since June, and Ms. Marin’s appointment is unlikely to lead to significant policy changes by the Social Democrat-led administration. The SDP won April’s legislative elections on promises to end years of economic belt-tightening. Papua New Guinea -  Voters backing Bougainville’s independence from Papua New Guinea won a landslide referendum victory, according to results released on 11th December 2019, - a major step toward the troubled isles becoming the world’s newest nation. Chairman of the Bougainville Referendum Commission Bertie Ahern declared that 1,76,928 people - around 98% of voters - had backed independence with just 3,043 supporting the option of remaining part of Papua New Guinea with more autonomy. The announcement prompted loud cheers, applause and tears as dignitaries soon burst into song, with strains of the islands’ anthem “My Bougainville” ringing out. The historic vote caps a decades-long peace process and a long recovery from a brutal civil war between Bougainville rebels, Papua New Guinea security forces and foreign mercenaries that ended in 1998 and left up to 20,000 people dead - 10% of the population. “Now, at least psychologically, we feel liberated,” said John Momis, the priest-turned-leader of the autonomous region’s government.

SPACE -  The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which failed to land a probe on moon in its first attempt in September 2019 (Chandrayaan-2), has begun work on Chandrayaan-3 with : 12 : PTR-0320 a deadline of November 2020. Isro has formed multiple committees - an overall panel and three sub-committees and held at least four high-level meetings since October. The new mission will include only a lander and rover, as the Chandrayaan-2 orbiter is functioning well. Senior scientists like S Somnath, Ritu Karidhal and B N Suresh have been chosen to head various committees, or be part of it. So far, ISRO has looked at 10 aspects of the mission, including landing site selection, absolute navigation and local navigation.

 Ultima Thule, the farthest cosmic body ever visited by a spacecraft, has been renamed Arrokoth, or ‘sky’ in the Native American Powhatan language, following a backlash over the previous name’s Nazi connotations. Its technical designation is 2014 MU69, but the Nasa team which found the body named it Ultima Thule (pronounced Tool-ey) after a mythical northern land in classical and medieval European literature described as beyond the borders of the known world. That name sparked an angry reaction as it was co-opted by far-right German occultists in the early 20th century as the fabled ancestral home of “Aryan” people - the term they used to describe proto-Indo-Europeans.

 India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) marked its ‘Golden Jubilee’ launch on 11th December 2019, by injecting India’s advanced radar imaging satellite RISAT-2BR1 and nine other customer satellites from Japan, Italy, Israel and the U.S. into their intended orbits. The PSLV, which has a history of successful launches of payloads that include Chandrayaan- 1, Mars Orbiter Mission and the space recovery mission, soared into clear blue skies at 3.25 p.m. from the refurbished first launchpad, marking the 50th launch for the vehicle. The PSLV had helped take payloads into almost all the orbits in space, including the Geo-Stationary Transfer Orbit (GTO), the moon and mars, and would soon be launching a mission to the Sun, the ISRO chief noted. Mr. Sivan observed that in the last 26 years, the PSLV had lifted more than 52 tonnes into space, of which about 17% were for commercial customers. He also released a book commemorating the 50 launches and the scientists involved in them. The PSLV has failed only twice - the maiden flight of the PSLV D1 in September 1993 and the PSLV C-39 in August 2017. RISAT- 2BR1 will be used for agriculture, forestry, disaster management support and national security.

 Europe’s CHEOPS planet-hunting satellite left Earth on 18th December 2019, a day after its liftoff was delayed by a technical rocket glitch during the final countdown. The 12-inch telescope has been designed to measure the density, composition, and size of numerous planets beyond our solar system - so-called exoplanets. According to the European Space Agency (ESA), CHEOPS will observe bright stars that are already known to be orbited by planets. The mission “represents a step towards better understanding the astrophysics of all these strange planets that we have discovered and which have no equivalent in our solar system”, 2019 Nobel Physics Prize winner Didier Queloz said. Around 4,000 such exoplanets have been discovered since Queloz and his colleague Michel Mayor identified the first one, called 51 Pegasi b, 24 years ago. CHEOPS “will focus on planets in the super-Earth to Neptune size range, with its data enabling the bulk density of the planets to be derived - a first-step characterisation towards understanding these alien worlds”, the ESA website states. Scientists today estimate that there are at least as many galaxies as there are stars - approximately 100 billion. CHEOPS, which stands for Characterising ExOPlanet Satellite, will seek to better understand what these planets are made of.

 On 18th December 2019, when a Soyuz rocket thundered off the Guiana Space Centre north of Brazil with the one-of-a-kind satellite OPS-SAT, it was a proud moment for Maharashtra. Vasundhara Shiradhonkar, an alumna of a Nanded college, had played a key role in choosing the experiments contained in the European Space Agency’s (ESA) satellite, which is the world’s first mission dedicated to testing new operational technology in space. Shiradhonkar is a member of the four-member flight control team which is operating the satellite. She studied in Aurangabad and Nanded and then worked in Pune for a while before flying out to Germany for her master’s degree. “I have fond memories of home,” said the spaceflight engineer, whose parents continue to live in Nanded.

 Not a lot of the stars in the universe can boast having an Indian name, except the newly incorporated HD 86081 - now known as Bibha, a Bengali name which means ‘bright beam of light’. Its accompanying exoplanet, HD86081b, also got an Indian name - Santamasa, which : 13 : PTR-0320 means clouded in Sanskrit. The planet is thought to be a lot like Jupiter. It has the same massive size and is composed mostly of gas. Unlike Jupiter, Santamasa is the only planet circling the parent star. It’s also much closer to its star than Jupiter is to the Sun - which makes it hot enough to melt iron and gold. The names were unveiled by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) on their 100th year anniversary as part of NameExoWorlds contest. Countries around the world even selected to allocate names to various planets and stars located outside the Solar System. While Santamasa and Bibha were named by India, there was one other star that also got an Indian name. WASP-72, named by Mauritius, will now be known as Diya - or an oil lamp.

 A group of astrophysicists and space enthusiasts took to the skies for a special view of the solar eclipse on 26th December 2019. A six-seater Beechcraft C-90 aircraft flew at 21,000 feet with a clear view of the sun and the organisers dedicated this first eclipse flight to Narendra Dabholkar and Shreeram Lagoo, both of whom were associated with the anti-superstition movement. The astro tourism event was jointly organised by Space Geeks - a group that promotes space and astronomy - and private jet operator MAB Aviation. To ensure that the eclipse was clearly visible, Space Geeks had provided pocket-sized telescopes with filters that were fitted to the mobile phones of those on board. The exercise has yielded amazing photographs.

 NASA astronaut Christina Koch on 28th December 2019, set a new record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman, eclipsing the record of 288 days set by former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson in 2016-17. Koch still has six weeks to go before returning to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS). When she arrived back on Earth in February 2020, the Expedition 61 Flight Engineer spent more than 300 days in space. Koch had earlier made history in her stay aboard the orbital laboratory. In October, she was part of the first all-female spacewalk. Koch, who arrived at the space station March 14, was expected to be on a typical six-month mission. NASA extended her stay, partly in a bid to collect more data about the effects of long-duration spaceflight. Koch’s mission is planned to be just shy of the longest single spaceflight by a NASA astronaut - 340 days, set by former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly during his one-year mission in 2015-16.

 India plans to ring in its own era of space-to-space tracking and communication of its space assets in 2020, by putting up a new satellite series called the Indian Data Relay Satellite System. The IDRSS is planned to track and be constantly in touch with Indian satellites, in particular those in low-earth orbits which have limited coverage of earth. In 2020, it will be vital to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), whose roadmap is dotted with advanced LEO missions such as space docking, space station, as well as distant expeditions to moon, Mars and Venus. It will also be useful in monitoring launches, according to K. Sivan, ISRO Chairman and Secretary, Department of Space. The first beneficiary would be the prospective crew members of the Gaganyaan mission of 2022 who can be fully and continuously in touch with mission control throughout their travel. Work on the two IDRSS satellites planned initially has begun. The first of them will be sent towards the end of 2020. It will precede the pre-Gaganyaan experimental unmanned space flight which will have a humanoid dummy. A second one will follow in 2021. The two will offer near total tracking, sending and receiving of information from the crew 24/7. Older space majors such as the U.S. and Russia started their relay satellite systems in the late 1970s- 80s and a few already have around 10 satellites each. They have used them to monitor their respective space stations Mir and the International Space Station, and trips that dock with them, as well as the Hubble Space Telescope.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY/TELECOMMUNICATIONS - Telecom -  The beleaguered telecom industry was handed a Rs.42,000 crore lifeline by the government as it announced a two-year moratorium - for fiscal 2020-21 and 2021-22 - on payment of spectrum dues by mobile operators. However, there was no relief on the Rs.1.47 lakh crore Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) demand arising from the Supreme Court’s judgment on October 24. Any relief on the matter can only be given by the SC. The telcos are already in the process of filing a challenge to the judgment and can expect any aid - including an extension of the three-month payment period - if the SC feels the need for it. While the spectrum payment : 14 : PTR-0320 relief for Airtel will be Rs.11,746 crore, Vodafone Idea will get a reprieve of Rs.23,920 crore and Reliance Jio Rs.6,670 crore. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the relief had been given in view of the current financial stress faced by telecom companies. Internet -  A forensic analysis of Jeff Bezos’ cellphone found with “medium to high confidence” that the Amazon chief’s device was hacked after he received a video from a WhatsApp account reportedly belonging to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. After Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, got the video over the WhatsApp messaging platform in 2018, his phone began sending unusually large volumes of data, according to a report summing up investigators’ findings, which was reviewed by The New York Times. According to the report, Bezos received a message from the crown prince’s account in late 2018 that suggested that the prince had intimate knowledge of Bezos’ private life. The forensics investigation was completed on behalf of Bezos by Anthony Ferrante at the business advisory firm FTI Consulting. Ferrante declined to comment through a FTI spokesman. Bezos’ security consultant, Gavin de Becker, had previously accused the Saudi government of hacking Bezos’ phone, saying the Saudi authorities targeted him because he owned The Washington Post. The Post has aggressively reported on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, one of its columnists, who was a critic of the Saudi government. The CIA has concluded that the crown prince ordered the killing. According to FTI’s report, Bezos and the crown prince exchanged phone numbers at a dinner in Los Angeles in April 2018. The crown prince initiated a messaging conversation with Bezos that same day over WhatsApp. About a month later, Bezos received an unexpected message from the crown prince that contained a video attachment, the report said. The report did not say whether Bezos opened the video attachment, which had an image of Saudi and Swedish flags overlaid with Arabic text. But immediately after he received the file, the amount of data exiting his phone increased almost three hundredfold, according to the investigators’ analysis of Bezos’s data. On two later occasions, according to the report, the crown prince appeared to send Bezos messages that suggested he had knowledge of the tech mogul’s private communications.

SCIENCE - Diseases/Drugs/Patents -  Four African countries have reported new cases of polio linked to the oral vaccine, as global health numbers show there are now more children being paralysed by viruses originating in vaccines than in the wild. In a report in November 2019, the World Health Organisation and partners noted nine new polio cases caused by the vaccine in Nigeria, Congo, Central African Republic and Angola. Seven countries elsewhere in Africa have similar outbreaks and cases have been reported in Asia. Of the two countries where polio remains endemic, Afghanistan and Pakistan, vaccine-linked cases have been identified in Pakistan. In rare cases, the live virus in oral polio vaccine can mutate into a form capable of sparking new outbreaks. All the current vaccine-derived polio cases have been sparked by a Type 2 virus contained in the vaccine.

 In the wake of the Wuhan coronavirus epidemic, India has told airlines operating direct flights from China and Hong Kong to start making in-flight announcements, asking passengers with history of fever and cough as well as history of travel to Wuhan City in last 14 days to self-declare at port of arrival. Passengers on these flights will need to fill up self-reporting forms before disembarkation, making these declarations. Issuing a statement on 21st January 2020, the ministry of civil aviation (MoCA) has directed seven airports - Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Cochin, Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata - to set up health counters to do thermal screening of these flyers (from China and Hong Kong) in pre-immigration areas.

 A newly discovered type of killer immune cell has raised the prospect of a “universal” cancer therapy, scientists say. Researchers at Cardiff University suggest the new T-cell offers hope of a “one-size-fits-all” cancer therapy. T-cell therapies for cancer - where immune cells are removed, modified and returned to the patient’s blood to seek and destroy cancer cells - are the latest paradigm in cancer treatments. The most widely used is known as CAR-T and is personalised to each patient. However, it only targets a limited number of cancers and has : 15 : PTR-0320 not been successful for solid tumours, which make up the majority of cancers. But scientists have now discovered T-cells equipped with a new type of T-cell receptor (TCR) which recognises and kills most human cancer types, while ignoring healthy cells. It recognises a molecule present on the surface of a wide range of cancer cells, and normal cells, and is able to distinguish between healthy and cancerous cells - killing only the latter. Conventional T-cells scan the surface of other cells to find anomalies and eliminate cancerous cells, but ignore cells that contain only “normal” proteins. The scanning recognises small parts of cellular proteins that are bound to cell-surface molecules called human leukocyte antigen (HLA), allowing killer T-cells to see what is occurring inside cells by scanning their surface. But the unique TCR can recognise many types of cancer via a single HLA-like molecule called MR1. In the lab, T-cells equipped with the new TCR were shown to kill lung, skin, blood, colon, breast, bone, prostate, ovarian, kidney and cervical cancer cells, while ignoring healthy cells.

 The death toll in China from the new coronavirus reached 213 on 31st January 2020, with overall cases worldwide rising rapidly in an outbreak that the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a global health emergency. The death toll in Hubei, the Chinese province at the centre of the epidemic, had risen to 204 and there were more than 9,800 cases of infection nationally, Chinese health authorities said. More than 130 cases have been reported in at least 25 other countries and regions. After holding off as the crisis grew, the WHO said on 30th January 2020, the epidemic in China - which originated from animals in Wuhan city - did constitute a public health emergency of international concern.

ARTS - NATIONAL - Books -  Film and theatre personality Pankaj Kapur has marked his debut as an author with Dopehri, which was published in November, 2019. Dopehri is a novella revolving around an elderly widow who lives in a deserted haveli in Lucknow. Her life takes a turn when she invites a young woman to stay with her as a lodger. The actor recently performed a dramatised reading of his book at the 10th edition of Tata literature festival in Mumbai in November, 2019. On his plans to bring out a movie adaptation of the book, he said he would like to direct the film himself. Dopehri was originally published in Hindi and has been translated into English by Rahul Soni. Mr. Kapur said translating a piece of literature ensures that it reaches a wider audience. Mr. Kapur is widely known for his roles in Indian sitcoms such as Office Office and Zabaan Sambhalke. He has been a part of Indian cinema and the theatre industry for more than 30 years.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES & ORGANISATIONS - BRICS -  Terrorism has caused a loss of $1 trillion to the world economy and the atmosphere it created has indirectly and deeply harmed trade and business, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the BRICS Summit in Brazil on 14th November 2019, as he welcomed increased cooperation from the members of the grouping. Addressing the plenary session of the 11th BRICS Summit at the iconic Itamaraty Palace in the presence of the Presidents of Brazil, China, Russia and South Africa, Mr. Modi said terrorism had emerged as the biggest threat to development, peace and prosperity. “According to some estimates, the economic growth of developing nations has decreased by 1.5% due to terrorism,” he said, adding that the scourge had caused a loss of $1 trillion to the world economy. In 10 years, terrorism had claimed the lives of 2.25 lakh people and destroyed societies, he said. “The atmosphere of doubt created by terrorism, terror-financing, drug-trafficking and organised crime indirectly and deeply harms trade and business. I am happy that the first seminar on BRICS Strategies for Countering Terrorism was organised. We hope such efforts and activities of the five working groups will increase strong BRICS security cooperation against terrorism and other organised crimes,” he said. Mr. Modi said sustainable water management and sanitation were important challenges in urban areas.

INTERNATIONAL INDEXES/RATING/REPORTS -  India slipped four places to rank 112th globally in terms of gender gap amid widening disparity in terms of women’s health and survival and economic participation - the two areas : 16 : PTR-0320 where the country is now ranked in the bottom-five - as per an annual survey results on 17th December 2019. While Iceland remains world’s most gender-neutral country, India moved down the ladder from its 108th position in 2018 on the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report to rank below countries like China (106th), Sri Lanka (102nd), Nepal (101st), Brazil (92nd), Indonesia (85th) and Bangladesh (50th). Yemen is ranked worst (153rd), while Iraq is 152nd and Pakistan 151st. Geneva-based World Economic Forum (WEF), an international organisation for public-private cooperation, said in 2019, improvement can be ascribed to a significant increase in number of women in politics. The political gender gap will take 95 years to close, compared to 107 years in 2018. Worldwide, women now hold 25.2% of parliamentary lower-house seats and 21.2% of ministerial positions, compared to 24.1% and 19%, respectively in 2018. However, economic opportunity gap has widened to 257 years, compared to 202 years in 2018.

MISCELLANEOUS - NATIONAL -  Rajya Sabha has sat beyond midnight on nine occasions and so far its longest sitting was on December 17, 1981 when the House sat till 4.43 a.m. to debate and clear Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) to ensure that normal life of people is not obstructed by strikes and shutdowns. The only other record to rival the 1981 sitting is when the Upper House sat till 3.22 a.m. to discuss the purchase of the Bofors gun in December 1986. This and many other such nuggets are part of Rajya Sabha: The Journey since 1952, a publication brought out by the Rajya Sabha secretariat to mark the 250th session of the Upper House that began from 18th November, 2019. Rajya Sabha’s first sitting was on May 13, 1952. The longest debate on any given subject till date was on the government’s failure to provide adequate security to former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in wake of his assassination at Sriperumbudur by LTTE cadres. The discussion went on for 12 hours and four minutes on 4th June, 1991. Demolition of the Babri Masjid was debated days after the incident from December 18-21, 1992, for 11 hours and 37 minutes. The Upper House which on 9th March 2010, cleared the Women’s Reservation Bill that proposes to reserve 33% of all seats in Lok Sabha for women, has a dismissal record itself in terms of women members. So far, Rajya Sabha has had 2,280 members including those who serving more than one term. Of these only 209 were women - a measly 9.1%. In 2014 it had the highest number of women members at 31 and in 1970 the lowest at 14. Under Congress governments from 1952-1969 and again between 1972-1977, there was no leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha since no opposition parties had enough members to stake claim to the position. In 67 years of it’s existence, the Upper House has expelled only three members. First member to be expelled was Subramanian Swamy on 15th November, 1976 after his “conduct and activities were found to be derogatory to the dignity of the house”. Mr. Swamy back as a member of the House now. The other members to be expelled are Dr. Chattrapal Singh Lodha in December 2005 and Sakshi Maharaj in March. Also to commemorate the occasions Vice-President and Chairman of Rajya Sabha Venkaiah Naidu will launch a special Rs.250 silver coin and Rs.5 postal stamp. Two special editions of historic speeches made in the upper house too were released.

 Tributes poured in from various quarters for the martyrs of 26/11 on 26th November 2019, the 11th anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks. Among those who remembered the slain brave-hearts, who fell to bullets of Pakistani terrorists while repulsing the deadly attack, wee their kin, politicians, government officials, sports persons and citizens. Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis (who resigned later in afternoon), Chief Secretary Ajoy Mehta, DGP Subodh Kumar Jaiswal, Mumbai Police Commissioner Sanjay Barve, senior officials and family members of the martyrs paid homage at the 26/11 police memorial site at the Mumbai Police Gymkhana. Railway officials also laid wreathes at the memorial at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, one of the targets of the terror attack. Tributes were also paid at State-run Cama and Albles hospital near BMC, Hotel Taj Mahal Palace at Colaba and Hotel Palace at Colaba and Hotel Trident at Nariman Point. Citizens also paid floral tribute and lit candles in front of statue of ASI Tukaram Ombale at Girgaum Chowpatty, where he was killed while nabbing terrorist Ajmal Kasab.

 This timeline after Independence shows a history of population exchange, a state trying to regulate flow of people, movements of ethnic nationalism that were defined by a fear of outsiders and attempts to define citizenship in a land of fluid frontiers. : 17 : PTR-0320 1950 - The Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act came into force on March 1, 1950, following influx of refugees from then East Pakistan toAssam. 1951 - The first-ever NRC was published in Assam based on the Census Report of 1951, containing names of 8 million people. 1955 - The Citizenship Act came into force. It codified rules for Indian citizenship by birth, descent, and registration. 1957 - The immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act was repealed. 1960 - The Bill was passed in the Assam Assembly to make Assamese the only official language. 1964 - The Centre issued the Foreigners Tribunal Order under the Foreigners Act, 1964. 1964-1971 - Influx of refugees from East Pakistan because of disturbances there. 1979 - Anti-foreigners movement started in Assam. 1979-1985 - Six-year-long agitations, led by the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and the All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad (AAGSP) for detection, disenfranchisement and deportation of foreigners. 1980 - The AASU submitted the first memorandum demanding updating of the NRC to the centre. 1983 - Massacre at Nellie in central Assam killed 3,000. The illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act or IMDT Act passed. 1985 - The Assam Accord signed by the Centre, the state, the AASU and the AAGSP. It stated, among other clauses, that foreigners who came to Assam on or after March 25, 1971, shall be expelled. 1990 - The AASU submitted modalities to update the NRC to the Centre and the state government. 1997 - The Election Commission decided to add 'D' (doubtful) against names of voters whose claim to citizenship is doubtful. 1999 - The Centre took the first formal decision to update the NRC in accordance with the Assam Accord's cut-off date. 2003 - The Citizenship (Amendment) Act was introduced. Among other changes to the 1955 law, it said anyone born in India between 1950 and 1957 is an Indian citizen. Anyone born between 1987 and 2003 is a citizen provided one of the parents is Indian. Anyone born in India from 2004 is a citizen provided one of the parents is Indian and the others is not 'illegal immigrant'. 2005 - The Supreme Court struck down IMDT Act as unconstitutional. A tripartite meeting between the Centre, the state government and the AASU decided to update the 1951 NRC. 2006 - The Centre issued the Foreigners (Tribunal) Amendment Order, exempting Assam from the 1964 tribunal order. 2009 - Assam Public Works (APW), an NGO, filed case in the Supreme Court praying for deletion of foreigner's names in electoral rolls and to update the NRC. 2010 - Pilot project started in Chaygaon and Barpeta to update the NRC. A successful run in Chaygaon, but 4 killed in Barpeta projects shelved. 2013 - The Supreme Court, on the APW plea, directed the Centre and the state to begin the process for updating the NRC. 2015 - The process to update the NRC begun. 2016 - The BJP introduced the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. It proposed to facilitate citizenship for non-Muslim minorities from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. 2017 - The Draft NRC published with names of 19 million of total 32.9 million applicants. 2018 - Another Draft NRC published, 4 million people excluded on July 30. July 26, 2019 - The Additional Draft Exclusion list of 102, 462 was released on July 26. August 31 - Final NRC released on August 31. A 10-month window given to those 1.9 million who failed to prove citizenship before being sent to detention centres. December 31 - The Citizenship Amendment Bill became an Act.

ENVIRONMENT - NATIONAL -  Indore and Jamshedpur have topped the cleanliness charts for two consecutive quarters among cities with over 10 lakh population and with 1 lakh to 10 lakh population respectively. : 18 : PTR-0320 Kolkata remained at the bottom of the ranking of 49 major cities across both quarters as West Bengal did not participate in the nationwide exercise. The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) on 31st December 2019, announced the results of the first and second quarters of the Swachh Survekshan 2020. The rankings, being conducted in a league format for the first time, were split into three quarters (April to June, July to September and October to December 2019) and different categories based on the population of the city. Indore, which was at number one in the past three sanitation surveys, remained the top slot in the first two quarters of 2019. Bhopal, which came in second in the first quarter, was replaced by Rajkot in Gujarat in the second quarter. Surat was at number three in the first quarter, but Navi Mumbai made it to the third spot in the second quarter rankings. Among cities with population between 1 lakh and 10 lakh, Jamshedpur in Jharkhand got the top rank in both quarters. New Delhi fell from second position in the first quarter to sixth position in the second quarter and was replaced by Chandrapur in Maharashtra at second place.

 In its search for an answer to the problem of acute water shortages in Ladakh, particularly in regions which grow a single crop, the government is now looking to assess the impact of “ice stupas” set-up under the guidance of the Students Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SECMOL) and explore if these can be scaled up as solutions to help create more livelihood options. These stupas store large reserves of water as ice through the winter and carry the potential to provide for irrigation and drinking water in summers. SECMOL will be executing an onground experiment over two years across 40 villages and will present to ministry of tribal affairs a detailed report on impact of ice stupas and how this model can be broad-based for mass utilisation. The action research, which will be financially supported by the government, aims at supporting research by reputed institutions that are working in the field of tribal development and research. Renowned innovator and education reformist Sonam Wangchuk is one of the founders of SECMOL and has been steering the ‘ice stupa’ project on-ground. SECMOL will work on building ice stupas and rehabilitation of abandoned villages. The only source of water in Ladakh is glaciers, which melt and water goes into the Indus river. SECMOL is learnt to have shared that if the existing water streams are channelised and brought to the villages, it will also generate livelihood. The organisation proposed three inter-linked projects for the same.

 India has added 10 more wetlands to sites protected by the Ramsar Convention, Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar announced on 28th January 2020. The 10 new ones are Nandur Madhameshwar, a first for Maharashtra; Keshopur-Miani, Beas Conservation Reserve and Nangal in Punjab; and Nawabganj, Parvati Agra, Saman, Samaspur, Sandi and Sarsai Nawar in Uttar Pradesh. The other Ramsar sites are in Rajasthan, Kerala, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Tripura. With this, a total of 37 sites in the country have been recognised under the international treaty. Wetlands declared as Ramsar sites are protected under strict guidelines. The Convention, signed in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar, is one of the oldest inter-governmental accord for preserving the ecological character of wetlands. Also known as the Convention on Wetlands, it aims to develop a global network of wetlands for conservation of biological diversity and for sustaining human life. Mr. Javadekar said in a tweet that the Ramsar declaration is an acknowledgement of the government’s commitment to the conservation of wetlands.

ENVIRONMENT - INTERNATIONAL -  The world will miss its chance to avert climate disaster without an immediate and all-but- impossible fall in fossil fuel emissions, the UN said on 26th November 2019, in its annual assessment on greenhouse gases. The UN Environment Programme said that global emissions need to fall by 7.6%, each year, every year until 2030 to limit global temperature rises to 1.5oC. The harsh reality is that emissions have risen on average 1.5% annually over the last decade,

hitting a record 55.3 billion tonnes of CO2 or equivalent greenhouse gases in 2018 - three years after 195 countries signed the Paris treaty on climate change. The World Meteorological Organisation said on 25th November 2019, that atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations hit an all-time record in 2018. The Paris deal committed nations to limit temperature rises above pre- industrial levels to “well below” 2oC, and to a safer 1.5oC if at all possible. To do so they agreed : 19 : PTR-0320 on the need to reduce emissions and work towards a low-carbon world within decades. Yet the UN found that even taking into account current Paris pledges, the world is on track for a 3.2oC temperature rise, something scientists fear could tear at the fabric of society.

 With BASIC nations - Brazil, South Africa, India and China - virtually threatening rich countries with derailment of the current UN climate conference (COP25) due to the latter’s failure to deliver on past promises, the European Union on 11th December 2019, suddenly announced a ‘Green Deal’ with the objective of achieving ‘netzero’ emission by 2050 - a move seen by participants as an attempt to put emerging economies on track for setting higher ambition goals by 2020. It is learnt that the BASIC joint statement which said “progress on the pre-2020 agenda will be the benchmark of success for this COP”, sounded alarm bells in the EU camp, which has been resisting linking of Kyoto Protocol pledges (pre-2020) with the progress on Paris Agreement (post-2020) actions. Expressing concern on the “current imbalance in the negotiations” due to differences between developed and developing nations, the BASIC countries said, “Commitments made by developed countries in the pre-2020 period must be honoured, because the completion of the pre-2020 agenda is critical in building the basis for mutual trust and ambition in the post-2020 period.” Noting that “there has been a lack of progress on the pre-2020 agenda, adaptation and issues related to means of implementation support, in the form of climate finance, technology transfer and capacity building support”, the BASIC nations said, “This imbalance needs to be rectified, in the interests of a successful conference outcome and achieving goals in the Paris Agreement.” The EU, on its part, rushed through its ‘Green Deal’ proposing a European ‘Climate Law’ enshrining the 2050 climate neutrality objective by March 2020 and presenting a plan by mid in 2020, to increase EU’s emission reduction target for 2030 to at least 50% and towards 55%.

 The U.N. Climate Change Conference ended on 15th December 2019 in Chile, with major polluters resisting calls to ramp up efforts to keep global warming at bay and negotiators postponing the regulation of global carbon markets until 2020. Those failures came even after organisers added two more days to the 12 days of scheduled talks in Madrid. In the end, delegates from almost 200 nations endorsed a declaration to help poor countries that are suffering the effects of climate change, although they didn’t allocate any new funds to do so. The final declaration underscored the “urgent need” to cut planet-heating greenhouse gases in line with the goals of the landmark 2015 Paris climate change accord. That fell far short of promising to enhance countries’ pledges to cut greenhouse gases in 2020 which developing countries had lobbied the delegates to achieve. The Paris accord established the goal of avoiding a temperature increase of more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century. So far, the world is on course for a 3- to 4-degree Celsius rise, with potentially dramatic consequences for many countries. Negotiators in Madrid left some of the thorniest issues for the next climate summit in Glasgow in a year, including the liability for damages caused by rising temperatures that developing countries were insisting on. That demand was resisted mainly by the United States.

PERSONALITIES - NATIONAL - Appointments -  Philanthropist and chairperson of the Reliance Foundation Nita Ambani has been elected to the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art for her “truly exceptional” commitment to preserve and promote India’s art and culture. Daniel Brodsky, chairman of the museum, announced that Ambani has been named its “Honorary Trustee”. Her election took place at a meeting of the board on 12th November, 2019. Welcoming Ambani, 56, to the board, Brodsky said that her “support has an enormous impact on the museums ability to study and display art from every corner of the world”. Nita Ambani’s Reliance Foundation has been supporting the Met since 2016.

 Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde took oath as the 47th Chief Justice of India on 18th November 2019, and began his 17-month journey as head of the judiciary with the blessings of his 92- year-old wheelchair-bound mother, who witnessed the President administering the oath of office to her son in Rashtrapati Bhavan’s Durbar Hall. : 20 : PTR-0320

 JMM’s Hemant Soren took oath of office as 11th CM of Jharkhand on 29th December 2019, amid a show of opposition unity with Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee, Sitaram Yechury, Tejashwi Yadav, Ashok Gehlot, MK Stalin and Sharad Yadav among others attending the ceremony. Obituaries -  Veteran theatre and film actor and writer Shaukat Kaifi died on 22nd November, 2019. Shaukat Aapa, as she was lovingly called, along with her husband, Urdu poet and film lyricist, Kaifi Azmi, had been the leading light of the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) and the Progressive Writers Association, the cultural wings of the Communist Party of India. In the world of films one of her early major appearances was in M.S. Sathyu’s Garm Hava (1974), the most compelling human exploration of the aftermath of Partition, the havoc it wreaked and the frustrations it bred in the Muslim families that decided to stay on this side of the border. Muzaffar Ali’s Umrao Jaan (1981) and Sagar Sarhadi’s Bazaar (1982) have been the other notable performances. In Umrao Jaan she played the key role of the Lucknow brothel owner Khanum Jaan under whose tutelage the shy and unsure Amiran transforms into a resplendent Umrao. She was effortless and easy in the role and a great presence on screen, certainly many notches above her own daughter Shabana who reprised the same character in J.P. Dutta’s 2006 version of the film. Shaukat Kaifi's memoirs, Kaifi and I, published by Zubaan, had been turned into an IPTA production, a theatrical rendition called Kaifi aur Main with Shabana and Javed Akhtar reading the parts of Shaukat and Kaifi respectively.

 Shreeram Lagoo, film and stage thespian, passed away at 92 on 17th December 2019. A 40-something Shreeram Lagoo traded his career as an ENT surgeon way back in 1969 to live his love for acting on stage. He never looked back, shaping an acting style all of his own and setting quality benchmarks for Marathi theatre. The progression to films, both Hindi and Marathi, was natural but Lagoo made sure he would never leave the stage. Lagoo played his role in more than a hundred productions of the play, achieving near-legendary status in Marathi theatre. His role as an upright school teacher in Marathi blockbuster film ‘Pinjara’ further burnished his image. He would later leave his imprint on films in both Hindi and Marathi in leading and character roles, receiving multiple accolades, especially for films like ‘Gharonda’. A rationalist, he was active in the anti-superstition movement in Maharashtra, often courting controversy for his forthright views about religion. General -  India captain Virat Kohli was, on 20th November 2019, named People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India’s ‘Person of the Year for 2019’ for his animal advocacy efforts. A vegetarian, Kohli’s efforts to improve conditions for animals include sending a letter on PETA India’s behalf to officials calling for the release of Malti, an elephant used for rides at Amer Fort.

PERSONALITIES - INTERNATIONAL - Appointments -  Arvind Krishna will take charge as Chief Executive Officer of IBM Corp in April, joining the elite ranks of India-born technology czars who lead some of the world’s most valuable and consequential corporations that are battling for supremacy in the digital sweepstakes. The 57-year-old Krishna’s ascension to the top job at IBM came weeks after technology behemoth Alphabet elevated former Google chief Sundar Pichai as its CEO. Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen complete this desi quartet that is charting the fortunes of the four global technology powerhouses with a cumulative market capitalisation of $2.6 trillion. Dehradun-born Krishna, who is the son of an Indian Army officer, will succeed current CEO Virginia (Ginni) Rometty, who has been elevated as chairman, the $77.1-billion company announced on 31st January, 2020.

 Indian origin Rishi Sunak was appointed UK’s finance minister on 13th February 2020. The 39-year-old, who is the son-in-law of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, replaced his boss Sajid Javid in a surprise shake-up of Johnson’s cabinet. The promotion of Rishi Sunak as the UK’s chancellor of the exchequer, equivalent to finance minister, is a reflection of the increasing : 21 : PTR-0320 importance of Indian-origin politicians in the changing landscape of British politics. Sunak, till now better known as the son-in-law of Infosys founder Narayana Murthy, replaced Sajid javid, a Pakistani-origin longstanding member of the Conservative Party. While Sunak’s appointment will now make a section of the British press devote columns in chronicling the insatiable power struggle afflicting the Tory party, the Indian diaspora has much reason to celebrate. Sunak first became MP in 2015 from the leafy and posh Richmond constituency, and following his re-election in 2019, he was described as a rising star in British politics. That description got much traction when he supported Boris Johnson in the Tory leadership battle and got elected the third time to Parliament in the December 2019 election. He kept his appointment as the chief secretary to the Treasury in July 2019, effectively working under Javid. While entering the Treasury, Sunak had said that he was “delighted” with the appointment although he has his task cut out with the budget just four weeks away. Javid quit amidst row with the PM after he refused to sack his aides due to differences between the prime minister’s office and the Treasury. The fact that a fellow Asian-origin leader has replaced Javid, who was the first home secretary and chancellor of the exchequer of non-British heritage, will also serve to allay any talks of Downing Street sidelining a prominent Asian face. Sunak was born in Southampton to Dr Yashvir, a general practitioner and Usha, a pharmacist originally hailing from Punjab, but had moved to the UK from East Africa where they were based.

 In a landmark judicial advancement at a time of intense ideological battles in the US, Indian-American Sri Srinivasan on 18th February 2020, took over as chief judge of the influential appeals court in Washington DC, the first person of Indian origin to lead a federal court that is just one step short of the US Supreme Court. Sitting chief judge Merrick Garland formally passed the gavel to the Chandigarh-born Srinivasan in a ceremony where, according to one account, the outgoing justice’s favourite peanut M&M’s were distributed to mark conviviality, although conservatives are known to be allergic to both Srinivasan, who was on President Obama’s shortlist for the Supreme Court, and Garland, who eventually won the nomination in 2016 but was blocked by Senate Republicans in what turned out to be an epic ideological battle. The US court of appeals for the D.C. circuit located in the national capital is considered the most powerful court in the country next to the apex court, with four of the nine sitting Supreme Court justices having served here. The court, which handles high-profile separation-of-powers cases among others, is expected to rule on several lawsuits with bearing on President Trump’s future, including ones filed by House Democrats seeking testimony from his former White House counsel Donald McGahn and access to secret grand jury material from former special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe. Srinivasan took his oath of office on the Bhagawad Gita, occasioning some commentary on how and on what philosophical basis a Hindu-American would dispense justice on issues such as abortion, environment, and gun rights. Visits -  On 20th November 2019, Russian cosmonaut Sergei Revin, on a visit to India as part of a bilateral space-tech programme, spent a good 90 minutes with a huge gathering of wide-eyed schoolchildren at the Nehru Science Centre in Worli. He not only gave detailed answers to every question asked in the auditorium, but also had the gathering thrilled no end when he announced that he would help Indian students to get their experiments flown to the International Space Station (ISS). “As a cosmonaut I will help in funding your experiments on the ISS,” he declared, triggering a thunderous applause. Revin spent 124 days 23 hours and 52 minutes at the ISS, which is 400 km above Earth. He was launched on May 15th 2012 and returned on September 17 that year. He said he welcomed the idea of India planning to launch its own space station and that Russia was willing to collaborate. His presentation, including slides and a film, took youngsters on a virtual flight aboard ISS. Naturally, one of the first questions he got was: How does one become a cosmonaut (the Russian equivalent of an astronaut)? His answer was: fitness and smarts. “It’s a gruelling screening process. To become a cosmonaut, one needs to clear 150 tests in Russia,” he said, concluding, nevertheless, that the flight of imagination is more important than the physical journey into space.

 India and Sri Lanka agreed to cooperate on counter-terrorism during talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and visiting President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in Delhi on 29th November, 2019. As part of this common strategy, India announced a special Line of Credit of $50 million for strengthening Sri Lanka’s abilities to counter terror threats. This was in addition to the : 22 : PTR-0320 $400 million Line of Credit that India announced for infrastructure development in the island nation.

 PM Narendra Modi outlined India’s concerns about Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in a meeting with Japanese foreign and defence ministers, Toshimitsu Motegi and Taro Kono, respectively, reiterating that joining the free trade agreement in its present form would be detrimental to India’s interests. Japanese officials on 1st December 2019, said Tokyo was working with other RCEP countries to address issues raised by India. After the first 2+2 dialogue, Japan said it was committed to enhancing connectivity as part of its Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy, including in India. On working together in Arunachal Pradesh, Japan said it was moving carefully because of the “current status’’ of the state. While there was no detailed discussion on the situation in Kashmir in the 2+2 talks, Japan said it was looking at the situation in the Valley “carefully” and that it wanted differences between India and Pakistan resolved through dialogue. Motegi and Kono had called on Modi ahead of the 2+2 dialogue and the upcoming annual summit meeting of Modi and his counterpart Shinzo Abe. Both leaders referred to the RCEP joint statement, which said India had significant outstanding issues and that all RCEP participating countries will work together to resolve these outstanding issues in a mutually satisfactory way. Japan sees free trade as one of the pillars of its Free and Open Indo-Pacific Strategy and is keen that India joins RCEP. The official underlined Japan’s commitment to working with India for regional peace and prosperity by enhancing connectivity. When asked about Japan’s role in infrastructure development in the north-east, Kaifu said connectivity inside India was equally important and that the northeast was a focus area.

 U.S. President Donald Trump, on his maiden two-day visit to India on 24th February 2020, heaped praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling him a “true friend”, and said his rise from a humble background as a tea-seller to India’s Prime Minister “underscores India’s limitless promise”. The President also described Mr. Modi as a “tremendously successful leader”. Mr. Trump’s lavish praise, while addressing a mammoth crowd at the Motera stadium in Gujarat, reflected the bonhomie shared by the two leaders. “Prime Minister Modi, you are not just the pride of Gujarat. You are living proof that with hard work and devotion Indians can accomplish anything, anything at all, anything they want,” Mr. Trump said, amid loud cheers from the audience at the mega ‘Namaste Trump’ event. In his long speech, sprinkled with praise for not only Mr. Modi but also for India’s democracy, pluralism and diversity, Mr. Trump highlighted the country’s achievements and what its democracy offers to citizens. Addressing the 'Namaste Trump' event in Ahmedabad in the presence of visiting U.S. President Donald Trump on 24th February 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India-U.S. relations were no longer just "a partnership, but a far greater and closer relationship." There is so much that we share: shared values and ideals, shared spirit of enterprise and innovation, shared opportunities and challenges, shared hopes and aspirations, he said. Mr. Modi opened the mega event with chants of 'long live India-U.S. friendship. Obituaries -  English cricket legend Bob Willis passed away on 3rd November 2019, at 70. Willis, who captained England between 1982 and 1984, played 90 Tests and took 325 wickets, with 8/43 in Australia’s 2nd innings in the third Ashes Test in 1981 being his best figures. The pace ace, who is fourth in the all-time wicket-takers’ list for England, also enjoyed a long stint as a commentator.

 Paul Volcker, the towering former Federal Reserve chairman who tamed US inflation in the 1980s and decades later inspired tough Wall Street reforms in the wake of the global financial crisis, died on 9th December 2019 at the age of 92 was the first to bring celebrity status to the job of US central banker, serving as chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1979 to 1987. As with the man who succeeded him, Alan Greenspan, Volcker could soothe or excite financial markets with just a vague murmur. In 2018, he published a memoir, “Keeping at It: The Quest for Sound Money and Good Government,” and expressed concern about the direction of the federal government and the loss of respect for it. In 2009, Volcker began serving as a key financial adviser to President Barack Obama and faced a maelstrom of financial turmoil, government bailouts and fallout from the deepest recession since the 1930s Great Depression. In working to help the US economy recover from the 2008 crisis, he proposed what became known : 23 : PTR-0320 as the Volcker rule that restricted banks from making high-risk investments with depositors’ cash. Since Donald Trump became president in 2017, the rule has been under review.

 US engineer George J. Laurer, who co-invented the barcode and helped to transform the retail world in the 1970s, died in December 2019 at age 94. Laurer is recognised as the co-inventor of the Universal Product Code (UPC), or barcode, which can be found on millions of products, services and other items for identification. The marking - made up of black bars of varying thickness and a 12-digit number - can be scanned, quickly identifying the product and its price. Fellow IBM employee Norman Woodland, who died in 2012, is considered the pioneer of the barcode idea, which he initially based on the Morse code.

 Thirteen-time Major winner Mickey Wright, often described as the greatest woman golfer of all time, died aged 85. Wright, who accumulated 82 LPGA Tour titles during a professional career which stretched from 1954 to 1969, died in Florida after a heart attack, reports said on 17th February 2020. "We're saddened to learn today of the passing of Mickey Wright, a 13-time Major Champion and 82 time winner on the @LPGA, just three days after celebrating her birthday," the World Golf Hall of Fame announced on twitter. "One of the best to ever play the game, she will be greatly missed. Born Mary Kathryn Wright in San Diego, California in 1935, Wright enjoyed a stellar amateur career which included a US Girls Junior Championship in 1952. She won the 1954 World Amateur Championship before turning professional the following season. Her haul of 13 Major victories included four US Women's Open titles and four US Women's PGA Championships. Only Patty Berg, who had 15 Major wins, has won more. Her retirement in 1969 shocked women's golf, coming at the relatively early age of 34.

 Jack Welch, who led General Electric through two decades of extraordinary corporate prosperity and became the most influential business manager of his generation, died in March 2020. He was 84. The cause was renal failure, his wife Suzy Welch said. Combative and blunt, Welch became the chief executive of General Electric in 1981, a few months after Ronald Reagan took office as US president. It was a time of outsize gains for many of America’s big, multinational corporations and their leaders, who were helped by lower taxes and pro-business policies. GE led the pack. The company’s revenue jumped nearly fivefold, to $130 billion, during Welch’s tenure, while the value of its shares on the stock market soared from $14 billion to more than $410 billion. It was a time when successful, lavishly paid corporate executives were more admired than resented. Welch received a record severance payment of $417 million when he retired in 2001. Fortune magazine named him the “manager of the century”, and in 2000 the Financial Times named GE “the world’s most respected company” for the third straight year. SUPERSTAR CEO : - Known as "Neutron Jack" for cutting thousands of jobs. - A chemical engineer by training, he became GE's youngest CEO at 45 in April 1981. Headed it till September 2001. - During his tenure, GE's revenue jumped fivefold, from about $26bn to $130bn. - GE's market value soared from $12bn to $410bn and it became the world's largest company by market cap. - In 1999, Fortune magazine named Welch "Manager of the Century".

General -  The Swiss government says it will produce a 20 franc silver coin with Roger Federer’s image on it. The government says it’s the first time it has dedicated a commemorative coin to a living person. A 50 franc gold coin with Federer’s image on it will be minted in 2020. The government said that the 20-time Grand Slam champion is “probably Switzerland’s most successful individual sportsman, he is also the perfect ambassador for Switzerland”. The “heads” side of the coin shows Federer playing a one-handed backhand. The government says a limited edition of up to 95,000 Federer coins can be ordered, costing 30 Swiss francs. The 50 franc coin will have a different design.

 Miss South Africa was crowned Miss Universe on 8th December 2019, in Atlanta after a lavish ceremony filled with glitter and heartfelt speeches about female empowerment. Zozibini : 24 : PTR-0320 Tunzi, 26, finished first ahead of the Puerto Rican and Mexican finalists in a flashy televised event, hosted by American comic turned TV personality Steve Harvey. Television personalities Vanessa Lachey and Olivia Culpo served as backstage commentators, and a panel of seven women determined the winner. Tunzi earned cheers during her closing speech, a new segment of the competition, in which she talked about wanting to empower young women to feel confident. “I grew up in a world where a woman who looks like me, with my kind of skin and my kind of hair, was never considered to be beautiful,” she said. “I think that it is time that that stops today,” she said to thunderous applause. Tunzi beat more than 90 contestants from around the globe in the 68th instalment of Miss Universe, which was held in Atlanta’s Tyler Perry Studios.

 The Russian flag and national anthem were banned from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and other major sports events for four years on 9th December, 2019. Russia's hosting of world championships in Olympic sports also face being stripped after the World Anti-Doping Agency executive committee approved a full slate of recommended sanctions as punishment for state authorities tampering with a Moscow laboratory database. Russian athletes will be allowed to compete as individuals in major events only if they are not implicated in positive doping tests or if their data was not manipulated, according to the WADA ruling. Still, it is unclear how the ruling will affect Russian teams taking part in world championships such as the soccer World Cup. Russia's anti-doping agency can appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport within 21 days. Evidence shows that Russian authorities tampered with a Moscow laboratory database to hide hundreds of potential doping cases and falsely shift the blame onto whistle-blowers, WADA investigators and the International Olympic Committee said in November. Flagrant manipulation of the Moscow lab data was an insult to the sporting movement worldwide, the IOC said.

 Teenage Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was named Time’s youngest “Person of the Year’’ on 11th December 2019. Thunberg, 16, has become the face of the youth climate movement, drawing large crowds with her appearances at protests and conferences over the past year and a half. Some have welcomed her activism, including her speeches challenging world leaders to do more to stop global warming. But others have criticised her sometimes combative tone. “For sounding the alarm about humanity’s predatory relationship with the only home we have, for bringing to a fragmented world a voice that transcends backgrounds and borders, for showing us all what it might look like when a new generation leads, Greta Thunberg is TIME’s 2019 Person of the Year,’’ the media franchise said on 11th December 2019, on its website. Thunberg was in Madrid on 11th December 2019, where she addressed negotiators at the UN’s COP25 climate talks. In 2018's Time winners included slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi; the staff of the Capital Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, where five people were shot to death; Philippine journalist Maria Ressa; and two Reuters journalists, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo.

AWARDS NATIONAL -  Eminent Malayalam poet Akkitham has been chosen for the 55th Jnanpith Award, according to an announcement by the Jnanpith Selection Board on 29th November, 2019. Born in 1926, Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri, popularly known as Akkitham is one of the most revered names in Malayalam poetry. Apart from poetry, his literary excellence has footprints in genres like drama, reminiscence, critical essays, children literature, short stories and translations. “A poet of rare integrity, a creator of many works, all considered as classics, Mr. Akkitham’s poetry reflects unfathomable compassion, imprints of Indian philosophical and moral values and a bridge between tradition and modernity, delves deep into human emotions in a fast changing social space,” the statement said.

 Congress leader Shashi Tharoor and former AGP Rajya Sabha member Jayashree Goswami Mahanta are among the 23 writers chosen on 18th December 2019, for the Sahitya Akademi Award 2019. The award has been given to seven books of poetry, four novels, six short stories, three non-fiction books and three essays. Tharoor won the award for his book 'An Era of Darkness' in a non-fiction category in English language. His book is about the impact of British colonial rule on India. Jayashree, who is also the wife of former Assam chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta said she is not as happy as she should be with the news of her getting the award. “I will distribute the award money among the family of victims of the anti-citizenship : 25 : PTR-0320 law protests in Assam,” she said. The jury had writers K Satchitanandan, Sukanta Chaudhuri and cultural thinker GN Devy. Other winners include Chinmoy Guha for his Bengali essay Ghumer Darja Thele, Cho Dharman’s Tamil novel Sool, V Madhusoodanan Nair's Malayalam poetry book Achan Piranna Veedu.

 Amitabh Bachchan was bestowed with the 2018, Dadasaheb Phalke Award on 29th December 2019, by President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhawan, at a special ceremony. The Bollywood veteran thanked the government, the I&B Ministry and the jury members of the National Film Awards for naming him the Dada Saheb Phalke Award recipient.

 Padma Awards 2020 continued the tradition, started by the Modi government a few years ago, of honouring “unsung” heroes who have been silently contributing to social, cultural, educational and environmental fields. The list of 21 such Padma Shri awardees includes a Bhopal gas leak victim who spent 35 years of his life working with other survivors; a ‘divyang’ from Anantnag (J&K) who runs a school for specially abled children; a ‘langar baba’ who has been feeding patients and attendants outside a hospital in Punjab; a doctor in West Bengal who travels 6 hours each day to Sundarbans villages to treat patients; an orange seller who spends his meagre earnings on educating children; a former manual scavenger woman who now heads the Sulabh International Social Service Organisation; an elephant conservationist from Assam; and a Muslim bhajan singer from Rajasthan, who has penned bhajans in praise of Lord Krishna and cows. At least five on the list of ‘unsung’ 21 Padma Shri awardees happen to be Muslims. The Modi government has gone beyond the traditional catchment area for awarding civilian decorations. Among the commoners honoured this year is Late Abdul Jabbar, a 1983 Bhopal gas leak victim who ran an advocacy group for other victims and survivors. He provided vocational training to 2,300 widows of gas leak victims and fought for the medical rehabilitation of victims in courts. Kerala-born Sathyanarayan Mundayoor or ‘Uncle Moosa’, also awarded the Padma Shri for social work, has been honoured for promoting education and reading culture in Arunachal Pradesh by starting a home library movement. Tribal woman from Karnataka, Tulasi Gowda, with no formal education, has been awarded the Padma Shri on account of her vast knowledge of various species of plants and herbs. The services of Javed Ahmad Tak, a ‘divyang’ or physically challenged person from Anantnag (J&K), who has been working with specially- abled children for 2 decades, have also been recognised with a Padma Shri. Mohammad ‘Chacha’ Sharif from UP, who has performed the last rites of over 25,000 unclaimed bodies in and around Faizabad for the past 25 years, has been honoured for being “an apostle of communal harmony”. Another ‘divyang’ on the list includes S Ramakrishnan from Tamil Nadu, who has rehabilitated over 14,000 specially-abled people over four decades across 800 villages. ‘Langar Baba’ Jagdish Lal Ahuja, a Padma Shri winner, has been serving food daily to hundreds of poor patients and attendants outside PGIMER hospital in Punjab. He sold off his properties to fuel his mission and was undeterred even by cancer. Father-daughter awardee duo from Odisha - Radha Mohan and Sabarmatee - run a resource centre where they exchange seeds and learn organic farming. Doctor Arunoday Mondal who travels 6 hours everyday to treat patients in remote Sundarban villages in West Bengal, has been recognised for his selfless service after having treated more than 4,000 people. Another doctor, oncologist Ravi Kannan, who has treated over 70,000 cancer patients free of cost in Barak valley of Assam, has been awarded Padma Shri. Harekala Hajabba who educates poor children in his Dakshin Kannada village for 20 years through meagre earnings from selling oranges, has also been given the Padma Shri. He had set up a Hajabba school initially as a mosque but later converted it into a zila panchayat higher primary school with the help of people and the government. He now plans to upgrade it to a pre-university college. Popatrao Pawar, sarpanch of Hiware Bazaar village in Maharashtra, transformed it from an impoverished, drought-prone village to a role model of development. The village now has no BPL families, no alcohol consumption and is open defecation-free. Usha Chaumar, a Dalit woman from Rajasthan, who was a manual scavenger since seven years of age but was rescued by Nai Disha NGO of Sulabh International and now heads Sulabh International Social Service Organisation and leads the fight against manual scavenging, is also on the Padma Shri list.

 Following the abrogation of J&K’s special status and security vigil that lasted for months thereafter, the state police and CRPF personnel deployed in the newly formed UT have been : 26 : PTR-0320 awarded more than half of the police gallantry medals. The awards, announced by the home ministry, have seen J&K police personnel being honoured with more than one-third of the total 290 gallantry medals while CRPF has a one-fourth share. A total of 1,040 service and gallantry medals for police and paramilitary personnel were announced on 25th January 2020, which include four President’s Police Medals for Gallantry (PPMG), 286 Police Medals for Gallantry (PMG), 93 President’s Police Medal for Distinguished Service and 657 Police Medal for Meritorious Service. J&K Police got the maximum haul of 108 gallantry medals, including 3 PPMG and 105 PMG. CRPF followed with 76 gallantry honours, including one PPMG awarded posthumously and 75 PMG. Of the 76 CRPF personnel honoured, 46 received gallantry medals for services in J&K. While eight of 46 awardees were honoured for action in Srinagar, 38 were awarded medals for gallantry during operations in Kashmir Valley. Together, J&K operations, largely against terror, got J&K police and CRPF 154 or 53% of the 290 gallantry medals. Incidentally, anti-terror operations in J&K by Army, CRPF and J&K police in 2018 - to which many of the 2020 gallantry awards may pertain - had seen a record 257 terrorists neutralised. The PPMG winners this year include three J&K police personnel - SSP Abdul Jabbar, Dy SP G H Hassan Sheikh and Constable Asif Iqbal Qureshi. The only other winner of PPMG is CRPF Constable Utpal Rabha (posthumous), who was honoured for attaining martyrdom while fighting Left-wing extremists in Jharkhand on June 7, 2018. According to a CRPF release, the PPMG awardee not only held his ground in face of fire by Maoists but also ensured safety of his team. “He laid down his life fighting Maoists who were raining bullets in the dense jungle,” it stated. As many as 30 CRPF personnel engaged in counter-Naxal operations - 20 in Jharkhand and 10 in Chhattisgarh were also awarded gallantry awards.

 India’s third highest gallantry medal in peacetime, Shaurya Chakra, has been awarded to six Army and three police personnel for conspicuous bravery in counter-terror operations, while the two pilots of the Mi-17 V5 helicopter shot down by “friendly fire” after the Balakot air strikes have been given the Vayu Sena Medal for gallantry. Four Shaurya Chakras have been awarded posthumously to Naib Subedar Sombir Singh from the Army and Challapilla Narasimha Rao, Kamal Kishore and Aman Kumar under the ministry of home affairs. Squadron Leaders Ninad Anil Mandavgane and Siddharth Vashisht, who were awarded the Vayu Sena Medal posthumously, were flying the Mi-17 helicopter for an operational when it was shot down at Budgam by a SpyDer quick-reaction anti-aircraft missile fired by the air defence unit of the Srinagar airbase on February 27. The four other IAF personnel killed in the accidental “blue on blue” incident, which took place during the time when Indian and Pakistani fighter jets were engaged in the aerial skirmish in Nowshera sector, have been awarded “mention-in-despatches”. They are Sergeants Vikrant Sahrawat and Vishal Kumar Pandey and Corporals Pankaj Kumar and Deepak Pandey. Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, of course, was awarded the Vir Chakra last year for shooting down a Pakistani F-16 before his MiG-21 was downed on February 27. Among the Shaurya Chakras, Naib Subedar Sombir Singh (Jat Regiment/Rashtriya Rifles) laid down his life while leading a team during an encounter in Kulgam, which led to elimination of three terrorists last year. Lt-Col Jyoti Lama (11 Gorkha Rifles) and Major Konjengbam Bijendra Singh (Army Air Defence), killed two terrorists each in encounters in Manipur in 2019.

 Twenty-eight CBI officials were awarded the President’s Police Medal for distinguished service and police medal for meritorious service on the occasion of Republic Day. The list includes Deputy SP Ramaswamy Parthasarathy, who was part of the team that probed the corruption case against P. Chidambaram and his son Karti. People recalled Parthasarathy as one of the cops who climbed the walls of Chidambaram’s bungalow in Jor Bagh last year to arrest him in the INX Media case. He has been awarded the President’s police medal for distinguished service. Officials, however, explained the medal is not conferred in probe in one case but the selection takes into account the overall service record and requires a tenure of 25 years to be eligible. Joint Director D S Shukla, who headed a team that deported Roshan Ansari, the first Indian national from UAE besides probing murder cases of Mumbai journalist J. Dey and Bihar journalist Rajdev Ranjan, has been given the President’s police medal for distinguished service. Shukla-led team achieved conviction in murder case of J Dey in two years. SP Binay Kumar of special crime unit, known to be a specialist in cracking homicide cases, has been awarded police : 27 : PTR-0320 medal for meritorious service. He led the probe into infamous Khairlanji murders of 2006 in which four members of Scheduled Caste community were brutally killed over a land dispute by upper caste members in Maharashtra.

 Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das has been named the Central Banker of the Year, Asia-Pacific 2020, by the Banker magazine, a unit of Financial Times (FT). The award is given to central bankers who have “best managed to stimulate growth and stabilise their economy.” Jorgovanka Tabakovi, National Bank of Serbia, was adjudged the winner as the Global Central Banker of the Year. The awards were announced in an editorial of the Banker magazine on January 2. Nominating Das, the magazine said India’s banks have faced a series of challenges, from non-performing loans to issues around fraud. Repeated economic slumps saw the central bank cut interest rates five times during 2019, and it was open to cutting them again, if necessary. Faced with these challenges, Shaktikanta Das has taken steps to bring banking in India up to standard via a restrained approach to governance.

AWARDS - INTERNATIONAL -  Amid unexpected showers, the golden jubilee edition of the International Film Festival of India came to a close with Blaise Harrison’s Particles winning the Golden Peacock on 28th November, 2019. Described by the International Competition jury as “an ambitious yet modest film about the mysteries of being a teenager”, the film won a cash prize of Rs.40 lakh, to be shared equally by Harrison and producer Estelle Fialon. Lijo Jose Pellissery bagged the Best Director Award for the Malayalam film Jallikattu. The jury honoured the “intricate and complex choreography of this very original and anarchic film”. The Centenary Award for Best Debut Feature Film of a Director was shared between Marius Olteanu for Monstri. and Amin Sidi Boumediene for Abou Leila. Pema Tseden’s Balloon won the Special Jury Award for the “beauty of the film language and the authenticity of the actors”. The Best Actor (Male) award was given to Seu Jorge for his portrayal of Carlos Marighella in the Brazilian film Marighella. The jury described his performance as “a powerful and charismatic portrayal of a revolutionary, very relevant in our increasingly authoritarian times”. For her “understated and powerful performance of a mother defending her child’s honour against the injustice of a corrupt system”, in Marathi film Mai Ghatt: Crime No.103/2005, Usha Jadhav received the Best Actor (Female) award. National Award-winning Gujarati film Hellaro directed by Abhishek Shah earned special mention from the jury for the “incredible music, it’s colour and graceful choreography”. Italian film Rwanda directed by Riccardo Salvetti won The ICF–UNESCO Gandhi Medal instituted by the International Council for Film, Television and Audiovisual Communication, Paris and UNESCO. The festival closed with Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s Marghe and her Mother, which is the renowned Iranian filmmaker’s first movie set in Italy.

 Clad in a bandhgala Punjabi and a dhoti, as Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee stepped onto the dais at Stockholm Concert Hall in Sweden on 10th December 2019 - along with his wife Esther Duflo and colleague Michael Kremmer - to receive the Nobel Prize for their research in economics, the city, too, rose in unison in front of their TV sets just like the hundreds of delegates at Konserthuset, Stockholm. The Presidency varsity has decided to build a 3D wall with embossed images of Nobel winners Amartya Sen and Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee in the university’s main building.

 War epic 1917 shocked the Golden Globes on 5th January 2020 by claiming the top prize for best drama film, while Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood won the most honours, massively boosting their prospects for next month's Oscars. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" - a homage to 1960s Tinseltown - won three prizes, including best comedy, but Martin Scorsese's much-vaunted Netflix crime saga The Irishman went home empty-handed. 1917 was named best drama, and Sam Mendes received the trophy for the best director. It follows two British soldiers through the trenches in the First World War, and is filmed to look like one continuous, two-hour-long shot. Mr. Tarantino won the best screenplay award, and Brad Pitt took home best supporting actor honours for his role as a loyal stuntman to Leonardo DiCaprio's character in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Rocketman, the Elton John musical biopic, was the other big winner of the night, scooping best actor for Taron Egerton and best original song for Mr.John. : 28 : PTR-0320

 Mr. Bong’s searing look at class divides - Parasite - became the first non-English feature film to win the Best Film Oscar at the 92nd Academy awards. Ten foreign language films are said to have been nominated previously for Best Picture but none of them could make it to the final post. These include Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers in 1973 and Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000. The firsts for Parasite didn’t stop at that. It is the first South Korean film to get nominated and to have won the International Film Oscar. Parasite is also the first Asian film to have grabbed the Best Screenplay award, shared by Mr. Bong with Han Jin-won. Giving Mr. Bong company in making history was the New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi, who became the first Maori to enter the privileged Oscar club with adapted screenplay award for his Nazi satire Jojo Rabbit. He dedicated the award to the indigenous kids all over the world. Joaquin Phoenix won Best Actor for playing a failing clown who finds fame through violence in the dark comic-book tale Joker. Renee Zellweger was named Best Actress for her performance as an ageing Judy Garland in the musical biopic Judy. Mr. Tarantino’s sentimental ode to Tinseltown, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, brought the first acting Oscar for Brad Pitt, who played a supporting role as a laid-back stunt man. Laura Dern took the Supporting Actress Oscar, her first Academy Award, for playing a ruthless divorce lawyer in Marriage Story. First World War film 1917, from Universal Pictures, had been seen as the film to beat but won just three of its 10 nominations. They came for its stunning “one-shot” feel cinematography, for visual effects and for sound mixing. Toy Story 4 took home the Oscar for best animated film - the third golden statuette for the innovative Pixar franchise about a collection of toys, the value of friendship and accepting change. Hildur Guonadottir won the Best Original Score for Joker.

SPORT - NATIONAL - Billiards -  Pankaj Advani claimed yet another senior National billiards championship title with a 5-2 win over Sourav Kothari in Pune on 28th January 2020. After losing the first frame in the best-of-9 150-up tie, Advani bounced back with breaks of 95 and 151 to go 2-1 up. The fourth frame was snatched by Sourav with the aid of a 135 break to level the match 2-all. Advani then raised his game to the next level, winning the next three frames with breaks of 135, 94 and 109. This is Advani’s 33rd National title and 10th in the senior category. In the semifinals, Advani blanked Gujarat’s Dhvaj Haria 5-0. The match included four 150 breaks and an 81. Cricket -  Skipper Harmanpreet Kaur struck an unbeaten 42 following a fine bowling performance to set up India's thrilling five-wicket win over England in the first match of the women's triangular T20 series in Canberra on 30th January 2020, Indian spinners - Rajeshwari Gayakwad (2/ 19), Deepti Sharma (2/30) and left armer Radha Yadav (1/33) - restricted England to 147 for seven in stipulated 20 overs, while right-arm medium pacer Shikha Pandey (2/33) accounted for two at the Manuka Oval. Harmanpreet took the run chase deep after the Indian top order, including the 15-year-old Shafali Verma (30), Smriti Mandhana (15) and Jemimah Rodrigues (26) - squandered good starts. Veda Krishnamurthy (7) and Taniya Bhatia (11) also failed to stay on the crease as England bowlers struck at regular intervals. With six needed off the last over, Harmanpreet, whose innings was studded with five boundaries until then, hit a towering six to take India to 150 for five and end the match in style with three balls to spare. Earlier, put in to bat, England suffered a top order batting collapse as openers Amy Jones (1) and Danni Wyatt (4) were dismissed cheaply. Natalie Sciver (20) and Fran Wilson (7) soon followed, leaving England reeling at 59 for four in 10 overs. Skipper Heather Knight then took charge, hitting a brisk 44-ball 67. Her innings was laced with eight boundaries and two sixes. Wicketkeeper Tammy Beaumont supported her captain with a 27-ball 37. The duo helped England post a fighting total. Football -  From Irengbam, a village near Imphal, to Scotland’s capital Glasgow. Manipur striker Bala Devi has made history by becoming the first Indian woman footballer to bag a professional contract from a foreign club. The 29-year-old former India captain, who earlier played in Maldives for New Radiant sports club, is among a group of 14 new players signed by the Scottish club. “I’m excited to get this 18-month contract and to play in the No. 10 jersey. For the : 29 : PTR-0320 Indian team too I played in the No. 10 jersey. That makes it doubly sweet,” the new face of Indian women’s football said here after the formal announcement jointly made by Rangers FC and Bengaluru FC, who facilitated the trials and also the work permit.

 Indian football heavyweights Mohun Bagan clinched their second I-League title with a 1-0 win over Aizawl FC at Kalyani in West Bengal on 10th March 2020, with four rounds to go in the season. Prolific Senegalese striker Baba Diawara scored the all-important goal for Mohun Bagan in the 80th minute to beat former champions Aizawl in the 16th round match. It was former Sevilla striker's 10th goal from nine games. Hockey -  Indian Hockey captain Rani Rampal, voted The World Games Athlete of the Year, was honoured by Sports Authority of India (SAI) with an out-of-turn promotion. Rani, who joined SAI as an assistant coach in 2015, has been promoted to the post of coach (Level-10), with immediate effect. Union Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju said, “Ensuring that our athletes have a sound financial standing is of immense importance, this is our way of appreciating Rani for all that she has contributed to the country. Shooting -  Commonwealth Games champions Manu Bhaker and Anish Bhanwala swept the senior and junior gold medals in the women’s 10m air pistol and men’s 25m rapid fire pistol events at the National Shooting Championships in Bhopal on 24th December 2019. The 17-year-old Bhaker, representing Haryana, clinched four gold medals (individual and team events in senior and junior) on 24th December 2019, to add to her two won earlier in the competition and also equalled the qualification national record en-route a facile victory. Her state-mate Anish, also 17, won both the individual and team gold medals in the senior and junior men’s categories of his event to stamp his dominance. Bhanwala shot 28 in the rapid fire final to leave behind Bhavesh Shekhawat of Rajasthan who ended with 26 while Chandigarh’s Vijayveer Sidhu came third with 22 hits. Bhanwala had also topped the qualifying with a score of 582.

SPORT - INTERNATIONAL - Archery -  Deepika Kumari secured an individual women’s recurve quota place for the Tokyo Olympics after striking gold in the Asian Continental Qualification Tournament at the Rajamangala National Stadium in Bangkok on 28th November, 2019. The top-ranked female archer saw off Nur Afisa Abdul Halil of Malaysia 7-2, Zahra Nemati (Iran) 6-4 and local girl Narisara Khunhiranchaiyo 6-2 to make the last four which ensured a quota place. But she did not stop there and stormed into the final thrashing Viernam’s Nguyet 6-2 to set up a summit clash with countrymate Ankita Bhakat. The Jharkhand archer blanked her Bengal rival 6-0 (27-24, 27-26, 27-26) to win gold. The Indian archers competed without a flag due to the national federation’s suspension by the world body. World Archery later confirmed that the quota will go to the Indian Olympic Committee. Three individual places were up for grabs in the event and Karma of Bhutan and Nguyet Do Thi Anh of Vietnam won the remaining two individual quota places. As every country could win a maximum of one quota place in each category, only one quota place went to IOA despite a 1-2 finish by Indian archers.

 Abhishek Verma and V. Jyothi Surekha claimed the honours in compound mixed pair event to fetch India’s lone gold at the 21st Asian archery championships, which ended in Bangkok on 27th November 2019, with the country winning seven medals in all. The Indian duo overwhelmed Chinese Taipei’s Yi-Hsuan Chen and Chieh-Luh Chen 158-151. India ended with one gold, two silver and four bronze medals. The top-seeded trio of Abhishek Verma, Rajat Chauhan and Mohan Bhardwaj missed the compound team gold by just one point. Car Racing -  World champion Lewis Hamilton cruised to victory from pole position at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on 1st December 2019, capping another stellar season with an 11th win and 84th overall. After he made a clean start from a record-extending 88th career pole, Hamilton was untroubled : 30 : PTR-0320 as he won on the Yas Marina circuit for the fifth time - four with Mercedes and once when driving for McLaren in 2011. He finished about 17 seconds ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in a race bereft of overtaking, except for Verstappen's clean move on Charles Leclerc's Ferrari on Lap 33. Leclerc was third for a 10th podium in a strong first season with Ferrari, which included an F1-leading seven poles - two more than Hamilton and Bottas - and two wins. However, Leclerc was summoned for a post-race investigation because there was a difference between the amount of fuel in the car as declared by the team and the amount actually inside the car. Leclerc only just held off Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas, who climbed 16 places to fourth after starting last. Sebastian Vettel started fourth and finished fifth in a disappointing end to a season where the four- time F1 champion has won only one race. Chess -  He came, the saw, the conquered.. On his first visit to Kolkata, Magnus Carlsen showed who’s the boss as he won the penultimate leg of Grand Chess Tour (GCT) at the National Library’s Bhasha Bhawan on 26th November, 2019. That was on expected lines in the rapid and blitz event, but the unexpected also happened as Viswanathan Anand missed out on a GCT finals berth. The India No. 1 wore a glum look as Carlsen received the coveted winner’s trophy with a record aggregate score (27 points) in a GCT leg, bettering his own mark of 26.5 in the Abidjan leg in May. Anand had himself to blame for blowing his chances on the final day. He began ominously, losing to Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi for the third time in this event. The Indian ace failed to get past Armenia’s Levon Aronian, who had a poor blitz event, in the next round. Anand bounced back with back-to back wins for the first time in this leg as he humbled Pentala Harikrishna and Wesley So of the USA.

 Magnus Carlsen again proved why he is the best chess player around by retaining the World blitz title, after winning a playoff against Hikaru Nakamura, in Moscow on 30th December 2019 . Veteran Vladimir Kramnik .won the bronze medal. The Norwegian, who had claimed the Rapid crown a few days earlier, now holds all three titles in chess again - classical, rapid and blitz - and will be on top of the rankings in all formats in the next FIDE list. Carlsen’s World title tally now has four classical crowns, three rapid titles and five blitz honours. Russia’s Kateryna Lagno retained the women’s blitz crown even as a hat-trick of losses pushed the newly -crowned rapid champion Koneru Humpy to the 12th place. Humpy, who had claimed the rapid title after drawing the Armageddon game against Lei Tingjie of China on 28th December 2019, was placed second with seven points from nine rounds after the opening day of the blitz competition. However, the 32-year-old Indian failed to continue in the same vein and ended the tournament with 10.5 points out of 17 games.

 Grandmaster Koneru Humpy began 2020 from where she left off 2019 winning he Cairns Cup at St Louis, US on 16th February 2020. The 32-year-old drew her final round against D Harika to finish the competition with 6 points from 9 rounds. Current world champion Ju Wenjun came a close second with 5.5 points while Mariya Muzychuk settled for the third position (5 points). Harika (4.5 points) finished 6th. Humpy’s performance in the tournament not only fetched 5 ELO points but also helped her move to the 2nd spot in world rankings. Barring a reversal in the second round to Mariya, Humpy looked in control of things throughout the tourney. Cricket -  The Indian women’s cricket team completed a 5-0 series whitewash over the West Indies after half centuries from Veda Krishnamurthy and Jemimah Rodrigues, complemented by the bowlers’ clinical show, steered the side to a 61-run triumph in the fifth and final T20 International in Providence (Guyana). Jemimah (50) and Krishnamurthy (57 not out) shared 117 runs for the third wicket as India Women scored 134 for 3 after electing to bat. The Indian bowlers then produced a disciplined performance to restrict the host to 73 for seven.

 Australian pacer Pat Cummins was probably gearing up for Christmas and the Boxing Day Test against New Zealand when the news of a welcome bonanza must have hit him like a bolt from the blue. He was a top draw for sure at held on 19th December 2019, IPL auction, but hitting a jackpot of Rs.15.50 crore would have been beyond his wildest imagination. Kolkata Knight Riders played the perfect ‘hosts’, making Cummins the costliest overseas : 31 : PTR-0320 player ever in IPL auctions. He also became the second most-expensive buy in the popular T20 league, next only to Yuvraj Singh (Rs.16 crore in 2014 to Delhi Daredevils). This of course, discounts the players retained, where Virat Kohli continues to rule. “We always had him in our mind,” KKR CEO Venky Mysore said. They joined the bidding for Cummins only at the Rs.15-crore mark. That was after RCB and Delhi Capitals had gone hammer and tongs for the tall fast bowler. Delhi were involved in another bigstake bidding war a little earlier, this time with Kings XI Punjab - over another highly-rated Australian Glenn Maxwell. Clearly Maxwell’s mental issues, which forced him to take a break from cricket, had no bearing on 19th December 2019, afternoon’s proceedings as he was snapped up by Kings XI for a whopping Rs.10.75 crore. Chief coach Anil Kumble later announced that KL Rahul will lead Kings XI in the 13th edition of the league. DC will also stick with Shreyas Iyer as their skipper despite having Ajinkya Rahane and R. Ashwin in the side. Big money was thrown up again as South African allrounder Chris Morris went to RCB for Rs.10 crore. With Eoin Morgan (KKR, Rs.5.25 crore), Sam Curran (CSK, Rs.5.50 crore), Aaron Finch (RCB, Rs.4.40 crore) also laughing their way to the bank, Rs.59.60 crore had been were splurged on 10 players within an hour. Australians quite expectedly, ruled the roost, with Nathan Coulter- Nile (MI, Rs.8 crore) making it three of them in the top-five list. West Indians, too, fared well with Sheldon Cottrell and Shimron Hetmyer crossing the Rs.7-crore mark. RCB, DC and KXIP were the most vigorous bidders in the early rounds, even though KKR stole the spotlight. This trend wasn’t really surprising given that KXIP had the biggest purse (Rs.42.70 crore) and RCB the maximum necessity. As money kept flying around, one player would have been left a little disappointed. Saurashtra medium-pacer Jaydev Unadkat will be donning the Rajasthan Royals colours again, but will get a much lesser salary than he would have liked. Royals made waves by picking him up for Rs.11.50 crore in 2018, before releasing him and buying him right back in 2018 for Rs.8.40 crore. They did an encore, putting him back in the auction and buying him again, this time at Rs.3 crore. RR cricket operations chief Zubin Bharucha would be getting a pat on the back for his business acumen. Another purchase that defied logic was Varun Chakravarthy, the mystery spinner from Tamil Nadu who, for the second running, seemed to have punched above his weight. Bought by KXIP for Rs.8.40 crore in 2018, he played in only one game - against KKR, conceding 35 runs in three overs for his sole wicket. KKR must have been impressed with him, snapping him up for Rs.4 crore. Spinner Piyush Chawla was the top Indian pick, going to CSK for Rs.6.75 crore. He once sold paani puris for a living, but Yashasvi Jaiswal can now afford to distribute paani puris to his entire neighbourhood in Vakola for free after he became Indian cricket’s latest teenager to become a crorepati in the player auction for IPL 2020 in Kolkata. Even as his base price was just Rs.20 lakh, the Rajasthan Royals snapped up the talented youngster for Rs.2.40 crore. Jaiswal was bred tough. He came from Bhadhohi in Uttar Pradesh and didn’t even have a home in Mumbai and would sleep in a tent adjacent to the Muslim United SC ground at Azad Maidan till his mentor- coach Jwala Singh took him under his wing and became his guardian.

 Virat Kohli proved yet again that he was the master of the chase as he joined hands with Ravindra Jadeja to help India chase down a daunting target of 316 with eight balls to spare in the third and final ODI against the West Indies at the Barabati Stadium in Cuttack on 22nd December 2019. Though the captain - quite uncharacteristically - wasn’t there till the end, Jadeja took the Men in Blue past the finish line in the company of Shardul Thakur. The thrilling victory took India to a 2-1 come-from-behind series win, its 10th successive one against the West Indies. Kohli’s men had lost the opening ODI in Chennai before bouncing back at Visakhapatnam. The Indian openers’ success story in 2019 continued with Rohit Sharma and K.L. Rahul forging a 122-run partnership and laying a strong foundation for the big pursuit. Kohli (85, 81b, 9x4) found an partner in allrounder Ravindra Jadeja (39 not out, 31b, 4x4), their 58-run association reversing the trend of the visitors striking at regular intervals to put the kids on the chase.

 India captain Virat Kohli was named in the Cricketers-of-the-Decade list alongside four others by Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack. South Africans Dale Steyn and A.B. de Villiers, Australia’s Steve Smith and women’s all-rounder Ellyse Perry also find a place in the list of five. Kohli, who has scored 5,775 more international runs than anyone else in the last 10 years, has arguably been the best batsman over the last decade. The 31-year-old Indian was named captain of the Wisden Test team of the decade, while also featuring in the ODI XI. “His genius has been to rise, time and again, to the challenge. Between the end of the England tour in 2014 : 32 : PTR-0320 and the second Test against Bangladesh at Kolkata in November, Kohli averaged 63, with 21 hundreds and 13 fifties,”. In the past decade, Kohli has amassed 7,202 runs in Tests - including 27 hundreds - while in the shorter formats the Indian skipper has 11,125 runs in ODIs and 2,633 runs in T20s. Kohli has already amassed 70 international hundreds and is only behind Ricky Ponting (71) and Sachin Tendulkar (100). He is third in the list of leading run-scorers of all time with 21,444 runs, behind Ponting (27,483) and Tendulkar (34,357).

 Rohit Sharma smacked sixes off the final two balls of a dramatic Super Over for India to win the third T20 against New Zealand in Hamilton on 29th January 2020, and wrap up the series. It sealed a Man-of-the Match performance from Sharma, the most prolific batsman in cricket’s shortest format, who showed his class with 65 to set up India’s 179 for five which was matched by New Zealand’s 179 for six. New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson had kept his side in the hunt with a classy 95 and when the scores were tied he scored another 11 batting first in the Super Over in which the Kiwis totalled 17. India only scored eight off the first four deliveries in reply before Sharma smacked Tim Southee for back-to-back sixes to clinch the match and the series with two games to spare. When Williamson won the toss in Hamilton he put immediate pressure on the tourists by electing to bowl, forcing India to set rather than chase a total. After a slow start in which Sharma had only 12 runs off 11 balls, he erupted over the next 12 deliveries to reach his half century. In a brutal attack on pace bowler Hamish Bennett he hit three sixes and two fours off five consecutive deliveries. But when Colin de Grandhomme removed KL Rahul for 27 and Bennett followed with the wickets of Sharma and Shivam Dube, India slumped from none for 89 to three for 96 after 11 overs and were restricted to a further 83 runs in the remainder of the innings. New Zealand’s reply was steady but unspectacular until the back half of the innings when Williamson charged in an attempt to keep the series alive. His 95 included eight fours and six sixes and with four balls remaining New Zealand only needed two to win. Williamson was caught behind trying to edge the winning runs past the keeper and after Ross Taylor and Tim Seifert ran a bye to level the scores, Taylor was bowled on the final ball of the innings sending the match into a Super Over. It was the third Super Over loss for New Zealand in the past seven months having gone down to England in the World Cup final and then again in a T20 match in November.

 A sprightly bunch of Bangladesh boys created history by winning their country’s first global cricket title, shocking defending champions India by three wickets in the summit clash of the ICC U-19 World Cup at Potchefstroom in South Africa on 9th February 2020. In a low-scoring final, Bangladesh first choked India to a meagre 177 in 47.2 overs and achieved the revised target of 170 in 42.1 overs under the Duckworth-Lewis method. Credit should go Bangladesh’s 18-year-old captain Akbar Ali, who showed nerves of steel with a patient 43 not out off 77 balls, which negated Yashasvi Jaiswal’s 88 off 121balls for India. There were two things that cost India dearly. While batting, India lost their last seven wickets for 23 runs. And while defending, the number of extras (33) bowled did matter in the final context of the game. Bangladesh's chase started in earnest with Parvez Hossain Emon (47 off 79 balls) and Tanzid Hasan (17) adding 50 in quick time, primarily due to former's impressive off-side play. However, things changed once leg-spinner Bishnoi (4/30 in 10 overs) came into the attack and started bowling his googlies. First, he got Tanzid, who holed out in the deep. He then had Mahmudul Hassan Joy (8) playing on a wrong 'un, Towhid Hridoy was rapped on the pads and Dhruv Jurel effected a smart stumping to reduce Bangladesh to 65 for 4. With Emon back in the hut due to hamstring injury, it was on skipper Akbar to show composure in the hour of crisis even as left-arm seamer Sushant Singh in his second and third spells got a couple of wickets. Emon came back at 102 for 6 and Akbar finally got hold of Bishnoi's googlies. With Bishnoi not having an effective leg-break, he was taken out of the attack. Emon, despite hamstring issues, fought gamely. India’s captain Priyam Garg introduced Jaiswal into the attack. The gamble to bring the part-time leg spinner paid off with Emon getting caught in the extra cover to make it 143 for 7. Earlier, India's batting wilted under pressure as a superb Bangladesh bowling attack shot the defending champions out for a paltry 177 in 47.2 overs. Jaiswal (88 off 121 balls) was once again a standout performer but not for once did he look like dominating the Bangladesh bowling unit whose new ball bowlers Shoriful Islam (2/31 in 10 overs) and Tanzim Hasan Shakib (2/28 in 8.2 overs) literally stifled the Indians for runs. Once Jaiswal was out, the distinct lack of match-time for other Indian batsmen was evident as seven wickets fell for only 23 runs. : 33 : PTR-0320

 On a day Bajrang Punia was expected to raise the Indian flag, the crowd at the KD Jadhav Indoor Stadium had to wait till late night, the last bout of the day to be precise, to listen to the Indian national anthem at the Asian Wrestling Championship games held in New Delhi. Ravi Dahiya was the lone bright spot for the host, expected to rule the medals table in the men’s freestyle category on the day but managing only a handful of silvers instead on day five of the Senior Asian Wrestling Championships. Dahiya, who won bronze at the 2019 World Championships in the 57kg to qualify for Tokyo Olympics, began in dominating fashion - a 14-5 win against former world champion Yuki Takahashi of Japan - and ended the same way, thrashing Hikmatullo Vohidov of Tajikistan 10-0 in 2 minutes 38 seconds for the title. Bajrang, though, failed to find a way past the nippy and strong Takuto Otoguro of Japan, whom he last played in the 2018 World Championships final, with the same result. Gaurav Baliyan was the only one to put up a decent fight in the final, going down 7-5 in the 79kg category to Arsalan Budazhapov of Kyrgyzstan with most of the points being scored in the last 30 seconds of the match.

 India saved its worst for the last. A brutal Australia outclassed India by 85 runs to claim a fifth Women's ICC T20 World Cup title on 8th March, 2020. Batting first after the coin landed in Meg Lanning’s favour, Australia came out in scintillating fashion with openers Alyssa Healy (75, 39b) and Beth Mooney (78, 54b) laying the foundation with a 115-run partnership in double quick time. Stirred up by the grand occasion, their onslaught fired Australia to a formidable 184 for four in 20 overs. Evidently overwhelmed by the occasion, India crumbled to 99 all out in front of a turnout of 86,174 at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground, a record in women’s cricket history. Football -  Brazil staged a remarkable comeback for the second time in a week on 17th November 2019, to beat Mexico 2-1 in front of its own fans at the Estadio Bezerraa and win the FIFA Under- 17 World Cup for a fourth time. Just three days after it recovered from being 2-0 down to beat France 3-2 in the semifinals, Brazil scored two goals in the last 10 minutes to overcome its Latin rival. Although Brazil had more of the early chances, Mexico took the lead in the 66th minute when Bryan Gonzalez rose between two defenders to head a cross from the left into the net. The win was revenge of a sorts for Brazil, which lost 3-0 to Mexico in the under-17 final in 2005, as well as in the final of the 2012 London Olympics.

 Rohit, Rahul, Kohli Fireworks Helped India Post 240 For 3; Beat Windies by 67 runs to clinch the T20I Series 2-1 on 11th December 2019. Up against the ever-threatening West Indians, in the decider of a tightly-contested three-match series, India put on an emphatic display of ‘powerhitting’ on 11th December 2019, an effort that will put the onus right back on them as one of the most dangerous teams in this finicky format. Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli did to the West Indies what the West Indies are known to do to other teams more often than not. The three top-order batsmen cracked very aggressive half-centuries to post a total that, even on a good day, would be difficult for any opposition to get. India made two changes to the side - bringing in Shami for Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav for Chahal. Shami did make his four overs count the best among the lot. Shooting -  It was a golden day for Indian shooting as Manu Bhaker, Elavenil Valarivan and Divyansh Singh Panwar won gold at the prestigious World Cup Final in Butian (China) on 22nd November, 2019. The gold haul was triggered by Manu who won with a World junior record score of 244.7. She beat Zorana Arunovic of Serbia by 2.8 points. Elavenil qualified in second place with 631.1 and beat the topper Ying-Shin Lin of Chinese Taipei by 0.1 point for the women’s air rifle gold. Mehuli Ghosh also made the final, but World No. 1 and 2 Apurvi Chandela and Anjum Moudgil were not at their best. Divyansh Singh Panwar added to the gold spree by winning the men’s air rifle by a 0.1 point margin over Istvan Peni of Hungary. Two of the best shooters of the season, Saurabh Chaudhary and Abhishek Verma finished sixth and fifth respectively. It did not matter as the team reached the top of the medals table once again. South Asian Games -  India ended its South Asian Games campaign with a best-ever medal haul of 312 and finish : 34 : PTR-0320 on top for the 13th time-in-a-row, in the regional multi-sporting event, in Kathmandu on 10th December, 2019. India collected 174 gold, 93 silver and 45 bronze after 10 days of competitions to surpass the 309 it had won in the previous edition at home in 2016. But the number of gold India won this time was 15 less than the previous edition. Sri Lanka was a distant second with 251 medals while Nepal finished with 206. On the concluding day, India added 18 medals (15 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze) with the boxers fetching six gold and 1 silver. Overall, the country’s pugilists won 12 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze. The Indian cagers fetched both the men’s and women’s gold by defeating Sri Lanka (101-62) and host Nepal (127-46) in their respective summit clashes. In squash, India won gold and a silver in the women’s and men’s team events respectively. Prominent medallists: Boxing: Gold: Men: Vikas Krishan (69kg), Sparsh Kumar (52kg), Narender (+91kg). Women: Pinki Rani (51kg), Sonia Lather (57kg), Manju Bamboriya (64kg). Silver: Varinder Singh (men’s 60kg). Squash: Gold: Women; Silver: men. Basketball: Gold: Men & women. Tennis -  Spain’s Rafael Nadal sealed a sixth Davis Cup title for his country on 24th November 2019, when it beat Canada 2-0 in the final of the revamped event. After a week of relentless tension and late-night heroics it was perhaps asking too much for the first final in the Davis Cup’s new guise to deliver a classic and so it proved as Spain became the last nation standing of the 18 who assembled in Madrid. With Spain’s King Felipe watching on, the 33-year-old Nadal fought off Canadian youngster Denis Shapovalov 6-3, 7-6(7) to give Spain its first title since 2011. If any player deserved to get his hands on the famous old trophy again it was Nadal after he worked overtime all week, often into the small hours, to win all eight matches he played. But he surely would have been happy had it been team mate Roberto Bautista Agut to have delivered the winning point. Bautista Agut had given the host a flying start, beating Felix Auger-Aliassime 7-6 (3), 6-2 after returning to the squad following the death of his father. After beating Auger-Aliassime, Bautista Agut was embraced by his captain Sergi Bruguera and there were emotional scenes at the end as roars of Campiones echoed around the arena. For Gerard Pique, who has made revamping the Davis Cup into a tennis World Cup his mission, it was the perfect climax to a week in which the new format suffered glitches but could be judged a qualified success.

 The 2019 men’s tennis season did not end as it had begun for Rafael Nadal. In January, after overcoming his latest round of injury concerns, he faced Novak Djokovic in the final of the Australian Open and looked powerless as Djokovic ripped winners and controlled long rallies seemingly at will. Nadal was a rare blend of sheepish and bewildered when the 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 drubbing was over. Flash forward to 24th November 2019, at the Caja Mágica when Nadal, after overcoming another round of injury concerns, finished off a week of remarkable tennis and leadership by clinching the Davis Cup title in front of a home crowd in Madrid. He and Spain are team champions again, just as they were in 2004, when Nadal was a longhaired teenager in clam diggers surprised to be picked for singles. He is now 33 and back at No. 1at season’s end - a record 11 years after he finished on top for the first time. Nadal did have a rare case of melancholy this spring after his chronic knee tendinitis flared and forced him to withdraw during the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. His coach, Carlos Moyá, said Nadal was as dejected as he had seen him, but instead of taking an extended break, Nadal played his way through and out of the funk during the clay-court season. After defeating Djokovic for the Italian Open title, he won the French Open for a preposterous 12th time. After losing a Wimbledon semifinal to Federer, Nadal rebounded again to win a fourth U.S. Open title. He did it by fighting through fatigue and tactical conundrums to snuff out a comeback by newcomer Daniil Medvedev in a classic five-set final full of all-court play and extraterrestrial defense. After taking a break to marry his longtime girlfriend, Maria Francisca Perelló, in Mallorca, Spain, in October, Nadal regathered momentum by winning his final two round-robin matches at the ATP Finals and then was at full power for Davis Cup in singles and doubles. He and Djokovic divided the biggest spoils in men’s tennis in 2019: Each won two of the four Grand Slam singles titles. But Nadal was the one who finished on the upswing, and he can now ride that wave into 2020, when he will try to match Federer’s record of 20 major men’s singles titles.

 Novak Djokovic’s face was a collage of emotion - triumph and defiance. After four hours at the Rod Laver Arena, when he took on a spirited Dominic Thiem and a full house, most of : 35 : PTR-0320 whom back on 2nd February 2020, his opponent, the Serb’s hands went up in celebration. It was a record eighth Australian Open title. And more. Djokovic won 6-4, 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 to claim his 17th Major crown, which made him the first man in the Open Era to win Grand Slams in three different decades, having won his first title here 12 years ago. The victory on 2nd February 2020, saw Djokovic inch closer to Roger Federer’s record haul of 20 Grand Slams, a number he’s gunning for. The Serb, who takes home the winner’s cheque of A$4,120,000, will also return to the top spot in the ATP rankings. Thiem, who battled to the finish in his third Grand Slam final, collected a cheque of A$2,065,000.

 Sofia Kenin who won her maiden major title, the Australian Open, at Melbourne Park on 1st February 2020, was in tears after she turned the match around in the second set. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she collected balls, preparing to serve. Commentators picked it up and viewers wondered what was up. Those seated in the lower bowls of the Rod Laver Arena were a little stunned. Was she hurt? What was up? The 21-year-old was in control of the match, or as close to it when still live. Kenin, is now the top-ranked American at No.7 in the world. Garbine Muguruza, who was the favourite to win in the final, given that she had already won Major titles twice, was surprised by how well her younger opponent handled the situation.

 Five-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova, one of the world's most recognisable sportswomen, on 26th February 2020, announced her retirement at the age of 32. Sharapova burst onto the scene as a supremely gifted teenager and won her Grand Slams before serving a 15month ban for failing a drugs test at the 2016 Australian Open. Sharapova has hardly played in the past year because of long-standing shoulder problems. Sharapova shot to fame as a giggly 17-year-old Wimbledon winner in 2004, the third-youngest player to conquer the All England Club's hallowed grass courts. She became World No.1 in 2005 and won the US Open the next year. Wrestling -  India had managed one gold in the previous edition of the senior Asian wrestling championship. On 18th February 2020, Sunil Kumar ensured there won’t be any less this time around, opening the gold tally for the host with a 5-0 win in the 87kg final against Azat Salidinov of Kyrgyzstan. It was not just an improvement on Sunil’s own silverwinning performance in 2019 but also India’s first Greco-Roman gold in the competition after 27 years. The last time it happened was in 1993, when Pappu Yadav won the 48kg title. National coach Hargobind Singh hoped the win would help bring more focus on Greco-Roman, often reduced to shadows against the more popular freestyle category. In the 55kg, 21-year old Arjun Halakurki won bronze with a 7-4 win against Dong Hyeok Won of Korea. Leading 7-1 in his semifinal bout against 2018 junior Worlds and eventual gold-medallist Pouya Mohammad Naserpour of Iran, Halakurki paid for his aggressive play to go down 7-8 in the final few seconds. The other medal contender, Mehar Singh, lost out narrowly 2-3 in the 130kg bronze-medal playoff to Kyrgyzstan Roman Kim. The other two Indians, Sajan Bhanwal and Sachin Rana, failed to advance past the league stages.

 Jitender Kumar was the silver lining for India on the final day of competition at the senior Asian wrestling championships amidst below-par display from some of the big names on 23rd February, 2020. India managed to add a lone silver and just two more bronze to its tally. The performances itself, however, left a lot to be desired from all the five Indians in action. The only Indian to reach the final, Jitender failed to find a way past reigning champion Daniyar Kaisanov of Kazakhstan, losing 1-3 in the 74kg but salvaging some pride after World championships silver medallist Deepak Punia (86kg) and World and Asian championships bronze medallist Rahul Aware (61kg) disappointed. Having won his qualifying round easily, Jitender managed to edge past Iranian Mostafa Mohabbali Hosseinkhani on criteria after being tied 2-2 on points in the quarterfinal before winning the semifinal against Sumiyabazar Zandanbud of Mongolia 2-1, all three points coming through passivity penalties for the opponent. It was, however, a disappointing outing for Punia who appeared completely off-colour in both his morning bouts, losing 1-4 to Shutaro Yamada of Japan in the semifinals. : 36 :

PTR/0320 PTR DIARY (As on 12/03/2020)

HEADS OF IMPORTANT ORGANIZATIONS

United Nations -  Antonio Guterres — Secretary-General, UN (United Nations)  Audrey Azoulay — Director-General, UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation)  Tedros Adhanom — Director-General, WHO (World Health Organisation)  Guy Ryder — Director-General, ILO (International Labour Organisation)  Qu Dongyu — Director-General, FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation)  Henrietta Holsman Fore — Executive Director, UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund)  Houlin Zhao — Secretary General, ITU (International Telecommunication Union)  Bishar Abdirahman Hussein — Director-General, UPU (Universal Postal Union)  Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf — President, ICJ (International Court of Justice)  Rafael Grossi — Director General, IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency)

Heads of International Organizations -  Patricia Scotland — Secretary-General, Commonwealth of Nations  Amjad Hussain B.Sial — Secretary-General, SAARC (South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation)  Roberto Azevêdo — Director-General, WTO (World Trade Organisation)  Jens Stoltenberg — Secretary-General, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation)  Lim Jock Hoi — Secretary-General, ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations)  Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo — Secretary-General, OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries)  Kristalina Georgieva — Managing Director, IMF (International Monetary Fund)  David Malpass — President, World Bank  Masatsugu Asakawa — President, ADB (Asian Development Bank)  José Ángel Gurría — Secretary-General, OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development)

Heads of Important Indian Government Offices -  Ram Nath Kovind — President  Narendra Modi — Prime Minister  M.Venkaiah Naidu — Vice-President (Chairman, Rajya Sabha)

Head of Indian Armed Forces -  President Ram Nath Kovind — Commander-in-Chief, Indian Armed Forces  General Bipin Rawat — Chief of Defence Staff  General Manoj M. Naravane — Chief of the Army Staff, Indian Army  Admiral Karambir Singh — Chief of the Naval Staff, Indian Navy  Rakesh Kumar Singh — Chief of the Air Staff, Indian Air Force Bhadauria : 37 :

PTR/0320 LIST OF GOVERNORS AND CHIEF MINISTERS OF STATES (As on 12/03/2020)

STATE GOVERNOR CHIEF MINISTER CAPITAL Andhra Pradesh Biswa Bhushan - Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy Hyderabad (de jure) Harichandan Amaravati (de facto) Arunachal Pradesh B.D. Mishra Pema Khandu Itanagar Assam Jagdish Mukhi Sarbananda Sonowal Dispur Bihar Phagu Chauhan Nitish Kumar Patna Chhattisgarh Anusuiya Uikey Bhupesh Baghel Naya Raipur Goa Satya pal Malik Dr. Pramod Sawant Panaji Gujarat Acharya Devvrat Vijay Rupani Gandhinagar Haryana Satyadeo Narain Arya Manohar Lal Khattar Chandigarh Himachal Pradesh Bandaru Dattatreya Jai Ram Thakur Shimla (Summer) Dharamsala (Winter) Jharkhand Draupadi Murmu Hemant Soren Ranchi Karnataka Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala B.S. Yediyurappa Bengaluru Kerala Arif Mohammad Khan Pinarayi Vijayan Thiruvananthapuram Madhya Pradesh Lalji Tandon Kamal Nath Bhopal Maharashtra Bhagat Singh Koshyari Uddhav B. Thackeray Mumbai Manipur Najma Heptulla N.Biren Singh Imphal Meghalaya Tathagata Roy Conrad Kongkal Sangma Shillong Mizoram P.S. Sreedharan Pillai Zoramthanga Aizawl Nagaland R.N. Ravi Neiphiu Rio Kohima Odisha Prof.Ganeshi Lal Naveen Patnaik Bhubaneswar Punjab V.P. Singh Badnore Capt. Amarinder Singh Chandigarh Rajasthan Kalraj Mishra Ashok Gehlot Jaipur Sikkim Ganga Prasad Prem Singh Tamang Gangtok Tamil Nadu Banwarilal Purohit Thiru K. Palaniswami Chennai Telangana Tamilisai Soundararajan K. Chandrashekar Rao Hyderabad Tripura Ramesh Bais Biplab Kumar Deb Agartala Uttar Pradesh Anandiben Patel Yogi Adityanath Lucknow Uttarakhand Baby Rani Maurya Trivendra Singh Rawat Dehradun West Bengal Jagdeep Dhankar Mamata Banerjee Kolkata

UNION TERRITORY HEAD (Lt.GOVERNOR) CHIEF MINISTER CAPITAL Andaman & Devendra Kumar Joshi - Port Blair Nicobar Islands Puducherry Dr. Kiran Bedi V. Narayanasamy Puducherry Jammu & Kashmir Girish Chandra Murmu - Srinagar (Summer) Jammu (Winter) Ladakh Radha Krishna Mathur - Leh

NATIONAL CAPITAL TERRITORY LT.GOVERNOR CHIEF MINISTER CAPITAL Delhi Anil Baijal Arvind Kejriwal New Delhi : 38 :

PTR/0320 THE UNION COUNCIL OF MINISTERS (As on 12/03/2020)

CABINET MINISTERS -

NAME PORTFOLIO

Rajnath Singh - Defence Amit Shah - Home Affairs Nitin Gadkari - Road Transport and Highways, Micro. Small and Medium Enterprises D.V. Sadananda Gowda - Chemicals and Fertilizers Nirmala Sitharaman - Finance, Corporate Affairs Ram Vilas Paswan - Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Narendra Singh Tomar - Panchayati Raj, Rural Development, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ravi Shankar Prasad - Law and Justice, Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Harsimrat Kaur Badal - Food Processing Industries Thaawar Chand Gehlot - Social Justice and Empowerment Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar - External Affairs Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank - Human Resource Development Arjun Munda - Tribal Affairs Smriti Zubin Irani - Textiles, Women and Child Development Dr. Harsh Vardhan - Earth Sciences, Science and Technology, Health and Family Welfare Prakash Javadekar - Information and Broadcasting, Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Piyush Goyal - Commerce and Industry, Railways Dharmendra Pradhan - Steel, Petroleum and Natural Gas Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi - Minority Affairs Prahlad Joshi - Coal, Mines, Parliamentary Affairs Dr. Mahendranath Pandey - Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Gajendra Singh Shekhawat - Jal Shakti Giriraj Singh - Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries : 39 :

PTR/0320 LIST OF BOOKS

A Bold, Fresh Piece of Humanity Bill O'Reilly A Bull in China Jim Rogers A Case of Exploding Mangoes Mohammed Hanif A case of mistaken identity Awais Sheikh A Century of Trust : The Story of Tata Steel Rudrangshu Mukherjee A Certain Ambiguity : A Mathematical Novel Gaurav Suri, Hartosh Singh Bal A Farewell to Arms By Ernest Hemingway A Gift For Muslim Couple Maulavi Ashraf Ali Thanvi A Golden Age Tahmina Anam A Good Woman Danielle Steel A Hologram for the King Dave Eggers A Journey Interrupted : Being Indian in Pakistan Farzana Versey A Life in War and Peace Kofi Annan with Nader Mousavizadeh A Mirror of the Arab World : Lebanon in Conflict Sandra Mackey; W.W. Norton A Mission in Kashmir Andrew Whitehead A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose Eckhart Tolle A New History of India Francois Gautier A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty Abhijeet Banerjee A Surgeon & Consul General - a Migrant Experience T.J. Rao A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini A View from the Outside : Why Good Economics Work for Everyone P. Chidambaram A Wolf at the Table Augusten Burroughs About Alice Calvin Trillin After Dark Haruki Murakami Agriculture Cannot Wait M.S. Swaminathan All for a Few Perfect Waves David Rensin American Lion : Andrew Jackson in the White House Jon Meacham Among the Chatterati Kanika Gahlaut An Equal Music : A Novel Vikram Seth An Introduction to Islam for Jews Reuven Firestone Another Man's Wife and Other Stories Manjul Bajaj Aryavarta Chronicles Krishna Udayasankara Ashoka : The Search for India’s Lost Emperor Charles Allen August : Osage County Tracy Letts Ayodhya : The Dark Night Krishna Jha and Dhirendra K. Jha Bad Things Happen Harry Dolan Bandicoots in the Moonlight Avijit Ghosh Banking Principles & Operations M.N. Gopinath Barbarians at the Gate Bryan Burrough Barefoot : A Novel Elin Hilderbrand Battle for a Global Empire Tim Bouquet & Byron Ousey Battle Hymn of The Tiger Mom Amy Chua Beautiful Boy : A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Meth Addiction David Sheff : 40 :

PTR/0320 Behind the Beautiful Forevers : Life, Death and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity Katherine Boo Beloved Toni Morrison Better : A Surgeon's Notes on Performance Atul Gawande Beyond Black Waters Joginder Paul (Translated by Vibha S. Chauhan) Beyond the Blues Aakash Chopra Big Russ and Me: Father and Son: Lessons of Life Tim Russert Bitter Wormwood Easterine Kire Blank Gaze Jose Luis Peixoto Blood of the Earth : The Global Battle for Vanishing Oil Resources Dilip Hiro Blue Ocean Strategy Chan W. Kim Book of Demons Nandita Krishna Books Meyer : The Twilight Series Stephanie Meyer Born to Bat Khalid A.H. Ansari Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4) Stephenie Meyer Breakout Nations: In Pursuit of the Next Economic Miracles Ruchir Sharma Brida : A Novel Paulo Coelho Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist Roger Lowenstein Burnt Shadows Kamila Shamsie Chicken Mama and Other Stories Margaret Bhatty Chicken Soup for the Soul Jack Canfield China man Shehan Karunatilake Christine Falls Benjamin Black Churchill, Hitler, and “The Unnecessary War”: How Britain Lost Its Empire and the West Lost the World Patrick J. Buchanan Churchill’s White Rabbit: The True Story of a Real-Life James Bond Sophie Jackson Clapton: The Autobiography Eric Clapton Clifton Chronicles Jeffrey Archer Cold Steel : Lakshmi Mittal and the Multi-bilion Dollar Tim Bouquet Congress After India Zoya Hasan Creating a World Without Poverty; Social Business and the Future of Capitalism Muhammad Yunus Crossed Swords : Pakistan, its Army and the Wars within Shuja Nawaz Curiosity Killed the Cat and Other Animal Idioms Bindia Thapar Cutting for Stone Abraham Verghese Dare to Do Kiran Bedi Daughter of Destiny: An Autobiography Benazir Bhutto Death and Honor (Honor Bound) W.E.B. Griffin Deceptively Delicious Jessica Seinfeld Devil May Care Sebastian Faulks Diary of a Bad Year J.M. Coetzee Discovering the vedas Frits Stall Dreams from My Father Barack Obama Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert Eden’s Outcasts : The Story of Louisa May Alcott and Her Father John Matteson Einstein: His Life and Universe Walter Isaacson Enchantress of Florence Salman Rushidie Entry from Backside Only: Hazaar Fundas of Indian-English Binoo K. John : 41 :

PTR/0320 Escape Manjula Padmanabhan Every Story is a Ghost Story : A life of David Foster Wallace DT Max Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close Safran Foer Family Values Abha Dawesar Far from the Tree Andrew Solomon Fifty Shades of Grey E.L. James Five Point Someone Chetan Bhagat Fresh Kills Bill Loehfelm Foreign Sonora Jha Getting Things Done David Allen Gilead Marilynne Robinson Gluten-free Girl Shauna Ahern God Is Not Great Christopher Hitchens Gods Without Men Hari Kunzru Good To Great Jim Collins Growing Up bin Laden Najwa Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J.K. Rowling Headley and I S. Hussain Zaidi and Rahul Bhatt Helium, based on the 1984 Jaspreet Singh Heritage and Environment Shyam Chainani HHhH (Himmlers Hirn heisst Heydrich) Laurent Binet (Author) & Sam Taylor (Translator) Holy Warriors : A Journey into the Heart of Indian Fundamentalism Edna Fernandes How Doctors Think Jerome Groopman How to Change the World; Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas David Bornstein I Am America (And So Can You!) Stephen Colbert I Love You, Beth Cooper Larry Doyle Ignited Minds Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam IKing - The Battle for Afghanistan William Dalrymple In a Fisherman’s Language Jim Henry In Dreams Shahbano Bilgrami In Good Faith Saba Naqvi In Search of a Future : The Story of Kashmir David Devadas In the City of Gold and Silver Kenize Mourad In the Line of Fire : A Memoir Pervez Musharraf In the Shadow of the Taj : A Portrait of Agra Rovina Grewal In the Woods Tana French India 2020 APJ Abdul Kalam India Grows at Night Gurcharan Das India: From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond Shashi Tharoor India’s Biggest Cover-Up Anuj Dhar India’s external intelligence : Secrets of RAW Maj. Gen. V.K. Singh Indian Army Vision 2020 Gurmeet Kanwal Indomitable Spirit APJ Abdul Kalam Inferno Dan Brown Infidel Ayaan Hirsi Ali Inside Hamas: The Untold Story of Militants, Martyrs and Spies Zaki Chehab Into the Wild Jon Krakauer : 42 :

PTR/0320 Iron Curtain : The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956 Anne Applebaum Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata : A Chronicle of His Life Frank Harris Journey Into Islam: The Crisis of Globalization Akbar Ahmed Just Who Will You Be ? Maria Shriver Kashmir Kidnapping B.K.Bakhshi Laugh All the Way to the Vote Bank Pamela Philipose Legacy of Ashes : History of the CIA Tim Weiner Life of Pi Yann Martel Lion’s Honey : The Myth of Samson David Grossman Little Brother Cory Doctorow Logicomix : An Epic Search for Truti Bertrand Russelly Long Pilgrimage: The Life and Teaching of the Shivapuri Baba John G Bennett Look We Have Coming to Dover ! Daljit Nagra Lost City Radio Daniel Alarcon Mad Dogs and an Englishman Dilip Bobb Mahashweta Sudha Murty Makam Dr. Rita Chowdhury Making the Minister Smile Pamela Philipose March Geraldine Brooks Marrying Anita Anita Jain Maus & Maus II Art Spiegelman McMafia Misha Glenny Measuring the World Daniel Kehlmann Midnight’s Children Salman Rushdie Mistaken Identity : Two Families, One Survivor, Unwavering Hope Don and Susie Van Ryn, Newell Colleen and Whitney Cerak and Mark Tabb Microcosm : E. coli and the New Science of Life Carl Zimmer Mohandas : A True Story of a Man, His People and an Empire Rajmohan Gandhi Moment of Truth in Iraq : How a New ‘Greatest Generation’ of American Soldiers is Turning Defeat and Disaster into Victory and Hope Michael Yon Moth Smoke’s Mohsin Hamid Mother India Gayatri Chatterji Multiple Blessings Jon and Kate Zondervan Museum of Innocence Orhan Pamuk My Country My Life L.K. Advani My dear Bapu ... (Letters from C. Rajagopalachari to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Devadas Gandhi and Gopalkrishna Gandhi) Gopalkrishna Gandhi My Journey, Memories Dr. V. Shanta Narcopolis Jeet Thayail Narmada Dammed Dilip D’Souza Nehru : The Invention of India Shashi Tharoor Netherland (Vintage Contemporaries) Joseph O’Neill Never done and Poorly Paid Jayati Ghosh Nineteen Minutes Jodi Picoult No Easy Day Matt Bissonnette No Higher Honor Condoleezza Rice No One Belongs Here More Than You Miranda July North-West Pakistan Fatima Bhutto : 43 :

PTR/0320 Nudge Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein Obama Nation Jerome Corsi Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout On Chesil Beach Ian McEwan Once Upon a Country Sari Nusseibeh One Hundred years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez One Last Mirror Andrew Harvey One night at the call centre Chetan Bhagat Other Colours Orhan Pamuk Our Moon Has Blood Clots Rahul Pandita Out of God’s Oven : Travels in a Fractured Land Dom Moraes, Sarayu Srivatsa Out of Sight Geeta Doctor Out Stealing Horses Per Petterson Outliers Malcolm Gladwell Palestine : Peace Not Apartheid Jimmy Simon & Schuster Paths of Glory Jeffrey Archer Patriots and Partisans Ramachandra Guha Pax Indica Shashi Tharoor Pistol : The Life of Pete Maravich Mark Kriegel Pitch Invasion Barbara Smit Plague Ship (Oregon Files) Clive Cussler and Jack Du Brul Playing for Pizza John Grisham Plum Lucky Janet Evanovich Private Life of an Indian Prince Mulk Raj Anand Pullela Gopi Chand : The World Beneath His Feat Sanjay Sharma Reclaiming History Vincent Bugliosi Rhett Butler’s People Donald McCaig Roll of Honour Amandeep Sandhu Romancing With Life Dev Anand Rudra : The Idea of Shiva Nilima Chitgopekar Sail James Patterson and Howard Roughan Say You’re Not One of Them Uwem Akpan Scarpetta Patricia Cornwell Seeing Like A Feminist Nivedita Menon Shaam-e-Awadh : Writings on Lucknow Veena Talwar Oldenburg Sitting Bull Bill Yenne Slavery by Another Name : The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II Douglas A. Blackmon Smarte Trekk Hallgeir Opedal Sophie’s Choice William Styron Spies from Space : The ISRO Frame-up by J.Rajashekaran Nair Spouse : The Truth About Marriage Shobhaa Dé Still Reading Khan Mushtaq Sheikh Stone Cold David Baldacci Story of the Eye Georges Bataille Suite Francaise Irene Nemirovsky Superstar India : From Incredible to Unstoppable Shobha De : 44 :

PTR/0320 Switcheroos! : Topsy-Turvy Mysteries of Markiposa Swati Chanda Telegraph Avenue Michael Chabon The 3 Mistakes of My Life Chetan Bhagat The Absolutely true diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie The Abstinence Teacher Tom Perrotta The accidental Prime Minister : The Making and Unamaking of Manmohan Singh Sanjaya Baru The Adventures of Amir Hamza Musharraf Ali Farooqi The Age of Turbulence Alan Greenspan The Alchemist Paulo Coelho The Amazing Advertures of Kavalier & Clay Michael Chabon The Appeal : A Novel John Grisham The Archivist’s Story Travis Holland The Audacity of Home Barack Obama The Audacity of Hope Barack Obama The Bad Girl Mario Vargas Llosa The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears Dinaw Mengestu The Big Necessity Rose George The Black Swan Nassim Nicholas Taleb The Book Thief Markus Zusak The Bridge Adventures of Mr. Badhir Anant M. Bhagwat The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz The Cat’s Table Michael Ondaatje The Children of Hurin J.R.R. Tolkien The Circle Of Reason Amitav Ghosh The Cleft : A Novel Doris Lessing The Dangerous Book for Boys Conn and Hal Iggulden The Descent of Air India Jitender Bhargava The Diana Chronicles Tina Brown The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cell Phone : Reflections on India - the Emerging 21st-Century Power Shashi Tharoor The Emerging Giant Arvind Panagariya The Facebook Era Clara Shih The Female Eunuch Germaine Greer The Gate House Nelson DeMille The Gathering (Man Booker Prize) Anne Enright The God Delusion Richard Dawkins The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy The Golden Age Tahmima Anam The Golden Gate Vikram Seth The Great Fire Shirley Hazzard The Great Indian Middle Class Pavan K. Varma The Great Indian Novel Shashi Tharoor The Gulag Archipelago Alexander Solzhenitsyn The Host : A Novel Stephenie Meyer The Idea of India Sunil Khinani The Illicit Happiness of Other People Manu Joseph The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot The Immortals of Meluha Amish Tripathi : 45 :

PTR/0320 The Impressionist Pran Nath The Inheritance : The world Obama confronts and the challenges to American Power David E. Sanger The Inheritance of Loss Kiran Desai The Jewel of Medina Sherry Jones The Kalam Effect : My Years with the President P.M. Nair The Kite Runner Khalid Husseini The Last Lecture Randy Pausch and Jeffrey Zaslow The Life of Pi Yann Martel The Lucky One Nicholas Sparks The Memory Keeper’s Daughter Kim Edwards The Name of the Wind Patrick Rothfuss The Nine Jeffrey Toobin The Noble Wilds The Supreme Master Ching Hai The Old Ways A Journey on Foot Robert Macfarlane The Only First-Hand Account of the Navy SEAL Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden Mark Owen and Revin Maurer The Origins of Sex Faramerz Dabhoiwala The Other Side of Israel Susan Nathan The Parrot Who Wouldn’t Talk and Other Stories Ruskin Bond The Past Alan Pauls The Penderwicks on Gardam Street Jeanne Birdsall The Picture of Darian Grey Oscar Wilde The Possible Dream - The Story of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon Anil Dharker The Post-American World : Release 2.0 Fareed Zakaria The Power of Now : A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment Eckhart Tolle The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder Vincent Bugliosi The Prospect of My Arrival Dwight Okita The Purpose of Christmas Rick Warren The Raisina Series Krishan Partap Singh The Raw Shark Texts Steven Hall The Reason for God : Belief in an Age of Skepticism Timothy Keller The Religion Tim Willocks The Reluctant Fundamentalist Mohsin Hamid The Return of Depression Economics Paul Krugman The Revolution : A Manifesto Ron Paul The Rise and Fall of an Eelam Warrior S. Murari The Rivered Earth Vikram Seth The Road Cormac McCarthy The Sanjay Sotry Vinod Mehta The Sea John Banville The Seafarer Conor McPherson The Shack William P. Young The Snowball, Warren Buffett and the Business of Life Alice Schroeder The Story of Edgar Sawtelle David Wroblewski The Stranger Albert Camus The Sun My Heart Thich Nhat Hanh The Tales of Beedle the Bard J.K. Rowling : 46 :

PTR/0320 The Trillion Dollar Meltdown Charles R. Morris The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera The Wasted Vigil Nadeem Aslam The White Tiger Aravind Adiga The Wild Theories (Las Teorias Salvajes, 2008) Polo Oloixarac The Witch of Portobello Paulo Coelho The World Economic Crisis & What it Means Vince Cable The World is What It Is (authorised biography of V.S. Naipaul) Patrick French The World Without Us Alan Weisman The Worst Hard Time : The Untold Story of those who survived the Great American Dust Bowl Timothy Egan The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion The Yiddish Policeman’s Union Michael Chabon The Yogi and the Commissar Arthur Koestler This is How You Lose Her Junot Diaz This Republic of Suffering : Death and the american Civil War Drew Gilpin Faust Three Cups of Tea Greg Mortenson To Infinity and Beyond Karen Paik Total Money Makeover Dave Ramsey Tour de France : Doping, Coverups, And Winning at all Costs Tyler Hamilton Tree of Smoke Denis Johnson Two Lives Vikram Seth Unaccustomed Earth Jhumpa Lahiri Uncommon Man Dharmendra Bhandari Undisputed Truth My Life as a Young Thug Vanity Bagh Anees Salim Vikramaditya’s Throne Poile Sengupta We Are Like That Only : Understanding the Logic of Consumer India Rama Bijapurkar Weight Loss Upamanyu Chatterjee What Hath God Wrought Daniel Walker Howe Whatever the odds K.P. Singh When You Are Engulfed in Flames David Sedaris Who Is Conrad Hirst ? Kevin Wignall Why Nations Fail Daron Acemoglu and James Wings of Fire APJ Abdul Kalam World Without End Ken Follett You staying young Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz Yuvi Makarand Waingankar