1) PM Narendra Modi launched National Air Quality Index:
--> Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 6 April 2015 launched the National Air Quality Index (AQI) for monitoring the quality of air in major urban centres across the country on a real-time basis and enhancing public awareness for taking mitigative action.
--> Union Environment Ministry proposes to extend the measurement of air quality to 22 state capitals and 44 other cities with a population exceeding one million.
--> Initially the new index will cover 10 cities. They are Ahmedabad, Chennai, Delhi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Agra, Faridabad, Varanasi, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Later it will be extended to more than 60 cities with a population exceeding one million.
--> The AQI has been developed by the Central Pollution Control Board in consultation with IIT-Kanpur and an expert group comprising medical, air-quality professionals and other stakeholders.
2) India's first Scorpene submarine INS Kalvari launched for sea trials:
--> Kalvari, the first of Indian Navy's Scorpene class stealth submarines being built under Project 75, achieved a major milestone with its 'undocking' at the Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL) on 6 April 2015.
--> It is expected to be commissioned into Indian Navy by September 2016.
--> The submarine is part of the Indian Navy’s ambitious submarine programme- Project 75.
--> The first Scorpene submarine has been named after its predecessor, an erstwhile Russian 'Foxtrot' class submarine, Kalvari. It was the first submarine operated by India.
--> The six Scorpenes are being built by Mazagon Docks Ltd in collaboration with French firm DCNS.
3) Adonis bags Kumaran Asan World Prize for poetry:
--> Paris- based Syrian-Lebanese Arab poet Adonis has been chosen for this year’s Kumaran Asan World Prize for poetry, instituted by the Kumaran Asan Memorial Association to honour poets of international stature and introduce them to Indian readers.
--> Adonis, author of more than twenty volumes of poetry in Arabic and widely translated into almost all languages is a perennial contender for the Nobel Prize for many years.
--> If Only the Sea Could Sleep, Pages of Day and Night, Songs of Mihyar the Damascene, Not A Star, A Voice, A King is Miyhar, The Adoring Rock, Take me to God are his important works.
--> Kumaran Asan World Prize for poetry is instituted by Chennai based Kumaran Asan Memorial Association.
4) BCCI appointed Rajeev Shukla as chairman of IPL governing council:
--> Rajeev Shukla was on 6 April 2015 re-appointed as the chairman of the powerful IPL governing council, ending a month-long suspense over the selection of the top post of the cash-rich league.
--> Former Union minister and Congress leader Shukla was the IPL chairman till 2013 when he resigned from the post in the aftermath of the IPL 'spot-fixing' scandal.
5) Dena Bank, LIC signed MoU to provide life cover under PMJBY:
--> Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) and Dena Bank have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to implement the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJBY) for savings bank account holders of the bank.
--> PMJBY, a life insurance scheme, is one of the three schemes announced by the Finance Minister in the union budget for the year 2015-16.
--> This will be a group life insurance cover and would be renewed annually on June 1 every year.
6) Indian-origin schoolboy Pratap Singh in UK won major physics prize:
--> A 15-year-old Indian-origin schoolboy in the UK has been awarded the Institute of Physics Prize for conducting an experiment that verified an effect of Albert Einstein's theory of special relativity.
--> Pratap Singh, a student at The Perse School, Cambridge, has won the 500 pounds Institute of Physics (IOP) prize at the Big Bang Fair held at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham in March.
7) Dronavalli Harika wins bronze in World Women's chess championship:
--> Indian Grandmaster Dronavalli Harika won the bronze medal along with Swedish Grandmaster Pia Cramling by virtue of making it to the semi-finals of World Women's chess championship.
--> Harika lost to the eventual winner Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine in the semi-finals.
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