1-7 April 2013

• The Ministry of Information & Broadcasting has reconstituted the Central Press Accreditation Committee(CPAC). The CPAC functions as a body to approve applications for accreditation from the media, both Indian as well as foreign.The tenure of the committee shall be two years from its first meeting.
• United Nations World Tourism Organisation ( UNWTO) Commission’s Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development and 25th Joint Meeting of the UNWTO Commission for East Asia, Pacific and South Asia will be held at Hyderabad from 12th to 14th of this month.
• Socialist author and thinker Mastram Kapoor passed away.He was recently awarded the Yash Bharati award, which was revived after six years by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister.
• Union Tourism Minister Shri K Chiranjeevi today launched a web based Public Service Delivery System for Hotel approval and classification with a view to bring in transparency in granting approvals for hotel projects and classification status to functioning hotels.
• Asserting that a large number of people, particularly minorities, languish in prisons as undertrials for years, or remain ‘unjustly incarcerated’, Press Council of India (PCI) chairperson Justice Markandey Katju has decided to set up a ‘Court of Last Resort’ to examine such cases. 
• India and the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan is likely to decide on preliminary spadework into all the aspects of an FTA plus or Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) that aims to cover trade in goods, service, investment and movement of labour .
• The Planning Commission and the National Innovation Council are organising the first ever Hackathon on the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) on 6th – 7th April 2013. 
• The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to grant interim relief on a patent row to US pharmaceuticals major Merck Sharp and Dohme (MSD) (drugs : Januvia and Janumet )which sought a restraint on Indian firm Glenmark Pharmaceuticals on manufacturing and marketing anti-diabetes drugs Zita and Zita-Met. 
• Website on Babu Jagjivan Ram Launced :  http://www.jagjivanram.nic.in/. 
• Cabinet Commitee for Economic Affairs approves sugar decontrol .Present sugar quota of the states will be protected and the States will be mandated to continue with the current retail issue price of Rs. 13.50 per Kg. under PDS. The states will be given subsidy for the balance amount between retail issue price and the current ex-mill price calculated provisionally @ Rs. 32/- per Kg. 
• Major Decisions taken by PM for expansion of Direct Benefit Transfer : 
• Expanded to states where biometric has been taken for national population register like Wb,UP,Uttrakhand,Odisha,Bihar and Chattisgarh
• Three Pension Schemes managed by MoRD (old age, disability and widows) will now be covered under DBT 
• DBT will be expanded to include Post Offices and schemes run through Post Office accounts from 1 October 2013.
• LPG Subsidy through DBT
• ICSI(Institute of Company Secretaries of India) National Awards for Excellence in Corporate Governance -2012’ to two ‘Best Governed Companies’: 
• IOCL
• HCL
• France’s Louvre museum is getting a new director : Jean-Luc Martinez
• The International Monetary Fund has agreed to its part of the bailout for Cyprus.
• Malaysia PM Najib Razak dissolves parliament, paves way for elections.
• In a secret deal, Pakistan allowed American drone strikes on its soil on the condition that the unmanned aircraft would stay away from its nuclear facilities and the mountain camps where Kashmiri militants were trained for attacks in India.
• The Irish government’s move to relax the strict anti-abortion laws in the wake of the uproar over the death of Savita Halappanavar, who died in October last year after being refused abortion, suffered a setback on Saturday as the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) rejected a series of proposals to review the ban.Abortion to be allowed in cases where there was a substantial risk to the life of the mother. It also rejected motions on allowing abortion in cases of rape or incest and certain other special circumstances. 
• UK : New Immigration norms give some benefit to high skilled workers.
• Nuclear Talks between Iran and six nations : U.S. Russia, Britain, France, China and Germany at Almaty(former capital of Kazakhstan and the nation's largest city)
• Japan, US reach deal on Okinawa land return that is now used by U.S. troops.Okinawa was invaded by U.S. forces in World War II and has had an American military presence ever since.
• A rebel leader Michel Djotodia who proclaimed himself President of the Central African Republic, after his fighters invaded the capital appointed a new Cabinet.
• Private newspapers return to Myanmar.
• Pak Pong Ju : N Korea new Premier.
•  In Britain, doctors have used a pioneering three-dimensional printing technology to create a prosthetic face for a man who had lost almost the entire left side of his face, including his eye, cheek bone and most of his jaw after suffering from an aggressive form of cancer. 
• U.N. passes historic arms trade treaty.
• Chinese scientists have developed the world’s lightest substance — carbon aerogel — with a density only one sixth of that of the air. It has density of only 0.16 mg/cubic centimeter, previous record was with Germans for Graphite Aerosol with 0.18 mg/cubic cm.
• Gadchiroli(Maharashtra) police have started “Campaign Nav-Jeevan” to appeal to the Naxals from tribal districts to surrender by reaching out to their families. 
• Amendment to Article 371 of the Constitution which confers special status on the six backward districts of Hyderabad Karnataka ( Gulbarga, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal, Bellary and Bidar districts).
• New Gujarat Lokayukta Aayog Bill, 2013 that seeks to end the role of the Governor and the Chief Justice of the High Court in appointing the ombudsman.The Bill proposes a seven-member selection panel headed by the Chief Minister.
• Pawan Kumar Bansal Launches Wi-Fi Facility on Howrah Rajdhani Express Train .
• Chennai Regional Passport Office (RPO) may perhaps be the first in the country to issue passports containing additional security features: 
• personal particulars of holders will be printed on the second page instead of the inner cover page
• rest of the details of passport holders would be printed on page 35 instead of the last page.
• the signature and seal of the passport issuing authority will be printed on the front overleaf page instead of page one. 
• laminating the second and third pages in the front and pages 35 and 36 on the back to avoid tampering
• The Karnataka Guarantee of Services to Citizens Act (2011) or Sakala which was implemented in schools in April 2012 will soon cover government degree colleges.As part of the Sakala initiative for government degree colleges, services such as retotalling of marks secured in examination, revaluation of examination papers, issue of duplicate marks card or certificates will be made simple and more accessible to students.
• Odissa State government decided to decentralise the procurement of all the items in the supplementary nutrition programme (SNP) under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and the Mid Day Meal programme in schools, with the exception of rice which is supplied by the Food Corporation of India.
• Swiss pharmaceutical Novartis had sought to overturn a clause in Indian Patents Law that restricts patent protection for newer forms of existing molecules.
• 1997: Novartis files a patent application in India for its anti cancer drug Gilvec((Imatinib mesylate).
• 2005: India introduces the Indian Patent Act preventing frivolous patents.
• Jan 2006: The Patent Controller in Chennai denies Novartis a patent
• May 2006: Novartis challenges the Indian government and four other companies in the Madras High Court
• Aug 2007: The Madras High Court rules against Novartis’ case
• June 2009: The Intellectual Property Appellate Board rejects a fresh appeal
• August 2009: Novartis approaches the Supreme Court of India
• April 1, 2013: Supreme Court rejects Novartis’ plea for patent

• ASHA workers(women community health workers) are being trained to play life-saving roles in child-birth to help reduce maternal and infant mortality rates in a pilot project in Uttar Pradesh.