1) Ramalinga Raju sentenced to 7 years in India's biggest
corporate scandal:
--> Satyam founder Ramalinga Raju was
sentenced to seven years in jail on 9 April 2015, hours after he was found
guilty by of criminal cheating and conspiracy in what is described as India's
largest-ever corporate scandal.
--> He has also been fined five crores.
--> In 2009, Mr Raju, who founded Satyam
as a family business with his brother and brother-in-law in 1987, said about $1
billion or 94 per cent of the cash on the company's books was fictitious.
--> Satyam Computer Services was at one
time considered the gold standard for an outsourcing company.
--> The scandal, which erupted during
the IT industry's early boom in India, forced the spotlight on corporate
governance.
2) PM Modi began his three-nation visit:
--> PM Modi began his nine day tour to
three countries to highlight his government's agenda of 'Make in India' and
explore the possibilities to strengthen the bilateral business relations.
--> Modi will visit France, Germany and
Canada with an intention to invite investments having focus on infrastructure
and defence sectors, besides cooperation in nuclear and various other areas.
--> The trip aims to set in order the
purchase of nuclear reactors and fuel from France and Canada so as to
strengthen trade and economic ties.
3) India successfully test-fired nuclear-capable Dhanush
missile from ship:
--> India on 9 April 2015 successfully
test-fired its nuclear-capable Dhanush ballistic missile with a strike range of
350 km from a naval ship off the Odisha coast.
--> The surface-to-surface Dhanush, a
naval variant of India's indigenously-developed Prithvi missile, was test fired
from a ship in the Bay of Bengal off Odisha coast by the Strategic Force
Command (SFC) of the defence force.
--> The single-stage, liquid-propelled
Dhanush having 350 km range has already been inducted into the armed forces and
is one of the five missiles developed by Defence Research and Development
Organisation (DRDO) under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme
(IGMDP).
4) Government blocked Greenpeace India's foreign fundings:
--> Government on 9 April 2015 barred
Greenpeace India from receiving foreign funds with immediate effect by
suspending its licence for six months and froze all its accounts, alleging it
has "prejudicially" affected the country's public and economic
interests.
--> The environmental activist group was
also served a notice by the government which asked why its registration should
not be cancelled permanently.
5) India elected to four key subsidiary bodies of UN ECOSOC:
--> India has been elected to four key
subsidiary bodies of the United Nations' agency on economic and social issues,
continuing its impressive record of winning elections at the world body.
--> India was elected by acclamation, a
form of election that does not use a ballot, to the subsidiary bodies of the UN
Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) during its coordination and management
meeting.
6) IFCI Ltd. now a Government company:
--> Government of India has paved the
way for IFCI Ltd, the country's oldest Financial Institution, to become a
Government Company with effect from April, 2015 by acquiring 6 Crore Preference
Shares of Rs. 10 each of IFCI from certain Public Sector Banks.
--> With this move, now Union Government
has 51% stake in IFCI Ltd.
--> IFCI was earlier known as the
Industrial Finance Corporation of India and was incorporated on 1 July 1948 as
a government company.
--> Till now the Union Govt. had 47.93%
stake in it.
7) Moody’s upgraded India’s rating outlook to positive:
--> Global ratings agency Moody’s on 9
April 2015 reaffirmed India’s rating at Baa3 but raised the rating outlook to
‘Positive’ from ‘Stable’.
--> India, however, remains at the last
rung of investment grade by all agencies.
--> Moody’s is the first rating agency
that has given India a positive outlook.
8) Videocon d2h entered NASDAQ, the US stock exchange:
-->
India’s direct-to-home (DTH)service provider Videocon d2h made its debut
on Nasdaq, raising $325 million through issuance of American Depository
Receipts (ADR).
--> Videocon d2h has become the first
Indian private company since the year 2000 to list overseas, issuing ADR worth
$325 million to the public.
--> It also became the first sizeable
Indian listing on US exchanges and the first Indian Media company to be listed
at Nasdaq.
