In Chess, 17-year-old Indian prodigy, Dommaraju Gukesh made history as the youngest-ever player to win the FIDE Candidates tournament in Toronto. In the final round, Gukesh held fellow title contender Hikaru Nakamura of USA to a draw with black pieces but his fate was sealed on the other board where Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana battled for 109 moves before draw.
Gukesh became the youngest-ever Candidates Tournament champion, beating Garry Kasparov’s record, who was 20 years when he won this tournament in 1984. After Vishwanathan Anand, he becomes the second Indian to qualify for the World Chess Championship. With this amazing victory, Gukesh will challenge the reigning Champion Ding Liren of China in the World Chess Championship.
India’s net direct tax collections for FY 2023-24 surged 17.7 percent to 19.58 lakh crore rupees compared to 16.64 lakh crore rupees in the previous financial year and surpassed the budget estimate for FY24 by 1.35 lakh crore rupees, or 7.4 percent. The budget estimate for direct tax mop-up for the previous fiscal was fixed at 18.23 lakh crore rupees.
It was later revised upwards to 19.45 lakh crore rupees, and the provisional actual collections even exceeded the revised estimate by 13,000 crore rupees, the finance ministry said in a release. The gross collection of direct taxes (before adjusting for refunds) for 2023–24 also registered a healthy growth of 18.5 percent, to 23.37 lakh crore rupees in FY23.
In personal income taxes, gross mop-up stood at 12.01 lakh crore rupees, growing 24.26 percent on-year, while in net terms it grew 25.23 percent to 10.44 lakh crore rupees registered in the preceding year. The government has issued direct tax refunds of 3.79 lakh crore rupees in 2023-24, which is an increase of 22.74 percent compared to 3.09 lakh crore rupees it issued in
Indian Navy conducted Exercise Poorvi Lehar on the East Coast. The exercise aimed at validation of procedures towards assessment of the Indian Navy’s preparedness to meet Maritime Security challenges in the region. The exercise witnessed participation of Ships, Submarines, aircraft and Special Forces.
It was conducted in multiple phases including combat training in a realistic scenario during the Tactical Phase and the successful conduct of various firings during the Weapon Phase towards reaffirming the Indian Navy’s capability to deliver ordnance on target.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a commemorative stamp and coin at the inauguration of the 2550th Bhagwan Mahaveer Nirvan Mahotsav, on the occasion of Mahaveer Jayanti at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi.
Bhagwan Mahavir, the 24th Tirthankar, illuminated the path of peaceful co-existence and universal brotherhood through Jain principles like Ahimsa (Non-Violence), Satya (Truthfulness), Asteya (Non-Stealing), Brahmacharya (Chastity) and Aparigraha (Non-attachment).
Meta announced a major upgrade to its AI assistant, Meta AI, which is powered by the company's latest natural language model, Llama 3. According to Meta, the updated Meta AI is designed to be helpful, harmless, and honest. It can now be accessed across Meta's platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, as well as a dedicated website at meta.ai.
Powered by Meta's state-of-the-art Llama 3 model, Meta AI is designed with new advancements in AI and natural language processing and is available for free use. It can understand language better and have more human-like conversations.
Airtel Payments Bank has announced the launch of its NCMC (National Common Mobility Cards) enabled debit and pre-paid cards in association with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). These cards are powered by RuPay.
The bank said customers can use any of the cards to make payments at all merchant establishments, online (e-commerce), as well as offline NCMC transit transactions at metros, buses, parking, etc across the country.
The card also facilitates the issuance of concession and monthly passes wherever supported by the transport operator.
Fintech firm Cred has received in-principle approval from the RBI for the payment aggregation (PA) business. Once it gets the final approval, the Peak XV-backed Bengaluru-based startup, which primarily runs a credit card bill payment platform for creditworthy customers, can double down on the merchant payments business too, joining the ranks of Razorpay and Cashfree.
According to the RBI, Payment Aggregates (PAs) are entities that facilitate e-commerce sites and merchants' acceptance of various payment instruments from customers to complete their payment obligations without the need for merchants to create a separate payment integration system.
Senior IPS officer Nalin Prabhat has been appointed as the Director-General of National Security Guard (NSG), the country’s counter-terrorism force. Prabhat, a 1992 batch IPS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre, is presently working as Additional Director General in CRPF. Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) chief Daljit Singh Chawdhary was holding the additional charge of the NSG.
With a view to widen the market and foster adequate protection from healthcare expenses, insurance regulator IRDAI has removed the age limit of 65 years for individuals buying health insurance policies.
This marks a significant departure from the conventional constraints that limited individuals in securing comprehensive coverage.
As per the earlier guidelines, individuals were allowed to purchase a new insurance policy only till the age of 65. However, with the recent amendment, which has been effective from April 1, anyone, regardless of age, is eligible to buy a new health insurance policy.
There is no limit on AYUSH treatment coverage. Treatments under systems like Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha & Homeopathy will receive coverage up to the sum insured without any cap. The proposed regulation seeks to handle the complaints and claims of senior citizens via a specialised channel, ensuring a more tailored and responsive approach to their requirement.
Madhya Pradesh has taken lead in implementing the Centre's Green Credit Programme (GCP) which got over 500 land parcels spanning 4,980 hectares across 10 states approved for tree plantation in the past two months. These states, along with three others, have together identified more than 10,000 hectares of land for the programme.
Madhya Pradesh has, so far, reported the highest 954 hectares of approved degraded forest land for plantation/greening exercises followed by Telangana (845 hectares), Chhattisgarh (713 hectares), Gujarat (595 hectares) and Assam (454 hectares).
Other five states where such land parcels have been approved by the administrator - Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) - are Bihar, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Odisha.
Indonesia's Jonatan Christie cliched the Badminton Asia Championships crown, seeing off Li Shi Feng in two sets in China. Christie defeated home favourite Li 21-15, 21-16 in the tournament finale in the Chinese city of Ningbo. The men’s doubles title was claimed by Chinese pair Liang Wei Keng and Wang Chang, who dispatched Malaysian duo Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin.
Earlier China’s Wang Zhi Yi swatted aside compatriot Chen Yu Fei 21-19, 21-7 to claim the women’s singles title. South Korean partners Baek Ha-na and Lee So-hee took the women’s doubles title by beating China’s Zhang Shu Xian and Zheng Yu 23-21, 21-12.
Every year World Creativity and Innovation Day is celebrated on April 21 to raise awareness about the role of creativity and innovation in human development. This day encourages every individual to use their creativity and innovation for the overall development of humankind. The day is dedicated to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that are set out by the United Nations.
The theme of this year’s World Creativity and Innovation Day is ‘Inspire’.
To acknowledge and honour the work of civil servants engaged in public service, the backbone of the nation’s administration, the Government of India celebrates National Civil Services Day on April 21 every year in India. It is a day dedicated to highlighting the important role of civil services in promoting citizen-centred governance.
The origin of day dates back to the speech by the first Home Minister of Independent India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. On April 21st, 1947, Patel addressed the probationers of Administrative Services Officers at Metcalf House in Delhi and referred to the civil servants as the steel frame of India in 1947 and the newly created Indian Administrative Service.
Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 every year. The day is also known as International Mother Earth Day. The purpose of the day is to raise awareness about various issues that threaten the environment and endanger the planet, such as the rapidly rising levels of pollution, deforestation, and global warming.
The planet will commemorate the 54th Earth Day on April 22, 2024, at a time when pollution is at never-before-seen levels and temperatures on are breaking records every year. The theme this year is "Planet vs. Plastics," which aims to increase public awareness of the detrimental effects that plastic pollution has on both human and environmental health.
