States have no power to frame a mining policy :Supreme Court

The Supreme Court clarified that the State government cannot frame policy for granting mining leases going beyond the scope of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957and Mineral Concession Rules, 1960.

Reiterating this point, the Supreme Court dismissed review petitions filed by the Centre, JSW Steel Ltd and others seeking review of the September 2010 judgment in the ’Sandur Manganese and Iron Ores Ltd (SMIOL) vs. State of Karnataka’ case.

Chris Gayle hits fastest century in cricket history

Chris Gayle scored the fastest-ever Twenty20 hundred in 30 balls and the IPL’s highest individual score 175 not out off 66 balls hiting 17 sixes.

He was playing for Royal Challengers Bangalore against Pune Warriors in the Indian Premier League.

The Jamaican toppled the previous highest Twenty20 score of 158 by Brendon McCullum, also set at Bangalore’s Chinnaswamy Stadium in the first-ever IPL match six years ago.

Serbian government approves Kosovo deal

The Prime Ministers of Serbia and Kosovo reached in Brussels that would give Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leadership authority over rebel Kosovo Serbs. In turn, the minority Serbs would get wide autonomy within Kosovo.

However, the serbs living in northern Kosovo, rejected the agreement, demanded that the EU-brokered agreement be annulled and branded the Serbian officials who endorsed it “traitors”.

Ending the partition of Kosovo between the Albanian majority and the Serb-controlled north —about a fifth of the country — is a key condition of Serbia’s further progress toward EU membership.

J.S. Verma passed away

Lalgudi Gopala Iyer Jayaraman was a well-known and award-winning Indian Carnatic violinist, vocalist and composer. His disciples included his two children Lalgudi G.J.R.Krishnan, Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi and the Academy Award nominated Bombay Jayashri Ramnath.

He declined the coveted Sangita Kalanidhi award of the Music Academy, Chennai, as it came late, though the institution honoured him with a lifetime achievement award. He kept away from playing for women artistes as his father was against the idea. However, he gave a lot of concerts with his sister Lalgudi Brimanandham.

Djokovic won Monte Carlo Masters tournament.

Novak Djokovic defeated Rafael Nadal at the Monte Carlo Masters tennis tournament 6-2, 7-6(7-1) to win the trophy for the first time. He stopped Rafael Nadal’s winning streak of the last eight titles here.

Sebastian Vettel won Bahrain Grand Prix

Sebastian Vettel extended his lead in this year’s title race when he claimed victory for Red Bull at the Bahrain Grand Prix

It was Vettel’s second win in four races this year and the 28th of his career. The German’s victory saw him move into sixth on the all-time list of Grand Prix wins, taking him past Jackie Stewart.

defence ministry finalised a new procurement policy

India’s defence ministry finalised a new procurement policy under which Indian public and private sector will be given first priority for military procurements and will help in plugging loopholes that allow corruption.

Major changes in the Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP) were approved by the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC), the apex decision-making body of the Ministry

The government would make all efforts to create genuine level-playing field for Indian manufacturing industries.

The new policy changes will also end the virtual monopoly of the public sector undertakings (PSUs) and ordnance factories in the defence sector as they will not be automatically nominated for maintenance and repair of systems procured from abroad, as private firms will be allowed to take part in these contracts

The financial powers of the Services chiefs and the chief of the Coast Guard have been enhanced from Rs. 50 crore to Rs. 150 crore for capital acquisition cases.