National award-winning cinematographer and one of the renowned filmmakers of South Indian cinema, Karimanal Venkatesan Anand passed away on Friday due to cardiac arrest at the age of 54.

Dr.Krithi K Karanth, Chief Conservation Scientist at Bengaluru-based Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS), has been chosen as the first Indian and Asian woman for the 2021 ”WILD Innovator Award”.

Media and entertainment conglomerate Walt Disney has named K. Madhavan as president, the Walt Disney Company India and Star India, with immediate effect.

Financial Software and Systems (FSS) has partnered with NPCI International Payments to expand the presence of digital payments platform Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in international markets.

Bajaj Auto has announced the appointment of Neeraj Bajaj as its new Chairman of the Board with effect from May 1, 2021.

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of T V Somanathan as the new Finance Secretary.

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved Tata Digital’s proposed acquisition of a 64.3 percent stake in Supermarket Grocery Supplies Private Ltd (SGS), which operates the business-to-business arm of the online grocery firm BigBasket.

India’s indigenous Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas, has added the 5th generation Python-5 Air-to-Air Missile (AAM) to its weapons capability on April 27.

China has named its first Mars rover as ‘Zhurong’. In Chinese tradition, Zhurong means the mythical god of fire and war. The solar-powered rover was launched aboard the Tianwen-1 probe in July 2020.

The Chinese government has launched a robot prototype named as ‘NEO-01’, in the Earth’s low orbit on April 27, 2021, on its Long March 6 rocket. The 30kg robot prototype has been developed by Shenzhen-based space mining start-up ‘Origin Space’.

The Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB) has projected the growth rate of India’s economy, in its latest flagship Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2021, as follows: FY22 (2021-22) – 11%; FY23 (2022-23) -7%

As part of the Indian Army’s initiative to secure a better future for Ladakhi youth, the Indian Army, under the aegis of Fire and Fury Corps, signed MoUs with corporate partner Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) and executing agency National Integrity and Educational Development Organisation at HQ 14 Corps, Leh.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), successfully test-fired the 5th generation Python-5 Air-to-Air Missile (AAM) from Tejas aircraft, at Goa.

Two Indian firms, Reliance’s Jio Platforms and e-learning startup Byju’s have been featured in Time Magazine’s 2021 list of 100 most influential companies. The Time magazine mentioned on its website that the companies shaping the future are at the heart of the first-ever TIME 100 Most Influential Companies.

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) India on April 28, 2021, announced that Vaishali S Hiwase will become the first woman officer to be appointed as Officer Commanding in the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), India.

 The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has approved the appointment of Arun Raste as the new Managing Director and CEO of National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Ltd (NCDEX) for five years.

About 14,491 hectare (ha) area in Andaman and Nicobar has been certified as organic, the first large contiguous territory to be done under a government scheme, Agriculture Ministry said.

China’s first Mars rover will be named Zhurong after a traditional fire god, the government announced.

 Manabasa Gurubara, Chhau and Ravanachhaya — the three popular cultural practices from Odisha have been included in the recently-published Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) list by the Union Ministry of Culture.

A new book titled“The Living Mountain”, authored by internationally acclaimed author Amitav Ghosh, is set to hit stands in January 2022.

The theme for 2021 is “Anticipate, prepare and respond to crises – Invest Now in Resilient Occupational Safety and Health Systems”.

India’s Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) has decided to set up 500 Medical Oxygen Plants within 3 months under the PM CARES Fund. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh informed that the Medical Oxygen Plant technology developed by DRDO for On‐Board Oxygen Generation for Tejas Light Combat Aircraft will now help is easing the medical oxygen crisis that has enveloped the country following the massive spike in COVID-19 infections across the nation.

Back-to-back earthquakes hit Assam early today morning, with the most severe one being with a magnitude of 6.4. According to the National Center for Seismology, the earthquake occurred at 7:51 am and the epicentre was 43 km west of Tezpur in Assam at a depth of 17 kilometers.

In 2020 US military expenditure reached an estimated $778 billion, representing an increase of 4.4 percent over 2019. As the world’s largest military spender, the USA accounted for 39 percent of total military expenditure in 2020.

The Uttar Pradesh government won the “E-Panchayat Puraskar 2021”, ranking first in Category I. It was followed by Assam and Chhattisgarh at the second position, while Odisha and Tamil Nadu stood third, the government said.

Coal India signed has its first 100 Megawatt (MW) Solar power purchase agreement. The agreement has been signed between Coal India Ltd (CIL) and Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam (GUVNL) for a period of 25 years.

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Harsh Vardhan chaired the ‘Reaching Zero’ forum on malaria elimination. It was held on 25th April, 2021 on the occasion of World Malaria Day 2021.

Newly-wed archery couple Deepika Kumari and Atanu Das led the show with two individual gold medals as India capped their best ever show in a World Cup, claiming three golds and one bronze in the tournament’s first stage.

Chandigarh state government has released a first-of-its-kind draft cycling policy that views cycling as a major alternate mode of transport for short distances.