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- New Delhi will host the 16th International Energy Forum Ministerial Meeting from 10 to 12th of this month. The biennial IEF Ministerial Meetings are the world's largest gathering of Energy Ministers who engage in a dialogue on global energy issues. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will formally inaugurate the Meeting on 11th April.
- India is all set to host one of the biggest gathering of world energy leaders. The meetings are informal dialogues, at both the political and technical levels. These are aimed to improve policy and investment decisions through increased knowledge and experience sharing.
- Petroleum Ministers from 42 countries would attend the Meeting. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will formally inaugurate the Meeting on 11th April.
- The forum gives India good oppurtunity to voice its concerns with partner countries. India has been demandin fair and priority pricing of oil and gas from its sources and the issue is likely to come up at the forum as well.
- The IEF has 72 countries as its members and they account for almost 90% of global supply and demand for oil and gas.
- India is the third largest oil consumer in the world and it is projected to further fuel the global demand for crude in persuance of its high speed growth rate.
- Beside this might be a good oppurtunity for India to discuss issues of cooperation with its long time partners.Iran's energy Minister Bijan Zanganeh is also coming at IEF and India might as well discuss Iran's Farzad -B oil Field.
- Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj will deliver the valedictory speech at the Concluding session on 12th of this month. Apart from member countries, invitations have also been extended to 20 other countries where India has oil and gas engagements.
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- The first meeting of NITI Forum for North East has outlined five development missions for promoting sectors like horticulture, tourism and food processing in the region.
- The focus of development projects in the region will be based on the concept of "HIRA" which stands for Highways, Internet ways, Railways and Airways.
- Talking to media, Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog Dr Rajiv Kumar said, the emphasis will also be given on education, health and skill development in the region. He further said that there is also a planning for UDAN three through which the state capitals will be interconnected.
- The NITI Forum was formed to explore and formulate the framework for sustainable growth of the Northeast. It was constituted in February this year.
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- The world's first long-distance electric bus line was inaugurated in Paris on 10 April
- German low-cost company FlixBus presented its green bus at the foot of the Eiffel tower and will begin daily service on April 12. The service will link the French capital to the northern city of Amiens, a 160 kilometres journey which will take a little over two hours.
- The bus, which seats 49, has all the advantages of an electric vehicle: zero emissions, quiet, and drives more smoothly than its fuel-powered counterpart.
- With a maximum range of 250 kilometres (155 miles), the batteries can be fully charged in 5 hours or even just two with the use of a "super-charger".
- Flixbus France general director Yves Lefranc-Morin said the vehicle may be 30 percent more expensive to buy but the maintenance and running costs are much lower than those of a diesel bus.
- The German bus firm hopes to open more 100% electric lines in the future in France and Europe. FlixBus became a major player on European long-distance routes after Germany liberalised the market for inter-city bus services in 2013.
- The presentation of this new line took place as France is facing a series of strikes by the country's railway workers over the government's plan to overhaul the state-run railway company SNC..
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- Sydney Lemos, the Goan sentenced along with his senior accounts specialist, Ryan de Souza, to more than 500 years in prison by a Dubai court on Sunday for the $200 million Exential scam, had access to the who’s who of world football not so long ago.
- Lemos (37) and Ryan de Souza (25) were convicted of duping thousands of investors in a Ponzi scheme that offered investors 120% annual returns on a minimum investment of $25,000 through his company Exential.
- The company paid profits initially but stopped paying investors after the scheme collapsed in March 2016 and the Dubai Economic Department shut down the company’s offices in July 2016. A case has also been registered against Lemos’s wife, Valany Cardozo, for illegally entering the sealed office in December last year and taking out documents.
- Lemos came to prominence in 2015 when his company, FC Prime Markets (FC denoting forex and commodities), became the principal sponsor of FC Goa, the Goan franchise in the Indian Super League.
- He had a front-row seat to Indian football’s glamorous league and easy access to big names like Sachin Tendulkar, Abhishek Bachchan and Ranbir Kapoor, all of whom are associated with the cashrich league. Lemos and Valany also had no difficulty rubbing shoulders with football’s biggest names, like Zico, and even Ronaldinho, to who they were introduced at VIP Room, a popular nightclub in Dubai renowned for its celeb clientele.
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- A 37 member youth delegation from India visited various parts of Nepal under Youth Exchange Programme.
- On the last day of their visit, the delegation comprising of students from leading educational institutes from different parts of India interacted with Dr. Ajay Kumar, Charge'd Affairs, Indian Embassy Kathmandu on 11 April
- The youths said that it was a wonderful experience and it gave them an opportunity to visit different places, meet people, learn their culture and language.
- Dr. Ajay Kumar said that main objective of youth exchange programme is to promote people to people contact between both the countries. The delegation was comprised students from IITs, AIIMS, NIT, National Law School, Universities and Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development.
- During 8-day tour, the youths visited Chitwan, Lumbini, Pokhara and Kathmandu. The visit was part of MoU signed in November, 2014 between the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India and the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Government of Nepal.
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- A jawbone fossil found on US' rocky English beach belongs to one of the biggest marine animals on record, a type of seagoing reptile called an ichthyosaur that scientists estimated at up to 85 feet (26 meters) long - approaching the size of a blue whale.
- Scientists said on 9 April this ichthyosaur, which appears to be the largest marine reptile ever discovered, lived 205 million years ago at the end of the Triassic Period, dominating the oceans just as dinosaurs were becoming the undisputed masters on land. The bone, called a surangular, was part of its lower jaw
- The researchers estimated the animal's length by comparing this surangular to the same bone in the largest ichthyosaur skeleton ever found, a species called Shonisaurus sikanniensis from British Columbia that was 69 feet (21 meters) long. The newly discovered bone was 25 percent larger.
- "This bone belonged to a giant," said University of Manchester paleontologist Dean Lomax."The entire carcass was probably very similar to a whale fall in which a dead whale drops to the bottom of the sea floor, where an entire ecosystem of animals feeds on the carcass for a very long time. After that, bones become separated, and we suspect that's what happened to our isolated bone."
- Fossil collector Paul de la Salle, affiliated with the Etches Collection in Dorset, England, found the bone in 2016 at Lilstock on England's Somerset coast along the Bristol Channel.
- "The structure was in the form of growth rings, like that of a tree, and I'd seen something similar before in the jaws of late Jurassic ichthyosaurs," he said.
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