Major News and Events of 17 April 2014

According to the media reports, Human Rights activist Irom Sharmila who is on fast for 13 years was not allowed to vote in Manipur. She was not given permission to vote as Election Commission does not allow a person who is serving jail term to vote. Sharmila is in house confinement. 

Vijay Seshadri has been awarded the 2014 Pulizer Prize, the media reports specify. The India born poet got the acclaimed award for his series of poems, “3 Sections”. The poems delve into the human consciousness. Seshadri is 5th person hailing from India who has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

As per media reports, 5 people which include 3 CRPF personnel and 1 security person were injured in Maoist attack in Bokaro district of Jharkhand while the Lok Sabha polls were on. The Naxals carried two landmine blasts and opened fire in two separate incidents to cause the damage. The injured have been taken to Ranchi for treatment.

Today polling was held in 12 states and 121 Lok Sabha constituencies as per media reports and 197 million voters were eligible to vote. The Polling was by and large peaceful barring few incidents in Chhattisgarh and Jammu and Kashmir. 1.37 million officials of the Election Commission were deployed for the polling process today. Now four phases of Lok Sabha election will be held after today.

 Rupee slipped to 60.50 against the US dollar riding on the high demand by the oil importers, the media reports inform. Along with this rupee slide has been there for the fourth consecutive day. On Wednesday it closed at 60.37 against the dollar. In the intra-day trading rupee reached a high of 60.26 and low of 60.50 against the US dollar.

Kolkata Knight Riders won against the defending champions Mumbai Indians in the opening match at Abu Dhabi for the IPL’s 7th edition. The media reports state that it was Jacques Kallis whose 72 off 46 balls was a match turner. KKR made 163 for 5 while Mumbai Indians could only manage 122 in 20 overs with the fall of 7 wickets.

HCL on Thursday is going to declare its third quarter (Jan-Mar) outcome. The company is expected to witness an increase of 2.5% in revenue in terms of rupee and 2.7% in terms of US dollar. The outsourcing segment of the company is doing well and the software services sector is displaying the signs of recovery. As per media report in this quarter the growth of the company may be more than TCS and Infosys.

The second phase of polling in Jharkhand for six Lok Sabha constitutes has begin and approximately 12.74% voters came out to use their right to vote till 9 am. As per media report proper security arrangements have been made to ensure the safe polling in the Maoists prone areas. In Jharkhand the first phase of polling took place on April 10 for four constituencies and the final phase will take place on April 24 for the remaining four constituencies.

Film star and celebrities are contesting Lok Sabha elections this year and as per the media report no film of Hema Malini, Jaya Prada, Nagma, Smriti Irani and Jaaved Jaaferi will be telecast on Doordarshan. As per officials the movies can influence voters and hence coming under the model code of conduct. Poll panel has received complaints regarding unjustified benefit received by film stars through their movies.

A group of IIT Delhi students have been working since 2011 to develop an ICT-based system for improved governance and delivery of schemes. This ICT-based system in its final stage is competent enough to collect the claims posted on government websites for auditing the data. It will create a sort of pressure on government to take action on the claims. As per the media report the project will be displayed at IIT-D's "Open House 2014" on Saturday.

A polling booth at Shamrao Kalmadi School in Pune had a defective electronic voting machine (EVM). Even after pressing any other button, only the Congress light was blinking. Thus every vote went into Congress bouquet by default through this EVM. The voting was immediately called off once the incident came into the notice of the election officials. As per the media report about 28 voters are permitted to vote again.

The official website of Narendra Modi is now available in Urdu. The Urdu version was launched by a well-known script writer Salim who is a father of Bollywood superstar Salman Khan. As per the media report, the suggestion to have Urdu version was given by Salim Khan who launched this website from his residence because of personal relation with Narendra Modi.