May 27

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government announced the formation of a Special

Investigation Team (SIT) to probe black money, mostly stashed abroad. The decisi
on was taken in the first meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister
Modi.
* After the Cabinet meeting law and telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said th
e SIT will have retired Supreme Court judge MB Shah as its head.
May 28
The defense ministry scored a major legal victory against Agusta-Westland in It
aly and will be able to recover Rs. 1,927 crore of the Rs. 2,380 crore it had pa
id the Italian firm for supply of 12 VVIP helicopters.
* After scrapping the deal, the ministry on January 1 decided to cash the three
bank guarantees given by Agusta-Westland through Deutsche Bank to recover its pa
yments around 45% of the total contract value of 556 million euros.
May 29
Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) rolled out the 50th Metro Train Set of Banga
lore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL). It is a public sector enterprise under
the Ministry of Defence With this roll out BEML fulfilled the supply of BMRCL 2
RS-DM contract.
* BEML, which forayed into the manufacture and supply of hi-tech metro cars in 2
002, has since been supplying metro coaches. The company so far supplied more th
an 700 metro cars to Delhi Metro, Bangalore Metro and Jaipur Metro.
May 30
The government proposed to raise Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in defence sec
tor to 100 per cent. The Commerce and Industry Ministry circulated a Cabinet not
e for inter-ministerial consultation.
* The proposal to raise FDI cap from 26 to 100 per cent is aimed at giving a boo
st to manufacturing activities. However, portfolio investors including Foreign I
nstitutional Investors will be allowed to invest only up to 49 per cent.
* India opened up defence equipment industry to private sector in early 2001 but
had restricted foreign participation to 26 per cent.
NATIONAL - 2014 JUNE
June 1
Mallikarjuna Kharge, who was chosen leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha sai
d his party would not function as an opposition for opposition sake and its approa
ch would be issue-based.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the Centre to probe black money
stashed by Indians abroad had its first meeting during which the roadmap on how
to proceed further was decided.
* Sources privy to the meeting said that the SIT headed by former Supreme Court
Judge M.B. Shah decided to examine whether some of the black money cases could b
e put on fast-track.
June 2
Telangana came into existence as the 29th state of India and TRS supremo K. Cha
ndrasekhar Rao (KCR) was sworn in as its first chief minister, capping the decad
es-old struggle in the region for carving out a separate state from Andhra Prade
sh.
* KCR, 60, who was sworn in by Governor ESL Narasimhan, promised to refurbish th
e image of Hyderabad, a city which owes much of its reputation as an investment
destination to N. Chandrababu Naidu who takes over as chief minister of residual
Andhra Pradesh on June 8.
* The Hyderabad city will be the joint capital for 10 years.
June 3
The Jammu & Kashmir government on Tuesday enhanced the retirement age of govern
ment employees from 58 to 60.
* In a meeting presided over by Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, the Cabinet also r
aised the minimum age for eligibility for entry into government service by three
years to 40.
The governments of West Bengal and Maharashtra have signed a memorandum of unde
rstanding to ensure identification and repatriation of women and children who ar
e victims of trafficking.
* Taking exception to the Maharashtra Police sending victims of trafficking who
speak Bengali back to West Bengal, the government last week signed the MoU to fo
llow a standard operating procedure to establish identities of those rescued.
Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax) Association Presents a Cheque of Rs. 10.00
Lakhs to the Finance Mininster for Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Work in Utt
arakhand.
* Earlier the members of IRS Association had made the contribution of Rs. 34,51,
878 in January 2014 towards the Uttarakhand Chief Ministers Relief Fund.
Gujarat government has decided to introduce hand-held terminals at all its fair
price shops in the state with aim to bring transparency and eliminate irregular
ities in public distribution system.
* At present, there are around 17,200 ration shops, catering to more than 70 lak
h households having ration cards in the state.
June 4
The Central Information Commission has ordered that private schools, whether pu
blic authority or not, must provide information on service records and salaries.

* The order came on an RTI plea filed by an ex-employee of Jindal Public School
with Directorate of Education seeking a certified copy of service book and other
details from her past employer.
Sam Pitroda, public information infrastructure and innovations adviser to the P
rime Minister, is believed to have tendered his resignation.
* Pitroda was also chairman of the National Innovation Council (NInC) that was s
et up to encourage innovation.
June 5
The Indian Army today launched the 'Army Veterans Grievance Handling (AVGH) Por
tal', an initiative that would enable the large fraternity of veterans and their
dependents, to take up their grievances with the concerned agencies at the clic
k of a button.
* Developed and designed by National Informatics Centre (NIC) Ltd, this internet
based web portal is among one of the several initiatives undertaken by the Indi
an Army to reach out to its Veterans & Veer Naris in recent times.
* With a unique User ID and Password, a veteran can login at his/ her convenienc
e, and refer to a host of policy letters/ regulations to educate himself on the
latest entitlements and benefits.
The West Bengal Government launched its lone residential football academy, firs
t-ever done by any state, to promote young local talents.
* States Sports minister Madan Mitra said No other state government or the Centre
has taken any such initiative so far, but we have done it under the strong leade
rship of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee".
June 6
BJP MP from Indore and the woman with maximum consecutive wins from the same co
nstituency, Sumitra Mahajan, was elected Speaker of the 16th Lok Sabha becoming
the second woman presiding officer of the Lower House after her predecessor Meir
a Kumar.
* She becomes the first BJP MP to hold the post.
* Mahajan, 71, the longest-serving woman member of Parliament, was elected after
a motion moved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and seconded by Bharatiya Janata
Party veteran L K Advani was adopted by voice vote called by Protem Speaker Kam
al Nath.
The Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be travelling to Bhutan at the end of thi
s month. This will mark his first foreign visit as Prime Minister while External
Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will travel to Bangladesh on 26 June on her firs
t visit abroad as foreign minister.
* The Prime Minister has a very tight schedule ahead as he has to attend a numbe
r of bilateral and multilateral summits during coming months.
* He said immediately after Bhutan visit Mr. Modi will leave for United States a
nd followed by a trip to Japan.
Ahead of the Gairsain assembly session, Uttarakhand cabinet approved two popula
r schemes including a pension scheme for farmers and a scheme to air-lift doctor
s to remote