1. Quits:The U.S. Ambassador to India Nancy Powell resigned. This step is seen as a way to repair bilateral ties between two countries following the handcuffing and strip-searching of Indian diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York last December. This also paves the way for a political appointee to the post.
2.Breather:The Supreme Court commuted the death sentence awarded to Devendra Pal Singh Bhullar to life imprisonment in view of the inordinate delay in the disposal of his mercy petition and his mental illness.
3.Decommissioned:INSAT-3E, a communication satellite, completed ten-and-a-half years in orbit and went out of service this month. It was launched in September 2003 with 36 transponders and was built to be in orbit for 15 years.
4. Punished:A Mumbai sessions court awarded death penalty to three repeat offenders - who gang-raped a photojournalist on the Shakti Mills compound in 2013. They were earlier convicted of the gang rape of a telephone operator on the same premises. In this connection, senior politician and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh described rapes as “mistakes”committed by boys, during a public meeting which sparked widespread outrage.
5. Verdict: The Supreme Court refused to stay the Centre’s notification to include Jats in the Central Other Backward Classes (OBC) list. Jats are spread across the states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Bihar and they are sure to benefit from this verdict.
6. Recognition:It was celebration time for the transgenders after the Supreme Court, in a significant step, recognised their community as a third gender along with male and female. The Centre and States were also directed to take steps to treat them as socially and educationally backward classes apart from extending reservation for admission in educational institutions and for public appointments.
7. Stay away:In lieu of the ongoing probe into the IPL betting and spot-fixing allegations, the Supreme Court refused to allow N. Srinivasan to function as president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India. A Bench of Justices said there were 12 allegations against Srinivasan, who has been named along with 12 cricketers, in the report of Justice Mudgal Committee.
8. Natural disaster: Dust storm that lashed Uttar Pradesh killed 27 persons and injured dozens. The winds caused great damage to public and private property.
Heat wave aggravated in north India with the mercury touching 45.1 degree Celsius in Barmer in Rajasthan
9.On Top:TheTIMEmagazine poll of the 100 Most Influential People in the world was flooded by around 5 million and 3 million votes respectively for Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal. Modi garnered 5,075,588 ‘reactions’, of which 49.7 per cent voted ‘yes’ for including him in the list and 50.3 per cent voted ‘no’. Kejriwal received the second highest number of reactions amongst all names on the poll: a total of 3,168,308, of which 71.5 per cent voted to include him in the list and 28.5 per cent voted against.
10. Sorry:Following complaints from Maharashtra that many names were missing from voters’ list, the Election Commission expressed regret and promised to order a probe. Around 2 lakh voters did not find their names on the list in the city of Mumbai.
