Name of the noted economist who passed away recently.

ISRO Chairman Dr. K Sivan has announced that the organization is well prepared to meet the targets of launching Gaganyaan manned mission to outer space by December 2021. Under Gaganyaan project, India is planning to send three astronauts to outer space for seven days and bring them back. 332 launches are planned this year. Important among them are Chandrayaaan -2 mission to the moon in mid-April. GSAT-20 Satellite for high bandwidth connectivity to be launched in September-October.

The Northrop Grumman Antares rocket and its unscrewed Cygnus Spacecraft launched which contains tons of NASA's supplies and 40 live mice to the International Space Station (ISS), from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spacecraft at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility on Wallops Island in Virginia. The first stage of rocket was developed by the Ukrainian Yuzhnoye State Design Office. The mission named NG-11, is the 11th cargo flight for NASA by Northrop Grumman, to deliver 7600 lbs. (3,447 kg), the heaviest load for Cygnus till date which contains science gear and supplies to the sex person crew of the ISS. This mission will be the Northrop Grumman's longest one till date.

India and China signed a protocol for the export of Indian chilli meal to China. This is the fourth protocol signed between the two nations over the past year allowing the export of farm commodities from India. They agreed to resolve market access issues expeditiously in order to achieve the vision of the leaders of both India and China by promoting a more balanced trade. At the end of the meeting, a protocol was signed for export of chilli meal from India to China. The protocols for export, signed since June 2018, include those for basmati and non-basmati rice, fish meal and oil and tobacco leaves.

India and United Kingdom (UK) hold Foreign Office consultations in which both countries have agreed to strengthen their ties in the field of Indo-Pacific cooperation, climate change, disaster resilience, development in third world countries and others. Foreign Secretary, Vijay Gokhale led the Indian delegation and Sir Simon McDonald, Permanent Under-Secretary Foreign and Commonwealth Office of British government led the UK delegation. Besides the meeting, UK representative Sir Simon McDonald formally handed the instrument of ratification of the UK joining the International Solar Alliance (ISA) to Vijay Gokhale.

Pakistan Air Force announced that they will observe its retaliatory action against India against the Balakot strike of Indian Air Force as 'Operation Swift Retort'. The Indian air strikes at Balakot terror camp on February 26 was response of Pakistan based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) attack by a suicide bomber in Pulwama that killed 40 CRPF jawans. In response to Indian attack, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) retaliated and captured IAF Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman who was released by Pakistan on March 1.

Ajay V Nayak, The Election Commission has appointed Ajay V Nayak, ex-Bihar chief electoral officer, as the Special Observer for West Bengal.The first phase polls held in April 11 in Cooch Behar and Alipurpur constituencies. Polls in the remaining 40 constituencies will be held in six phases.

India's National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) has recently announced for Rs. 700 crore project funds for equity investments in agriculture and rural start-ups. NABARD was used to contribute to other funds but it is for the first time when NABARD launched its own funds. This project was launched by Nabventures, an auxiliary unit of NABARD. NABARD proposed amount of Rs 500 crore with an option to retain over-subscriptions of Rs 200 crore. Company names it green-shoe option. With this initiative NABARD will assist those start-ups who are engaged in agriculture and rural areas' development.

National space agency ISRO and French space agency CNES signed an agreement to set up a joint maritime surveillance system in the country in May. K.Sivan, Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, and Jean-Yves Le Gall, President of CNES of France, signed the agreement in Bengaluru. The two nations will explore putting up a constellation of low-Earth orbiting satellites that will identify and track the movement of ships globally, and in particular, those moving in the Indian Ocean region where France has its Reunion Islands. The CNES-ISRO agreement intends to supply an operational system for detecting, identifying and tracking ships in the Indian Ocean. It provides for a maritime surveillance centre to be set up in India in May this year; sharing of capacity to process existing satellite data and joint development of associated algorithms. The two agencies have put up two climate and ocean weather monitoring satellites Megha-Tropiques (of 2011) and SARAL-AltiKa (2013) that are considered a model.

US President Donald Trump on May 6, 2019 bestowed Tiger Woods with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honour, describing the golfer as one of the greatest athletes in the history of sports. The 43-year-old is only the fourth and the youngest golfer ever to have received the highest American civilian award.

Scientists have developed a device named WAND which stands for "Wireless artifact-free neuromodulation device" that works like a "Pacemaker for the brain" to monitor the brain's electrical activity and potentially deliver fine-tuned treatments to patients suffering from diseases like epilepsy and Parkinson's. The most important feature of the device is that it is both wireless and autonomous, which means when it learns to recognize the signs of tremor or seizures then it can adjust the stimulation parameters on its own to prevent the unwanted movements. The device has custom integrated circuits to record the full signal from both the subtle brain wave and the strong electrical pulses.