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• Volunteer Recognition Day is observed on [latex]20^{th}[/latex] April every year. Volunteer Recognition Day is celebrated to honour and respect all volunteers around the world who are helping others without expecting anything in return.


• These volunteers dedicated themselves and large parts of their lives for helping the needy. These people make a huge or small difference in the lives of many people across the world.


• Volunteers assist in saving lives and are rendering moral and financial support to improve the lives of millions of people.

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• Chinese Language Day is observed on [latex]20^{th}[/latex] April of every year. It was established by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).


• The UN and its affiliate organisations use this day to encourage multiculturalism and cultural diversity by displaying the history and literary culture of all six of its official language.


• The Six official languages of UN are English, Arabic, French, Spanish, Chinese, and Russian. Each language has a day dedicated to it.

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• Earlier this month a 23-year-old woman alleged that she was beaten and raped by a 54-year-old professor working at Ankara University whilst she was serving as the vet on duty at the private veterinary clinic the professor co-owned.


• In her testimony, the young woman, whose name has been redacted by local media as C.B. claimed that Professor Hasan Bilgili offered her dinner and asked her to drink with him.

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• The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep Jerrold Nadler, has issued a subpoena for special counsel Robert Mueller’s full report as Democrats intensified their investigation of President Donald Trump, but leaders stopped short of liberal demands for impeachment proceedings.


• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has insisted on a methodical, step-by-step approach to the House’s oversight of the Trump administration, and she refuses to consider impeachment without public support, including from Republicans, which seems unlikely.


• But in light of Mueller’s findings, Democratic leaders are under mounting pressure from the party’s rising stars, deep-pocketed donors and even a presidential contender to seize the moment as a jumping-off point for trying to remove Trump from office.

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• Ukraine's new president could regain control over the separatist-controlled east of his country within months and get cheap gas and major investment from Russia if he repairs ties with Moscow.


• Viktor Medvedchuk, a prominent figure in Ukraine's Russia-leaning opposition, outlined the prospect in an interview before a presidential election runoff in Ukraine on Sunday which polls show political novice Volodymyr Zelenskiy should easily win.

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• Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators returned to Algeria's streets to press demands for sweeping democratic change well beyond former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's resignation, chanting "we do what we want".


• The march was peaceful, like most of the demonstrations in the country over the last two months.


• But an 18-year old who was injured during last week's protest in Algiers, when clashes broke out, died of injuries to the head. It said police were investigating the death, adding that he could have been beaten or fallen from a truck.

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• Following the charges of sexual harassment against Chief justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, the Supreme Court has left it “to wisdom of media to act responsibly on allegations”.


• The Chief Justice of India strongly denied the allegations of sexual harassment against him by a former Supreme Court employee. The Chief Justice said that the allegations against him were part of "a larger conspiracy" and that a "bigger force" is behind the woman who levelled the charges.


• A special bench of the Supreme Court heard the case today after the former employee, who claimed to be a part of the CJI's core team, accused him of sexual harassment. The woman sent an affidavit to several sitting judges.

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• External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj asks the 500 Indians stuck there to leave immediately. As Libya’s capital Tripoli continues to be hit by violence, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj asked the 500 Indians stuck there to leave immediately.


• The Minister also cautioned that if the Indians stranded in the Libyan capital do not leave immediately, then it may not be possible to evacuate them later.

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• A break-up of donations made to two major national parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, and revealed in their audited annual statements for the last two fiscals shows that the implementation of the electoral bonds scheme has substantially reduced the cash component of donations.


• But equally this has also coincided with a reduction in the proportion of donations that are declared contributions (that are above ₹20,000 and where the donors are known). This has in effect provided anonymity to some large contributors.


• There has also been a significant skew in favour of the ruling party in the issuance of electoral bonds — the BJP received ₹210 crore of the overall ₹221 crore redeemed in financial year 2017-18.

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• The three-month-old Bhupesh Bhagel government has reversed all the advances we made in 15 years, says the former CM. Bharatiya Janata Party leader Raman Singh speaks at his Raipur residence about his party’s electoral prospects, combating anti-incumbency and naxalism.


• He said We had got 10 out of 11 seats in 2014 and this time around too we will be close to this figure. The Lok Sabha election can’t be compared to Assembly polls. In the Assembly polls, there were many factors, including anti-incumbency.

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• Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) along with the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines from all the eight Assembly segments of Udupi- Chikkamagaluru parliamentary constituency were brought from the Demustering Centres and kept in strong rooms at St. Cecily’s School, the counting centre.


• The EVMs along with VVPATs from all the Assembly segments had reached the St. Cecily’s School here by evening. The EVMs of each one of the eight Assembly segments had been kept in individual strong rooms at the school. Two strong rooms are required for every Assembly segment. The strong rooms were then locked and sealed.

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• India’s leading tech players may be under serious threat from cyber criminals, according to cybersecurity investigation website KrebsOnSecurity.com. The website is run by former Washington Post staffer and cybersecurity writer, Brian Krebs.


• A fresh post on the website said the criminals responsible for launching phishing campaigns that netted dozens of employees and more than 100 computer systems last month at Wipro, India's third-largest IT outsourcing firm, also appear to have targeted a number of other competing providers, including Infosys and Cognizant, as per new evidence available with the website.

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• Japanese car giant Toyota and investment fund SoftBank Vision Fund unveiled an investment of $1 billion in U.S. company Uber to drive forward the development of driverless ridesharing services.


• The latest cash injection, expected to close in the third quarter this year, came amid fevered anticipation of Uber’s public share offering which is expected to be the largest in the tech sector for years.

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• Muted government spending and high election-related spending have created a liquidity deficit of Rs 70,000 crore in the banking system, stymieing the Reserve Bank of India's record liquidity infusion via bond purchases and the innovative dollar-rupee swap, blunting the recent rate cut and clogging the efficacy of policy transmission.


• System liquidity seems to be slightly more in deficit that is normal at this time of the year,” said Saugata Bhattacharya, chief economist at Axis Bank.

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• Mumbai Indians landed from neighbouring Delhi in high spirits. The win against Delhi Capitals was its fourth in five matches and a commanding one.


• Rajasthan Royals may not have flown home from Mohali in as upbeat a mood. The loss to Kings XI Punjab was its sixth in eight matches.


• Only Royal Challengers Bangalore has fared worse. Ajinkya Rahane’s men are indeed going through a tough time.

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• Cricketers Hardik Pandya and KL Rahul have been fined ₹20 lakh each by BCCI for their comments on women on 'Koffee with Karan'.


• The duo have been asked to pay ₹1 lakh each to widows of 10 martyrs in paramilitary forces. They have also been asked to deposit ₹10 lakh each in fund created for promotion of cricket for blind.

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• RCB defeated KKR by 10 runs to register their second victory in nine matches in IPL 2019.


• KKR have now lost four successive matches in IPL 2019, with three of the losses taking place at their home ground in Kolkata. The match witnessed KKR and RCB score 102 and 103 runs in their last six overs respectively.

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• Padma Bhushan awardee Yusuf Hamied (82) who is the chairman of Cipla pharmaceutical company was honoured in the 2019 list of new fellows of the UK’s Royal Society.


• It is an independent scientific academy of the UK and the Commonwealth, for promoting excellence in science.


• He was born on 25th July 1936 in Vilnius, Lithuania, raised in Mumbai and known for his effort to produce low-cost drugs to treat diabetes, cancer and other diseases.


• The UK Royal Society elected 51 eminent scientists as Fellows of the Royal Society.


• Other Indian scientists elected fellows were Gurdyal Besra, Manjul Bhargava, Anant Parekh, Akshay Venkatesh, Gagandeep Kang who has become the first Indian woman scientist to be selected as a fellow of the UK’s Royal Society.

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• A total of 150 Indian peacekeepers serving with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) have received medals of honour for their dedicated service and sacrifice.


• Under the UNMISS, the Indian Horizontal Mobility Engineering Company had completed the renovation of 145 km of roadway connecting Bentiu and Leer in South Sudan, easing the way for the delivery humanitarian aid, trade, and inter-communal dialogue.

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• Deutsche Bank appointed Kaushik Shaparia as the chief executive officer for India to succeed Ravneet Gill. Gill left the bank to head private lender YES Bank. Shaparia’s appointment will be effective from May 2019.


• Shaparia served as Asia Pacific Head of Corp­orate Banking Coverage within Institutional and Treasury Coverage, as well as Global Head of Subsidiary Coverage and has a 30-year experience at the bank.

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• Gursimran Singh has been appointed Vice President of the Delhi Hockey Association (DHA). Singh, whose appointment was announced in the presence of DHA General Secretary Mahesh Dayal, is a National-level hockey player.


• Gursimran Singh represented the CBSE national team in 2011 and participated in the National School Games in 2012. In 2013, Singh played in the Hockey India Junior National Championship as one of the youngest players in the tournament, and in 2017, he represented India in the 44 Pesta Indoor Hockey Tournament in Malaysia.

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• The Royal Society of London has announced a list of 51 eminent scientists elected to its fellowship in the year 2019. Among these are Gagandeep Kang, who is now with the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute, Faridabad. Dr. Kang is the first Indian woman to be elected to the Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS).


• Princeton professors Manjul Bhargava and Akshay Venkatesh have also been elected to the FRS.

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• Pilot Jerrie Cobb, who was NASA’s first female astronaut candidate passed away at the age of 88 in Florida due to illness.


• She was born on 5th March 1931, in Norman, Oklahoma.


• She became the first woman to pass astronaut testing in 1961. Total 13 women passed the physical testing and became known as the Mercury 13.


• None of the Mercury 13 astronauts ever reached space, despite Cobb’s testimony in 1962 before a Congressional panel.


• She served as a humanitarian aid pilot in the Amazon jungle, also emerged in 1998 to make another pitch for space, as NASA prepared to launch John Glenn on shuttle Discovery at age 77.


• Her autobiography is “Jerrie Cobb, Solo Pilot”.

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• Scotland all-rounder Con de Lange, who had been diagnosed with brain tumor, passed away at the age of 38. He was a slow left-armer and middle-order batsman.


• Lange had played 21 internationals for Scotland, making his debut in a Twenty 20 International against Ireland in June 2015.


• He also played domestic cricket for Cape Cobras and Knights in South Africa, and Northamptonshire in England.