The BCCI is planning a massive renovation of at least five major stadiums in India ahead of the ODI World Cup in October-November.

The game has attracted huge money over the past 10 years, making BCCI, the richest board in the world, richer.

However, the stoic fan, which has made the game what it has become, is often deprived of basic facilities at most venues around the country.

During the India-Australia Test series in February-March, fans had vented their ire over the lack of clean toilets at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi.

It is not surprising that Delhi is among the five venues which underwent a GAP assessment from the BCCI.

As per the list accessed by PTI, the other venues are Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mohali and Mumbai.

The Wankhede in Mumbai had undergone renovation before the India-Australia ODIs last month after a fan complained of poor sanitary conditions at the famous stadium.

The projected cost of renovation at the five venues runs into hundreds of crores.

India last hosted the ODI World Cup in 2011 when the Mahendra Singh Dhoni-led team lifted the trophy.

Q1. How many public sector banks  are there in India?

1. 10
2. 11
3. 12
4. 14
5. None of These

Q2. Name  the last living prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials, who tried Nazis for genocidal war crimes and was among the first outside witnesses to document the atrocities of Nazi labor and concentration camps and who  has died ?

1. Ben Ferencz
2. Arthur Goldberg
3. Wilbur Cohen
4. Dr. Jeffrey Herbst
5. None of These

Q3.  Name the right-wing activist who was arrested on Apr 9 in Gujarat's Gir Somnath district for allegedly delivering a "hate speech" on Ram Navami that caused a communal clash in Una town on April 1?

1. Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati
2. Kajal Hindustani
3. Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati
4. Manish Kashyap
5. None of These

Q4. Name the  legendary theatre actor and co-founder of the capital's iconic Akshara Theatre who  died on Apr 9 after a battle with respiratory ailments ?

1. Suresh Vaidya
2. C.P. Ramachandran
3. Gopal Sharman
4. Jalabala Vaidya
5. None of These

Q5. Name the Chief Minister of Assam who  on Apr 9  has said that  he will file a defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over a tweet that linked him to the Adani group ?

1. Bhabesh Kalita
2. Pulakesh Barua
3. Dulal Baruah
4. Jayanta Malla Baruah
5. None of These

Answers

1------------------3 12

2-------------------1  Ben Ferencz

3------------------2   Kajal Hindustani

4-----------------4  Jalabala Vaidya

5------------------5    None of These

Ans Himanta Biswa Sarma

The State Election Commission (SEC) on Apr 9 announced the dates of Local Urban Body polls. The voting would be held in two phases on May 4 and May 11. The results will be announced on May 13.

With the announcement of polls, the model code of conduct came into force immediately.

State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar issued the notification for the elections soon after the state government issued the fresh notification on OBC and SC/ST reservations.

Earlier, the state government had issued the draft proposal for the quota on March 31 on the basis of the recommendation of the five-member Backward Commission listing the reserved seats for the three-tier civic body. The objections over the list were sought by April 6.

Out of the 17 posts of Mayor, 199 of chairpersons of Nagar Palika Parishad and 534 Nagar Panchayats – which add up to 760 total seats – 205 posts have been reserved for OBCs, 288 for women of all categories, 110 for Scheduled Castes (SCs) and two for Scheduled Tribes (STs), according to the new notification.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Apr 9 said he will file a defamation case against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over a tweet that linked him to the Adani group.

Addressing a press conference , Sarma said the defamation case will be filed after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Guwahati on April 14.

Gandhi on Apr 8  took a swipe at some leaders who have quit the Congress in recent years and some of whom have joined the BJP as he kept up his offensive against the government over the Adani issue.

He cited the names of Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Himanta Biswa Sarma, Kiran Kumar Reddy and Anil K Antony in his tweet. After quitting the Congress, Azad formed his own party, while the rest joined the BJP. Scindia is now a Union minister and Sarma the chief minister of Assam.

Jalabala Vaidya, legendary theatre actor and co-founder of the capital's iconic Akshara Theatre, died on Apr 9 after a battle with respiratory ailments . She was 86.

Born in London to Indian author and freedom fighter Suresh Vaidya and English classical singer Madge Franckeiss, Jalabala Vaidya started out as a journalist, writing for various national newspapers and magazines in Delhi.

She was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi's Tagore Award, the Delhi Natya Sangh Award, the Andhra Pradesh Natya Akademi Honour, Honorary Citizenship of the City of Baltimore, USA, and in February, the Delhi Government's Varisht Samman for her lifelong contribution to the performing arts.

Jalabala Vaidya was briefly married to well-known journalist and columnist, C.P. Ramachandran, but soon after, met and married her lifelong partner in the arts and life, poet-playwright Gopal Sharman.

Her theatrical life started in 1968 with 'Full Circle', a dramatised selection of poems and stories, which became an instant success on its first European performance tour.

The critical acclaim for Full Circle led to an invitation to Sharman to write and direct a play based on The Ramayana for the Royal Shakespeare Theatre's World Theatre Season.

Sharman wrote the play for a cast of 25 actors, but it became internationally famous as a one-woman performance in which Jalabala Vaidya played all the characters, in a style based on the traditional 'katha'.

Sharman's "The Ramayana", a contemporary interpretation of the epic as a play in English is still the only Indian production to have played on Broadway where the New York Times called it 'India's Gift to Broadway'.

She co-founded the Akshara National Classical Theatre in New Delhi with Sharman.

Right-wing activist Kajal Hindustani was arrested on Apr 9 in Gujarat's Gir Somnath district for allegedly delivering a "hate speech" on Ram Navami that caused a communal clash in Una town on April 1.

Hindustani surrendered before the police in Una following which she was arrested and produced before a court which remanded her in judicial custody.

Hindustani, who identifies herself as an entrepreneur, research analyst, social activist, nationalist, and a "proud Indian" on her Twitter bio and has more than 92,000 followers including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is a regular at events organised by Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

A First Information Report (FIR) was registered against Hindustani under section 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code on April 2, two days after she allegedly delivered a provocative speech at a Hindu community congregation organised by the VHP on Ram Navami on March 30.

Afghan religious scholars on Apr 8  criticized a ban on female education, as a key Taliban minister warned clerics not to rebel against the government on the controversial issue.

Girls cannot go to school beyond sixth grade in Afghanistan, with the education ban extending to universities. Women are barred from public spaces, including parks, and most forms of employment. Last week, Afghan women were barred from working at the U.N., according to the global body, although the Taliban have yet to make a public announcement.

Authorities present the education restrictions as temporary suspensions rather than bans, but universities and schools reopened in March without their female students.

The bans have raised fierce international uproar, increasing the country’s isolation at a time when its economy has collapsed and worsenied a humanitarian crisis.

Two religious scholars who are well-known within Afghanistan said that authorities should reconsider their decision. Public opposition to Taliban policies is rare, although some Taliban leaders have voiced their disagreement with the decision-making process.

One scholar, Abdul Rahman Abid, said institutions should be permitted to re-admit girls and women through separate classes, hiring female teachers, staggering timetables, and even building new facilities.

Knowledge is obligatory in Islam for men and women, he told The Associated Press, and Islam allows women to study.

Another scholar, who is a member of the Taliban, told the AP there is still time for ministries to solve the problem of girls’ education. Toryali Himat cited ministries comprising the inner circle of the supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, who is based in Kandahar.

It was on his orders that the government banned girls from classrooms.

Ben Ferencz, the last living prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials, who tried Nazis for genocidal war crimes and was among the first outside witnesses to document the atrocities of Nazi labor and concentration camps, has died. He had just turned 103 in March.

Born in Transylvania in 1920, Ferencz immigrated as a very young boy with his parents to New York to escape rampant antisemitism. After graduating from Harvard Law School, Ferencz joined the U.S. Army in time to take part in the Normandy invasion during World War II. Using his legal background, he became an investigator of Nazi war crimes against U.S. soldiers as part of a new War Crimes Section of the Judge Advocate's Office.