• An Indian-origin man who ran a secretive extremist Maoist cult in London and was sentenced to 23 years in jail by a UK court for a string of sexual assaults six years ago has died in jail.
• Aravindan Balakrishnan, known to his followers as Comrade Bala, was sentenced for six counts of indecent assault, four counts of rape and two counts of actual bodily harm back in 2016.
• Balakrishnan, born in a village in Kerala, lived and grew up in Singapore and Malaysia before moving to the UK in 1963 to study at the London School of Economics.
• It is there that he met Chanda, whom he married in 1969 at about the time he began his collective.

After reports of her non-domicile status and alleged tax evasion, Akshata Murthy, the wife of British finance minister Rishi Sunak, claimed that she has been paying all taxes.

Her spokesperson said that Akshata Murthy "has always and will continue to pay UK taxes on all her UK income".

The clarification came amid reports that Akshata Murty holds a non-domicile status and has evaded paying taxes on her UK income as recently as April 2020, when her husband was already Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Indian-born Murty is the daughter of Narayana Murthy, the billionaire co-founder of tech giant Infosys and has a 0.9 per cent stake in the company worth hundreds of millions of pounds according to its latest annual report.

Her spokeswoman said: "Akshata Murty is a citizen of India, the country of her birth and parent's home". She also stated that India does not allow its citizens to hold the citizenship of another country simultaneously.

"So, according to British law, Ms Murty is treated as non-domiciled for UK tax purposes. She has always and will continue to pay UK taxes on all her UK income," clarified the spokeswoman.

• SpaceX launched three rich businessmen and their astronaut escort to the International Space Station for more than a week’s stay, as NASA joins Russia in hosting guests at the world’s most expensive tourist destination.
• It’s SpaceX’s first private charter flight to the orbiting lab after two years of carrying astronauts there for NASA.
• Arriving at the space station are an American, a Canadian and an Israeli who run investment, real estate and other companies. They’re paying $55 million apiece for the rocket ride and accommodations, all meals included.
• Russia has been hosting tourists at the space station — and before that the Mir station — for decades. Just last fall, a Russian movie crew flew up, followed by a Japanese fashion tycoon and his assistant.
• NASA is finally getting into the act, after years of opposing space station visitors.
• The private Axiom Space company arranged the visit with NASA for its three paying customers: Larry Connor of Dayton, Ohio, who runs the Connor Group; Mark Pathy, founder and CEO of Montreal’s Mavrik Corp.; and Israel’s Eytan Stibbe, a former fighter pilot and founding partner of Vital Capital.

• India’s gross revenue collections for the financial year ending March 31, 2022, exceeded the budget estimates and revised estimates indicating a strong economic recovery, Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj said 
• As per the Government data, the gross revenue collection grew by nearly Rs 5 lakh crore to Rs 27.07 lakh crore, if compared with the budget estimates. The revised estimates for FY 22 were at Rs 25.16 lakh crore.
• The tax collected in FY22 was 34% higher than the previous year.  According to the Finance Ministry, 2021-22 marks the highest tax-GDP ratio of 11.7%, with direct tax to GDP ratio at 6.1% and indirect tax to GDP ratio at 5.6%.
• The gross corporate taxes during 2021-22 stood at Rs 8.6 lakh crore as compared with Rs 6.5 lakh crore in the previous year.
• During the year, the Income Tax department gave refunds of Rs 2.24 lakh crore.
• With regard to indirect taxes, GST saw a robust growth during 2021-22 despite two waves of the Covid pandemic. CGST revenues grew from Rs 4.6 lakh crore last year to Rs 5.9 lakh crore in 2021-22. The average monthly gross GST revenue in 2021-22 was Rs 1.23 lakh crore as against Rs 94,734 crore in 2020-21 and Rs 1.01 lakh crore in 2019-20.

• Two US tech companies, Block and Blockstream, are preparing to launch a fully solar-powered Bitcoin creation centre, or mine, in June, in a new effort to make cryptocurrencies less expensive and more environmentally friendly.
• The digital payments group Block, formerly called Square, and blockchain specialist Blockstream have each invested $6 million in the pilot project which should initially produce around 0.1 bitcoin per day, Blockstream CEO Adam Back said  .
• Blockstream announced the center would be located in west Texas and equipped with Tesla solar panels and batteries.
• Mining bitcoin requires a series of complex computer calculations, requiring an ever-increasing amount of electricity.
• Back said the two project partners are already thinking of increasing the size of the project by up to 100 times on the same site if the test proves conclusive.
• It is not the first cryptocurrency project to rely entirely on renewable energy.
• In El Salvador, where bitcoin is now an official currency, mining takes place at a geothermal power plant using the energy from surrounding volcanoes.
• Criticized for its huge consumption of electricity, the cryptocurrency sector has seen the birth of several initiatives in recent years to achieve a more ecological model.
• Last year, dozens of companies united under the umbrella of the Crypto Climate Accord and pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030.

• Indian swimmer Chahat Arora clinched a gold medal in the women's 50m breaststroke event at the Thailand Age Group Championship.
• The Chandigarh swimmer, who won two gold medals at the nationals last year, won the yellow metal after equalling her own previous best Indian time of 33.62 seconds in Samut Prakan, Thailand.
• The 24-year-old had won two gold medals in the Uzbekistan Open Swimming Championships in April last year.
• In other results, top Indian swimmer Srihari Nataraj finished third in the 'B' final of the 200m backstroke event at the French Elite Open Swimming Championship.
• The country's junior swimmers continued to make a splash in South Africa.
• Vritti Agarwal and Nina Venkatesh won a silver and bronze medal respectively in the South Africa National Championships.

• The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has denied media reports that said a team of sleuths from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is in India to probe into the Karnataka Bitcoin scam wherein politicians and police officials reportedly received kickbacks in the form of bitcoins from a hacker who was arrested by the Bengaluru Central Crime Branch police in connection with a drug case in November 2020.
• The CBI as the central investigating agency coordinates closely with international law enforcement agencies including the FBI. 

• In a series of trials, India successfully tested multiple rounds of the Enhanced Pinaka Mk-I Rocket System (EPRS) and Pinaka Area Denial Munition (PADM) rocket system. The rocket system that can act as a short-range missile is now ready for user trials and production.
• The EPRS and PADM systems were successfully test-fired from the Pokhran firing range.
• The enhanced Pinaka is the upgraded version of the rocket system, which has been designed with advanced technologies to destroy targets at long ranges.
• The rockets were fired for different ranges and warhead capabilities in the presence of Indian Army officials. The required accuracy and consistency were achieved by the rockets meeting all trial objectives satisfactorily.
• The Pinaka rocket system has been developed by Armament Research and Development Establishment (ARDE), Pune, supported by the sister laboratory High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (HEMRL), another Pune based laboratory.
• After establishing the performance efficacy of the enhanced range version of Pinaka, the technology was transferred to Munitions India Limited (MIL) and Economic Explosives Limited (EEL), Nagpur.
• Rockets manufactured by MIL/ OFCH under transfer of technology (ToT) from DRDO were flight tested during the series of trials. Different variants of munitions and fuzes which can be used in the Pinaka rocket system were also successfully test-evaluated.
• The enhanced range Pinaka Mk-1, which is an upgraded version, has a range of 45 km and some additional features. The 15-foot long rocket weighs around 280 kg and can carry warheads up to 100 kg. PADMs are a category of ammunition used to prohibit the adversary from occupying or passing through a particular area.
• One battery of Pinaka system consists of six launch vehicles, accompanied by the loader systems, radar and links with network based systems and a command post. The system can fire a salvo of 12 rockets over a period of 44 seconds. One battery can neutralise an area of one km by one km. The guided version of the Pinaka has also been developed and tested multiple times for a range of 75 km.