• The Reserve Bank of India slashes the Bank Rate and Cash Reserve Ratio by 1 per cent and also reduces the savings deposit rate from 4.5 to 4 per cent.
• The Union Government raises the price of desulphurised petrol and diesel by 13 paise and 52 paise per litre respectively in the Capital to offset the additional cost incurred in reducing sulphur content.
• India and Turkey sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for establishing a political consultation mechanism between their Foreign Ministries. The two countries also sign agreements relating to cooperation in agriculture, culture and scientific exchange programmes during 2000-2002.

• The Supreme Court in a judgement, passes a ruling that the holy book of Sikhs, “Guru Granth Sahib” is a juristic person. This will allow it to use properties gifted to it for public good and enhancing religious fervor.
• The Chief Minister of West Bengal, Jyoti Basu, commissions the mother unit of the Rs. 5170 crore Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd. (HPL) project and dedicates the 420-KPTA naphtha cracker plant to the nation.

• Seven people are killed and five injured in police firing on a procession at Brakpora in south Kashmir.

• CBI files chargesheets against the Bihar Chief Minister, Ms. Rabri Devi and the former Chief Minister Laloo Yadav in the ‘disproportionate assets case’.
• Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee inaugurates a website Samvidhan.com which contains the Indian Constitution in Hindi. This website is a part of the Hindi portal, Webdunia.com.

• Prime Minister Vajpayee releases a special commemorative postage stamp on Arya Samaj in honour of the invaluable services rendered by it.
• Bihar Chief Minister, Rabri Devi and her husband Laloo Yadav surrender in the ‘disproportionate assets’ case before the designated court of the Central Bureau of Investigation.
• The International Badminton Federation (IBF) debars the National Women’s champion Aparna Popat for three months from participating in international competitions for consuming a banned substance and thereby contravening the IBF anti-doping statutes.

• The Government permits the use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as an auto-fuel and has allowed alterations in vehicles to run them on LPG.
• The President confers gallantry awards and decorations on 55 defence personnel including 39 Kargil heroes.

• The Delhi Police claims to have unearthed a multi-crore cricket betting and match-fixing racket involving five South African cricketers including the captain, Hansie Cronje.
• The Union Finance Minister presents awards to prominent income tax payers under the ‘Samman’ scheme announced in June 1998.

• India and Ireland sign a Memorandum of Understanding for setting up a joint working group on Information Technology.

• Russia’s President-elect, Vladimir Putin endorses the Indo-Russian Extradition Treaty and pact on mutual legal assistance in criminal matters.

• An indigenously developed missile ‘Dhanush’ with a strike range of 150 Km is test-fired from a Naval carrier close to the Orissa coast.

• At least 29 persons die of electrocution during Ram Navami celebrations at Daltonganj in south Bihar.
• Union Cabinet decides to accord international status to six domestic airports at Goa, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Guwahati, Amritsar and Kochi.

• Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi is in coma. Chief Cabinet Secretary, Mikio Aoki is acting Prime Minister.

• Japan’s ruling party elects Yoshiro Miro the Prime Minister three days after a stroke cuts short the political career of his predecessor, Keizo Obuchi, who is still in coma.
• India and Bahrain sign an air services agreement under which each side can designate upto two airlines.
• Sir Donald Bradman is selected as the greatest cricketer of the last century in a poll conducted by the bible of cricket ‘Wisden Cricketers Almanack’ for the edition which marks the year 2000.
• Pakistan unveils its medium range ballistic missile, Shaheen-II, which has a range of 2,500 km and is capable of hitting most of Indian cities.

• The ousted Pakistani Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif is convicted and sentenced to a 25-year-long life sentence on charges of hijacking and terrorism whereas the other six accused including Sharif’s brother are acquitted.

• Three-day meeting of the Foreign Ministers of the Non-Aligned Movement countries begins at Cartagena in Columbia. More than 50 Foreign Ministers from 115 countries are attending the conference.

• Leaders of the Group of 77 countries, representing the developing world attend the first South summit at Havana to discuss new ways of staying together in the Post Cold-War era.
• Costas Simitis wins a second mandate as the Greek Prime Minister after defeating his conservative opponents in Athens.
• The final declaration adopted at the end of the two-day Non-aligned Movement (NAM) ministerial meet at Cartagena endorses New Delhi’s demand of debarring NAM membership to military-ruled states.

• South African cricket captain, Hansie Cronje is sacked from the national team for accepting bribe during a triangular series played in South Africa recently.
• Jhumpa Lahiri, a US-based writer of Indian origin is awarded America’s most prestigious literary award, the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for 2000.

• Russian state Duma ratifies the U.S. – Russian Strategic Nuclear Arms Reduction Treaty (START-II) signed in 1993.
• J.M. Coetzee, a South African author bags the ‘Commonwealth Writers Prize’ for Best Book for his novel ‘Disgrace’.

• The U.S. Stock indexes take a beating with record-breaking point drops after the Government released a bad inflation report.
• The three-day G-77 summit concludes at Havana. The Resolution adopted call for a shake-up of the world’s financial systems to give greater say to the developing nations over economic and trade policies.

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