May 31 Renowned music director Anil Biswas passed away.

• The Calcutta High Court accepted the recommendation of Expert Committee rejecting the notion that Kolkata was founded by Job Charnock. It directed the concerned authorities to make changes in history books and other documents accordingly.
• An Indonesian cargo vessel Sigiti Biru with 5327tonnes of soda ash and 150 tonnes of diesel sank in the Bay of Bengal near South 24 Pargana District of West Bengal.
• Deputy Prime Minister Shri LK Advani said that India does not expect Pakistan to change its policy on Kashmir. He said that New Delhi is keen to see a positive response from Pakistan on cross-border terrorism.

• Researchers at the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute at Bhavnagar in Gujarat have produced salt from a vegetable plant.

• Nalin Surie, currently Additional Secretary (East Asia) in the Ministry of External Affairs has been named India’s new Ambassador to China.

• In Jammu and Kashmir, as a part of three pronged counter-terrorism strategy, the government has started blocking infiltration routes favoured by militants, reviewing troop deployment along the Line of Control and installing an electronic warfare system to cut off communication between terrorists and their mentors across the border.

• DMK Chief Shri M. Karunanidhi’s son Shri M.K. Azhagiri was arrested for his alleged involvement in the murder of party leader and former minister T. Kiruttinan.
• The Rajasthan cabinet passed a resolution recommending 14 per cent reservation to the economically weaker sections among the upper castes in the State.
• The Delhi High Court suggested dowry offences should be made bailable and amenable to compromise settlement if no grave physical injury is involved.

• The Central Bureau of Investigation arrested the personal assistant of Minister of State for Finance Shri Gingee Ramchandran for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs.4 lakh for fixing the posting of an Indian Revenue Service officer.
• The Ministry of External Affairs has put off the 2003 Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage. This follows an advice from the Chinese Government that it is not allowing tourists into Tibet to prevent the spread of SARS.
• The Uttar Pradesh Government has issued a notification for upgrading the Amethi parliamentary constituency to a district—Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar.

• Union Agriculture Minister Shri Ajit Singh and Union Minister of State for Finance Shri Gingee Ramchandran resigned from their posts.
• Goa will be promoted on the lines of Cannes as the permanent venue of India International Film Festival.
• India welcomed the adoption of resolution 1483 on Iraq by the UN Security Council. It provides for the lifting of trade and financial sanctions against Iraq and supports the formation of a representative Iraqi Government by its people with the help of the occupying powers.

• Shri Rajnath Singh, Shri B.C. Khanduri and Shri Subodh Mohite are the new Cabinet Minister in the Union Government. The Prime Minister Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee also inducted five new Ministers of State, besides making changes in the portfolios of a number of Ministers.
• The Rashtriya Lok Dal of Shri Ajit Singh withdrew its five ministers from the Mayawati Government in Uttar Pradesh.
• The Maharashtra Chief Minister Shri Sushil Kumar Shinde won the South Solapur Assembly seat by a record margin of 79,433 votes.

• Shri Hari Majhi would replace Shri B.R. Mani as leader of the team of Archaeological Survey of India undertaking excavation at Ayodhya.
• India decided to resume the snapped Delhi-Lahore bus service and release 70 Pakistani fishermen and 60 civilian prisoners.
• Comptroller and Auditor General of India Shri V.N. Kaul has been elected External Auditor of the World Health Organisation. He would assume office from January 2004.

• The Prime Minister Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee left for the eight-day official tour to Germany, Russia and France.

• Five Rashtriya Lok Dal ministers in UP Government have resigned following the decision taken by the party after the resignation of its president Shri Ajit Singh from the Union Cabinet.

• Government has brought down custom duty on set top boxes (CAS) to five per cent from 51 per cent.
• Savita Mai Ambedkar, wife of late Dr. B.R. Ambedkar passed away after a prolonged illness in Mumbai.
• India successfully test-fired medium range surface-to-air missile Akash from the integrated test range at Chandipur in Orissa.

• The Centre has appointed Lt. Gen. (retd) Ajay Singh as the new Governor of Assam.

• The Employees Provident Fund Organisation reduced the rate of interest by 0.5 percent on the Employees Provident Fund for the current fiscal.
• The Renowned music director of Mumbai film industry, Anil Biswas passed away.

• The US State Department plans face-to-face interviews with all the visa applicants to plug gaps in its anti-terrorist efforts.
• The International Cricket Council (ICC) released a cheque of over $9,00,000 to the Indian Cricket Board for the squad members for their brilliant display in world’s biggest cricketing event.
• Pakistan Foreign Minister Mr. Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri said his country would welcome mediation, pressure, facilitation or encouragement by the US and other countries for a resolution to Kashmir issue.

• A series of bomb attacks in Morocco’s economic capital of Casablanca killed at least 40 people and injured 60.

• Floods killed at least 200 people in Sri Lanka.
• Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of a Baghdad suburb calling the withdrawal of the US forces from Iraq.
• The White House spokesman Mr. Ari Fleischer is quitting his present job in July to enter the private sector.
• Foreign visitors arriving at the US airports or sea ports beginning January 1, 2004, will have their travel documents scanned, fingerprints and photos taken and identification checked against terrorist watchlist.

• Pakistan would remain suspended from the Commonwealth until the deadlock is resolved over the status of President Pervez Musharraf’s controversial constitutional amendments.

• Pakistan fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar banned for two One-day Internationals and fined 75 per cent of his match fee for tempering the ball during a tri-series match against New Zealand.

• The UN Security Council voted overwhelmingly to end the 13-year-old sanctions on Iraq and gave the US and Britain extraordinary powers to run the country and its oil industry.
• The US had dropped objections to the transfer of the Israeli Phalcon technology to India.
• More than a thousand people have died in an earthquake in Algeria.

• The Israeli Prime Minister Mr. Ariel Sharon has accepted a US-backed peace plan, but faces stiff opposition from the hard-line Ministers in his Cabinet.

• Gus Van Sant’s film ‘Elephant’ wins Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival.

• Pakistan welcomed India’s decision to resume the suspended Delhi-Lahore bus service.
• A Charter plane crashed in Turkey killing all the 75 passengers on board including 62 Spanish peacekeepers returning from Afghanistan.

• Pakistan has nominated career diplomat Mr. Aziz Ahmed Khan, currently the foreign spokesman, as its new High Commissioner to India.
• Islamabad is willing to give all the necessary security guarantees to New Delhi with regard to the proposed $ 4.5 billion Indo-Iran gas pipeline project to be laid through Pakistani territory.

• Union Petroleum Minister Ram Naik opened Indian Oil Corporation’s first petrol station in Sri lanka.

• The Nigerian President Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo took the oath of office for a second term.

• Nepalese Prime Minister Mr. Lokendra Bahadur Chand resigned.
• The LTTE rejected Colombo’s latest offer af a development-oriented structure for the northeast as unacceptable. It stuck to its demand for an interim administration.
• Pakistani authorities have asked all Kashmiri jehadi groups to close their offices in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

• In their first meeting Prime Minister Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee and Chinese President Mr. Hu Jintao spoke of vigorously developing India-China relationship.

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