Nobel winner Venky Ramakrishnan to head Royal Society

India-born Nobel laureate Sir Venkatraman Ramakrishnan has been confirmed as president elect of Britain’s prestigious Royal Society. Ramakrishnan will take over from geneticist Paul Nurse, also a Nobel laureate, on 1 December 2015. Ramakrishnan is currently deputy director of the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory for Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK.

  • In 2009, Ramakrishnan was awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering the precise structure of ribosomes i.e. the molecular machines that manufacture proteins inside all living cells. He shared this Prize with Tom Steitz and Ada Yonath.
  • He was awarded a knighthood in 2012 and Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine in 2007.
  • He was conferred Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian honour in 2010.

India Successfully Test Fires Air-to-Air Astra Missile

India’s indigenously developed Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air-to-air missile “Astra” was successfully tested from a Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft. The test was undertaken at the Integrated Test Range located at Chandipur in Odisha. Astra is a beyond visual range air ­to ­air missile (BVRAAM) that is capable of engaging its target at ranges of 37 km or beyond. Astra missile has operational range of 60km. It is India’s first BVR air ­to ­air missile. The all-­weather missile was indigeniously designed and developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

Benjamin Netanyahu sweeps Israel election

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud Party has won a surprise victory in Israel’s election as his party won 30 seats in 120-member Israeli Knesst. The outcome gives Mr Netanyahu a strong chance of forming a right-wing coalition government. It puts the incumbent on course to clinch a fourth term and become Israel’s longest-serving prime minster.

Sohail Aman new Pakistan Air Force chief

Air Marshal Sohail Aman was appointed as the Chief of Pakistan Air Force. His appointment was approved by the Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz sharif and he will take the charge immediately from incumbent Air Chief Marshal Tahir Rafique Butt. Prior to this appointment, Sohail Aman was serving as Deputy Chief of the Air Staff (operations) at Air Headquarters in Islamabad.

Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara retire from ODI cricket

Veteran cricketers of Sri Lanka Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara retired from the One Day International (ODI) format of Cricket after the quarter-final match against South Africa in the ICC World Cup on 18 March 2015. Sanga will play a few more Tests before calling it quits, while this is the last time we will see Jayawardene play international cricket. Mahela Jayawardene retired after playing 448 ODIs and accumulating 12,650 runs while Kumar Sangakkara scored 14,234 runs in 404 ODIs. In the current session of 2015 World Cup of cricket, Sangakkara created a record of four consecutive ODI hundreds.