Current GS

• Tamil Nadu has opened the country's first blood bank for dogs. The facility has been started by the Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS).
• Mahinda Rajapaksa DM Jayaratne, the senior-most member of the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) has been appointed as the new Prime Minister of the country following the parliamentary elections held on April 8.Popularly known as 'Di Mu Ja', he replaces Ratnasitri Wickremanayake.
• Torch lizard --Scientists have discovered a new species of lizard, which is a relative of the Komodo dragon. The scientific name of this lizard is Varanus obor; its popularly known as Torch monitor and Sago monitor. It's called Torch monitor because of its bright orange head with a black body.
• Scientists have created the world's smallest three dimensional map of Earth, so small that 1,000 of them can fit on one grain of salt. The task was accomplished by a team at IBM by using a tiny, silicon tip with a sharp apex to create patterns and structures as small as 15 nanometers.
• Prabha Rau, the governor of Rajasthan died from a cardiac arrest on April 26. She was 74. Shivraj Patil, the Governor of Punjab is presently discharging the functions of the Governor of Rajasthan.
• Fernando Verdasco continued his impressive build-up to Roland Garros defeating last year's French Open runner-up Robin Soderling to win the Barcelona Open on Sunday, April 25.
• Nadal, who had won the title in Barcelona the past five years, withdrew from this year's event to rest before next week's Rome Masters.
• Esma gives police the right to arrest, without a warrant, anybody violating the Act's provisions. The Essential Services Maintenance Act (Esma) was enacted in 1968, to (as its name indicates) maintain "certainessential services and the normal life of the community." The Act includes a long list of "essential services" in its charter -- ranging from post and telegraph, through railway, airport and port operations -- and it prohibits the key employees in these services from striking. But the Act also allows states to choose the essential services on which to enforce Esma. (Jammu and Kashmir, incidentally, is exempt from Esma.) So for instance, only some days ago, Andhra Pradesh decreed that its IT industry was an essential service. This thrilled bodies like National Association of Software & Service Companies (Nasscom) because, as one industry representative put it: Esma gives police the right to arrest, without a warrant, anybody violating the Act's provisions. "Any person who commences a strike...or otherwise takes part in...any such strike shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to two hundred rupees, or with both," the Act reads. "Any person who instigates...a strike which is illegal under this Act shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees, or with both."