Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP is headed for a victory bigger than in 2014 - a 300-plus figure the BJP reached as a single largest party. The BJP kept its core states — the Hindi heartland, Gujarat and Maharashtra — while posting fresh victories in Bengal, Odisha and the northeast. It also scored a huge win in Karnataka - a state the Congress rules jointly with HD Kumaraswamy. “Together we grow. Together we prosper. Together we will build a strong and inclusive India. India wins yet again! #VijayiBharat,” PM Modi tweeted. Rahul Gandhi congratulated the Prime Minister and said “We report the people”. Elections were held on 542 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats and a party or alliance needs 272 seats to form government. At the time of going to press The NDA is ahead in 343 of the 542 seats, while the BJP lead has crossed 300. In 2014, the party won 282 seats, the NDA had won 336. It was the first time in more than three decades that a single party won majority on its own. BJP chief Amit Shah tweeted: "This victory is India's victory. This is the victory of the hopes of youths, the poor, and farmers. This massive win is the victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's development and the people's trust in him. On the behalf of crores of BJP workers, I congratulate Narendra Modi." Among the states, the BJP made a clean sweep in Gujarat, Delhi and Rajasthan and is ahead in 38 of 40 seats in Bihar and 41 of 48 seats in Maharashtra. The party is also expected to win 28 of the 29 seats in Madhya Pradesh. In Chhattisgarh, it is marginally behind leading in nine of the state's 11 seats. In Andhra Pradesh, the YSR Congress is set to come to power, decimating the ruling Telugu Desam Party of Chandrababu Naidu. It is ahead in 144 of the state's 175 assembly seats and in all 25 of its Lok Sabha seats.

IIT Chennai on top

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai is India’s best institute overall says a ranking released by the Indian government. Seven of the top ten educational institutes in India are IITs. IIT Chennai beat the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore which had bagged the top spot last year. Delhi’s Miranda House has been ranked as the top college while IISc took the spot for top university. Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has been ranked the second-best university in the country.

FINALLY, A BLACK HOLE REVEALED!

Humans can finally see something they’ve known about and read about but never ever seen-the mysterious thing called a ‘black hole’. For the first time in history, an image of a black hole has been captured in a photograph. So, 103 years after science suggested that black holes exist, we finally have a photo of one. It measures 40 billion kilometres across-three million times the size of the Earth-and has been described by scientists as "a monster". It is larger than our entire solar system. The black hole is 500 million trillion kilometres away and was photographed by a network of eight telescopes across the world.

As no light escapes from a black hole, how do you photograph it, as we can only see objects when they reflect light? So, what we are looking at in the image is the material surrounding the hole which is a ‘halo’ of gases falling into the black hole.

A black hole is what remains after a star, has burnt itself out. Once the star runs out of energy, it starts to collapse inwards due to the force of gravity. Gravity is the force that pulls us towards an object. For example, it is the gravity of the earth that keeps us on the planet’s surface. The gravitational pull of the dying star is so strong that it sucks everything into it-much like a whirlpool. The physicist Stephen Hawking was one of the first to explain that, at the centre of a black hole, gravity is so strong that the normal ideas of space and time, stop operating. Such an occurrence is called a singularity. The gravitational pull of the black hole is so strong that no light can escape from it, and all light is sucked in. Therefore in a singularity, so much matter is crushed into such a small space, that gravity becomes unimaginably great and the laws of physics (such as those relating to space and time) stop working.

MONSOON: NORMAL OR NOT?

Will the monsoon bring sufficient rain in 2019? That’s the question on the lips of weather forecasters as India enters the peak summer period. While the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), which forecasts weather, says the monsoon will be normal, others say that India may get less rainfall than usual. The key factor is the El Nino, a weather phenomenon that is connected to the warming of the Pacific Ocean. While IMD believes the El Nino effect will wear off soon, private forecasters like Skymet say that El Nino will be strong enough in 2019 to cause a dip in rainfall. India gets 70% of its yearly rainfall from the south-west monsoon between June and September. A lot of farmers depend on this rain for their crops while we in cities depend on it to provide water for drinking and daily use.

550thBIRTHDAY OF GURU NANAK DEV CELEBRATED

Government of India has decided to commemorate 550th Birth Anniversary of Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji from November, 2018 at national as well as international level in a befitting manner. The Year long Celebration starting Novmber 23rd this year will include a number of commemorative as well as constructive activities will be taken up during the commemoration period. A number of religious activities like kirtan, katha, prabhat pheri, langar and educational activities such as seminars, workshops, lectures etc. will be organised. SGPC, Amritsar will be the knowledge partner of the Government of India. Commemorative coin and postage stamp will also be released.

Chairs in the name of Sh. Guru Nanak Dev Ji will be set up in UK and Canada. An international seminar will also be organised. A National Institute of Inter Faith Studies will be set up in Punjab. Doordarshan, Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha TVs will live telecast programmes on Sh. Guru Nanak Dev Ji. Gurubani in different Indian and world languages will be published. Sultanpur Lodhi will be developed as a heritage city incorporating ‘Pind Babe Nanak Da’. A high powered telescope will be installed in Indian territory to view Kartarpur Sahib, Pakistan. Sultanpur Lodhi railway station will be upgraded. A train will run passing through places associated with Guru Nanak Dev Ji.

Measles outbreak causes worry

Outbreaks of measles in the United States (US), Ukraine and Israel are worrying health officials worldwide as the disease spreads easily through the air. Accompanied by fever, rashes and coughing, the disease could turn deadly if not treated properly. In the Ukraine alone, more than 30,000 people have been infected while this week, New York City in the US declared a public health emergency due to prolonged outbreak of the disease.

The outbreak of the disease in countries where it had been previously controlled is due to the fact that many people have stopped giving their children vaccinations against diseases. Vaccines are usually given to children and young people to make them immune to diseases like measles and typhoid. But a belief that vaccines are harmful made some people in these countries avoid vaccines for their children.

In New York, the city government has made vaccinations compulsory in several areas. In Europe, the Italian government has said that unvaccinated children would not be allowed to attend government schools. The problem is that in New York, people can be exempted from vaccination for religious reasons. The decision to vaccinate or not is not just a health issue in New York Instead, it has become a freedom of religion issue. This will have to be tackled before the health problem can be fixed.

Ready for the World Cup?

The ICC Cricket World Cup is all set to begin on May 30 in England and the Indian team for the world’s most important One Day International (ODI) tournament has been chosen. Leading the team is Virat Kohli, who will be supported by Rohit Sharma who will be the Vice-captain. The team also includes former captain MS Dhoni who has been in great form during the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Surprisingly, Rishabh Pant and Ambati Rayadu have not been included in the squad. Pant in particular has been in good touch recently. Instead, the selectors picked Vijay Shankar whom they felt was an all-rounder, and could therefore contribute more to the team.

Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan will open the batting for India with Virat Kohli and Vijay Shankar batting at the third and fourth positions. On the bowling front, India have Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami as fast bowling options. Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav are the specialist spinners while Ravindra Jadeja will also pitch in when needed. Hardik Pandya who bowls medium pace completes the bowling squad. Hosts England, along with India and Australia, are the favourites to win the World Cup. India has won the tournament twice-in 1983 and 2011. Australia have won the tournament the maximum number of times (five) while like India, the West Indies have won it twice. Pakistan and Sri Lanka have won it once. This is the fifth time that the tournament is being held in England.

The format

The format is different from the 2015 edition.

• In the first round all ten teams will play each other once-so, each team will play 9 matches

• The top four teams will make it to the semi-finals

• The winners of the semi-finals will play the finals at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London on July 14.

NOTRE DAME DAMAGED IN FIRE

The Notre Dame church in Paris, one of the most important monuments in the French capital city, was damaged in a massive fire last week. The fire damaged many structures and objects inside the 850 year old building.

The building's spire and roof have collapsed but the main structure, including the two bell towers, has been saved. The cathedral was being renovated when the fire broke out.

The spire of the cathedral completely collapsed during the fire, finally falling through the roof. Luckily the inside of the Cathedral was made of stone, which protected it from the fire. Valuable pieces of art were quickly removed from the church as the fire spread. Within a day, the fire was completely put out. The French Government has promised to re-build the cathedral.

The Notre-Dame cathedral is one of the symbols of France. It has stood tall above Paris since the 1200s compared to the Eiffel Tower, which is just over 100 years old. It receives more than 13 million visitors each year, which is more than the Eiffel Tower.

The church features in one of France’s most famous books -Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. The last time the cathedral suffered major damage was during the French Revolution. But it survived two world wars largely without damage.

JALLIANWALA BAGH: 100 YEARS LATER

Saturday, the 13th of April marked the 100th anniversary of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, the incident that changed the path of Indian history. Hundreds of people marched through the streets of Amritsar, where the Bagh is located, to mark the anniversary, holding candles and the national flag.

A hundred years ago, British BrigadierGeneral Reginald Dyer opened fire on a group of Indians who had gathered at Jallianwala Bagh which is located near Amritsar’s Golden Temple. The Indians had gathered to demonstrate against British rule in India and were unarmed and peaceful. That didn’t stop Dyer from ordering his soldiers to fire into the crowd. The firing ended only when the troops ran out of bullets-at the end, 379 lay dead and some 1,200 were wounded. The shocking incident caused Mahatma Gandhi to launch the Non-Co-operation Movement. It also angered Indians as a whole, motivating them to fight harder against the British. On the 100th anniversary of the incident, British Prime Minister Theresa May said that “the tragedy of Jallianwala Bagh in 1919 is a shameful scar on British Indian history”, but she did not issue a formal apology. Over the years, many Indians have demanded a proper apology from the British Government but this is yet to come.

THE ‘TIGER’ RETURNS

A comeback doesn’t get bigger than this. Eleven years after he last won a major tournament, golfer Tiger Woods swung his way to victory to lift the Augusta Masters, the biggest of all golf tournaments. This is the fifth time he has won the Masters.

At the start of the tournament, it didn’t seem likely that he would win. After all, it had been fourteen years since he last wore the Green Jacket. As recently as two years ago, Woods wasn’t even sure of playing the game for much longer. In the end, the win was dramatic, with Woods wining by one stroke even as his mother and kids cheered him on. The return of Tiger Woods to winning ways may not be important just to him but also to golf itself. Between 1997 and 2010, he utterly dominated the sport. In the early 2000s, he singlehandedly made the sport more and more popular. As his career slumped, so did the interest in the sport. With Woods now playing better than before, perhaps public interest in the game will also come back.

UK-EU breakup: A messy exit

Will the United Kingdom (UK) leave the European Union (EU)? Or won’t it? Three years after the people of the UK voted to leave the EU, the country still hasn’t been able to finalise its exit from the EU.UK’s Prime Minister Theresa May has been scrambling to create an agreement for the exit that works for the UK as well as the EU but she hasn’t been successful so far. Time is running out as the deadline for the UK’s exit from the EU is looming.

The EU is a unified group of countries that have common rules for trade and finance (money management). Within the EU, people can move freely across borders without visas. Any product manufactured in one country can be sold in any other member country without tariffs or duties. Taxes are the same everywhere. Lawyers, bankers and doctors can operate in all member countries. In essence, the EU works like one giant country.

The UK is unhappy about the flow of refugees and immigrants from other countries. Wars and tough living conditions have brought millions of refugees from Africa and West Asia into the EU. The UK doesn’t like the idea of making room for them. Plus it feels that the EU imposes too many rules on member countries. These reasons made the people of the UK vote to exit the EU on June 23, 2016.

Untangling itself from the EU is no easy task. The island of Ireland poses one of the biggest problems. While Northern Ireland is part of the UK, the rest of Ireland is an independent nation that will stay on in the EU. If the UK leaves the EU, the line dividing the nation of Ireland from Northern Ireland will become an international border with all the checks and taxes that come along with such a border. The UK wants to avoid this but in return, the EU wants the UK to keep following some of the EU’s trade rules. But that is one of the reasons the UK wanted to leave the EU in the first place! See the problem?

The UK may now be given some more time to arrive at an agreement with the EU. But for now, no one knows how they are going to arrive at such an agreement!