News in Short

• Israeli police stormed the flashpoint al-Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem. The contested site has been the focal point of the decades-long Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
• The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is a flashpoint site holy to both Muslims and Jews. It is located in East Jerusalem, a territory captured by Israel.
• Israel annexed it shortly later in a move not recognized by most of the international community.

• State Bank of India (SBI) has raised its marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR) by 10 basis points (bps) or 0.1% across all tenures.
• With the increase, EMIs will go up for those borrowers who have availed loans on MCLR, not for those, whose loans are linked to other benchmarks.
• Banks add Credit Risk Premium (CRP) over the EBLR and RLLR while giving any kind of loan including housing and auto loans.

• Eminent scholar and academician Manoj Soni has been appointed as the chairman of Union Public Service Comission (UPSC).
• A scholar of political science, Soni taught international relations at Sardar Patel University (SPU), VallabhVidyanagar between 1991 and 2016.
• He haas earned several national and international awards and recognition. Dr Soni has been appointed to replace the previous UPSC chairman Pradip Kumar Joshi.

• Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa appointed 17 Cabinet Ministers even while anti-government protests continue to pick steam.
• On April 3, the entire cabinet of 26 Ministers except for Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned from their respective portfolios amidst the worst economic crisis in the island’s history.
• The island nation is facing its worst economic crisis since independence with food and fuel shortages, soaring prices and power cuts affecting a large number of the people.

• Lieutenant General Manoj Pande was appointed the new Chief of Army Staff. He will succeed General M M Naravane on May 1.
• The Vice Chief of Army Staff, Lt General Pande will be the first officer from the Corps of Engineers to become the COAS.
• An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, he was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers (Bombay Sappers) in December 1982.