NATIONAL NEWS

Noted South Indian Filmmaker passed away.

Noted South Indian filmmaker Dasari Narayana Rao passed away on 30 May 2017 at the age of 75 years. He was best
known for his cinematic works in Telugu language. He was famous for his films like ‘Premabhishekam’,
‘MeghaSandesham’, ‘Osey Ramulamma’ and ‘Tata Manavadu’. He also received two National Film Awards, nine state
Nandi Awards (including the RaghupathiVenkaiah Award), and four Filmfare Awards South (including the lifetime
Achievement award). He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in year 2006.

Priyanka Chopra to be awarded with DadasahebPhalke Academy Award.

Bollywood actress, Priyanka Chopra will be awarded with the DadasahebPhalke Academy Award for being an
international icon. The Baywatch star will be given this award under the newly introduced 'Internationally Acclaimed
Actress' category at an award ceremony that will be held on 1 June 2017 in Mumbai.

Now Doctors can work upto 62 years in Uttar Pradesh.

On 30th May 2017, the Uttar Pradesh government has extended the retirement age of doctors working under provincial
medical service from 60 to 62 years. The decision was taken by the state’s Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. The move
has been made in the view of non-availability of medical practitioners all over the state. Around 7,327 post of doctors
were lying vacant in the state against the sanctioned strength of 18,382. Near about 300 to 400 doctors retire every year
in the state and there are not enough qualified doctors to fill up the vacant seats. So, the current decision of raising the
retirement age is expected to reduce the shortage of doctors by about 1000.

India’s own GPS is just 7 months away…

India’s homegrown Global Positioning System (GPS), the Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS), also
known as ‘Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC)’, will become operational in year 2018. It will give terrestrial,
aerial and marine navigation which includes vehicle tracking and fleet management, disaster management, visual and
voice navigation. The proposed system is in pipeline and scientists are specifically testing calibration of NavIC data and
ground verification for calculation of accuracy. It is good for knowledge that the American GPS system has 24 satellites
in a constellation which covers entire world while this NavIC will be equipped with 7 satellites which will encompass
India, Indian Ocean and its surroundings, eastern parts of Arabian Peninsula in the west and some parts of China in the
east. In the south, the system’s signals will work till Malaysia. NavIC system has dual frequency (S and L bands)
allowing use of high and low frequency signals. With the NavIC system, India will also join the row of United States of
America, Russia, and the European Union which have their own GPS.

Zika knocked at Indian threshold!

In May 2017 the first three cases of Zika virus got reported in India. Health Ministry reported that the three patients in
western Gujarat state became victim of daytime-active Aedes aegypti and Aedesalbopictus mosquitoes which
transmitted Zika virus but they succeeded in recovering from the dis-ease. Among them two were pregnant ladies who
despite of infection, delivered healthy babies. According to the medical journal ‘Lancet’ 2.6 billion people of Asia and
Africa are vulnerable to Zika infection, based on analysis of travel, climate and mosquito patterns in these regions. It is
worth recalling here that Zika virus showed its existence in 1947 but it came into prominence with its outbreak in Brazil
in year 2015 which led to severe birth defects in newly born babies of infected pregnant women.

National Commission for Minorities welcomed Rizvi.

In May 2017 Former chairman of U.P Minority Finance Development Corporation Ltd., Syed Ghayorul Hasan Rizvi
took charge as Chairman of National Commission for Minorities in New Delhi. The art graduate has contributed

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towards improvement of the basic facilities and working conditions of Beedi workers and Weaver community in Uttar
Pradesh. The social activist has also rendered his services for Communal Harmony and National Integrity.

The obsession of Mount Everest!

On 27th May, Uttarakhand Mountaineer and Border Security Force assistant commandant, Love Raj Singh
Dharmshaktu has become the first Indian to conquer Mount Everest for six times. Nehru Institute of Mountaineering,
the premier institute of mountaineering under the ministry of defence in Uttarkashi confirmed this news. The
mountaineer is a former Padma Shri awardee. It is worth recalling here that the Earth's highest mountain is also known
‘Sagarmāthā’ in Nepal and ‘Chomolungma’ in China.

Amitabh Bachchan opened doors for ‘Darwaza Band’ campaign.

On 30th May star of the millennium, Amitabh Bachchan along with the Union Minister for Drinking Water and
Sanitation, Narendra Singh Tomar and Maharashtra Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis launched a Toilet Usage
Campaign, ‘Darwaza Band’ in Mumbai. On this occasion Actress Anushka Sharma also encouraged women to stand up
for this issue in their villages and assume a leadership role. Term ‘Darwaza Band’ of the campaign stands for shutting
the door on open defecation. This national level campaign is about the promotion of toilet usage in the rural areas across
the nation. The campaign has come by support of World Bank. The campaign will play an important role in the ongoing
Swachh Bharat Mission which aims to achieve an Open-Defecation Free (ODF) India by 2nd October 2019, the 150th
birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

FICCI Smart Police Award reported to the Pune city police.

In May, the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) Smart Police Award for the year 2017
was conferred upon the Pune city police for their initiatives on women and cyber security. BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi
presented this award to Pune Police Commissioner Rashmi Shukla during a programmeorganised by FICCI and
Vivekanand International Foundation on Homeland Security in Delhi. Pune city police initiated apps like “BuddyCop”,
“Damini squad”, “Lost & Found” portal, Beat Marshal Monitoring Sapience App, etc. to handle the security issues in
the city which led them to this award.

Punjab laments at death of Former DGP of Punjab KPS Gill.

26th May spelled the end of Former Director General of Police (DGP) of Punjab, K P S Gill. He died at the age of 82 at
the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi due to kidney failure and cardiac arrest. Punjab got rid of militancy by his virtue.
He had served twice as the DGP in Punjab before retiring from the force in year1995. He had also been president of the
Indian Hockey Federation (IHF). In 1989, he was acknowledged with India's fourth-highest civilian honour, the Padma
Shri for his crackdown on Khalistani terrorists.

India’s first underwater rail tunnel came ahead of its time.

In May 2017, India’s first underwater rail tunnel for linking Howrah and Kolkata under Hooghly river got completed
before its scheduled time of July 2017. The tunnel came into existence by virtue of a giant tunnel-boring machine
(TBM) 'Rachna' brought from Herrenknecht AG plant in Schwanau in Germany. The tunnel is 502 meters long under
the river. Indo-Russian joint venture, AfconsTranstonnelstroy and Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation Ltd, together
materialized this tunnel into reality.

The Apex Court refused the hearing!!!

On 25th May The Apex Court refused to grant an urgent hearing on a PIL for cancelling of 2017 National Eligibility-
cum-Entrance Test (NEET) examination for admission to MBBS and BDS courses which was conducted on May 7th.
The court ignored NGO Sankalp Charitable Trust’s plea of holding fresh medical entrance test as one of the question
papers of NEET was leaked at one of the centres at Patna in Bihar and it was circulated to various medical aspiring
students in different parts of the nation. The vacation bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Navin Sinha turned down
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the plea giving prominence to upcoming decision of Madras High Court which was already looking into this matter.
The High Court had imposed an interim stay on declaration of NEET results on 24th May after a group of students
alleged that question papers prepared in regional languages were different from question papers in Hindi and English.

RajanAnandan has become chairman of IAMAI.

On 25th May Google India MD, RajanAnandan got appointed as chairman of the Internet and Mobile Association of
India (IAMAI). Rajan will succeed the FreeCharge co-founder and chairman Kunal Shah. The new council is expected
to increase the internet user- base, especially in rural areas, for promotion of local language content and the digital
startup ecosystem in India. IAMAI witnessed some other appointments also. The chairman and group CEO of online
travel agent MakeMyTrip, Deep Kalra became the new vice-chairman of IAMAI and the Managing director of India
and South Asia at Facebook, UmangBedi got appointed as the new treasurer of this association. The new appointees
will serve on this post for two years. IAMAI is the country’s leading association of nearly 300 Indian and overseas
digital companies. It has offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata.

CBSE welcomed its new secretary.

On 25th May Senior bureaucrat, Anurag Tripathy got appointed as new secretary of Central Board of Secondary
Education (CBSE) for upcoming five years. He is a 1998 batch officer of Indian Railway personnel Service (IRPS).
Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) issued order for this appointment.

Assam will be blessed with AIIMS.

On 24th May Union Cabinet gave nod to establishment of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Kamrup in
Assam. It will be ready in 48 months at estimated cost of 1123 crore rupees under umbrella of the Pradhan Mantri
Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY). This approved institute will provide super speciality health care and will create a
large pool of doctors and other health workers in the region. The hospital is destined to have 22 Speciality/Super-
Speciality Departments including 16 Operation Theatres. It will have capacity to accommodate 750 beds, trauma center
facilities plus an AYUSH department with 30 beds for providing treatment facilities in traditional system of medicine. It
will also have residential complexes and allied facilities/services, following the pattern of AIIMS, New Delhi. The
institute will recruit 100 MBBS students and 60 B.Sc. (Nursing) students per year. It is worth registering that so far
under this scheme, AIIMS have been established in Bhubaneshwar, Bhopal, Raipur, Jodhpur, Rishikesh and Patna and
many more are in progress at different locations.

52nd Annual General Meeting has come on wheels.

PM Narendra Modi inaugurated African Development Bank’s 52nd Annual General Meeting on May 23 which will
continue till May 26th at Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar in Gujarat. This is the first time that India is hosting this
annual meeting. Around 4500 delegates viz. finance ministers and central bank governors belonging to African
Development Bank’s 54 member nations and 26 non-member nations are participating in this meeting. It is worth
recalling here that India had joined the African Development Bank (AfDB) in year1983. This Annual Meeting is the
Bank’s largest annual event that offers a unique forum for representatives of government, business, think-tanks, civil
society, academia and the media to discuss Africa’s development at length. India is the fifth largest investor in Africa.
India has created jobs for Africans with investment worth $54 billion over the past 26 years. Africa has Indian private
sector in fields of automobile, drugs and pharmaceuticals, IT services, water treatment, petroleum refining, textiles etc.

EDMC welcomed its new Mayor & Deputy Mayor.

On 22nd May East Delhi Municipal Corporation elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) councillorsNeema Bhagat and
Bipin Bihari Singh as Mayor and Dy Mayor respectively. Looking at the fragile economic condition of EDMC, the new
mayor appealed for unification of East Delhi Municipal Corporation with South and North corporations. East Delhi has
seen half a dozen strikes in last three years by the sanitation workers for timely payment of their salaries and other dues.

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She has also requested for curbing the climbing property tax. In 2007, Neema Bhagat had also been a councillor in the
erstwhile Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

HDFC Life made India's first AI-based insurance email bot, ‘SPOK’ viral.
On 23rd May, one of India's top private life insurance companies, HDFC Life launched first life insurance email bot.
The Internet bot is actually a computer program that does automated tasks. This Artificial intelligence (AI) based email
bot, ‘SPOK’ will automatically read, understand, categorise, prioritise and respond to customer emails that are sent to
HDFC Life, within milliseconds. It will speed up response to user queries of HDFC Life and will also help generate
deeper insight on customer needs by identifying patterns in customer interactions and facilitating HDFC Life to
progressively anticipate and address all customer issues and needs. HDFC Life has begun this initiative in collaboration
with Senseforth, a startup that offers a wide range of enterprise bots built on its AI platform. It will enhance customer
experience.

Jaipur Literature Festival bloomed in London.

On 22nd May the Jaipur Literature Festival reached London to display rich South Asian literary heritage, oral and
performing arts, books and ideas, dialogue and debate. The second largest library of the world, the British Library
hosted the annual festival as part of the wider UK-India Year of Cultural celebrations. Several authors and artists from
India, UK and beyond graced the occasion with their presence. The year 2017 marks the fourth London edition of this
festival. This festival has its roots in Jaipur where it marked its 10th anniversary in January this year.

Tejas got on the tracks!

On 22nd May Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu flagged off the high speed, air-conditioned Tejas Express from Mumbai
to Goa via video conferencing. The premium luxury train is well equipped with ultra-modern facilities like LED TV,
wi-fi and CCTV. It is a state of the art train capable of running at 200 kms per hour. The train will be vibrant five days
a week during non-monsoon period, and three days a week during monsoon period.

Finances smiled at Paytm!

During May 2017, e-commerce player Paytm in its biggest-ever fund-raising round, raised $1.4 billion i.e. 9,000 crore
rupees from global internet entity ‘SoftBank’. With this deal SoftBank ensured a seat on Paytm’s board. Before this
Paytm raised its first major round in 2015 when Chinese fintech player Ant Financial invested $500 million into the
company. Paytm was Founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma in year 2010 as a digital bill payment and recharge platform.

Business incubator ‘LIVE’ of IIM-K went live.

In May 2017, the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIM-K) has started its Laboratory for Innovation,
Venturing and Entrepreneurship (LIVE), a business incubator and entrepreneurship development center. The selected
ventures in this group covers a wide range of sectors but most of them are based on digital technology. LIVE has vowed
to support not only startups of students and alumni of IIM-K but also for any innovative idea with commercial potential
of anybody as per DrKeyoorPurani, Executive Director, IIMK LIVE and professor of marketing at IIMK. LIVE was
registered under the Indian Societies Act in June 2016 and the Department of Science and Technology (DST)
sanctioned a grant of Rs three crores for it. IIM-K has granted requisite space and facilities on campus and is preparing
a series of programmes and products to ensure long term sustainability of the new centre. LIVE has so far admitted
twelve startups in its first ever job creation programme.

Debjani Ghosh will soon be the new additional director of Yes Bank.
On 18th May Mid-sized private sector lender Yes Bank has made announcement of appointment of Debjani Ghosh as
its additional director on board. She is a computer hardware company, Intel’s executive. The lady has been associated
with Intel since 1996 and has worked in capacities of country head and managing director for South Asia.

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IIT Delhi got a feather in its cap.
In May 2017, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi became proud recipient of the startups national award 2017 for
devising a device ‘Nasofilters’ that gives protection against air pollutants and minimises the risk of respiratory diseases.
Technology development board awarded this award to IIT Delhi team which includes faculty members like professor
ManjeetJassal and professor Ashwini K Agrawal, alumni Sanjeev Jain, Prateek Sharma, Tushar Vyas and a student
JatinKewlani.
'Nasofilters' -is a Nano-respiratory filter, which is all set for commercialisation and has potential to guard against the
finest particle of pollutant.

Ministry of Tribal Affairs welcomed Leena Nair.

In May 2017 Ministry of Tribal Affairs witnessed appointment of its new Secretary, Ms. Leena Nair. She is a 1982
batch IAS officer of Tamil Nadu cadre. Prior to this appointment she worked as Secretary in the Ministry of Women &
Child Development. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs is the nodal Ministry for overall policy, planning and coordination
of programmes for development of Scheduled Tribes which came into existence in 1999 after the bifurcation of
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. The ministry is on purpose of promoting the interests of Scheduled Tribes
through specially tailored schemes.
Karnataka lent ears to trumpet.
On 17th May an elephant census officially known as All India Synchronised Asian Elephant Population Estimation
began in Karnataka which will continue for next three months. The elephant population of Mysore Elephant Reserve,
spread across 11,000 sq km through Bhadra-Nagarahole-Bandipur-BRT Wildlife Sanctuary, Cauvery Wildlife Reserve
and Bannerghatta are on target. The last elephant census of Karnataka took place in the year 2012, which showed the
State elephant population as 6072 with Bandipur and Nagarahole accounting for nearly 1500 elephants each. The
Elephant Census is conducted in every five years.

Anil Madhav Dave escaped from environment of life.

Union Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave passed away at the age of 60 on 18th May in AIIMS New Delhi.
Prolonged illness became excuse for his great escape. He had the reputation of a devoted public servant. He was from
Madhya Pradesh. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha in August 2009. The deceased was tremendously passionate about
conservation of environment. The additional charge of the environment ministry has now come on shoulders of Science
and technology minister, Harsh Vardhan.

GST Bill 2017 got nod of UP Assembly.

On 16th May Uttar Pradesh Assembly approved Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, 2017 by a voice vote. The Bill
entered in the state assembly on 15 May 2017. The approved GST Bill is made up of four bills viz. The Central Goods
and Services Tax Bill, 2017 (The CGST Bill); The Integrated Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017 (The IGST Bill); The
Union Territory Goods and Services Tax Bill, 2017 (The UTGST Bill); The Goods and Services Tax (Compensation to
the States) Bill, 2017 (The Compensation Bill). The bills have provision for levy and collection of tax on inter-state
supply of goods or services or both by the Union Government; intra-state supply of goods and services by the Union
Government and intra-UT supply of goods and services in the Union Territories without legislature.

Death clouded former Puducherry CM SubrahmanyanRamaswamy.

On 15th May Former Puducherry Chief Minister SubrahmanyanRamaswamy at age of 80 attended call of death after a
brief illness. Flashback reveals that DravidaMunnetraKazhagam (DMK) gave flight to his political career. It landed him
as Home Minister in the DMK-CPI coalition ministry from year 1969 to 1973. In year 1973, he switched to the All
India Anna DravidaMunnetraKazhagam (AIADMK) and in year 1974 he became Chief Minister of AIADMK heading
the AIADMK-CPI coalition ministry for a short period. He contested as Independent from Karaikal in year 1985 and
1990. In year 1992 he came in Congress.

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India’s longest bridge is on verge of appearance.
On 26th May 2017 Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate India’s longest 9.15 km long Dhola-Sadiya bridge
over the Brahmaputra river in Assam which is in proximity to China border. The bridge in pipeline is capable of
withstanding the weight of a 60-tonne battle tanks and it will improve the connectivity in this region. It is 3.55 km
longer than the Bandra-Worli sea link in Mumbai.

16th May came as National Dengue Day.

Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Government of India observed 16th May as National Dengue Day
across the nation. The day laid emphasis on control the Dengue via creating awareness and initiating preventive actions
for the disease. It is worth knowing that Dengue is a common viral disease which is spread by mosquito Aedes Aegypti.
The disease shows two forms. The first form is known as Classical Dengue fever or breakbone fever which inflicts
severe pain in patients’ joints. The second form is known as DengueHaemorrhagic Fever which is not only painful but
also fatal as it results in abnormal bleeding from nose, gums or as blood in urine. As per National Vector Borne Disease
Control Programme (NVBDCP) statistics, the number of victims of Dengue are maximum in Delhi followed by Punjab,
Haryana, West Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar
Pradesh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Telangana and other states.

Kerala topped the public affairs index.

In May 2017 Former Chief Justice of India M.N. Venkatachaliah released a survey report on 10 themes, 26 focus
subjects and 82 indicators in the presence of former Karnataka Lokayukta, N. Santosh Hegde, PAC Director, G.
Gurucharan and former Chief Secretary of Rajasthan, C.K. Mathew. Essential infrastructure, social protection, support
to human development, women and children, crime, law and order, delivery of justice, environment, transparency and
accountability, fiscal management and economic freedom were the themes of this survey. This report was prepared by a
team headed by Dr. C.K.Mathew. Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat Karnataka, Maharashtra were on first, second,third,
fourth and fifth positions respectively. Bihar stood last in the index. In Essential infrastructure theme Punjab topped the
list and Tamil Nadu secured first rank in maintaining law and order. Telangana emerged as the best performer in fiscal
management.

Varanasi will soon be a ‘Smart City’.

On 13th May Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur has collaborated with the British Geological Survey to
transform Varanasi into a smart city of Uttar Pradesh. The collaboration envisages three dimensional geological
modelling of the of the cities to help improve the building of new transport and service infrastructure. This would be the
first major 3D subsurface urban study and planning of its kind in India, with the ultimate aim of developing
methodologies and input of suburban geology for planning and hazard risk assessment as per Dr Martin Smith, Director
Science of British Geological Survey.

WHO chose Amitabh Bachchan as Goodwill Ambassador for Hepatitis.

On 14th May the World Health Organisation appointed Amitabh Bachchan as its Goodwill Ambassador for Hepatitis in
South-East Asia Region to spread awareness about the disease. The appointment comes as the first formal association
between World Health Organisation and Amitabh Bachchan, who served as UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for Polio
in India. Margaret Chan is the present Director-General of WHO.

The cloud of Florence Nightingale Awards drenched 35 Nurses.

The President of India, Pranab Mukherjee bestowed the Florence Nightingale Awards to 35 nurses countrywide on the
occasion of International Nurses Day at the RashtrapatiBhavan, New Delhi. Rs. 50,000/- cash, a certificate, a citation
certificate and a Medal were given to the outstanding nursing personnel employed in Central, State/Union Territories.

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PM bowed Narmada with Narmada Seva Mission.
On 15th May Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Narmada Seva Mission in Madhya Pradesh. The mission is
on purpose of influencing ecology of the State. On this occasion, the Narmada Seva Yatra which began December last
year from Amarkantak got concluded at the point of its beginning after covering a distance of more than 3000
kilometres and passing 1,100 villages and towns. This excellent mass movement to protect the river conveyed message
of saving the environment.

BSF got blessed with ‘Invisible laser walls’ on border.

On 14th May announcements of equipping the Border Security Force (BSF) with a newly developed technology
‘Invisible laser walls’ along the 198 km India-Pakistan international border. The new technology ‘Kavach (KVx) series
laser walls’ can detect intrusions and relay information immediately to the nearest post for action. It is a made-in-India
technology which has been developed by Delhi-based defenceIoT firm, CRON Systems and is a notch higher than the
existing laser walls. The new technology has used infrared array, which is invisible. It is more advanced than laser
walls. The Kavach walls is capable of working in transparent water and glass as well.

V K Saraswat stepped in JNU as its new Chancellor.

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) appointed renowned scientist and former Director General of Defence Research and
Development Organisation (DRDO), V K Saraswat, as the new Chancellor on 12th May. He has succeeded former
ISRO chairman K Kasturirangan for upcoming five years. The appointee is a Member of NITI Aayog. It is worth
knowing that as per JNU Act, the post of chancellor is a titular post.

UP designates Saturday as ‘No bag day’!

On 13th May all the government schools of Uttar Pradesh observed the first ‘No bag day’. In Lucknow Deputy Chief
Minister and Minister for Secondary Education, Dr Dinesh Sharma in a high-level committee meeting decided to
observe every Saturday as ‘No bag day’ for 1.8 crore children of all 1.7 lakh government schools in 75 districts of the
state. Apart from this, some decisions regarding arbitrary fee in private schools, co-education system in government
inter colleges, preparing digital data base of teachers and exempting teachers from extra duties, barring election, natural
calamity and census, which hampers teaching activities and education standard in schools were also taken.

The Silicon Valley of India was spotted on 20th Position!

On 12th May the new Savills Tech Cities Index 2017 ranked Bengaluru, the Silicon Valley of India on 20th position out
of 22 cities on different parameters. Austin (Texas)occupied the top rank followed by San Francisco (California) and
New York. The Indian technology hub topped this world's most affordable tech city Index table in context to cost of
living parameter. It is good to learn that the average house rent in Bengaluru is Rs 15,250, while it is Rs 50,000 in San
Francisco. Bengaluru is much cheaper in comparison to Cape Town, Santiago, Buenos Aires and Berlin as per the
Savills Tech Cities Index. Bengaluru is also called as the Information Technology (IT) capital of India.

India tested webs of ‘Spyder’. On 11th May India test fired a surface-to-air missile ‘Spyder’ from a mobile launcher at
launch complex 3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Odisha. Spyder (Surface-to-air PYthon and
DERby) is an acquired missile system from Israel which is a short-range, quick reaction surface-to-air missile. It has
two smokeless missiles ‘Python’ and ‘Derby’, with an active onboard radar. Spyder has potential of neutralizing
aircraft, UAVs, and low-level cruise missiles at distance of 15 km and at heights between 20 and 9000 metres. It is an
all-weather missile.

Vinay Mohan Kwatra: Indian Ambassador to France.

On 12th May Vinay Mohan Kwatra got appointed as India’s next ambassador to France. The new ambassador is
presently serving in capacity of joint secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). He has succeeded Mohan Kumar.
He got appointed after Presidential elections in France, in which Emmanuel Macron was elected the President.
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Himachal minister took exit from cabinet of life.
On 12th May State Ayurveda and Co-Operative Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Karan Singh passed away in All India
Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi. Karan Singh came from Banjar assembly constituency in Kullu district
in the last assembly elections in year 2012. Governor Acharya Devvrat, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and Opposition
Leader Prem Kumar Dhumal grieved at his demise.

Aadhar has begun to take schools under its purview.

The Central Board of Secondary Education, CBSE, has requested its affiliated schools to establish Aadhaar enrolment
centres and encourage students who do not have the identification number to get enrolled. Though CBSE has not
mandated these setups yet it has asked the schools willing to do so to ink an MoU with either the Board or Unique
Identification Authority of India, UIDAI. The move came in wake of Central government making Aadhaar card
compulsory for numerous benefits in educational institutions, including mid-day meal schemes and several fellowships.

11th May came as National Technology Day. The day is celebrated across the nation to commemorate the anniversary
of scientific achievements viz. the first of the five tests of Operation Shakti (Pokhran-II) nuclear test which was
conducted on 11th May 1998 in Pokhran, Rajasthan. Besides this, the first indigenous aircraft Hansa-3 was test flown at
Bangalore. The day also marks successful test firing of the Trishul missile. Viewing all these technical feats,
Technology Development Board (TDB) established National Awards which are bestowed to individuals and industries
for their successful accomplishments in adoption and commercialization of Indigenous Technology. Apart from
distribution of these awards, the celebration includes Lectures, quizzes,competitions, presentations and interactive
sessions on various aspects of science across the planet.

Taranjeet Singh became Country Director for India.

On 10th May the social networking giant,Twitter promoted its incharge of sales and marketing, Taranjeet Singh as
‘Country Director for India’. Under this new designation, Singh will lead integrated business strategy and spearheading
cross-functional collaboration. He will also make efforts for acceleration of Twitter’s audience and revenue growth in
India. Before joining Twitter, he was the sales director, South Asia for BBC Advertising, where he held responsibility
for revenue and business strategy for BBC World News along with the channel’s main online website. India is the
largest market for social media organisations like Facebook, WhatsApp and Google.

Kulbhushan Jadhav has been exempted from role of “The Hanged Man”.
On 9th May the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has put a stay order on Kulbhushan Jadhav's hanging. The Indian
nationalwas sentenced to death by a Pakistani military court for alleged spying. The Hague-based ICJ has instructed
Pakistan to ensure that Jadhav is not executed. India approached the court on 8th May against the death sentence given
to the former Naval officer. India pleaded that Pakistan was denying consular access to Jadhav, despite repeated
requests, which is a violation of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. It further added that Jadhav was
kidnapped from Iran where he was engaged in business activities after retiring from the Indian Navy. However,
Pakistan claims to have arrested him from Balochistan. The 46-year old retired officer ‘s death sentence inflicted dent
upon the bilateral ties of the two nations.

Odisha steered Boat ambulance service.

In May 2017 Odisha began Six boat ambulances in four districts viz. Koraput, Malkangiri, Kendrapara and Kalahandi.
IIT Chennai is providing technical support to this project. On account of intervening large water bodies in the form of
rivers and dams disrupting road communication people met with difficulty in procuring 108 ambulance service as per
statement of Health and Family Welfare Secretary P K Meherda. Besides this, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik
Is also looking forward to ink an MoU with Public Health Foundation of India and Zikitza Health Care Limited to
improve healthcare delivery system.

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The story of dismissal and the reinstatement.
On 5th May senior IPS officer, T P Senkumar was reinstated as Director General of Police (DGP) by the Kerala
Government. On 25th May 2016 Kerala’s LDF government sacked T P Senkumar from post of DGP. The Supreme
Court directed reinstatement of Senkumar on 24th April 2017 as he was transferred by the LDF government “unfairly”
and “arbitrarily”. Despite of the Apex Court’s ruling, the Kerala government was reluctant to reinstate the officer and as
a result it filed a clarification petition which got dismissed by the Apex Court. The court has imposed a fine of Rs
25,000 on the Kerala government.

What on earth disturbed Assam?

On 6th May the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) declared Assam as ‘Disturbed’ for 3 More Months.
Moreover, the Union Government has also placed three districts of Arunachal Pradesh viz. Tirap, Changlang and
Longding and other areas falling under 16 police stations bordering Assam in bracket of 'disturbed' area. It was done on
account of the ongoing violent activities carried out by certain insurgent groups like ULFA, NDFB and others in these
areas. It is alarming to learn that in Assam, 75 incidents of violence were reported in year 2016 and 9 in year 2017 as a
result Assam was placed under AFSPA in November 1990. It is worth knowing that Armed Forces (Special Powers)
Acts (AFSPA) is a name given to numerous acts passed by Indian parliament for providing special powers to the Indian
Armed Forces and it ensures legal immunity to army officers and jawans for their actions in disturbed areas.

Justice prevails….capital offence incurred capital punishment!

On 5th May the apex court upheld the verdict of Delhi High Court on Nirbhaya gang rape case.A 3-judge bench of
Justices Dipak Misra, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan confirmed the death penalty to four convicts, Akshay Thakur,
Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh. On the night of December 16, 2012 Ram Singh, Akshay Thakur,
Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma MukeshSingh and a juvenile brutally assaulted and raped a 23-year-old paramedic on a
moving bus in South Delhi and threw her and her male friend out of the bus. The victim struggled for life and died in a
Singapore hospital on December 29, 2012. The key accused, Ram Singh, died in custody while the juvenile was sent to
a reformatory for three years, the maximum penalty under the law at the time for those who were under the age of 18.
This unfortunate and disgusting incident created tsunami of shock for which the Delhi High Court awarded death
sentence to Akshay Thakur, Pawan Gupta, Vinay Sharma and Mukesh Singh which was challenged by the four in the
apex court. the apex court confirmed the findings of the trial court and Delhi High Court against the four convicts in the
case.

‘Swachh Jungle kikahani – DadikiZubani’ is ready to flood book stores.

On 5th May Information & Broadcasting Minister, M. Venkaiah Naidu released a set of books titled ‘Swachh Jungle
kikahani – DadikiZubani’. This set has been published by Publications Division in 15 Indian languages to inculcate
habit of cleanliness among children. Children’s author, Dr. Madhu Pant has authored this set of four books in a
storytelling format to convey the cleanliness message in an interesting manner via the clean Jungle tales. The books
have a lot of interesting and eye-catching illustrations made by young artists. These books have chosen children as their
target and are bound to play a significant role in the ongoing Swachhtaabhiyan. Children play a vital role in bringing
about behavioural changes in the society. They become role models for their parents, relatives and friends to adopt
cleanliness.

Ashoka University got a new Vice Chancellor.

On 5th May Pratap Bhanu Mehta was appointed as Vice Chancellor For Ashoka University. His appointment will come
into effect from July 1, 2017. Presently the new appointee is serving in capacities of Editorial consultant in The Indian
Express; President and Chief Executive of Centre for Policy Research (CPR) in New Delhi. He had also taught at
Harvard University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and the New York University School of Law. The man has been a
public intellectual, who penned in The Indian Express, The Financial Times, The Telegraph, The Hindu and The

[9]
International Herald Tribune. He has worked a lot on political theory, constitutional law, intellectual history, politics
and society in India, and international politics.

Indore emerged as cleanest city of India!

According to the Swachh Bharat rankings Indore of Madhya Pradesh topped the list while Gonda in UP got exposed as
the dirtiest city of India among 434 surveyed cities. Bhopal, Visakhapatnam Surat, Mysuru, Tiruchirapally stood on
second, third, fourth, fifth positions respectively. According to the cleanliness criteria 45% marks were for open
defecation free, solid waste management (collection, sweeping, transportation and processing of garbage), education
and capacity building; 25% marks were for field inspection and 30% were for citizen feedback. Around 18 lakh citizens
across the cities gave their feedback about the sanitation in their respective cities and towns. West Bengal was not
surveyed as the Mamata Banerjee government did not participate in the Swachh Survekshan.

ICSSR welcomedBraj Bihari Kumar.

On 4th May Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) appointed Braj Bihari Kumar, editor of quarterly
journals ‘Dialogue’ and ‘Chintan Srijan’ as its chairman. He has taken place of renowned economist S K Thorat for
upcoming three years. 76 years old Braj Bihari Kumar is founder of ‘AsthaBharati’, a non-profit organisation which is
dedicated to promotion of “India’s unity and integrity.” His name was chosen by a selection committee having National
Research Professor Ashok Modak, Panjab University emeritus professor Jitendra Mohan and historian Satish Mittal.
Indian Council of Social Science Research was set up in year1969. Apart from this Pardesi Lal and Tariq Mansoor,have
been appointed as Vice-Chancellors of Nagaland Central University and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU)
respectively.

National language will sail beyond the curriculum.

On 4th May the Apex court denied to make Hindi language compulsory for students of class I-VIII across the nation to
promote national unity. The verdict came from the bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul who
refused the proposal saying that people speaking other languages may also start asking why their languages are not
being taught and added. The petitioner in the plea, had referred to constitutional provisions and the non-execution of the
three-language formula enunciated in the 1968 National Policy Resolution by the Centre in conformation with the
states.

India’s most expensive limestone block witnesses auction.

On 4th May Chhattisgarh succeeded in auctioning its third limestone block, ‘Kesla-II’ to Dalmia Cement in a bidding
that went on for a record 23 hours with the highest bid received 96.15% of IBM (Indian Bureau of Mines) prices which
are 20 times more than the reserve price. This block is located at Tilda Tehsil of Raipur district, Chhattisgarh which
encompasses 357 hectares of area with an average grade of 43% CaO. This auction was special in terms of percent of
IBM prices as the deal has broken the national record held by Rajasthan at 67.94% of IBM prices for its limestone block
of Nagaur District.

Dada Saheb Phalke Award made way to Kasinadhuni Viswanath.

On 3rd May President Pranab Mukherjee conferred prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Award upon filmmaker Kasinadhuni
Viswanath at the 64th National Film Awards ceremony in New Delhi. With this Kasinadhuni became the 48th recipient
of the Phalke award which is the highest recognition in Indian cinema. The awardee is an Indian audiographer who
turned into director, screenwriter, and character actor in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi cinema. He has directed 53 feature
films in a variety of genres in his 60 year film career. "Sankarabharanam", "SagaraSangamam", "Swati Mutyam",
"Saptapadi", "Kaamchor", "Sanjog" and "JaagUthaInsaan," and many more are some of his renowned films. The man is
best known for blending parallel cinema with mainstream commercial cinema. In past his work has been well
acknowledged with 5 National Film Awards, 6 state Nandi Awards, 10 Filmfare Awards South, and a Bollywood
Filmfare Award. Besides these in year1981, he received "Prize of the Public" at the Besancon Film Festival of France;
in 1992, he was honored with the Andhra Pradesh state RaghupathiVenkaiah Award, and the civilian honour Padma
Shri for his outstanding contribution to the field of arts.

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 INTERNATIONAL
INTERNATIONAL NEWS

India ranks 120th in women workforce.

As per India Development Report released by world bank, India had one of the lowest female participation in the
workforce. India ranked 120th among 131 countries. According to the report, the participation level has been dropping
since 2005, despite having 42% women who are graduates. Listing out the reasons for a decline in women participation
in the workforce, Frederico Gil Sander, a senior country economist, World Bank, said that “while a larger number of
younger women in India were opting to study in schools, many were dropping out of the workforce due to lack of job
opportunities and others due to rising income levels”.

New species of ‘see-through’ frog found.

Scientist discovered, a new glass frog species which has a transparent skin through which its beating heart is visible.
The frog (Hyalinobatrachiumyaku), found in the Amazonian lowlands of Ecuador has unique physical and behavioural
traits. The dark green spots on its back and its reproductive behaviour mark it out as different from normal frogs.

The 70th annual Cannes Film Festival 2017 awards are out!
The 70th annual Cannes Film Festival 2017 began on 17th May and concluded on 28th May 2017 in Cannes, France.
The Swedish film, 'The Square' directed by Ruben Östlund, grabbed the top prize the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film
Festival while the the Grand Prix or the runner-up prize pulsated for the film '120 Beats Per Minute!'. Joaquin Phoenix
braved the Best Actor prize for 'You Were Never Really Here' and Diane Kruger mesmerized the Best Actress prize for
'In the Fade'.

Apple fell in gravity of Singapore.

In May 2017Apple opened its first official store in Southeast Asia in Singapore. The two-storey shop with the iconic
glass facade has bloomed on the affluent Orchard Road in the city’s upmarket shopping district. iPhone and MacBook
were strategically placed on display across the spacious first floor, while the upper storey was a classroom for
customers to participate in hands-on sessions. It is worth knowing that Apple has almost 500 stores worldwide with
more than a million visitors daily. The company is said to have a staggering $256.8 billion cash stockpile. Besides
Singapore the company is vibrant in Hong Kong, China and Japan in Asian region.

World's largest telescope is in the making.

On 26th May the behemoth task of Construction of world's largest telescope, ‘European Extremely Large Telescope
(ELT)’ began in Chile’s 3000 meter-high mountain in the middle of the Atacama Desert. It will be the world's largest
optical telescope. Director General of European Southern Observatory (ESO), Tim de Zeeuw, and President of the
Republic of Chile, Michelle Bachelet Jeria together did the inaugural ceremony for beginning the construction of this
telescope. The main mirror of the telescope will be of 39 meters. It will be able to correct the atmospheric turbulence. It
will be equipped with ‘HARMONI’ an instrument designed to simultaneously take 4000 images, each in a slightly
different colour which will reveal information about the formation and evolution of objects in the Universe.Oxford
University scientists are playing a lead role in the project. After construction it will be around five times larger than the
top observing instruments used today. It will become operational in year 2024.

US court of appeals laid red carpet for AmulThapar.

On 26th May the United States Senate appointed Indian - American Judge AmulThapar in US Circuit Court of Appeals
and with this he has become the second Indian Judge to get appointed to a key judicial position in USA. He will look
into cases from Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio and Michigan. He is an asset of Indian immigrants Raj Thapar and Veena
Bhalla. He earned law degree from University of California at Berkeley. In year 2007, former US President George W

[ 11 ]
Bush nominated him as the United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Prior to him in year 2013,
Shri Srinivasan was the first Indian Judge to get appointed to the DC circuit court of appeals appointed by former US
President Barak Obama.

Taiwan is all set to add a new curriculum in institution of marriage.

On 24th MayTaiwan's Apex court stormed a revolution by approving same sex marriage in the Island nation and with
this it is going to become the first place in Asia to grant same-sex marriage. Further the Constitutional Court has
ordered the island's parliament to amend or enact new laws in next two years, which would potentially make Taiwan the
first place in Asia to allow these revolutionary marriages.It is worth knowing at this point that the island has a large gay
community and its annual gay pride parade is the biggest in Asia. Even if lawmakers do not pass legislation allowing
same-sex marriage in the next two years then also the gay couples will be able to marry by 2019.

Egypt forbade 21 media websites.

On 25th May Egypt blocked 21 media websites including the Huffington Post's Arabic website, Al-Sharq of Turkey,
Masr Al Arabiya website, the main Qatar-based Al-Jazeera news channel website, an independent Egyptian media
Mada Masr and many more for allegedly supporting terrorism. The blocked websites are said to contain content that
supports terrorism, violence, corruption, extremism and outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement. Moreover, Egypt is
thinking of taking legal action against these forbidden websites. Other Arab countries like Saudi Arabia and the United
Arab Emirates too blocked Al Jazeera which talks in favour of Iran.

What made the PM resign?

On 24th May Prime Minister of Nepal Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' gave his resignation. Prachanda came from the
Communist Party of Nepal (CPN)(Maoist-Centre). He just spent nine months on the post after getting elected as the
39th prime minister of Nepal on August 3rd 2016. The secret of his resignation lies in the power-sharing pact that was
signed in August 2016 between Prachanda and Nepali Congress President Sher Bahadur Deuba. As per the pact,
Prachanda agreed to serve the term as PM for nine months and thereafter promised to make way for Deuba to become
the next Prime Minister. Prachanda was bound to stay in office of PM till the local elections. And Nepal is on the verge
of witnessing second round of local elections, which will happen for the first time in more than two decades. It is worth
knowing that the country had no local-level elections since 1997 because of the decade-long Maoist insurgency that
took more than 16000 lives in Nepal. President Lenin Moreno takes office in Ecuador.

Ecuador saluted its new President Lenin Moreno.

On 24th May Lenin Moreno entered the presidency of Ecuador succeeding Rafael Correa. Mr Moreno defeated his
conservative rival Guillermo Lasso in the presidential elections of April. In his inaugural speech, he promised more
subsidies for the poor and a major social house-building programme for creation of millions of jobs. In this four-year
term, Moreno will face a challenging panorama of a faltering dollarized economy with a heavy debt burden and low oil
prices.
Google's AlphaGo did not let go the ancient game of ‘Go’.
In May 2017 Google’s DeepMind computer program, ‘AlphaGo’ defeated ‘KeJie’, the world's number one player of the
ancient Chinese board game ‘Go’ in artificial intelligence in Wuzhen, China. The game, Go, originated thousands of
years ago in China, and has two players taking turns placing black and white stones on a square board of 19 lines by 19
lines. The game is all about taking territorial control of the board by surrounding the opponent. The game can be carried
out for hours and it requires immense mental stamina, intuition, and strategy.

ISRO and NASA coupled to conceive ‘NISAR’.

On 23rd May The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA) collaborated for building Earth-imaging satellite ‘NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR)’. The
satellite will help scientists monitor the Earth. It will be launched in year 2021. The estimated cost of the radar is over
[ 12 ]
1.5 billion dollars and it would be the world’s most expensive Earth imaging satellite. NASA Administrator, Charles
Bolden and and Chairman ISRO, K Radhakrishnan signed agreement for this in a meeting in Toronto. The aim of the
mission is to observe Earth and establish a pathway for future joint missions for Mars exploration.

TedrosAdhanomGhebreyesus : First African WHO Director-General.

On 23rd May 2017 World Health Organisation chose DrTedrosAdhanom Ghebreyesus as the new Director-General.
The Ethiopian appointee will succeed Dr Margaret Chan from 1st of July 2017 for next five years. He has been Minister
of Foreign Affairs, Ethiopia from 2012 to 2016; Minister of Health, Ethiopia from 2005 to 2012 and Chair of the Board
of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The expansion of the Ethiopia’s health infrastructure and
negotiation of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda for the Sustainable Development Goals with 193 nations are his
credentials.

World's first robot police officer marched in Dubai.

On 23rd May Dubai police force recruited world's first operational robot police officer at the 4th Gulf Information
Security Expo and Conference (GISEC). The first robocop is meant for robot patrolling in the the city streets of Dubai.

It is around 5-feet tall and has 100 kg weight. It can not only identify hand gestures from a distance of up to 1.5 metres,
but can also detect people's emotions and facial expressions.

It is on purpose of helping the police force via its built-in tablet device to complete various police services.

Warsaw researchers invented first chemical memory for computers.

In May Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw invented the first one-bit
chemical memory unit called the 'chit'. It is a simple arrangement of three droplets in contact with each other which
undergo ‘Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ)’ oscillatory reactions. When one cycle ends, the requisite reagents to begin the
next cycle are reconstituted in the solution. Before the reaction stops, there are usually many tens to hundreds of
oscillations which create a regular change in the colour of the solution. The researchers used ‘ferroin’ and ‘ruthenium’
as the first and second reaction catalysts respectively.

The introduction of ruthenium made the BZ reaction to photosensitive and when the solution is illuminated by blue
light, it ceases to oscillate. This feature controlled the course of the reaction.

World's first philosophical novel on God descended in Delhi.

In May Union Minister Kiren Rijiju in presence of UPSC Chairman, David Syiemlieth, released a book "Confessions of
a dying mind: the blind faith of atheism" in New Delhi. HaulianlalGuite, a young Indian IAS officer of Manipur wrote it
and Bloomsbury Publishing, a British independent, global publishing house of fiction and non-fiction published this
book. The book speaks about the nature of science, religion, evidence and love in light of leading developments. It
makes use of the latest findings of modern science and the most solid theories in philosophy. It presents some
interesting arguments against atheism by using the theories and findings of atheists themselves.

Jacqueline Fernandez mesmerized UK Humanitarian Award.

In May 2017 Bollywood actress was bestowed the International Humanitarian Award in Editor's Choice category of
Asian Voice Charity Awards for her philanthropic work in India. She had been working closely with the charity 'Habitat
for Humanity’ for last five years. Writer Jeffrey Archer was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award for serving
several charity organisations. MeenalSachdev received award in Most inspiring individual category. Apart from them,
‘One Kind Act’ won Start-up of the year award, ‘Akademi’ won Most Enterprising award, ‘Graham Layton Trust’ was
chosen for Social Impact Award, Charity of the Year award went to ‘Anxiety UK’ and Excellence in CSR award made
its way to ‘Nationwide Building Society’. UK-based weekly newspaper, Asian Voice and ratings agency Charity Clarity
instituted these Asian Voice Charity Awards that acknowledge the work of charity organisations in the United Kingdom
(UK) and abroad.
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The largest map of Universe is dazzling on the table.
In May 2017 after years of observation, Astronomers from Ohio State University in the US succeeded in creating the
first and the largest map of Universe based on positions of quasars. Quasars are extremely bright and distant points of
light which are said to have super- massive black holes in their centres. The matter and energy fall into a quasars’ black
hole and they heat up to incredibly high temperatures creating bright glow in quasars. Astronomers studied accurate
three-dimensional positions of more than 147,000 quasars through Sloan Foundation Telescope and created a three-
dimensional map of where the quasars are located under Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The Sloan Digital Sky
Survey was further studied under lens of Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) for better comprehension
of expansion history of the universe. It is interesting to learn that baryon acoustic oscillations are the present-day
imprint of sound waves that travelled through the early universe, when it was much hotter and denser than today. Due to
a sudden change in conditions when the universe was 380,000 years old, the sound waves got "frozen" in place. And
these frozen waves got imprinted in the three- dimensional structure of the present-day universe.

22nd May came as The International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB).
This day was celebrated worldwide to advance understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues. In India the day was
celebrated by various States and organisations. The national level celebrations of IDB took place at
DinanathMangeshkar Auditorium, Kala Academy in Goa, which witnessed enthusiastic participation of all stakeholders.
Chief Minister of Goa, Manohar Parrikar was the chief guest who inaugurated an exhibition on the theme and Green
Haat, which had exhibits from 12 States including Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh,
Chhattisgarh besides that there were stalls from UNDP, GIZ, Zoological Survey of India, Botanical Survey of India,
Goa Forest Department, Goa State Biodiversity Board and NBA. The exhibits, posters and other materials on display
underlined the role of biodiversity in sustaining livelihoods. People were encouraged to contribute in biodiversity
conservation and sustainable tourism on this occasion.

Jordan’s Azraq refugee camp got graced by Sun!

In May 2017 Azraq refugee camp of Jordan became the first in the world to get powered by renewable energy. It ran
completely on solar energy. About 20,000 Syrian refugees in the desert camp of Azraq will now be able to use
electricity generated by a two-megawatt solar plant which was constructed by the Ikea Foundation’s Brighter Lives for
Refugees campaign. This plant is expected to save $1.5m a year, which the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) will use to improve other facilities in the camp. Azraq’s solar plant is linked to Jordan’s national
grid and the surplus electricity will be sent back for local communities to use for free.

Innovation on screen to meet visual and audio impairment.

In May 2017, Researchers from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid invented a technique that types Braille in real time
and helps deaf-blind people "watch" television without intermediaries. The technique was developed under
"PervasiveSUB Project" that compiles all the subtitles of television channels and transmits them to a central server
which forwards them to smartphones or tablets. And the compiled data from smartphones or tablets are sent to the
Braille line of the deaf-blind person via an app that makes it possible to control the speed of the subtitles that are
captured directly from the TV broadcast in perfect synchronisation. Spanish broadband and telecommunications
provider Telefonica financed this project. The technology is on full swing across the national and regional Digital
Terrestrial Television (DTT) channels in Madrid.

An unheard bacterium showed its existence in ISS.

In May 2017 US space agency NASA discovered ‘Solibacilluskalamii’, a bacteria in the International Space Station
(ISS) which is not present on earth. NASA has named the newly discovered organism after former Indian President
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. The bacteria chose the the foremost lab of NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) of the ISS for
its appearance. It has been there for 40 months. It is worth recollecting here that the much loved deceased president had

[ 14 ]
his early training at NASA in year 1963 before establishment of India’s first rocket-launching facility in the fishing
village of Thumba in Kerala.

Hassan Rouhani became president of Iran.

Hassan Rouhani won the presidential elections of Iran for the second consecutive term. He received 57 % votes out of
40 million votes and defeated his main rival, a conservative cleric. The re-elected President will deal with world powers
to limit Iran's nuclear programme. As per analyst the decisive victory equipped him with a strong mandate to seek
reforms and revive Iran's ailing economy.

First Human Antibodies for Ebola virus went viral.

As per the online Journal Cell publication of 18th May US scientist came across groundbreaking discovery of human
antibodies against Ebola virus. Scientists analyzed the blood of an Ebola survivor and found that the first natural
human antibodies ‘Monoclonal antibodies’ had the potential of neutralizing all three major disease-causing Ebola
viruses viz. 'Ebola Zaire', 'Sudan virus' and 'Bundibugyo virus’. Kartik Chandran, a Professor in Department of
Microbiology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York and John M Dye, Chief of viral
immunology at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) together found these
antibodies.

World's oldest monarchy has permitted the Emperor to leave.

On 19th May Japanese Cabinet approved a bill allowing the Emperor Akihito to step down from the Chrysanthemum
throne. The Emperor would transfer the throne to his oldest son, Crown Prince Naruhito in December 2018 on his 85th
birth anniversary. By that time the going Emperor would have completed 30 full years on the throne. With this the
Emperor will become the first Emperor to step down in more than two centuries. The bill has no reference to the
controversial issue of changing the system to allow women to inherit the throne, or to stay in the imperial family upon
marriage. 57years old Crown Prince Naruhito studied at Merton College, Oxford, will become the 126th emperor of
Japan. A glance at the royal family reveals four heirs in the line of succession viz. Akihito's two middle-aged sons,
Akihito's octogenarian brother, and Hisahito, the 10-year-old son of Akihito's younger son. The crown prince has one
teenage daughter, Aiko, who cannot inherit the throne. It is worth knowing that historically, the trend of abdication of
Japanese emperors was common as half of the 125 emperors had renounced the throne earlier. Emperor Kokaku was the
last Japanese monarch to leave the throne in 1817.

18th May came as World AIDS Vaccine Day.

This HIV Vaccine Awareness Day was observed across the globe to raise awareness for AIDS vaccines, educate
communities about HIV prevention. The day encouraged intensive research for an AIDS vaccine and draw attention to
the ways in which ordinary people can be a part of the international effort to stem the pandemic. The first World AIDS
Vaccine Day was observed on May 18th, 1998. The seeds of World AIDS Vaccine Day got germinated in May 18th,
1997 speech of President Bill Clinton at Morgan State University in which he challenged the world to set new goals in
the emerging age of science and technology and develop an AIDS vaccine. Every year communities around the world
organize a variety of activities on World AIDS Vaccine Day.

Is Victoria thinking about assisting suicide?

On 18th May Xinhua news agency reported that a Ministerial Advisory Panel in Victoria, a state of Australia is drafting
a historic legislation to legalise assisted suicide or euthanasia for terminally ill patients suffering from diseases like
Motor Neurone Disease (MND), Parkinson's disease or Multiple Sclerosis (MS). But there are conditions for awarding
mercy killing in the draft like the request for assisted death would have to come from the patients themselves and must
be repeated three times, one of which would be a formal written request. And two independent doctors with specialist
training having at least five years' experience would have to approve the request before it could be approved. Flashback
says that this Ministerial Advisory Panel chaired by Brian Owler emerged after a parliamentary inquiry in 2016 that
[ 15 ]
recommended legalising mercy killing in Victoria for adults of sound mind in the final weeks of life. The panel received
more than 300 submissions for creating a framework on this issue keeping in mind that the choice of ‘enduring an
unbearable suffering’ or ‘euthanasia’ should be determined completely by patient’s own perception, not by anyone else.
The existing law in Victoria considers assisted suicides as offence although suicide was decriminalised in Victoria in
year 1967. However, many medical practitioners assisted suicides by giving excessive pain relief which lent momentum
to the impending death. They escaped from punishments under ‘doctrine of double effect’ shielded by the Code of
Ethics of the Australian Medical Association. The doctrine of double effect advocates that it is lawful for medical
practitioners to provide adequate pain relief, even though it has the unintended consequence of ending a patient’s life.

Adiyogi Shiva Statue occupied a place in the Guinness Book.

In May 2017, the 112 feet tall Adiyogi Shiva Statue of Tamil Nadu got recorded as the World's Largest Bust in the
Guinness Book Of World Records. Isha Foundation led by Guru Jaggi Vasudev had made this effigy of Adiyogi which
saw inaugural ceremony in February 2017. The famed effigy refers to source of Yoga and symbolises the 112 methods
of self-transformation that the first Yogi or Adiyogi (originator of yoga) offered. It is interesting to note that this is the
second entry of Isha Foundation in the most coveted book of world records as earlier it got recorded for planting
millions of saplings on 17th October, 2006.

The World’s Smallest Satellite popped from Indian Soil.

NASA and an organisation, 'I Doodle Learning' jointly organised a competition, 'Cubes in Space' in which world’s
smallest satellite made by an Indian got selected. 18-year-old Indian boy RiftahSharook from Pallapatti town of Tamil
Nadu created the world's smallest satellite,'KalamSat’ for NASA. The satellite got its name after former President APJ
Abdul Kalam. It is just 64 grams and is meant to demonstrate the performance of 3-D printed carbon fibre. NASA will
launch this satellite on June 21st from Wallops Island. The inventor says that his satellite will operate for 12 minutes in
a micro-gravity environment of space. It will have a new kind of on-board computer and eight indigenous built-in
sensors to measure acceleration, rotation and the magnetosphere of the earth.

17 May :World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.

Globe celebrated the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day on "Big Data for Big Impact" theme. The
theme underlines the power of Big Data for development and encourages transformation of imperfect, complex, often
unstructured data into actionable information in context of development. The theme is in line with International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) 's work highlighting the technological developments that have facilitated the
emergence of Big Data, developing standards related to Big Data and identifying sources and uses of Big Data.

OvaisSarmad : Deputy Executive Secretary of UNFCCC.

In the second week of May 2017, a senior Indian official, OvaisSarmad got appointed as the Deputy Executive
Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). UN Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres made this appointment in place of Canada’s Richard Kinley. OvaisSarmad presently works as Chief
of Staff to the Director General of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) which he joined in year 1990
where he served in capacities of chief of budget, director of resource management, director of the Global Administrative
Centre and chief of Mission to the Philippines. UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty negotiated at the Earth
Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. It is on purpose of stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere
at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.

World Bank Power List is out!

On 15th May World Bank’s electricity accessibility list was released in which India stood at 26th rank. It is
commendable for India as in year 2014 India was at 99th position in the same list. As per the statistics more than 13,000
villages out of the 18,452 have been provided access to electricity. The credit goes to DeendayalUpadhyaya Gram Jyoti

[ 16 ]
Yojana (DDUGJY) which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that aims provision of 24×7 uninterrupted
electricity supply to each rural household across the nation by year 2022.

Ransomware attack came as a bolt from blue.

On 14th May a massive Ransomware attack created a global havoc by forcing closure of computer systems across the
globe. Around 150 countries including India have become victim of this attack. The cyber attack came in light after
systems at hospitals across the United Kingdom were affected. The attack affected 48 National Health Service (NHS) in
England, 13 NHS organisations in Scotland, Germany's rail network Deutsche Bahn, Spanish telecommunications
operator Telefonica, French carmaker Renault, US logistics giant FedEx and Russia's Interior Ministry. The viruses
‘Wanna Cry’ and ‘EternalBlue’ have said to exploit computers running versions of Windows operating systems. They
took control of users' files and demanded $300 (£230) payments to restore access. Microsoft president and chief legal
officer Brad Smith informed that Microsoft had released a Windows security update in March to tackle the problem
involved in the latest attack. The cyber criminals have become more sophisticated and time to time updation of system
is the only resort against such threats.

China brought Lunar Palace on earth.

On 12th May China has established a 160-square-meter (1,720-square-foot) laboratory “Yuegong-1”, or “Lunar Palace”
for creating a lunar-like environment. China is planning to make village on the moon and settle humans there by 2036.
Four postgraduate students from the Beijing’s astronautics research university will live in the laboratory for up to 200
days to test living conditions on Moon. This Lunar Palace is the world’s third bio-regenerative life-support base and it is
the first to be developed in China. The lab has two plant cultivation modules and a living cabin measuring 42 square
metres (452 square foot). Here human waste will be treated with a bio-fermentation process and experimental crops and
vegetables will be grown with the help of food and waste byproducts.

12th May came as International Nurses Day.

The day got celebrated on “Nursing: A voice to lead – Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals” theme across the
globe. It is celebrated annually to commemorate the birth anniversary of the Florence Nightingale for acknowledging
the contribution of nurses in people’s health. Every year International Council of Nurses (ICN) prepares and distributes
the International Nurses Day kit, which contains educational and public information materials for use of nurses. The
celebration of this day began in year 1974. The lady was founder of modern nursing. Florence belonged to a wealthy
family of Victorian times. She along with group of 38 nurses served sick people in 1854 Crimean War. In 1860, she
established the Nightingale Training School for nurses at St Thomas’s Hospital, London. She was honored with the
Royal Red Cross from Queen Victoria, and the Order of Merit in 1907 from King Edward VIII. This was the first time a
woman was awarded the Order of Merit.

Brazil marked full stop to Zika emergency.

On 12th May South American nation, Brazil has declared an end to a national emergency over the Zika virus. There is a
considerable decrease in cases of Zika which got on nerves in year 2015. The Zika was most vibrant before Rio de
Janeiro which took place in 2016 Olympics. The virus caused birth defects in babies born to some infected pregnant
women, including microcephaly, where babies were born with underdeveloped heads and damaged brains. Zika had its
connections with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a condition in which the immune system attacks the nerves. Aedes
mosquitoes were the vectors of this disease. The dis-ease got its name from the Zika Forest of Uganda, where the virus
was first isolated in year 1947.

Hubert Minnis became Prime Minister Bahamas.

On 11th May Hubert Minnis defeated incumbent Perry Christie in general elections. Christie, leader of Progressive
Liberal Party was finishing his second non-consecutive term as prime minister. The long-delayed opening of a $4.2
billion mega-resort ‘Baha Mar’, and last month's spectacular failure of the Fyre music festival were key issues that were
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considered in elections. More than 180,000 people were registered to cast their ballots for the 39 seats in the House of
Assembly. International observers from the Caribbean Community, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Organization of
American States and the United States were invited to monitor the election. Minnis will take oath as prime minister on
upcoming Thursday and this ceremony will be presided by Governor General Marguerite Pindling.

Moon has begun to shine in South Korean sky.

The Left-leaning former human rights lawyer Moon Jae won the presidential elections of South Korea on 9th May. He
has begun his five-year term as president of South Korea. According to the National Election Commission Moon of the
Democratic Party, received 41.1% votes while his closest rival Hong Joon-Pyo of Conservative managed to get 24.03%
votes.

Grammy Awards have turned to New York.

On 9th May the organizers of the annual Grammy Awards made announcement that the 60th Grammy Awards will take
place on Jan. 28 at Manhattan's Madison Square Garden arena, New York. So after having stayed in Los Angeles for
more than a decade, the Music's biggest night has turned back to its old destination New York where the ceremony was
last held in year 2003. Bill de Blasio cheered the announcement saying "Playing host to the music industry's marquee
awards show is a unique creative, artistic and economic boon to the rich cultural fabric of our city. "The coveted show
is estimated to bring $200 million to the city's economy.

India emerged as President of UN-Habitat.

On 8th May India was unanimously elected as the President of the UN-Habitat, the United Nations’ Human Settlements
Programme. This programme came into existence in 1978, and this is only the third time that India has been elected to
lead this important organization after 2007 and 1988. The Union Minister of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation, M.
Venkaiah Naidu, chaired the 26th Meeting of the Governing Council of the UN-Habitat in Nairobi, Kenya and he will
preside over the deliberations of the Governing Council of UN-Habitat for the next two years. Apart from this Naidu
also presided over the Bureau Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Ministers’ Conference on Housing and Urban Development
in Nairobi. The UN-Habitat encourages socially and environmentally sustainable human settlements worldwide and it
reports to the United Nations General Assembly.

Emma Watson became recipient of first ever 'genderless' award.

On 7th May Harry Potter fame star, Emma Watson was conferred the first ever ‘Genderless Acting Award’ for Best
Actor category at the annual MTV Movie and TV Awards ceremony held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles,
California. Genderless concept is a move towards gender-neutral world. It aims to distant the social stigma connected to
specific gender and free people from being forced to identify with the biological gender and instead gives them an
option to live their life in the way they choose, dress the way they like, use the washroom they wish and tick in the box
they identify with the most.

Pakistani sitarist UstadRaees Khan played notes of death.

May 2017 spelled end of Legendary sitar player UstadRaees Khan of Pakistan. He died of prolonged illness at the age
of 77 years in Karachi, Pakistan. It is worth knowing that this legend was born in Indore in 1939 to family of musicians.
He belonged to the Mewati Gharana of Indian classical music. He learned music from his uncle, Walayat Ali Khan and
father Muhammad Khan. He shifted to Pakistan in 1968. He was composer of famous songs like `Jab Tera Hukam Mila
TarkayMohaabat Kar Di', `NeendAnkhoun Se Uri', `Ab Kay Saal Poonam Main’ , `Mojoun Sahil Se Milo', `Main
Khayal Hun Kisi Aur Ka', `KabhiKitaboun Main PhoolRakhna' and many more. His outstanding performance fetched
him Presidential award and Sitara-eImtiaz in 2005 and 2017, respectively.

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8th May crossed as World Red Cross Day.
World Red Cross Day got observed on May 8th to commemorate the birth anniversary of Henry Dunant, the founder of
the Red Cross and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). “Less Known Red Cross Stories” is theme of this
observation for this year. Henry Dunant was the first Nobel Peace Prize winner. The National Societies affiliated to the
ICRC organized functions on this day.

Jordan & USA together gave way to military exercises.

On 8th May Jordan and the United States began their annual military exercises which involved 7,400 troops from
Europe, Asia, Africa and the Arab Gulf region for establishing coordination in combating terrorism. The troops from
more than 20 nations like Britain, Japan, Kenya and Saudi Arabia are participating in these events. The "Eager Lion"
exercises are the largest and most complex among the exercises as per US Major General and deputy commanding
general for the American army. These exercises will continue upto 18th May. It is worth knowing here that Jordan is a
prime recipient of US financial aid and a partner in the US-led coalition battling Islamic State group jihadists in Syria
and Iraq.

Emmanuel Macron emerged as the youngest President of France.

On 8th May the pro-EU centrist Emmanuel Macron defeated the far-right Front National leader and anti-EU challenger,
Marine Le Pen and won the presidential elections of France. The 39 year old President has vowed to unite a divided and
fractured France. He is the former economy minister who received 66% against 34% of Le Pen. Macron had full
support of Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel. Macron's win represents victory for a strong and united Europe and
for French-German friendship. He has also campaigned on the type of sweeping changes to the French economy that
Berlin had long championed and implemented over a decade ago.

World Witnessed Birth of light!

In May the world's biggest X-ray laser generated its first beam of light in Hamburg, Germany. Scientists used 3.4
kilometer long European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) to generate 0.8 nanometer beam of light. The produced
radiation was 500 times shorter than that of visible light. This XFEL was found to be billion times more brilliant in
comparison to conventional synchrotron light sources and it showed potential of capturing images of new materials,
drugs and chemical reactions at the atomic level. The X-ray laser light of the European XFEL was generated from an
electron beam from a superconducting linear accelerator, the key component of the X-ray laser. Helmut Dosch, from the
German research centre DESY said “The first laser light produced today with the most advanced and most powerful
linear accelerator in the world marks the beginning a new era of research in Europe. “It is good for knowledge that the
European XFEL is the largest and most powerful of the five X-ray lasers worldwide and it has the ability to generate the
short pulses of hard X-ray light.

German Painter A.R. Penck left picture of life.

In first week of May the Neo-Expressionist German Painter A.R. Penck died at the age of 77 due to prolonged illness.
His work featured primitive depictions of people and animals which got recognized as an important example of the new
figurative style in Europe. Germany's dpa news agency reported that Penck died Tuesday age 77 in Zurich after a
lengthy illness. He learned the art of painting and sculpting all by himself. Michael Werner Gallery exhibited his work
in the late 1960s for the first time. He was expelled by the Communist government in year 1980 and as a result the
division of Germany frequently got featured as a theme in his work. He gained popularity in west.

Just one drop of blood!

Chinese scientists have invented a new test kit ‘Hsp90a protein’ for detection of cancer at Tsinghua University's School
of Life Sciences, Beijing, China. The test requires just a single drop of blood for detection of multiple kinds of cancer.
‘Hsp90a’ is a heat shock protein (HSP) found in human body which is being used as cancer biomarker in the kit.
Scientists prepared artificial Hsp90a protein that gains structural stability by regrouping proteins.This indicated that the
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protein can be created in any quantity and at any time. Scientists used it as tumor biomarker for lung cancer first then
this protein was used for numerous other clinical trials which gave positive results. It is disheartening to learn that
Cancer is the cause of around 8.8 million deaths, almost 15.7% of all deaths across the world.

Men will be from Mars Someday!!!

NASA is envisaging life on planet Mars. It has made first inflatable Greenhouse which could produce oxygen and
recycle water on Mars. Scientists have designed first-of-its-kind sample that involves an inflatable, deployable
greenhouse which can support plant and crop production for nutrition, air revitalisation, water recycling and waste
recycling. The idea is to scrub carbon dioxide exhaled by the astronauts and introduce it into the greenhouse and the
plants would then generate oxygen through the process of photosynthesis. Similarly, the water cycle too would start
with water brought along or found at the Martian landing site. The water would be first oxygenated then given nutrient
salts would continuously flow across the root zone of the plants and then return to the storage system. Before this, the
astronauts have successfully grown plants and vegetables aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

2nd May leaped as World Tuna Day.

This day got celebrated for the first time across the globe to conserve one of the most popular fish ‘Tuna’ which is
being caught and eaten. The day aimed at highlighting the vital socio-economic significance of tuna which plays a
critical role in sustainable development, food security, economic opportunity, and livelihoods of people worldwide.
Tuna fisheries are widespread across all oceans. The UN General Assembly instituted this day via December 2016
resolution.

Presidential library designs have captured pupil of former President.

On 3rd May the former US President Obama shared his vision of presidential library in Chicago. The envisaged library
will be a 500 million dollars project which will serve as training ground for future leaders housed in the city that
launched his career. Speaking about the city's south side near the center's future site, Obama revealed drawings and a 3-
D rendering of a three-structure complex with a public plaza and surrounding park land in close proximity to the shores
of Lake Michigan.

3rd May frolicked as Press Freedom Day.

Entire globe celebrated this day on “Critical Minds for Critical Times: Media’s role in advancing peaceful, just and
inclusive societies”theme. The day highlighted the fundamental principles of press freedom and paid tribute to
journalists who sacrificed their lives in the exercise of their profession. It laid emphasis on evaluation of press freedom
worldwide and encouraged to defend the media from attacks on their independence. UNESCO, the Government of
Indonesia, and the Press Council of Indonesia together organized UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom
Prize Ceremony in Jakarta, Indonesia, from May 1st to 4th plus the World Press Freedom Day's main event. The UN
General Assembly instituted this day in 1993 following a Recommendation adopted at the 26th Session of UNESCO's
General Conference in 1991. In year 1991 African journalists produced the landmark Windhoek Declaration about
"Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press."

Dubai preened over its own Microsoft font.

On 1st May Dubai became the first city across the globe to have its own Microsoft font. The font is available in three
styles as 'Dubai', 'Dubai Medium' and 'Dubai Light' in Italics, Underlined and Bold which can be downloaded in
OpenType and Web Font formats for both Windows and Mac OS platforms from the www.dubaifont.com website and
can be integrated to the system for free. It is the first typeface developed by Microsoft for Dubai which was launched by
Dubai's Crown Prince and Chairman of the Executive Council, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al
Maktoum. Currently the font is designed for more than 180 countries and 23 languages integrating Arabic and Latin
typefaces and later on it will expand over the next phase to include more languages.

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South Korea gave air to THAAD missile defence system.
On 2nd May the United States (US) Military's missile defence system, “Terminal High Altitude Area Defence
(THAAD)” missile defence system became operational in South Korea. It has come in reply of North Korean missiles.
It is meant to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles. It destroys short and medium-range ballistic missiles in the
terminal phase of their flight and has a range of 200 km and can reach an altitude of 150 km. Presently the US has six
THAAD batteries across the globe and it has previously deployed it in Guam and Hawaii as a measure against potential
attacks from North Korea.

SPORTS NEWS

P V Sindhu entered BWF Athletes' Commission.

In May 2017 Olympics silver medallist, Pusarla Venkata Sindhu got inducted in Badminton World Federation Athletes’
Commission. She topped the ballot with 129 votes in the elections which took place in Gold Coast, Australia. She along
with Marc Zweibler of Germany and Kristy Gilmour of Scotland will join the panel for upcoming four years. At
present, she is at number 4 in the BWF World Ranking. In Summer Olympics of 2016 she became the first Indian
woman to win an Olympic silver medal. With this induction she has become the second Indian to be inducted in the
BWF Athletes' Commission after SainaNehwal.

Vaishnavi won the Asia yoga championship.

In May 2017 a thirteen-year-old Indian girl Vaishnavi defeated hundreds of competitors to gasp the first Asia Level
Yoga Competition in Thailand. The competition featured teams from five countries. The girl attempted more than 1,000
contests and had won more than 200 contests. It is worth recalling here that the U.N. designated 21st June as
International Day of Yoga.

Mumbai Indians lured Indian Premier League.

On 21st May Mumbai Indians won the Indian Premier League trophy for the third time in Hyderabad. They defeated
Rising Pune by just one run. Mumbai Indians chose to bat first and made 129 for 8. Krunal Pandya contributed the
highest runs i.e. 47. Chasing the target, Rising Pune made a good start. They scored 71 for 2 in 12 overs. The thrill
caught momentum when they needed 11 runs from the last over with 7 wickets in hand, before Mumbai paceman
Mitchell Johnson hitched the wickets of ManojTiwary and Steven Smith on successive deliveries. They required 4 runs
from the final ball but Daniel Christian got run out, dashing their hopes of winning the IPL title in the maiden final
appearance and Johnson finished with 3 wickets. And Mumbai Indians won the match by just1 run. Krunal Pandya
became man of the match.

Bengaluru FC Claimed 38th Federation Cup football tournament.

On 21st May Bengaluru FC won 38th Federation Cup football tournament by defeating defending champions and 14-
time winners Mohun Bagan by 2-0 at Cuttack, Odisha. The match was forced to enter into extra time as none of the
teams could break the deadlock in 90 minutes. India international CK Vineeth scored twice to ensure Bengaluru FC’s
victory for the second time.With the win, Bengaluru not only reserved a berth for next year’s Asian Football
Confederation (AFC) Cup but also became the 8th team to have won more than one Federation Cup title.

R R Laxman claimed the All India Open Rapid FIDE Rating Chess.
On 18th MayGrand Master R R Laxman of Integral Coach Factory 2017 has scripted the All India Open Rapid FIDE
Rating Chess Tournament in his name at the KshudiramAnushilan Kendra, Kolkata, West Bengal.
Laxman finished the tournament with 9.5 points while the FIDE Master Mitrabha Guha earned 8.5 points to finish
second in the 10-round tournament . Others Srijit Paul finished third , Grand Master Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury stood at
the fourth position, International Master SomakPalit occupied the fifth place.

[ 21 ]
National Geographic Bee contest buzzed around Pranay Varada.
Indian-American student Pranay Varada won the National Geographic Bee contest on 18th May. He received $50,000
as the prize money. He studies in the 8th grade in Texas. He won the first tie breaker question and became winner of the
contest. The 14-year-old correctly identified the Kunlun Mountains as the 1,200 mile range that separates the
Taklimakan Desert from the Tibetan Plateau as the tie breaker question. Thomas Wright from Wisconsin was declared
the runner up and he received $25,000 while another Indian-American from New Jersey, Veda Bhattaram finished third
and got $10,000 in scholarships. Last year also an Indian American, Rishi Nair who studied in sixth grade from
Florida, had won the contest.

The Act saw amendment for the privileged player !

On 18th May the Andhra Pradesh Legislature approved a Bill to appoint Olympics silver medalist P V Sindhu as a
Group-1 officer in the government, by amending the State Public Services Act. Section 4 of Andhra Pradesh
(Regulation of Appointments to Public Services and Rationalization of Staff Pattern and Pay Structure) Act, 1994,
prevented the appointment of the badminton player. The law further permitted any recruitment in public service only
through gateway of AP Public Service Commission, selection committee or employment exchange. So the state cabinet
amended the act to appoint Sindhu directly in the cadre of a revenue divisional officer.

Ramit Tandon hitched maiden PSA title. In May Ramit Tandon, US-based Indian squash player claimed his first
Professional Squash Association title. He defeated his compatriot Kush Kumar in the SYS Open. Ramit is a Kolkata
player, who shifted to New York just six years ago for studies has now begun to carve his career on the professional
circuit.

This has been his second tournament in the year, the earlier being a brief appearance in the qualifying phase in the
Tournament of Champions.

Mohammad Anas broke 400m race National Record.

In May 2017 Kerala quartermiler, Mohammad Anas, broke record in men's 400m race at Indian Grand Prix Athletics
Meet in New Delhi. He completed the race in 45.32 seconds in the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. The first runner up Rajiv
Arokia and the second runner up Sachin Baby finished it in 46.32 seconds and 47.18 seconds respectively. It is worth
knowing that the eligibility for the World Championships which will take place in London in August 2017 is 45.50
seconds and with this win Anas has also qualified for the same.

Rising Pune heard call of IPL final.

On16th May Rising Pune Supergiant defeated Mumbai Indians by 20 runs in the first qualifier played at Wankhede
Stadium, Mumbai. Batting first, Rising Pune posted 162 for 4 in stipulated 20 overs. For Pune Dhoni contributed 40
runs off 26 balls, AjinkyaRahane 56 runs off 43 balls and ManojTiwary 58 runs off 48 balls. Chasing 163 for win,
Mumbai managed to score 142 for 9 in 20 overs. Pune's spin bowler Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur took 3
wickets each to help their side. With that Pune secured its place in Final.

Deepti Sharma added a new chapter in History of women's Cricket.

14th May became a red letter day for cricketer Deepti Sharma who made a stunning 188-run knock, the second highest
score in women's one-day international. This included 27 boundaries and 2 sixes. She is 19-year-old player from Uttar
Pradesh who made these record runs in the quadrangular series in Potchefstroom, South Africa against Ireland. She
played a superb 160 ball innings and contributed in India's massive 249-run win over Ireland. The first highest score in
women’s one day international was made by Australia's Belinda Clarke, who had scored an unbeaten 229 against
Denmark in year 1997 at Mumbai. The ICC Women World Cup will begin in June 24th in England and Mithali Raj will
lead the squad.

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World Para Athletics Grand Prix had two medals for India.
India won a gold and a bronze at the China World Para Athletics Grand Prix which took place in Beijing in May 2017.
RamudriSomeshwara Rao coined gold medal in the 200m race and HokatoSema bagged a bronze in shot put. With this
the the two athletes have qualified to represent the nation in the IPC Para Athletics World Championships in London
later this year. It is worth recollecting here that in recently-concluded 17th National Para Athletics Championships at
Jaipur, Someswara Rao became the fastest Indian blade runner and HokatoSema had also clinched a gold in this event.

Chelsea clinched the English Premier League (EPL) of 2016-17.

On 13th May Chelsea defeated West Bromwich in its 36th round match by 1-0. Chelsea topped the points table and this
was its sixth English Premier League. Although the league will conclude on upcoming 21 May 2017 yet Chelsea is
bound to head the table. EPL is the top English professional league for association football clubs which was established
in year 1992.

Rafael Nadal claimed Madrid Open title.

On 14th May Rafael Nadal is a 14-time Grand Slam champion who defeated world number seven, Dominic Thiem by
7-6 (10-8) 6-4 to win his fifth Madrid Open title and got into the world's top four. With this win he has replaced the 18-
time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer as the new world number four as per the new rankings which got released
today. This was also the 72nd tournament win of Nadal’s career.This will improve his seeding for the French Open,
which will begin on 22nd May. The Spaniard has now won three straight titles, after his Barcelona Open and Monte
Carlo Masters victories, while his record on clay this year is 15-0.

India heard tinkling of silver in Asian Wrestling Championship.

Three Indian women wrestlers via. Sakshi Malik, VineshPhogat and DivyaKakran clinched silver medals in different
categories in the Asian Wrestling Championship in New Delhi today. In the final bouts the three wrestlers missed the
gold medal. Japan’s Risako Kawai defeated Sakshi in 60kg category, VineshPhogat lost the final in women's 55kg
category and DivyaKakran got defeated in 69 Kg category.

Some more bronze travelled towards Indian bag.

On May 11th Anil Kumar and Jyoti bagged two bronze medals with contrasting performances in their respective weight
categories on the second day of the Asian Wrestling Championship in New Delhi. Anil won bronze in the Greco-Roman
85kg category and Jyoti won the bronze in women's 75kg category. She got defeated from Japan's Masako Furuichi by
0-10 in semifinal. In Greco-Roman 71kg, another wrestler, Deepak also got defeated by NurgazyAsangulov of
Kyrgyzstan by 1-8 and missed the medal.

National player breaking international records in world of cricket!

On 9th May Indian women's team fast bowler, JhulanGoswami became world’s highest wicket-taker in One Day
International format of cricket. The woman created history by dismissing South Africa's RaisibeNtozakhe in an ongoing
ODI to claim her 181st wicket in the 50-over format, breaking Fitzpatrick's record of 180 wickets from 109 matches.
She did this feat in her 153rd match. Apart from this she also has 40 wickets in 10 Tests and 50 wickets in 60 Twenty20
Internationals. She made her debut in year 2002 and was adjudged as ICC's 'Women Cricketer of the Year' in year 2007.

15-member India squad is ready to rock ICC Champions Trophy 2017.

On 8th May The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the 15 men Indian squad which will
participate in International Cricket Council (ICC) Champions Trophy scheduled in June 2017 in England. Virat Kohli
(Captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, AjinkyaRahane, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), Yuvraj Singh, Kedar Jadhav,
Hardik Pandya, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, JaspritBumrah
and Manish Pandey are the chosen members of the squad. The team is ready to confront Pakistan on 4th June 2017 at
Edgbaston which will be followed by matches with Sri Lanka on 8th June and South Africa on 11th June at Kennington
[ 23 ]
Oval. It is worth recollecting here that in year 2013, Indian team led by MS Dhoni lifted the ICC Champions Trophy by
defeating England.

God of Cricket claimed Fellowship Award in UK.

India’s cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar received the Fellowship Award at the 7th annual Asian Awards in UK. He has
planned to work for underprivileged section of society. The ceremony, celebrating excellence in the global Asian
community also acknowledged India’s playback singer Adnan Sami with 'Outstanding achievement in Music'. Award
for outstanding achievement in Cinema was posthumously conferred on Late Indian actor Om Puri who died earlier this
year at the age of 66.

FIFA rankings rolled out!

On 4th May the latest FIFA rankings got released which was not less than music for national football team of India.
India broke into top 100 of FIFA rankings for 1st time in 21 years. India, with a total of 331 points, have climbed a spot
and is now placed at 100th spot alongwith Nicaragua, Lithuania and Estonia. This hike in the international footballing
ladder has been propelled by India's recent wins over Cambodia and Myanmar. It is only the 6th time after
independence, the national football team has made a place in top-100 of FIFA rankings. Before this in April 1996 also
India was ranked 100. India's highest FIFA Ranking till date has been 94, which it achieved in February 1996. India,
meanwhile, retained 11th spot in AFC.

Indian football history witnessed addition of Aizawl FC edition.

On 30th April Aizawl FC lifted the I-League at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Shillong and became the first club
from the Northeast to grab the title. In the tense match Lajong went ahead in the ninth minute through A Dipanda. But
Aizawl equalised the score to 1-1 in the 67th minute through W Lalnunfela. Aizawl concluded the league on 37 points.
In a simultaneous match which took place in Kolkata, Mohun Bagan defeated Chennai City FC by 2-1 and finished
second in the League with 36 points.

Kings XI Punjab scored 10 wickets win over Delhi Daredevils.

On 30th April Kings Eleven Punjab crushed Delhi Daredevils by 10 wickets at Mohali. It was a low scoring game.
Delhi Daredevils batted first and scored just 67 runs in 17.1 overs. Punjab eleven’s Sandeep Sharma took 4 wickets.
Chasing the target Kings Eleven Punjab made 68 runs in just 7.5 overs. Martin Guptill contributed a half century in this
game. In the second encounter of the day, Sunrisers Hyderabad won over Kolkata Knight Riders by 48 runs at Rajiv
Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad. Sunrisers made 209 at loss of 3 wickets and Kolkata Knight Riders made
161 runs at loss of 7 wickets.

The rustling of the Asian Wrestling Championship is audible in the air.

On 10th of May Harpreet Singh clinched the first bronze medal for India in Greco-Roman weight category of the Asian
Wrestling Championship in New Delhi. He defeated Jun Ji Na of China in 80 kg category. In this championship, 112
freestyle, 103 Greco-Roman and 83 female wrestlers are wrestling for 24 Gold and Silver, and 48 bronze medals. All
India Radio, Delhi and FM Rainbow networks will broadcast the updates of this championship till 14th May. It is worth
recalling here that last year India had won 9 medals viz. 1 Gold, 3 Silver and 5 Bronze in the last edition of this
tournament which was held in Bangkok.

ICC cleared the fog over Shashank Manohar’s ICC Chairmanship.

On 10th May the International Cricket Council (ICC) sprayed air of confirmation that Shashank Manohar will continue
his tenure as the Independent Chairman of ICC till June 2018. The former BCCI President attempted to step down from
the ICC chairmanship in March 2016 but on persuasion of full members of ICC, he decided to continue the tenure till
June 2017 for ICC Annual Conference. But now he seems to have made up his mind to complete his full term of ICC
championship till June 2018. This final decision has ended the looming uncertainty about his tenure. Past reveals that
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Manohar joined ICC as a Chairman in May 2016 for a two-year term. By profession he is an eminent lawyer who
served twice as the President of BCCI, first from 2008 to 2011 and then from November 2015 to May 2016. He still has
some unfinished business in the process of reforms which he has begun.

Delhi Daredevils enjoyed an edge over Sunrisers Hyderabad.

On 2nd May at Feroz Shah Kotla, Delhi, Delhi Daredevils defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets. Hyderabad
batted first and YuvrajSingh (70* off 44), in particular, made use of a dropped catch and dominated an unbroken 93-run
stand for the fourth wicket with Moises Henriques that lifted Sunrisers to 185 for 3 in 20 overs. Daredevils began
chasing the target of 186 runs and overhauled the target with 5 balls to spare as they made 189 for 4. Thus, they
defeated Sunrisers by 6 wickets. The points table so far shows that Mumbai Indians are at top with 16 points as they
won 8 matches out of 10. Kolkata Knight Riders are at second position with 7 out of 10 winnings, Sunrisers Hyderabad
are at third position with13 points and Royal Challengers Bangalore are at the bottom in the table.

Virat Kohli is rank third in ICC ODI rankings.

Indian Cricket team captain Virat Kohli is the solo cricketer from the country to feature in the top 10 of the International
Cricket Council’s (ICC) Players Rankings for ODIs. He is at third rank in ICC Players Rankings for ODIs with 852
points. South Africa's AB de Villiers is at first rank with 874 points. While Australian David Warner is at second rank
with 871 points. Other Indians to feature in the top 20 of the ICC Players Ranking for ODI batsmen are Rohit Sharma
(12th), Mahendra Singh Dhoni (13th) and Shikhar Dhawan, who dropped a place to 15th.

South Korea sipped the Sudirman Cup 2017.

On 28th May South Korea defeated the 10-time champions, China by 3-2 to win the Badminton title ‘Sudirman Cup
2017’ after 14 long years at Australia's Gold Coast. The mixed team of Choi Sol-Gyu and ChaeYoo-Jung made South
Korea win its fourth cup in the world mixed teams competition with 21-17, 21-13 score. This was their first victory in
the biennial tournament since 2003 which loosened China's 14-year grip over the Sudirman Cup. Before 2003, South
Korea, had earlier also claimed the Sudirman Cup in 1991 and 1993.

N'GoloKante became English Premier League's Player of the Year.

On 21st May 2017 French professional footballer, N'GoloKante was chosen as the Player of the Year by English
Premier League. He was chosen for the title among Eden Hazard and Cesar Azpilicueta, Tottenham Hotspur trio Harry
Kane, Dele Alli and Jan Vertonghen, Everton's RomeluLukaku, and Arsenal's Alexis Sanchez. He plays as central
midfielder for English club Chelsea and the France national team. In recent past he had won the title of the ‘Footballer
of the Year’ by the Football Writers’ Association. As far as the Premier League Player of the Season is concerned it is
an annual association football award conferred upon the most outstanding player in the Premier League each season
chosen by a panel having members of football's governing bodies, the media and fans.

Borussia Dortmund lifted the 2016-17 German Cup.

On 27th May Borussia Dortmund, German sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia defeated Eintracht
Frankfurt by 2-1 in Olympiastadion, Berlin. This is the fourth title of Borussia Dortmund with which it has
automatically got qualified for the group stage of the 2017–18 edition of the UEFA Champions League via position in
the Bundesliga, Germany's premier football competition. Earlier this team has clinched eight German championships,
four DFB-Pokals, five DFL-Supercups, one UEFA Champions League, one UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, and one
Intercontinental Cup. This German Cup was founded in 1935 and sixty-four teams participated in the competition for
this year.

An Indian Fencer fenced gold in the Turnoi Satellite Fencing Championship!

On 27th May Bhavani Devi became the first Indian to win gold at the sabre event of the Turnoi Satellite Fencing
Championship at Reykjavik, Iceland. The gold medalist defeated Sarah Jane Hampson of Great Britain by 15-13. This
[ 25 ]
was her first medal in world level competition as she has won medal in Asian and Commonwealth championships. In
past she had won a silver medal in a satellite event. Devi is a trainer at Sports Authority of India at Thalassery.

Achievements beyond the limitations of body……...

On 26th May Egyptian swimmer Omar Hegazy became the first amputee to swim across Red Sea’s 20 kilometers
Aqaba Gulf from Egypt to Jordan. Aqaba Gulf is a large Gulf at the northern tip of the Red Sea. The 26-year-old boy,
banker by profession, who lost his left leg in a motorcycle accident. Even after this unfortunate incident he assimilated
his strength through training and was able to perform this spectacular feat.

FIFA Governance Committee saluted Justice Mudgal.

On 12th May Justice Mudgal got elected as head of FIFA Governance Committee. The world football governing body's
67th Congress in Bahrain's capital city of Manama chose him for the post. He will succeed Miguel Maduro who was
terminated for blocking Russian World Cup official VitalyMutko from retaining his seat on ruling council. In May 2016
Mudgal was chosen for post of deputy chairman of the governance committee during the FIFA Congress in Mexico. On
the occasion of 67th FIFA Congress, the FIFA Council proposed a list of members of the independent Ethics
Committee, the Appeal Committee, the Disciplinary Committee, the Audit and Compliance Committee, and the
Governance Committee for election. The elected candidates will have tenure of four years.
Sea turtle, Olive Ridley became mascot of Asian Athletics.
On 7th May the sea turtle, Olive Ridley was declared as the mascot of the Asian Athletics Championships which will
take place from July 6th to 9th at Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. On this occasion Mr Patnaik Minister formally
announced commencement of the mega international sports event in which more than 700 athletes from 45 nations
would participate in 42 sports events during the four-day sports extravaganza. The state government will spend around
43 crore rupees for this event. Besides this Bhubaneshwar is all set to host the World Hockey League final in upcoming
December and men's hockey world cup in December, next year.

GAIL Indian Speed Star Season II spelled selection of Seven athletes.

On 10th May the Season II of GAIL Indian Speed Star concluded with the selection of 7 athletes in New Delhi. The
grand finale of this grass root athletics program took place at Thyagaraj Sports Complex. The selection committee
confronted more than 113000 aspirants from which 118 athletes had qualified trials at the zonal level from 107 districts
of India before selection of top 7. GAIL-Indian Speed star will identify and nurture talent in track events of 100m,
200m and 400m between the age group of 11 to 17 years.

News from US Open karate Championship ……..

On 25th April India signed off US Open karate Championship with a rich haul of three gold, two silver and 11 bronze
medals in Las Vegas. Shaifali Agarwal, Abhishek Sengupta bagged gold medal and silver medals in two different
individual events. India also clinched gold medal in the team event. The Indian team was led by Sensei Yashpal Singh
Kalsi. The Other members of the Indian contingent were Harcharan Singh Chowhan, Abhishek Sengupta, Rantej Singh
and Shaifali Agarwal.

Kabaddi federation felt touch of MridulGehlot.

On 23rd April MridulGehlot and Dinesh Patel were elected unanimously president and general secretary of Amateur
Kabaddi Federation of India (AKFI). Justice I S Israni supervised the elections in presence of observers from the Sports
Ministry, Indian Olympic Association, International Kabaddi Federation and Asian Kabaddi Federation.

Younis lent moment of pride to Pakistan Cricket Board.

On 23rd April Younis Khan became the first Pakistani player to reach 10,000 Test runs on the third day of the first Test
against West Indies. The 39-year-old player is just the 13th batsman in the history of this sport to break the 10,000-run

[ 26 ]
barrier. This is the 116th Test of Younis. He has has 32 Test centuries with the best score of 313 against Sri Lanka in
2009 on his name.

Aditi Ashok, SSP Chawrasia clinch Golf Industry Awards 2017.

On 20 April 2017, Golfers Aditi Ashok, S.S.P Chawrasia and Ali Sher won the 2nd edition of Golf Industry
Association (GIA) Awards 2017. Aditi Ashok won the award for Outstanding Achievement. She finished second in the
Ladies European Tour (LET) order of merit in 2016. SSP Chawrasia, who successfully defended his Indian Open title
earlier this year and had two victories of on tour last year, bagged the Award for the “Men's Player of the Year”. While ,
Ali Sher was awarded for his outstanding playing career. His victory in the Indian Open back in 1991, was not only the
first by an Indian professional golfer, but it completely changed the game in the country.

Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings got aired.

On 20th April the latest BWF rankings got released. Five Indian shuttlers experienced elevation. Rio Olympics silver
medallist P.V. Sindhu moved to number 3 on account of her performance in Singapore Open Super Series. London
Olympics bronze medallistSainaNehwal also climbed one step ahead at number 8. In the men's singles, Ajay Jayaram
moved 13th spot to remain as the highest-ranked Indian. Kidambi Srikanth reached at 21st position and B Sai Praneeth
occupied 22nd position.

Gayle scripted history in Twenty-20.

On 18th April Gayle became the first batsman in the world to cross 10,000 runs in Twenty-20. Representing Royal
Challengers Bangalore, Chris Gayle scored 77 runs off 38 to reach 10,074 T-20runs while playing against Gujarat Lions
at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium, Rajkot. Royal Challengers gave the target of 214 runs for Gujarat Lions
who ended up with 192 for 7 in 20 overs. Hence Royal Challengers Bangalore won by 21 runs. It is worth knowing that
Gayle is owner of a host of records in the format like the most centuries (18) and fifties (60), highest individual score
(175* for RCB in the IPL)
He holds the joint fastest fifty (off 12 balls for Melbourne Renegades in the BBL), most sixes (736) and fours (764).

Pembangunan Jaya Raya Junior Grand Prix got pulled by Pullela.

On 16th April GayatriPullela won both the singles and doubles crown at the Pembangunan Jaya Raya Junior Grand Prix
in Jakarta. She is daughter of National Badminton coach Pullela Gopichand. First Gayatri defeated SamiyaFarooqui by
21-11, 18-21, 21-16 to win the girls U-15 singles title. Then later on she teamed up with Samiya to get an edge over
Indonesian pair of Kelly Larissa and ShelandryVyola by 21-17, 21-15 to win the U-15 doubles title. It is worth knowing
that both of them together got trained at the Pullela Gopichand Academy in Hyderabad.

Pankaj Advani clinched the Asian Billiards Championship title.

On 14th April Sixteen-time world champion Pankaj Advani defeated his compatriot Sourav Kothari by 6-3 in final of
the Asian Billiards Championship in Chandigarh. This was his sixth Asian Billiards title and seventh overall Asian
championship title. Switching to Snooker, the ace cueist is about compete in the Asian Snooker Championship which
will begin on the 22nd of this month.

Mumbai Indians had beaten Sunrisers Hyderabad.

In IPL Cricket, Mumbai Indians defeated the defending champion Sunrisers Hyderabad by 4 wickets at the Wankhede
Stadium in Mumbai on 12th April. Mumbai Indians won the toss and chose to field. Batting first, Sunrisers Hyderabad
made 158 for 8 in stipulated 20 overs. Skipper David Warner scored 49 off 34 balls and Shikhar Dhawan made 48 off
43 deliveries. For Mumbai Indians, JaspritBumrah took three wickets for 24 runs. Mumbai Indians achieved the target
in 18.4 overs. Nitish Rana scored 45 and veteran keeper Parthiv Patel scored valuable 39 off 24 balls.

[ 27 ]
Joint FIFA World Cup 2026 is about to roll on the ground.
On 12th April Football federations of US, Canada & Mexico decided to launch a joint bid for 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The 2026 World Cup will expand to 48 teams from 32. FIFA will designate a host for the 2026 edition in 2020. Before
this, there has been only one World Cup which was hosted by multiple nations, the 2002 edition in Japan and South
Korea.

Delhi Daredevils opened their account in IPL 2017.

On 12th April Delhi Daredevils marked their first victory in the 10th edition of the Indian Premier League, after
defeating Rising Pune Supergiant by 97 runs in Pune. Sanju Samson’s maiden IPL century (102 runs in 63 balls) and a
fiery 38 from Chris Morris elevated Delhi Daredevils to a massive total of 205 for 4 in stipulated 20 overs. Chasing the
giant target of 206, RPS managed to make 108 in just 16.1 over.

BFI won IOA’s affiliation.

On 7th April, the Indian Olympic Association(IOA) has granted affiliation to the Boxing Federation of India (BFI).
With this, the BFI has now become the fully recognised body for Indian boxing. Long back it was granted affiliation by
AIBA and the Sports Ministry. It is worth recollecting here that earlier the IOA had denied recognition to BFI stating
that it still considered the now-defunct Indian Amateur Boxing Federation (IABF) as the official national body for the
sport. But the persistent request eventually won the most coveted affiliation by IOA for BFI. Ajay Singh is chief of BFI.

Kohli dazzled as Wisden’s leading cricketer in the World.

5th April became a red letter day for Indian captain Virat Kohli as he got chosen as Wisden’s Leading Cricketer in the
World for year 2016. Kohli made 1215 Test runs at a stupendous average of 75.93 last year. In ten ODI matches he
made 739 runs at 92.37 and he scored 641 T20 International runs at 106.83 average. Besides him, Ellyse Perry was
declared as Leading Woman Cricketer in the World and Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan, Ben Duckett, Toby Roland-
Jones, Chris Woakes were adjudged as Five Cricketers of the Year. For his impressive accomplishments, Kohli has
been declared Wisden India Almanack’s Cricketer of the Year for the second time in its 2017 edition.

Harmanpreet Kaur: Women's Player of the Year.

On 3rd April Indian Women’s T20 captain, Harmanpreet Kaur was honored as Sydney Thunder’s Women’s Player of
the Year for the second season of the Women’s Big Bash League. She made 296 runs at a very impressive average of 59
with a strike-rate of 116 in 13 matches. It is worth knowing that last year after her selection in the team, she became the
first Indian cricketer to play in Australia’s Big Bash League.

6th April came sporting as International Day of Sport for Development and Peace.
The date commemorated the inauguration of the first Olympic games of the modern era, in Athens (Greece) in year
1896. On 23rd August 2013 the United Nations General Assembly declared celebration of this day through
A/RES/67/296 resolution and with that this day got celebrated for the first time in year 2014. The celebrations conveyed
a unique perspective of sports as sports carry huge potential to make a positive influence on the advancement of human
rights and economic development. The United States has also highlighted the role of sports for social progress in its
Declaration of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Federer claimed Miami Open.

Roger Federer defeated his prime rival Rafael Nadal in Men Singles by 6-3 6-4 in the final to clinch Miami Open on
2nd April. It was the 37th meeting between the Swiss and Spaniard. Earlier Federer had also beaten Nadal in the 2017
Australian Open final and the 2017 Indian Wells Masters and now with this win Federer has improved to 19-1 this
year. It is worth knowing that for the first time Federer has happened to outshine Nadal in four straight matches in his
career. However the Spaniard, Rafael Nadal still holds a massive career head-to-head advantage of 23-14 over the Swiss
Federer.

[ 28 ]
Oooopps….. the mess will make Messi miss the upcoming four internationals!
On 28th March the FIFA Disciplinary Committee suspended Argentina football player Lionel Messi for four matches
for the mess he created during the match between Argentina and Chile on 23rd March 2017. In the qualifying
competition for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, Messi insulted an assistant referee using inappropriate language. His
words bounced on him spelling his suspension from next four competitive internationals starting with the World Cup's
qualifier in Bolivia. Moreover he is being fined CHF 10,000. Although Messi is the only footballer in history till date to
win five FIFA Ballons d'Or and he is also the first player to win three European Golden Shoes yet the slip of his tongue
made four international matches slip from his grip.

Ravichandran Ashwin was awarded with Garfield Sobers Trophy.

On 28 March 2017, Ravichandran Ashwin was awarded with the prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy in Dharamsala.
He was honoured with the trophy for being named as the ICC Cricketer of the Year 2016. During the voting period,
which ran from September 14, 2015, to September 20, 2016, the 30-year-old Ashwin played eight Tests in which he
took 48 wickets and scored 336 runs. Ashwin also claimed 27 wickets in 19 T20Is. With this, Ashwin has become the
third Indian and 12th player in overall to win this award. Other recipients of the award are Rahul Dravid, Sachin
Tendulkar, Andrew Flintoff, Jacques Kallis Ricky Ponting and others.

Satwiksairaj& Chirag won Vietnam Open International challenger badminton men's doubles title.
On 27 March 2017, India’s men doubles badminton pair, SatwiksairajRankireddy and Chirag Shetty won the 20,000 US
Dollar Vietnam Open International challenger badminton title. To win the title, the sixth seeded Indian pair defeated
the fifth seeded Thai duo of TrawutPotieng and NanthakamYordphaisong in three games 17-21, 21-9, 21-15 at the
summit clash in Hanoi, Vietnam.

PV Sindhu: The brand ambassador of PepsiCo’s ‘Gatorade’.

On 20th March the shuttler PV Sindhu got appointed as brand ambassador of PepsiCo’s sports drink brand Gatorade.
Her appointment came as a part of the global beverage major’s commitment towards dialing up the communication on
the benefits of its healthier food and beverage offerings to consumers. With this appointment Sindhu is the first Indian
brand ambassador of the PepsiCo brand. It is worth knowing here that Gatorade is the official sports drink of the UEFA
Champions League, NBA, NHL, NFL, AVP, and PGA, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, and numerous
other elite and professional organizations and teams.

Indian Cricket green room will witness clinking of glasses!

On 22nd March BCCI decided to double the retainership fee of 32 centrally contracted cricketers. Seven cricketers of
Grade-A viz. current skipper Virat Kohli, former captain MS Dhoni, AjinkyaRahane, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra
JadejaCheteshwarPujara, and Murali Vijay, will be paid two crore rupees annually. Nine players of Grade-B, like Rohit
Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Lokesh Rahul and WriddhimanSaha have got entitled for one crore rupees per annum. Sixteen
players of Grade-C such as Shikhar Dhawan, Amit Mishra and Ashish Nehra, will be paid 50 lakh rupees annually. The
Match Fee has also been increased for the players. They will be paid 15 lakh rupees per Test, Six lakh rupees per ODI
and 3 lakh rupees per Twenty-20 match.The increment in the match fee will be counted from October 2016.
Unfortunately Suresh Raina, Harbhajan Singh and Gautam Gambhir are not part of this party.

India preened like peacock in Olympics World Winter Games.

India won not one not two but 18 medals in the ongoing 2017 Olympics World Winter Games in Austria.India’s team of
89 differently-abled sports persons of the Special Olympics Bharat (SOB) proved their extraordinary ability by winning
six gold, four silver and eight bronze medals for the nation. Among the winners , six special athletes coined gold medal
for ‘Alpine skiing’ and ‘snowboarding’. Shamsher Singh bagged silver at snow shoeing- form of hiking in the snow
with special foot wear-100m race and 16-year old Jyoti Bala clinched bronze medal for the same sport.

[ 29 ]
Roger Federer clinches ATP Indian Wells Masters title.
On 19 March 2017 Roger Federer clinched the ATP Indian Wells Masters titles. This was his record fifth BNP Paribas
Open crown. In the final match, he defeated Stan Wawrinka by 6-4, 7-5. With this win, Federer joined Novak Djokovic
as the only man to win five Indian Wells titles. He had earlier won this title consecutively three times between 2004
and 2006 and in 2012.

David Rockefeller, World’s Oldest Billionaire passed away.

David Rockefeller, the world’s oldest billionaire has passed away on 20 March 2017 at the age of 101 years. He was
last remaining grandchild of America’s first billionaire, Standard Oil founder John D. Rockefeller. At the time of his
death, he was worth an estimated $3.3 billion, making him the world’s 604th richest person, as per FORBES' real-time
billionaire rankings.

ICC Women’s World Cup 2017 bowed to the new UNICEF Ambassador, Sachin Tendulkar. On 16th March the
International Cricket Council (ICC) appointed Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar as the UNICEF ambassador for the ICC
Women’s World Cup 2017. This world cup will take place in the United Kingdom from 23rd June 2017 to 23rd July
2017. The ICC Women’s World Cup and other sports platforms have vowed to act as catalysts for meaningful
engagement of female players with sports.

Indian Hockey team is making the headlines.

On 8th March Indian women hockey team won the Hockey test Series by defeating Belarus by 5-0 in Bhopal. In the
final match VandanaKatariya, Gurjit Kaur and Rani scored 3 goals for India while Yuliya Mikheichyk just managed to
score 1 goal for Belarus.

The pair that paired for top rank In ICC Test Rankings…..
On 8th March Indian spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja shared the top spot in the ICC Test bowlers' charts. This
is the first time in almost nine years that two bowlers are sharing the top spot. Jadeja climbed to the top spot after India
defeated Australia by 75 runs in the second Test in Bengaluru which took place on 7th March. In the same match
Ashwin too played a significant role by taking eight wickets which took him past spin legend BishanBedi's tally of 266
wickets and made him the fifth-highest wicket-taker for India in Tests with 269 wickets. Both the ballers have
individual 892 points. So the accomplishments of the pair justify their ICC test ranking. Before this, during April
2008, Dale Steyn and MuttiahMuralitharan were seen sharing the top rank with 897 points.

ATP Mexico Open title trailed Sam Querrey.

On 4th March America’s Sam Querrey outshone second-seeded Rafael Nadal by 6-3, 7-6 to claim ATP Mexico Open
title in Acapulco, Mexico. This was Querrey’s first win over Nadal which improved his FedEx Head2Head record
against Nadal to 1-4. With this win Querrey has also become the first American champion in 24-year history of the ATP
Mexico Open. His career card reveals that he has won nine Singles titles and in January 2011, he achieved his career-
high singles ranking of world no. 17. It is worth learning that the Mexican Open is a joint professional tennis
tournament which is a part of the ATP World Tour 500 series usually held annually in late February at the Fairmont
Acapulco Princess in Acapulco, Mexico.

Jean-Julien Rojer and HoriaTecau pulled Dubai Tennis Championships Men’s Doubles title. On 4th March
Netherland’s Jean-Julien Rojer and Romania’s HoriaTecau clinched the Dubai Tennis Championships Men’s Doubles
title. This was the 13th doubles title of the duo. They defeated India’s Rohan Bopanna and Poland’s Marcin Matkowski
by 4–6, 6–3, [10–3] in the finals to win this title. The Dubai Tennis Championships is a professional tennis tournament.
Dubai Duty Free owns and organizes it annually in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

[ 30 ]
Ravichandran Ashwin had put Anil Kumble’s record on fire!
The dawn of 5th March 2017 became a record setting day for Ravichandran Ashwin as he broke Anil Kumble’s record
of the most deliveries bowled in a Test cricket season during second day of the second test between India and Australia
that took place in Bengaluru . The star bowler has bowled 3,701 balls (616.5 overs) in the 2016-17 season while
Kumble had bowled 3,673 balls (612.1 overs) in the 2004-05 season. Cricket world bowed to Ashwin for having
bowled most balls in the test season. It is worth mentioning here that the top five bowlers with most balls bowled in a
season are all Indian spinners.

Andy Murray claimed his 45th career title.

On 4th March Andy Murray won his first title of year 2017 in form of Dubai Tennis Championships after defeating
Spain's Fernando Verdasco by 6-3, 6-2. World number one Murray won the trophy in the Emirate for the first time after
losing the final five years ago to Roger Federer. This was his 45th career title as well. Murray is a British professional
tennis player from Scotland who became the first British champion in the 25-year history of the Dubai tournament with
this win. Now he will be preparing for the Indian Wells Masters.

National wrestler grappling international designations!

On 1st March United World Wrestling (UWW) appointed Former Indian wrestler, Kripa Shankar Bishnoi as an
international match referee. The appointee was selected by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) for the annual
training course for match referees which was organized by UWW. Bishnoi is a former national champion, who hitched
the Arjuna Award, underwent the course in Germany in 2016 and has cleared the test which took place in Dortmund. It
is interesting to learn that he had trained Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan and other actors for their wrestling roles in
the film Dangal.

Raymond Kopa was shown red card by life.

On 3rd March the French football legend took exit from ground of life in Paris. The deceased won the European Cup
three times with Real Madrid in the 1950s. Kopa was also the central figure of the French side which was beaten by
Pele's Brazil in a classic World Cup semi-final in 1958. Kopa was one of France's most celebrated sportsmen. Real
Madrid issued a statement mourning the loss of a great Sportstar and the French Football League announced
observation of a minute's silence before all weekend games in honour of one of Europe's greatest players.

Foreign coaches boarding national coach to coach national teams…

Luis Norton de Matos and SjoerdMarijne are the foreign coaches who have got appointed to coach Indian football and
hockey teams respectively. Portugal's Luis Norton de Matos has been made the head coach of the India Under-17 team
by All India Football Federation (AIFF) for the upcoming FIFA Under-17 World Cup in October this year. He has
taken place of Nicolai Adam. SjoerdMarijne, the former Dutch women’s national coach has become the new Chief
Coach of the Indian women’s hockey team for the upcoming four years. The Dutch U-21 women’s side to a World Cup
title and the Dutch senior women’s gold medal at the Hockey World League semifinals in 2015 are the credentials of
this coach. The man had been the national head coach of the Netherlands under-21 men between 2011 and 2014.

Sightsavers sighted KabirBedi as the new Brand Ambassador.

On 27th February, global organisation working to prevent avoidable blindness, ‘Sightsavers’ appointed renowned film
actor KabirBedi as Brand Ambassador. KabirBedi also acted as villainous henchman Gobinda in ‘Octopussy', James
Bond movie of year 1983 which made him popular in UK as well. Sightsavers is an international organisation that
works in more than 30 nations across the globe and it is vibrant in 13 states of India as well. Six blind girls from MP
participated in the 5th National Blind and Deaf Judo Competition held in Gurgaon and were conferred medals by
KabirBedi and and SY Quraishi, honorary chairman of the India chapter of the organisation and former Chief Election
Commissioner of India.

[ 31 ]
 CURRENT AFFAIRS TESTS

1. Constantine Mitsotakis, the former Prime Minister of __________ has passed away in May 2017.
(a) Germany (b) Greece (c) Georgia (d) Bangladesh (e) Algeria

2. India has inked a MoU on Defence Cooperation with which of the countries?
(a) Russia (b) Germany (c) China (d) Fiji (e) Australia

3. Who has won the Geneva Open Men’s Singles title?

(a) Kei Nishikori (b) Steve Johnson (c) Sam Querrey
(d) Stan Wawrinka (e) Mischa Zverev

4. Which among the following states banned the thin plastic bags to tackle garbage?
(a) Uttar Pradesh (b) Goa (c) Tamil Nadu (d) Kerala (e) Bihar

5. Which country has launched first women television channel “Zan TV”?
(a) Iran (b) Bhutan (c) Dubai (d) Afghanistan (e) Israel

6. _____________ Mountaineer, Love Rajsingh became the first Indian to scale Mt. Everest 6 times.
(a) Uttarakhand (b) Uttar Pradesh (c) Madhya Pradesh
(d) Himachal Pradesh (e) Rajasthan

7. World No Tobacco Day is observed every year on __________.

(a) 30th May (b) 29th May (c) 31st May (d) 28th May (e) 27th May

8. Famous _______ filmmaker, Dasari Narayana Rao has passed away in May 2017.
(a) Kannad (b) Malayalam (c) Telugu (d) Tamil (e) Hindi

9. What is the rank of Indian Cricket team Captain Virat Kohli in ICC Players Rankings for ODIs?
(a) First (b) Second (c) Third (d) Fourth (e) Fifth

10. Which among the following cities has created Guinness world record with maximum number of people
sweeping the ‘floor’?
(a) Vadodara (b) Ahmedabad (c) Surat (d) Jaipur (d) Indore

11. Which state government has launched a pension scheme for journalists?
(a) Madhya Pradesh (b) Haryana (c) Uttar Pradesh (d) Himachal Pradesh (e) Kerala

12. Apple opened its first Southeast Asia store in _________.

(a) Thailand (b) Malaysia (c) Indonesia (d) Singapore (e) Vietnam

13. Jaideep Mazumdar has been appointed as the next ____________ of India to the Philippines.
(a) Ambassador (b) President (c) Director (d) Chancellor (e) None of these

14. Which among the following actresses will be honored with DadasahebPhalke Academy Award?
(a) Deepika Padukone (b) Priyanka Chopra
(c) Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (d) Alia Bhatt (e) Sonam Kapoor

[ 32 ]
15. Who has been honored with the 2016 SangeetNatak Akademi Puraskar?
(a) Mashkoor Ali Khan (b) RitwikSanyal
(c) Satyabrata Rout (d) ParassiniKunhiraman
(e) None of these

16. Najma Heptulla has been appointed as the __________ of Jamia MilliaIslamia University.
(a) Vice Chancellor (b) Chancellor (c) Director (d) Principal (e) None of these

17. Who among the following has won the Monaco Grand Prix 2017?
(a) Sebastian Vettel (b) Lewis Hamilton (c) Daniel Ricciardo (d) Valtteri Bottas (e) Kimi Raikkonen

18. Who has been selected for the Akademi Ratna award by the SangeetNatak Akademi?
(a) Girish Karnad (b) Mahesh Dattani (c) Rahul da Cunha (d) Manav Kaul (e) Sunil Kothari

19. Which among the following broadcasting companies signed an agreement with Morocco's SNRT?
(a) Reliance Broadcast Network Limited (b) Zee News Ltd
(c) TV 18 Broadcast Ltd (d )PrasarBharati
(e) NDTV

20. Gregg Allman, the famous musician of ____________ has passed away in May 2017.
(a) South Africa (b) Brazil (c) United states (d) Germany (d) France

21. Which among the following city's police has won the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and
Industries (FICCI) Smart Police Award 2017 ?
(a) Mumbai city Police (b) Pune city Police (c) Bhopal city police
(d) Delhi city police (e) Kochi city police

22. World’s largest telescope construction begins in _________.

(a) Chile (b) Colombia (c) Argentina (d) Peru (e) Brazil

23. “Sewa Cab” has been launched in which of the following cities?
(a) Mumbai (b) Pune (c) Bengaluru (d) Delhi (e) Hyderabad

24. Which among the following countries has clinched 2017 Sudirman Cup title?
(a) India (b) Germany (c) China (d) Thailand (e) South Korea

25. Famous ________, Kiran Ashar passed away in May 2017 .

(a) Footballer (b) Cricketer (c) Lawyer (d) Painter (e) Musician

26. Which among the following states government has declared Dailong village as a Biodiversity Heritage Site?
(a) Punjab (b) Assam (c) Manipur (d) Tripura (e) Meghalaya

27. Who became the first Indian to won gold medal in Tournoi Satellite Fencing Championship 2017?
(a) SN Siva Magesh (b) C.A. Bhavani Devi (c) SagarSahi
(d) Dapinderjeet Singh (e) None of these

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28. Indian Oil Corporation has overtaken _________ to become India’s most profitable state-owned company.
(a) Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (b) Essar Oil Limited
(c) Bharat Petroleum (d) Hindustan Petroleum Corporation
(e) Reliance Petroleum Limited

29. Union Defence and Finance Minister has inaugurated the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s
(DRDO)’s new Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) in which state?
(a) Kerala (b) Tamil Nadu (c) Telangana (d) Karnataka (e)Andhra Pradesh

30. International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers is observed every year on _________.
(a) 28th May (b) 26th May (c) 27th May (d) 25th May (e) 29th May

31. North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit held in _______ .

(a) Canada (b) North Korea (c) Belgium (d) Islamabad (e) France

32. Egyptian amputee swimmer, Omar Hegazy swim across which of the following sea?
(a) The Mediterranean Sea (b) Red Sea (c) Caspian Sea
(d) Black Sea (e) None of these

33. AmulThapar has been appointed as the second Indian Judge in court of which of the following countries?
(a) United States (b) Russia (c) Germany (d) Italy (e) France

34. Rakesh Kapoor has been appointed the new __________ of International Fertiliser Association.
(a) Director (b) Managing Director (c) Chairman
(c) CEO (e) None of these

35. Which among the following countries will host the World Street Food Congress (WSFC17)?
(a) India (b) Italy (c) Singapore (d) Philippines (e) Russia

36. Which Indian monument has made it to the world’s top ten landmarks list?
(a) QutubMinar (b) Red Fort (c) Taj Mahal (d) India Gate (e) Charminar

37. Who among the following wrote the book ‘Marching with a Billion- Analysing Narendra Modi’s Government
at Midterm’?
(a) Rajesh Jain (b) Arundhati Roy (c) Vikram Seth
(d) Uday Mahurkar (e) Vikas Swaroop

38. According to FDI Intelligence report, which country topped the list of world’s top most greenfield FDI
investment destination?
(a) India (b) China (c) United States (d) Germany (e) Brazil

39. Who among the following has won the 2016–17 UEFA Europa League Title?
(a) Sevilla (b) Manchester United (c) Ajax (d) Chelsea (e) Southampton

40. Which among the following states has launched a water harvesting and conservation campaign to resolve the
state’s acute water crisis?
(a) Bihar (b) Rajasthan (c)Uttarakhand (d) Gujarat (e) Madhya Pradesh

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41. Who among the following players became the Member of Badminton World Federation Athletes Commission?
(a) Serena Williams (b) SainaNehwal (c) P.V. Sindhu (d) Jwala Gutta (e) Nithya Devi

42. Rajan Anandan has been appointed as the ______ of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).
(a) Director (b) Managing Director (c) CEO
(d) Chairman (e) Secretary

43. Which among the following countries has become the first Asian country to allow same sex marriage?
(a) Syria (b) Taiwan (c) India (d) Thailand (e) Israel

44. The Union government has launched which of the following web portal for online documentation verification
for students?
(a) e-Sanad (b) e-Students (c) e-Verification (d) e-Certificates (e) None of these

45. Anurag Tripathy has been appointed as the new _________ of the Central Board of Secondary Education
(CBSE).
(a) President (b) CEO (c) Director (d) Manager (e) Secretary

46. Which among the following companies will host the Asian Junior Tennis Championship 2017 ?
(a) TCS (b) IBM (c) Intel (d) HCL (e) Wipro

47. Which among the following banks has introduced a new trading platform for customers named “Selfie”?
(a) UCO Bank (b) ICICI Bank (c) Federal Bank (d) Axis Bank (e) Yes Bank

48. Which among the following Arab nations has blocked 21 media websites?
(a) Saudi Arabia (b) Algeria (c) Egypt (d) Iraq (e) Yemen

49. Which among the following banks has launched “Code For Bank” tool development program?
(a) PNB Bank (b) SBI Bank (c) ICICI Bank (d) HDFC Bank (e) BOI Bank

50. Which among the following wrote the book “Winning like Virat: Think & Succeed like Kohli”?
(a) Suresh Menon (b) Sourabh Banerjee (c) Abhijeet Ghosh
(d) Abhirup Bhattachary (e) None of these

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 ANSWERS
ANSWERS

1.(b) Constantine Mitsotakis, the former Prime Minister of Greece has passed away in May 2017 at the age of 98
years. He served in several Cabinet posts, including finance minister, in liberal governments in 1951-52 and
1963-65.

2.(d) India and Fiji signed a Memorandum of Understanding on expanding cooperation in the defence sector. The
MoU was signed between the Defence Minister of India and National Security Minister of Fiji.

3.(d) Stan Wawrinka of Switzerland has defeated Mischa Zverev of Germany by 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 to win Geneva Open
Men’s Singles title.

4.(b) The Goa State government has decided to ban the buying and selling of plastic bags below 50 microns. The
ban will come to effect from July onwards.

5.(d) The first women television channel “Zan TV” has started in Kabul, Afghanistan with all female presenters and
producers. The purpose of the women TV channel is to highlight the rights of Afghan women, improve their
status and ensure their equality with men in the conservative society.

6.(a) Uttarakhand Mountaineer, Love RajsinghDharmshaktu has become the first Indian to summit Mount Everest
marking the record of six times. The mountaineer is a Padma Shri Awardee who works as an Assistant
Commandant with the Border Security Force in Dehradun.

7.(c) World No Tobacco Day is observed every year on 31st May. The theme for 2017 is "Tobacco – A Threat to
Development."

8.(c) Famous telugu filmmaker, Dasari Narayana Rao has passed away in May 2017 at the age of 75 years. He is
best known for his cinematic works in Telugu language. He was best known for films like ‘Premabhishekam’,
‘MeghaSandesham’, ‘Osey Ramulamma’ and ‘Tata Manavadu’. He has received two National Film Awards
and nine state Nandi Awards.

9.(c) Indian Cricket team Captain Virat Kohli is at third rank in ICC Players Rankings for ODIs with 852 points.
South Africa's AB de Villiers is at first rank with 874 point.

10.(a) Vadodara, the 10th cleanest city in the country has created a new Guinness world record with maximum
number of people sweeping the ‘floor’ (single venue).

11.(b) Haryana government has announced a slew of incentives for journalists, including a Rs 10,000 monthly
pension scheme, for those who are above 60 years and have completed 20 years in the profession. The
government also announced a life insurance cover of Rs 10 Lakh and a cashless mediclaim policy of Rs 5
Lakh.

12.(d) Apple opened its first Southeast Asia store in Singapore.

13.(a) Jaideep Mazumdar has been appointed as the next ambassador of India to the Philippines. Currently he is
working as the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs.

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14.(b) Actress Priyanka Chopra will be honored with the DadasahebPhalke Academy Award for being an
international icon. Star will be given the award under the newly introduced 'Internationally Acclaimed Actress'
category. The award ceremony will held on 1 June 2017.

15.(c) Satyabrata Rout, a professor from the Department of Theatre Arts, S N School of Arts and Communication,
University of Hyderabad (UoH) has been honored with the 2016 SangeetNatak Akademi Puraskar. He is one
of the pioneers of ‘visual theater’ in India, and has ‘Scenography: An Indian Perspective’.

16.(b) Najma Heptulla has been appointed as the Chancellor of Jamia MilliaIslamia University. She will be
succeeding Lt Gen (Retd) MA Zaki. She will be serving a term of five years.

17.(a) Sebastian Vettel has won the Monaco Grand Prix 2017. The second place in the race was secured by Ferrari’s
Kimi Raikkonen, while the third place was secured by Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo.

18.(e) Sunil Kothari, who was the first one to complete PhD from M S University's Department of Dance, has been
selected for the Akademi Ratna award by the SangeetNatak Akademi.
19.(d) Government-run PrasarBharati signed an agreement with Morocco's SocieteNationale de Radiodiffusion et de
Television (SNRT) to step up cooperation in the broadcasting sector.

20.(c) Gregg Allman, the famous musician, singer, keyboardist and songwriter of United States has passed away in
May 2017 at the age of 69 years. He was the developer of southern rock and co-founder of the Allman Brothers
Band.

21.(b) The Pune city police has won the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) Smart
Police Award for the year 2017 for their initiatives on women and cyber security.

22.(a) World's largest telescope construction begins in Chile. The telescope will be constructed at a 3,000 meter-high
mountain in the middle of the Atacama desert. The telescope is scheduled to commence its operations in 2024.

23.(d) Delhi’s taxi drivers has launched their own taxi app known as “Sewa Cab” to compete with Ola and Uber.

24.(e) South Korea has won Sudirman Cup title of Badminton for the first time in 14 years. In the final match, South
Korea defeated China by 3-2 at Australia's Gold Coast.

25.(b) Famous Cricketer, Kiran Ashar passed away in May 2017 at the age of 69 years. He played for Mumbai.

26.(c) The Manipur government has declared Dailong village of Tamenglong district as a Biodiversity Heritage Site
of the state. Dailong village, covering as area of 11.36 sq Km.

27.(b) Fencer C.A. Bhavani Devi became the first Indian to clinch gold medal in the Tournoi Satellite Fencing
Championship at Reykjavik, Iceland. She defeated Sarah Jane Hampson of Great Britain by 2 points.

28.(a) Indian Oil Corporation has overtaken Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to become India’s most
profitable state-owned company.

29.(d) Union Defence and Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley has inaugurated the Defence Research and Development
Organisation’s (DRDO)’s new Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) in Karnataka. This ATR will be an integrated
test center for the DRDO’s cluster of aeronautical laboratories.
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30.(e) International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers is observed every year on 29th May. The theme for the year
2017 is “Investing in Peace Around the World.”

31.(c) The 28th edition of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit has started in Belgium. The top
agenda of the meeting was terrorism.

32.(b) Egyptian swimmer, Omar Hegazy became the first amputee to swim across Red Sea.

33.(a) AmulThapar has been appointed as the second Indian Judge in United states Circuit Court of Appeals.

34.(c) Rakesh Kapoor, Joint Managing Director of Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) has been
appointed the new Chairman of International Fertiliser Association at the 2017 IFA annual conference in
Marrakech, Morocco. With this, he became the third Indian to hold this prestigious position in IFA’s 90 years’
history.

35.(d) The 2017 World Street Food Congress (WSFC) will be held in Manila, Philippines from May 31 2017 to June
4 2017 with theme “Re-Imagine Possibilities”.

36.(c) Taj Mahal, the magnificent monument of love, has made it to the top 10 landmarks in the world by securing
fifth position in the list. Taj Mahal is the one of most iconic wonders in the world.

37.(d) The book ‘Marching with a Billion- Analysing Narendra Modi’s Government at Midterm’ has been written by
famous journalist, Uday Mahurkar. The book analyses the monumental changes that Prime Minister Narendra
Modi has brought on multiple fronts as Prime Minister.

38.(a) India retained its top position being the world’s top most greenfield FDI investment destination for the second
consecutive year. China and United States holds the second and Third positions respectively .

39.(b) Manchester United has won the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Europa League 2016-17
Title. They defeated Amsterdamsche Football Club Ajax (AFC) team.

40.(c) The Chief Minister of Uttarakhand, Trivendra Singh Rawat has launched water harvesting and conservation
campaign to resolve the state’s acute water crisis on the occasion of Water Day in Dehradun.

41.(c) Olympic silver medalist, P.V. Sindhu became the member of the Badminton World Federation Athletes
Commission after voting closed for the four places on the representative body. She will serve for four years
term.

42.(d) RajanAnandan has been appointed as the Chairman of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).
He will succeed FreeCharge co-founder and Chairman, Kunal Shah.

43.(b) Taiwan has become the first Asian country to allow same sex marriage after the constitutional court’s ruling
comes in support of legalizing same-sex marriage.

44.(a) The Union Government has launched online verification portal “e-Sanad” to make the document verification
process easier for students who are planning to study aboard.

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45.(e) Anurag Tripathy has been appointed as the new Secretary of the Central Board of Secondary Education
(CBSE) for a period of five years.

46.(d) Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL) will host the Asian Junior Tennis championship 2017. The championship
will start from 29th May 2017. Different players from 11 countries - Thailand, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea,
Philippines, Hong-Kong, Malaysia, China, Sri Lanka, Iran, and India are participating in this Championship.

47.(c) Federal Bank has introduced a new trading platform called “Selfie” for customers. The trading platform will
give its users absolute control over their investments with timely research inputs to make sound investment
decisions.

48.(c) Egypt has blocked 21 media websites including the Huffington Post's Arabic website, Al-Sharq of Turkey and
many more for allegedly supporting terrorism.

49.(b) State Bank of India (SBI) has launched a national program named “Code For Bank” for developers, start-ups
and students with innovative ideas and solutions for the banking sector.

50.(d) The book “Winning like Virat: Think & Succeed like Kohli” is written by writer Abhirup Bhattacharya. The
book etches Virat’s success curve by using statistics. According to Bhattacharya, it is only Virat Kohli who has
managed to enjoy a fandom that comes even close to the popularity of Sachin Tendulkar.

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