Current Affairs Current Affairs - 3 June 2017

General Affairs

Maharashtra farmers strike: Vegetable prices set to soar in Mumbai as vendors leave Vashi mandi empty bag

Babulal Gupta, a vegetable vendor from Lower Parel area of Mumbai returned from Vashi wholesale market with hardly any vegetables.

Gupta usually picks up all the available vegetables like cabbage, brinjal and beans along with other green leafy ones for his shop in Lower Parel. But today, he came back to his shop only with some bittergourd thanks to farmers' strike and spiraling prices in the wholesale market at Vashi.

"There was hardly any vegetable at Vashi. The quality of vegetable was just like any other day but vehicles from farms had not reached there. And, whatever vegetables were being sold, the prices were jacked up," said Gupta.

NO SHORTAGE YET, BUT PRICES GO UP

Gupta said that he had to pay much higher priceS at the Vashi market for whatever little he could pick for retail sale. Back in Lower Parel, he plans to sell them at a premium too.

However, other vegetable vendors could not muster so much 'courage' as Gupta in lifting articles from the wholesale market.

"We had gone to Vashi market in the morning but the prices were so high that we did not dare buy anything. What we are selling right now are the vegetables that we had procured yesterday," said Ram Narayan, who has been selling vegetables right next to the railway station for several years now.

The vegetable vendors said that the buyers would not pay for vegetables that cost more than Rs 40 a kilo and at Vashi itself the prices were around Rs 40 a kilo. The vegetable vendors would sell vegetables with some margin to make profit.

Another retail vegetable seller said that he would continue to sell whatever is left in his shop but would not buy fresh vegetables at spiked rates.

"Today in the market they were selling a small bundle of coriander for Rs 180. How will I be able to sell that here? Either it would have rotten at my shop or I would have to sell it at a loss. So, I did not buy any vegetables from Vashi today," said Prakash, another vegetable vendor at Lower Parel.

FARMERS' STRIKE

The farmers are on strike in Maharashtra asking for loan waiver and announcement of minimum support price for their goods. Today is the second day of their strike.

The farmers have not brought their produce to the Vashi market since yesterday forcing the retailers to bank on the stocked vegetables. Small vendors were seen playing it safe as they sensed that they might have to suffer losses.

The average consumer is also affected with farmers' strike. Priyanka More, who stays around the market, said "I don't know how long this strike will go on. So, I have come down to buy some vegetables. I will use these for a few days and let's see what happens after that."

Some of the customers are not aware about the farmers' strike and were perplexed to know about the development. "Until yesterday beans was sold for Rs 30 a kilo. Now, they are selling it at Rs 60 a kilo. Why are things becoming so costly these days," asked Sampada Harvande, a resident of Dombivli.

When Sampada came to know about the farmers' strike, she could just say, "I hope, the government intervenes and the strike ends soon."

Nuclear-capable Prithvi-II missile successfully test-fired

India today successfully test-fired its indigenously developed nuclear-capable Prithvi-II missile from a test range in Odisha as part of a user trial by the Army.

The trial of the surface-to-surface missile, which has a strike range of 350 km, was carried out from a mobile launcher from launch complex-3 of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur near here at around 9.50 am, official sources said.

The trial of the sophisticated missile was successful and the mission objectives were met, they said.

The Prithvi-II missile is capable of carrying 500 kg to 1,000 kg of warheads and is thrusted by liquid propulsion twin engines. It uses advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring trajectory to hit its target with precision and accuracy.

The state-of-the-art missile was randomly chosen from the production stock and the entire launch activities were carried out by the specially formed strategic force command (SFC) and monitored by the scientists of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) as part of training exercise, a DRDO scientist said.

"The missile trajectory was tracked by the DRDO radars, electro-optical tracking systems and telemetry stations located along the coast of Odisha," the sources said.

Teams on board the ship deployed near the designated impact point in the Bay of Bengal monitored the terminal events and splashdown.

In salvo mode, two Prithvi-II missiles were successfully test fired in quick succession from the same base, on November 21, 2016.

Inducted into Indian armed forces in 2003, the nine-metre-tall, single-stage liquid-fuelled Prithvi-II is the first missile to have been developed by the DRDO under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme.

India committed to Paris climate deal despite US withdrawal: Power Minister Piyush Goyal

India remains committed to the Paris agreement to tackle climate change regardless of what other countries do, the government said today after President Donald Trump announced he would withdraw the United States from the landmark global pact.

"India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership has taken up renewable energy as an article of faith and is steadfast on its Paris commitments, irrespective of what others do," Power Minister Piyush Goyal said in a statement.

Harsh Vardhan, India's environment minister, said the world's third largest greenhouse gas emitter was committed to ensure it did its best to address climate change and global warming.

Yogi Adityanath's janta darbars: 60 per cent of cases pertain to illegal land grabbing

Complainants from across Uttar Pradesh have been making a beeline for Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's janta darbars to seek redressal for their long-pending woes. A perusal of the cases reveals that most of them pertain to forcible land grabbing.

Manju Devi, who escaped an attempt on her life, is all tears as she waits in the long queue at the state BJP headquarters to seek an appointment with Girish Chandra Yadav, the state minister for urban development.

She owned two bighas of land in Adampur Basarthi in UP's Unnao district, but some village dabangs forcibly took hold of the land which was her family's only source of sustenance.

She went thrice to the local police station, only to be rebuked and turned away.

Manju Devi's old husband is ailing and bed-ridden. She has been running from pillar to post to seek justice as she fears a threat to her life from the dabangs who forcibly took her land. And her case isn't an isolated one.

FOUR-TIER TASK FORCE

One of the most important poll planks of the BJP was constituting an anti-land mafia task force and freeing all the encroached land from the clutches of the high and the mighty.

The BJP has been saying that during previous regimes, there has been a stupendous increase in cases of land grabbing.

After coming to power, the Yogi Adityanath government constituted an anti-land mafia task force with powers to act swiftly.

A 4-tier task force was made operational last month by Adityanath, as promised in the BJP's election manifesto. It comprised the Principal secretary at the top, followed by the Commissioner, the District Magistrate and the SDM at the local level.

The task force was asked to compile an exhaustive report on forcible land grabbing and illegal encroachments.

Meanwhile, around 60 per cent of the cases coming for redressal to janta darbars in Gorakhpur, the Lucknow BJP office and also the chief minister's residence pertain to forcible land grabbing.

A MONTH OF JANTA DARBARS

After the BJP received a huge mandate in the UP Assembly elections, janta darbars were launched at the party's UP headquarters with much fanfare.

As of June 1, darbars have been organsied at the party office for a month, and around 3,000 people have been heard.

"Jan sahyog Kendra was set up at the BJP state headquarters, and all the ministers have been asked to attend it once a month. The forum provides immediate redressal at times and at times the cases are directed to the concerned authorities," said BJP spokesperson Dr Chandramohan.

Urban development minister Girish Chandra Yadav, who was listening to complainants at the BJP's UP headquarters on Friday, told India Today: "Most of the cases coming to us are pertaining to land. Our government has constituted a taskforce to look into land grabbing matters. I can just assure that the complainants are provided immediate relief whenever any case is brought to our notice. We will not spare anyone found guilty."

Yogi Adityanath may not have the time to pay regular visits to Gorarakhpur after becoming UP chief minister. But janta darbars continue to be held, and officers listen to complaints on his behalf, and these are are directed to the concerned authorities.

All's not well in Bihar grand alliance, Lalu sons Tejashwi, Tej Pratap skip Nitish Kumar's Cabinet meeting

All does not seem to be well with the Nitish Kumar-led grand alliance government in Bihar. Several ministers remained absent from the Cabinet meeting convened by the Bihar chief minister today. The absentees included RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's sons Tejashwi Yadav and Tej Pratap and Education Minister Ashok Chowdhary of the Congress.

Even though Nitish and Lalu claim that the relations between the two are normal, the war of words between the JD(U) and RJD leaders point towards the contrary. Panchayati Raj system was to be discussed in the Cabinet meeting convened today.

Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav and his elder brother Tej Pratap were supposed to attend the meeting, as also the others. However, the two change the programme at the last moment. Not just the two but also Congress leader Ashok Chowdhary skipped the Cabinet meeting.

Mediapersons were waiting for the three ministers to attend the meeting so that they could ask questions such as India Today's 'Udta Bihar' sting operation and Bihar 12th Board result scam. But they were deprived of the chance as the ministers did not turn up in the meeting.

In any case, their absence has further given credence to reports that RJD-JD(U) relation is going through a rough patch.

Business Affairs

Reports of job losses overstated, to hire 20K this year: Infosys

IT services major Infosys today said it will hire 20,000 people this year as against only 400 people being asked to leave on performance grounds and termed reports of large-scale job losses as "overstated".

Infosys COO UB Pravin Rao said the technology-driven transformation presents new opportunities for companies like Infosys.

"With respect to all the talks of layoffs, it's regular performance based things that we do every year. The number is really 300-400, which is consistent with what we have seen every year," Rao told reporters after a 30-minute meeting with IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

He said the country's second largest software exporter is "creating more jobs, adding more people and letting go of only minuscule number of people, purely from performance related perspective".

Rao met the minister along with Infosys co-Chairman Ravi Venkatesan.

He declined however to comment on views of Infosys co- founder NR Narayana Murthy that jobs can be protected if the senior executives of companies take salary cuts and invest in employee re-skilling.

Prasad also asserted that IT companies like Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys continue to hire in large numbers.

"TCS has written that they have employed 2.5 lakh people in last 3 years and this year they are going to employ 20,000 more...all this talk of sluggishness is unwarranted," he said.

The comments come at a time when there have been reports of layoffs across the IT sector. Tech majors like Wipro, Infosys, Cognizant and Tech Mahindra have initiated annual performance reviews, a process that weeds out bottom performers or non-performers.

This has compounded fears that thousands of employees in the sector could be shown the door over the next few weeks.

The IT sector is already battling challenges in the business environment and stricter work permit regime in countries like the US, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

Various employee unions have approached labour commissioners and state governments to intervene in the matter.

"I think all the news about job losses are overstated.

Infosys itself last year recruited over 20,000 people and this year again, we are likely to repeat similar numbers," Rao said.

He added that in the first half of the year, the company will recruit over 10,000 people.

India's economy to turn around in April-June quarter: Arvind Panagariya

India's economy is expected to recover in the current quarter as the pain stemming from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's cash clampdown late last year has ended, a top policy adviser of the government said on Friday.

Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya's comments came days after data showed that India's annual economic growth rate unexpectedly slowed to 6.1 percent in the January-March quarter, its lowest in more than two years.

Modi's shock decision last November to outlaw high value banknotes took 86 percent of currency out of circulation virtually overnight, pounding consumer demand in the cash-reliant economy.

While Asia's third-largest economy surprised investors with its resilience in the October-December quarter when the cash crunch was at its peak, its lingering impact saw construction activity contract and manufacturing and private services slow in the latest quarter.

Panagariya, vice-chairman of the government's main economic advisory body, said an improvement in cash supply should lift overall economic activity in the April-June quarter.

"We are pretty much out of the woods as far as demonetisation is concerned," he told a news conference. "We should see a good turnaround in Q1."

The former Columbia University economics professor also said growth in the fiscal year to March 2018 would accelerate to 7.5 percent, faster than 7.1 percent a year ago, and would top the 8 percent mark in 2018/19.

"Before the present term of the government ends, I would expect that we would hit the 8 percent mark and probably enter another trajectory of sustained growth at 8 percent plus," he said. Modi's five-year term ends in May 2019.

Why Anil Ambani is more affluent despite RCom losing Rs 3,310 crores

As worsening money matters force Reliance Communications to drag its feet, owner Anil Ambani's fortunes have made a leap of (Rs 528 crores). The telecom arm of Reliance Group is feeling the heat from rising losses in an extremely competitive sector, debt liabilities and decline in stock and sell-off bonds, but its sister concerns are mitigating damages for Reliance Group.

Fortunately, RCom got into trouble at a time other subsidiaries of Reliance Group are doing well. The financial services arm of the conglomerate Reliance Capital Ltd. made the biggest addition to Reliance Group's net worth, along with Reliance Power Ltd.

Meanwhile, Group's Reliance Defence and Engineering Ltd offer favourable prospects by bagging defence contracts, Reliance Infrastructure Ltd is planning to list a trust with some of its road assets. All this while the telecom company fights to keep its investors interested.

This kept Reliance Group from troubled waters even though Reliance Communications lost Rs 3,310 crores from its market value as its shares tanked 39 per cent. RCom's shares traded at Rs 20.60 late this afternoon around Rs 20.60 at BSE, down by almost a 0.2 per cent.

Reliance Communication stocks tanked by as much as 20 per cent after it declared losses to the tune of Rs 948 crores in the fourth quarter, this being second in a row. Meanwhile, several credit rating agencies downgraded its debt to dismal levels.

ICRA downgraded RCom's debt over reservations about its profitability and debt burden. Similarly US-based credit agency Fitch Ratings downgraded billionaire Anil Ambani-owned telecom firm Reliance Communications further into junk territory on Thursday, becoming the latest credit agency to cast doubt on the Indian mobile phone operator's ability to meet its heavy debts.

Moody's downgraded RCom from Caa1 to B2 indicating that its obligations are speculative and run high credit risk. Joining other rating agencies, Fitch Ratings also downgraded Reliance Communications' debt, saying some kind of default is a "real possibility".

Anil's RCom is also feeling the impact of disruptive telecom sector that rose out of aggressive marketing policies of Reliance Jio Infocomm, owned by his elder brother Mukesh Ambani. The Reliance Group entered the telecom sector in 2002, but the conglomerate broke apart after things turned sour between the two brothers in 2005.

Units 5, 6 at Kudankulam nuclear power plant to cost Rs 50,000 crore

The construction of the fifth and sixth units of India's largest nuclear power plant in Tamil Nadu will cost about Rs 50,000 crore with half of the amount being funded by Russia as loan.

The project will take seven years to start generating electricity, Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) Chairman and Managing Director S K Sharma told said.

India and Russia yesterday signed an agreement for the two new reactors for the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) on the sidelines of the annual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"The entire project will cost about Rs 50,000 crore. The first unit will be commissioned in 66 months and the second six months thereafter," Sharma said.

Atomstroyexport, a unit of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom, will build the reactors.

"The project will be funded in 70:30 debt-equity ratio (70 per cent debt, 30 per cent equity)," he said.

The Russian government will lend India USD 4.2 billion to help cover the construction cost.

Sharma said the equity portion of project will either come from NPCIL's own resources or from government.

At the agreement signing ceremony yesterday, Russian President Putin said the first unit of the Kudankulam nuclear power plant was put into operation.

"The most reliable, latest Russian technology was used in its construction. The plant s second unit has also started to generate electricity.

"At a joint teleconference in October 2016 with Narendra Modi we launched the construction of the plant s third and fourth units. And we reaffirmed our intention to build in India at least 12 Russian-designed energy units, which will make a large contribution to the development of India's nuclear industry," he said.

The KKNPP was the outcome of an inter-governmental agreement between the erstwhile Soviet Union and India in 1988. It is the single largest nuclear power station in India.

The power station was envisaged to have six units with total capacity to generate 6,000 MW of electricity (1,000 MW each).

Construction on the plant began on March 31, 2002 and Unit 1 was synchronised with the southern power grid in October 2013. The second unit started generating electricity in August last year. The original cost of the two units was Rs 13,171 crore, but it was later revised to Rs 17,270 crore.

Russia advanced a credit of Rs 6,416 crore for construction of the two units.

Construction of plant's third and fourth units was launched last year and will cost Rs 39,747 crore. While the cost of generating power from first two units is reported at Rs 4.29 per unit, the cost from 3 and 4 is likely to be significantly higher than that.

Units 3 and 4 of the Kudankulam plant are expected to be commissioned by 2022-23.

The Russian built Water-Water Energetic Reactor (VVER) reactor Kudankulam unit 1 and 2 are the largest power generating stations in the country. After all the units (1-6) of the plant are commissioned, the nuclear park will have the power generating capacity of 6,000 MW, boosting significantly the country's nuclear power generation.

The current nuclear power generation capacity of all 22 nuclear power reactors in India is 6780 MW.

Sensex hits all-time high of 31,332; Nifty climbs to new peak

The Indian markets opened on a fresh high on Friday with the NSE index hitting a new peak of 9,673.50 tracking Wall Street as the three major indices of the US Stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading session on Thursday, offsetting the weakness seen in the two previous
sessions.

"All three stock indexes closed at records as a strong read on private-sector employment helped to bolster confidence in the economy ahead of Friday's closely watched jobs report," said an Angel Broking report.

At 9.35 am, the BSE Sensex was trading at 31,293.54, up 155.95 points (0.50%) while the Nifty50 was ruling at 9,662.45, 46.35 points higher (0.48%).

Adani Ports was the top gainer, adding 2.10 per cent, followed by HeroMoto Corp and NTPC.

TVS Motor Company gained 5.24 per cent after it reported a 16 per cent increase in total sales at 2,82,007 units in May. The Chennai-based company had sold 2,43,783 units in May 2016. Total two-wheeler sales during the month increased 15.6 per cent to 2,75,426 units.

The Indian benchmark indices closed flat on Thursday following weak GDP numbers for March quarter and lack of fresh positive triggers. BSE Sensex closed lower 0.03 per cent, to end at 31,138, while the Nifty 50 fell 0.05 per cent, to finish at 9,616.

General Awareness

Latest Current Affairs - May 2017

Appointments

Amul Thapar became second Indian-American judge of an appeals court (After Sri Srnivasan), after he was appointed to Cincinnati-based Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Andhra Pradesh Legislature Assembly passed Bill to appoint Olympics winner shuttler PV Sindhu as a Group-1 officer in the government by amending the state public services Act.

Anurag Tripathy has been appointed as new secretary of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

Aruna Sundararajan has been appointed as secretary in Department of Telecommunications. Note that She is also secretary in Ministry of Electronics and IT.

Bharti Enterprises (Owner of Airtel) appointed Soumen Ghosh as Managing Director of Financial Services.

Braj Bihari Kumar has been appointed as Chairman of Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR).

British Person Mark Lowcock has been appointed as United Nation’s new Humanitarian aid Chief.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge has been appointed as Chairperson of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament.

Direct-to-home operator Dish TV India has appointed Anil Dua as Chief Executive Officer.

Edouard Philippe has been appointed as New Prime Minister of France, by newly elected Presidetn Emmanuel Macron.

Emmanuel Macron has been elected as 25th president of France. He is youngest President of France (39 years) and occupant of Élysée Palace (French Presidential Palace).

Ford Motors appointed Anurag Mehrotra as Managing Director for its Indian Business.

Geetha Johri has been appointed as new Chief of Gujarat Police, becoming State’s first woman police chief.

Government appointed Sanjay Mitra as new defence secretary of India, for 2 years.

Government expanded Banks Board Bureau (BBB) by adding two more members - Shubhalaxmi Panse and Pradip Shah. Vinod Rai is head of BBB.

Governor of Manipur, Najma Heptulla has been appointed as Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia University.

HRD Ministry named scientist and former DRDO chief Vijay Kumar Saraswat as next chancellor of Delhi's JNU (Jawahar Lal Nehru University).

Hassan Rouhani has been re-elected as President of Iran for 2nd Term for 4 years.

Hubert Minnis has been elected as New Prime Minister of Bahamas (Caribbean Nation).

Indian national Ovais Sarmad has been appointed as Deputy Executive Secretary in United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

International Fertiliser Association appointed Indian Person Rakesh Kapur as Chairman, during Its annual meet at Morocco.

Jaideep Mazumdar appointed as New Ambassador of India to Philippines. While Vani Sarraju Rao has been appointed as New Indian Ambassador to Finland.

Moon Jae-in has been appointed as 12th president of South Korea.

New Secretaries Appointed in Various Ministeries -

Rashmi Verma - Ministry Of Tourism

Leena Nair - Ministry of Tribal Affairs

Rajive Kumar - Ministry of Road Transport and Highways

Rakesh Srivastava - Ministry of Women & Child Development

Noted poet and author Nandini Siddha Reddy has been appointed as Chairperson of Telangana Sahitya Academy.

PN Pradhan has been appointed as Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff (Operations).

Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) appointed Najam Sethi as its new chairman.

Prabhat Kamal Bezboruah is appopinted as Chairman of Tea Board and M S Boje Gowda is appointed as chairmen of Coffee Board of India.

R K Mahajan and Maninder Singh have been appointed as Members of CBEC (Central Board of Excise and Customs).

CBEC's Sanctioned Member Strength is 6.

Currently CBEC has 4 Members - R K Mahajan, Maninder Singh, Ananya Ray and S Ramesh.

Vanaja Sarna is Current Chairperson of CBEC.

Rajan Anandan has been appointed as chairman of Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). He is also Google’s vice-president for South East Asia and India.

Rajive Kumar has been appointed as Secretary in Ministry of Road Transport & Highways. He is also Secretary in Ministry of Shipping.

Ram Shankar Katheria has been appointed as Chairman of National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) while L Murugan has been appointed as Its Vice Chairman.

Rehana Ameer became first Indian born woman to be elected as a Councillor to the city of London Corporation in UK.

Retired Delhi HC Judge Mukul Mudgal has been elected as Chairman of Football's International Body FIFA's Governance committee for 4 years.

Shobana Kamineni has been appointed as first woman president of confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Sohail Mahmood has been appointed as Pakistan's new High Commissioner (Ambassador) to India.

Syed Ghayorul Hasan Rizvi appointed as Chairman of National Commission for Minorities. George Kurian as Vice-Chairman of National Commission for Minorities.

Tapan Ray has been appointed as Secretary in Department of Economic Affairs. He is also Secretary in Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Tata Group appointed on 2 Important Positions -

Saurabh Agrawal - Chief Financial Officer.

Shuva Mandal - Group General Counsel (Legal Head).

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (Ethiopia) has been appointed as Director - General of World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO's Headquarters is in Geneva (Switzerland).

Turlapati Kutumba Rao has been appointed as Ambassador to Swachh Andhra Mission.

Twitter appointed Taranjeet Singh as Chief of Its India Operations.

US President Donald Trump nominated Indian-American Neil Chatterjee as a Member of Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Venu Rajamony has been appointed as India’s Ambassador to the Netherlands and India’s permanent Representative to Organisation for Prevention of Chemical Weapons.

Vinay Mohan Kwatra has been appointed as India’s ambassador to France.

World Health Organization (WHO) appointed Actor Amitabh Bachchan as its Goodwill Ambassador for Hepatitis in South-East Asia Region.

Awards

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) presented with Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for year 2014. Award was presented by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Kolkata-based NBFC – MFI Village Financial Services won MSME Banking Excellence Awards 2016 in Best NBFC-MFI for Promotional Schemes category, instituted by Chamber for Indian Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (CIMSME).

3 Indian Scientists - Krishna Chatterjee (Cambridge University), Subhash Khot (New York University) and Yadvinder Malhi (Oxford University) have been elected as Fellows of The Royal Society of UK, premier scientific academy of United Kingdom and Commonwealth.

Actress Konkona Sensharma won best director for her debut film A Death in the Gunj and best actress for Lipstick Under My Burka at 2017 New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF).

Mukti Bhawan, a movie about a man who accompanies his father on a journey to Varanasi, has won Best Film at NYIFF 2017.

Actress Priyanka Chopra will be receiving Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Award under newly introduced category- 'Internationally Acclaimed Actress' for her work on International platform.

Note That Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Awards are Different from Dadasaheb Phalke Excellence Awards and Government Instituted Dadasaheb Phalke Award.

Bengaluru FC's Sunil Chhetri won Hero of the League 2016-17 Award, that was recently won by Aizawl FC.

Bollywood actor Jacqueline Fernandez won International Humanitarian Award in Editor's Choice category of Asian Voice Charity Awards. Other awards as concert -

Start-up of the year - One Kind Act

Most Enterprising: Akademi

Social Impact Award: Graham Layton Trust

Most inspiring individual: Meenal Sachdev

Charity of the Year: Anxiety UK

Excellence in CSR: Nationwide Building Society

Editor's choice awards: Jeffrey Archer (Lifetime Achievement Award), Jacqueline Fernandez (International Humanitarian Award)

Britains Indian-origin steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta (Chairman of the Liberty House Group) won CEO of the Year title at Platts Global Metals Awards in London.

Canadian Rapper Drake won record 13 awards at 2017 Billboard Music Awards in USA.

Cannes Film Festival 2017 Winners -

Best Film (Palme d’Or) - Swedish director Ruben Östlund’s The Square.

Best Director - Sofia Coppola (USA) for The Beguiled. She is only 2nd female director in Cannes festival’s 70-year history to win the award.

70th Anniversary Prize – Nicole Kidman

Grand Prix – 120 Beats per Minute by Robin Campillo

Best Actress – Diane Kruger for In the Fade

Best Actor – Joaquin Phoenix for You Were Never Really Here

Jury Prize – Loveless by Andrey Zvyagintsev

Cochin Port Trust received 2 Best Performance Awards from Ministry of Shipping - Highest growth in operating surplus and Achieving 3rd highest growth in cargo traffic among major ports in 2016-17.

David Letterman has been honored with Mark Twain Prize 2017 for American humour. Letterman hosted over 6000 late night shows in 33 years.

Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII), and ITC Ltd has won Porter Prize 2017, presented by Harvard Business School Professor and leading management thinker, Michael E. Porter.

French Footballer N’Golo Kante has been voted 2017 Footballer of the Year by Football Writers’ Association.

Hollywood actor Emma Watson received first-ever Genderless Acting Award for Best Actor category at MTV Movie and TV Awards, Los Angles (USA). This is first ever genderless award that doesn’t separate nominees based on their sex.

Hollywood film The Black Prince starring Indian Actress Shabana Azmi and Singer Satinder Sartaaj has been awarded special Jury Remi Award at 50th Annual Worldfest Houston International Film Festival.

It a historic film of the last king of Punjab - Maharajah Duleep Singh and his relationship with Queen Victoria.

ICICI Bank chief Chanda Kochhar has become first Indian woman to be conferred with Woodrow Wilson Award for Global Corporate Citizenship.

Indian Author Jhumpa Lahiri won PEN/Malamud Award 2017, given by PEN/Faulkner Foundation for Excellence in the Short Story writing.

Indian National Science Academy (INSA) announced names of recipients of INSA Medal for Young Scientist 2017. Total 30 scientists have been chosen for prestigious award this year.

Indian Student Prashant Ranganathan won in Environmental Engineering in Category in Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in USA (world’s largest pre-college science competition). 4 Indian Americans also won - Pratik Naidu - (Computational biology and bioinformatics), Adam Nayak (Earth and environmental sciences), Karthik Yegnesh (Mathematics), Rahul Subramaniam (Microbiology).

Indian scientist Shrinivas Kulkarni won Dan David prize for his contributions in field of astronomy.

Dan David Foundation was established in 2000 by businessman and philanthropist Dan David. 3 Dan David prizes of $1 million each are awarded each year in the categories of Past, Present and Future.

Indians at 7th Annual Asian Awards (UK) -

Child actor Sunny Pawar has been chosen for the Rising Star Award. He is best known for his Performance in Oscar nominated film Lion.

Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar received Fellowship Award.

Playback singer Adnan Sami won award for Outstanding achievement in Music.

Award for Outstanding achievement in cinema conferred on Om Puri.

Kashmiri photographer Saqib Majeed won 2016 Wisden - MCC (Melbourne Cricket Council) Cricket's Photograph of the Year for capturing an image of boys playing cricket at Nishat garden near Srinagar. He is first Kashmiri and second Asian after Atul Kamble to receive This award.

Award Winning Image -

Maharashtra’s Govardhan Eco Village won Smart Village Award by India Trade Promotion Organisation for being a sustainable project in rural Maharashtra.

Minister of Defence, Finance & Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley presented Raksha Mantri’s Awards for Excellence for 2014-15 and 2015-16 -

Excellence in Performance - 2014 - 15 (Bharat Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad), 2015 - 16 (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bengaluru)

Best Performance in Exports - 2014 - 15 (Goa Shipyard Limited), 2015 - 16 (Bharat Electronics Limited, Bengaluru)

Best performing Ordnance Factory - 2014 - 15 (Ordnance Factory Medak, Telangana), 2015 - 16 (Ordnance Factory Medak, Telangana)

Best performing Shipyard - 2014 - 15 (Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Mumbai), 2015 - 16 (Goa Shipyard Limited)

National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS) announced 44th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards in California (USA) -

DRAMA SERIES - General Hospital

MORNING PROGRAM- Good Morning America

SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES - Steve Burton (The Young and the Restless)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA SERIES - Kate Mansi (Days of Our Lives)

GAME SHOW- Jeopardy

INFORMATIVE TALK SHOW - The Dr. Oz Show

ENTERTAINMENT NEWS PROGRAM- Entertainment Tonight

CULINARY PROGRAM- Eat the World with Emeril Lagasse (Amazon).

President Pranab Mukherjee presented Dr. Ambedkar National Awards for outstanding contribution to promotion of social understanding and for upliftment of weaker sections of society for years 2011, 2012 and 2014. Award consists of citation and INR 10 lakh cash prize. Winners are -

2011 - Professor S K Thorat (2011)

2012 - Samta Sainik Dal (non-political organization founded by Dr. Ambedkar) (2012)

2014 - Amar Sewa Sangam AND Babu Lal Nirmal (Social activist from Rajasthan)

President Pranab Mukherjee presented Presidential Awards for Classical Tamil for year 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16 -

Tholkappiyar Award -

2013 - 14 - S N Kandaswamy

2014 - 15 - A Dakshinamurthy

2015 - 16 - R Kalaikkovan

Young Scholar Award - 15 Awardees (5 in each year)

Pune city police received Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries (FICCI) Smart Police Award for 2017.

Rajive Kaul has been conferred with Order of Diplomatic Service Merit Sungnye Medal of South Korea, for his services rendered as honorary consul general of South Korea in Kolkata.

Reliance Jio received TM Forum's Digital Service Innovator of the Year Award 2017 for acquiring 90 million customers in a short span of 4 months.

Rohan Chakravarty, a wildlife and environment cartoonist from India, has won WWF International President’s Award 2017.

Sanjay Gubbi (Karnataka) and Purnima Barman (Assam) are among 6 Recipients of This year's Whitley Award for their contributions in wildlife conservation, also known as Green Oscars. Whitley Awards are given by UK registered charity Whitley Fund for Nature.

Satyabrata Rout (From University of Hyderabad) has been awarded Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar for 2016.

Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling has been conferred with first Bhairon Singh Shekhawat Lifetime Achievement Honour in Public Service.

Tamil Nadu Government conferred 2017 Avvaiyar Award to Padma Venkataraman.

Tata Motors has been awarded HR Innovation of the Year title for its significant contribution to skill development in automotive sector, at Asia-Pacific Excellence Awards in Hong Kong.

Thespian Soumitra Chatterjee and Y.C. Deveshwar are conferred with Banga Samman, West Bengal's highest civilian award (started in 2011).

Books

Actor Aamir Khan launched Renowned actress Asha Parekh's biography - Asha Parekh: The Hit Girl, written by Khalid Mohamed.

Book Confessions of a dying mind: the blind faith of atheism wrtitten by IAS officer Haulianlal Guite (from Manipur) has been published.

Book India 2017 Yearbook authored by Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi has been released.

Book India's Indira - A Centennial Tribute, written by Anand Sharma has been released.

Book Mann Ki Baat: A Social Revolution on Radio by Rajesh Jain has been released.

Book Marching with a Billion- Analysing Narendra Modi’s Government at Midterm, written by Uday Mahurkar has been released.

Book Metaphysics, Morals and Politics, written by Prof. Amal Kumar Mukhopadhyay has been released.

Book Sita, Warrior of Mithila, written by Amish Tripathi has been released.

Book Winning Like Virat Think and Succeed Like Kohli written by Abhirup Bhattacharya has been released.

Books Color Atlas of Oral implants AND Conservative Dentistry - Basics, Written by Medical Professionals Praful Bali, Lanka Mahesh, Dildeep Bali and Deepika Chandhok have been released.

PM Narendra Modi released a 2 part book series on eminent agricultural scientist Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, titled M.S. Swaminathan: The Quest for a world without hunger.

Set of 4 Books titled Swachh Jungle ki kahani – Dadi ki Zubani, written by Madhu Pant have been released.

Committees

Committee Headed by Madhav Chital submitted its report and recommended several measures for Desiltation of River Ganga.

Committee Under Chairmanship of Harsh Malhotra recommended measures to revamp Bharat Scout & Guides and Hindustan Scouts and Guides.

Government has set up a task force headed by Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya to recommend ways to deal with employment data discrepancies and come up with reliable solutions to promote job creation.

Days

May 1 - International Workers' Day / Labour Day / May Day.

On This Occasion, Minister of Labour and Employment Bandaru Dattatreya launched One IP- Two Dispensaries and Schemes. Under One IP- Two Dispensaries, Every Insured persons (IP) will be given option of choosing 2 dispensaries for self and family, by Employee's State Insurance Corporation (ESIC).

May 1 - Maharashtra Day. It marks formation of Maharashtra State on 1 May 1960.

On This occasion, India’s second tallest Flag pole (303 FT) has been Inaugurated in Kolhapur (Maharashtra). Note That India’s tallest flag pole is located at Indo-Pak Attari Border and is 360 feet high.

May 10 - World Migratory Bird Day (WMBD). 2017 Theme is Their Future is our Future A Healthy Planet for Migratory Birds and People.

On This occasion, Haryana Government announced to Develop Bhindawas Bird Sanctuary in Jhajjar as a tourist destination.

May 11 - National Technology Day. 2017 Theme is Technology for inclusive and sustainable growth. It Marks first of five tests of Operation Shakti (Pokhran-II) nuclear test, held on 11 May 1998 in Pokhran, Rajasthan.

May 12 - International Nurses Day. On This occasion, President Pranab Mukherjee conferred Florence Nightingale Awards 2016 to 35 nurses from across country.

May 12 - UN Vesak Day, also known as Buddha Purnima / Buddha Day.PM Narendra Modi Visited Sri Lanka to inaugurate UN Vesak Day. Theme for 2017 is Buddhist teachings for social justice and sustainable world peace.

May 15 - International Day of Families. 2017 theme is Families, education and well-being.

May 16 - National Dengue Day, a viral Disease transmitted by bite of Aedes Mosquito.

May 17 - World Hypertension Day. 2017 Theme is Know your Numbers.

May 17 - World Telecommunication and Information Society Day. 2017 theme is Big Data for Big Impact.

May 18 - International Museum Day. 2017 Theme is Museums and contested histories: Saying the unspeakable in museums.

May 18 - World AIDS Vaccine Day.

May 2 - World Asthma Day. Theme for 2017 is Asthma: Better Air, Better Breathing.

May 2, 2017 - First UN World Tuna Day. Tuna is a saltwater fish That belongs to the tribe Thunnini.

May 2, 2017 observed as Ganga Swachhta Sankalp Divas by National Mission on Clean Ganga (NMCG).0

May 20 - World Metrology Day. 2017 theme is Measurements for transport.

May 21 - Anti-Terrorism Day. It marks Passing away of Rajiv Gandhi on this day in 1991.

May 21 - UN World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development.

May 22 - International Biodiversity Day. 2017 Theme is Biodiversity and Sustainable Tourism.

May 23 - World Turtle Day.

May 28 - International Day of Action for Women’s Health.

May 29 - International Day of UN Peacekeepers. Theme for 2017 is Investing in Peace around the world.

May 3 - UN World Press Freedom Day.

May 30 - Statehood Day of Goa.

May 31 - World No Tobacco Day. 2017 Theme is Tobacco – a threat to development.

Health Minister of India Jagat Prakash Nadda is chosen for WHO Director-General Special Recognition Awards for accelerating India’s tobacco control initiatives and taking bold measures to protect people against hazards of tobacco use.

May 4 - International Firefighters Day (IFFD).

May 8 - World Red Cross Day. 2017 Theme is Less Known Red Cross Stories.

Defence

2 minesweepers of Indian Navy - INS Karwar and INS Kakinada are decommissioned after over 30 years service.

29th India - Indonesia CORPAT (Coordinated Patrol) started at Port Blair (Andaman and Nicobar).

After approx 30 years after induction of Bofors howitzers (Sweden), Indian Army received its first artillery guns - M777 from BAE Systems (USA). Indian Army plans to equip 169 regiments with 3,503 such guns by 2020. The 2900 crore Deal for M777 guns from USA was signed in November 2016 under Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route.

Annual Joint Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR) Exercise, conducted by Indian Navy’s Western Naval Command commenced at Naval Station Karwar (Karnataka), Named as KARAVALI KARUNYA.

Border Security Force will use new technology Kavach (KVx) series laser walls , capable of detecting intrusions and relaying information to the nearest post for action to safeguard 198 km India-Pakistan border in Jammu and Kashmir. It is developed by Delhi-based defence IoT firm, CRON Systems.

Defence Minister Arun Jaitley handed over several devices developed by DRDO to National Security Guard (NSG), Delhi Police and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). Devices Included-

E-Nasika (NDRF) - a hand-held equipment which is capable of rapid detection of chemical agents well below their toxic limits.

An equipment OTL-300 to NSG, that can instantly detect partially camouflaged optical elements, such as telescopes and binoculars.

Defence Minister Arun Jaitley inaugurated newly built Aeronautical Test Range (ATR) of Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) at Chitradurga in Karnataka, at cost of 1300 Crores. It is first of its kind range in India, exclusively meant to conduct flight-tests of indigenous unmanned and manned aircrafts developed by DRDO.

Home Ministry launched grievance redressal mobile app for Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), enabling soldiers serving in the CAPFs to lodge their grievances through the app and get them addressed. CAPF includes - Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB).

India test fired surface-to-air missile Spyder (Surface-to-air PYthon and DERby), an acquired missile system from Israel which is a short-range, quick reaction surface-to-air missile. It can neutralise enemy targets up to a distance of 15 km and at heights between 20-and-9,000 metres.

Indian Army will re-introduce cordon and search operations (CASO) in Jammu and Kashmir as a part of its counter terrorism operations after a gap of 15 years.

Indian Navy frigate INS Ganga has been made non-operational, to be decommissioned later.

Indian Navy's INS Tarkash Visited UK, to Mark UK India Year of Culture.

Indian peacekeepers Brijesh Thapa and Ravi Kumar will be honored posthumously with UN medal (Dag Hammarskjold Medal).

India’s first private sector small arms manufacturing plant has been inaugurated in Madhya Pradesh, as a joint venture between India’s Punj Lloyd and Israel Weapon Systems. It will manufacture - X95 carbine and assault rifle, Galil sniper rifle, Tavor assault rifle and Negev Light Machine Gun (LMG).

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) signed another major deal of 630 million USD for supplying Long Range Surface to Air Missile (LRSAM) to Indian Navy.

Joint Navy Exercise of India and Singapore, Simbex - 17 Commenced in Singapore. SIMBEX Stands for Singapore-India Maritime Bilateral Exercises.

Economy

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved restructuring plan for Hindustan Organic Chemicals Ltd. (HOCL), a loss making and sick PSU under Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals.

Plan involves closing down operations of all non-viable plants at Rasayani unit of HOCL except Di-Nitrogen Tetroxide (N2O4) plant which is to be transferred to ISRO. N2O4 plant is of strategic importance as it is the only indigenous source of N2O4 which is used as liquid rocket propellant by ISRO in space launch vehicles.

Financial implications of plan is Rs. 1008.67 crores, to be met partly from sale of 442 acres HOCL land at Rasayani (618 crores) and balance (365 crores) through bridge loan from Govt.

HDFC Life signed bancassurance tie-up with Catholic Syrian Bank,to distribute its life insurance products to Bank’s customers.

Karnataka Bank also has recently signed Similar Bancassurance tie-ups with Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and HDFC Capital Asset Management Ltd.

Madhya Pradesh became first Indian state to switch to January-December Period Financial Year.

MP has broken 150-year old British tradition of an April-March financial year.

MP State Government stated that as agricultural income is very important, budgets need to be prepared immediately after receipt of agricultural incomes for the year.

The Economic and Social Survey of Asia and the Pacific 2017 Report by UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific -

India will achieve 7.1 % economic growth in 2017 as re-monetisation restores consumption and infrastructure spending increases. India's growth would edge up to 7.5 % in 2018-19.

As a first of its kind transaction in India, Kotak Mahindra Bank enabled end to end trade financing for one of its clients by applying blockchain technology. With This, Time for processing letter of credit (LC) reduced from 20-30 days to few hours.

As per fDi Report 2017 by fDi intelligence (a division of the Financial Times) - India retained its position as world’s top greenfield Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) destination for second consecutive year. Attracting $62.3 billion FDI inflows.

Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Punjab National Bank (PNB) signed $100 million loan agreement, that will finance large solar rooftop systems on industrial and commercial buildings throughout India.

This is first tranche loan of the $500 million multi tranche finance facility Solar Rooftop Investment Program (SRIP) approved by ADB in 2016.

BSNL signed agreements with Facebook and MobiKwik to popularize internet and its value added services among its customers. BSNL also signed MOU with Disneyland India to offer premium online gaming services to its mobile customers.

Banking Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance 2017 has inserted 2 new Sections (35AA and 35AB) in Banking Regulation Act 1949, to enable Government to authorize Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to direct banking companies to resolve specific stressed assets by initiating insolvency resolution process, where required.

Government is looking to expedite resolution of stressed assets in banking system. Examples Include Enactment of Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016, SARFAESI and Debt Recovery Acts have been amended to facilitate recoveries.

Cash and ATM management companies will soon be allowed to attract 100 % foreign direct investment (FDI), as they are not required to comply with Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Act (PSARA).

China sponsored Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) approved $ 160 MN loan for a Power Project in Andhra Pradesh.

Dena Bank become first bank to classify Electronic Goods Maker Videocon Industries' loans as Bad Loans. Total loans of lenders to Videocon is approx 40000 crores.

Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) amended definition of start-ups. As per the new definition, an entity will be considered as a Start-Up if -

Turn over is less than Rs 25 crore.

Has not completed seven years from date of its incorporation / registration.

Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) achieved Disinvestment worth Over INR 87700 crores in last 3 years (2014-15 to 2016-2017), compared to INR 53670 crores Disinvestment in previous 3 year period.

Department of Revenue opened a new Twitter Handle @askGST_GoI to invite queries from all taxpayers on GST (Goods and Service Tax).

Disha Microfin became 12th Entity to receive RBI's approval to Start Operations as a Small Finance Bank.

Edelweiss Tokio launched a simple life insurance product that can be bought at a point of sale (PoS), First of Its Kind Life Insurance Product in India. Product name is PoS Saral Nivesh, which is a non-linked, non-participating endowment life insurance plan that offers protection and saving.

Employees Provident Fund Organisation approved hike in investment limit in exchange traded funds (ETFs) to 15%, from the existing 10%.

FICCI predicted India’s gross domestic product (GDP) to growth at 7.4% for fiscal 2017-18. Sector wise expected Growth - Agricultural (3.5%), Industry (6.9%), Services (8.4%).

Federal Bank (in association with Geojit) launched a new trading platform for customers, called Selfie.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitely launched Portal of Operation Clean Money https://www.cleanmoney.gov.in, aiming to tab citizens hiding their income to authorities and Government. There have been 18 lakh people who have been identified by Income Tax Department after demonetisation.

Finance Ministry has set up an Investor Facilitation Platform, to provide information about stocks of public sector units. It has been set up the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) and developed by PRIME Database.

GST Council (headed by finance Minister Arun Jaitley) finalised tax rates and 7 rules for GST regime scheduled to be implemented from July 1.

This Crucial Meet of GST Council was held in Srinagar (J & K).

7 rules for GST regime pertaining to composition, valuation, input tax credit, invoice, payment, refund and registration are approved while remaining 2 rules (pertaining to transition and return) are under purview of legal committee.

Council has fixed rates of 1211 items while rates for some other items and services will be finalised in coming days.

4-slab service tax structure at rates of 5, 12, 18 and 28 % has been finalised. In next GST Council meeting, tax rates on gold and other precious metals will be taken up for discussion.

Out of These Items, 7 % of items fall under exempt list, hile 14 % Are in 5 % tax bracket , 17 % items are in 12 % tax bracket, 43 % items are in 18 % tax slab and 19 % of goods are in top tax bracket of 28 %.

Cars will will be 28 % Tax Bracket with additional cess - 15 % on Luxury Cars, 1 % on Small Petrol Cars and 3 % on Small Diesel Cars.

Bikes with engine capacity of over 350cc will see a new cess of 3 %.

Tax on Coal will be reducted from 11.69 % to 5 %, helping lower the cost of power.

Luxury hotels, gambling, race club betting and cinema services will attract a tax rate of 28%. Education, healthcare and non-AC rail travel will remain exempted from GST tax.

Global agency Fitch Ratings retained BBB sovereign rating (lowest investment grade) for India as weak public finances continue to constrain India’s ratings. Fitch forecasts India’s real gross domestic product (GDP) to grow at 7.7% in FY17 and FY18.

Government exempted residents of Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Meghalaya and citizens above 80 years (all states) from quoting Aadhaar Number to obtain PAN cards and file Income Tax Returns.

Government hiked price for sugarcane by Rs 25 / quintal to benefit 5 crore farmers across cane producing states. Fair and remunerative price (FRP - minimum price sugar mills have to pay to farmers) has been increased from INR 230 per quintal to 255 for 2017-18 seasons, that starts from October.

Government released new-look index of industrial production (IIP) and wholesale price index (WPI) , built onnew series of data.

Instead of earlier 2004-05, base year for IIP and WPI will now be 2011-12. Consumer Price Index (CPI), Gross Domestic Product (GDP) etc already have 2011-12 as base year.

Government will sale 3 % of its stake in IOC (Indian Oil Corporation), which will fetch approx INR 6000 crores to Government.

HDFC Life launched artificial intelligence-based application 'SPOK' that can automatically read, understand, categorize, prioritize and respond to customer emails instantly.

ICICI Bank, Under its special project has made 100 villages as digitally enabled in 2017 so far. It plans to transform total 600 Villages Digitaly enabled by 2017 end.

In report World Economic Situation and Prospects, United Nations projected 7.3% growth for India in 2017 and 7.9% for 2018.

India Signed Loan Agreement of USD 36 Million with World Bank for Himachal Pradesh Public Financial Management Capacity Building Program. Credit will be processed y World Bank's IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development).

India's GDP grew 6.1 % during January-March Quarter (Q4 2017). China's GDP grew 6.9 per cent during the same quarter, taking away India's fastest growing Economy Tag. GDP growth rate for full year (2016-17 ) remained 7.1 %. India's Quarter wise GDP Growth in 2016-17 -

Q1 - 7.1 %

Q2 - 7.3 %

Q3 - 7 %

Q4 - 6.1 %

India's Revenue from Exports in Coir sector remained at all time high of 2282 Crores by value and 9.57 Metric Tonnes in quantity in 2016-17 FY.

Coir or coconut fibre is a natural fibre extracted from husk of coconut and used in products such as floor mats, doormats, brushes and mattresses. Coir is the fibrous material found between the hard, internal shell and the outer coat of a coconut.

Indian Oil Corporation Overtook Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to become India’s most profitable Government owned company.

IOC received 70 % jump in net profit to Rs. 19,106.40 crore in the FY 2016 - 17.

In Private Sector - Reliance Industries is most profitable with Net Profit of INR 29,901 crores. Tata Consultancy Servicesis 2nd with 26,357 crores Net Profit.

Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) constituted Technical Committee Under R B Barman, to give recommendations for laying down Technical Standards for performance of core services and other services under TBBI (Information Utilities) Regulations 2017.

International Monetary Fund in its regional economic outlook has predicted growth rate of India as 7.2% in the 2017-18 fiscal and 7.7% in 2018-19 fiscal. Asian Development Bank estimated India's GDP to grow by 7.4 % in 2017-18 and 7.6 % in the 2018-19.

Japan’s Softbank invested 1.4 billion (over Rs.9,079 crores) in digital payments platform paytm, as largest ever investment by a single investor in an Indian Firm.

LIC Housing Finance launched new product Griha Siddhi, That will offer loans for construction, house purchase or renovating existing properties. Borrowers will be offered interest rate of 8.40% up to Rs 25 lakh and for loans up to Rs 1 crore the interest rate will be 8.50%. For women, special interest rate of 8.35% for loans up to Rs 25 lakh is applicable.

Mainstream IT Firm Wipro unveiled its new brand identity, aimed at signifying higher level of engagement with Clients and yield better outputs.

Mobile Wallet Firm PayTm acquired Another Mobile Wallet Firm FreeCharge. Deal value is expected to be between 50 - 90 Million USD. Note that FreeCharge was bought by e-Commerce Firm Snapdeal in 2015 for 400 Million USD.

New Chiefs appointed for 7 public sector banks -

Usha Ananthasubramanian - Allahabad Bank.

Melwyn Rego - Syndicate Bank.

Rajkiran Rai G - Union Bank of India.

R Subramaniakumar - Indian Overseas Bank.

Sunil Mehta - Punjab National Bank.

Dinabandhu Mohapatra - Bank of India.

R A Sankara Narayanan - Vijaya Bank.

Noted Swiss Climber Ueli Steck passed away, in an Accident near Mount Everest in Nepal.

Paytm Payments Bank Launched, as Third Payments Bank in India

Renu Satti is of CEO Paytm Payments Bank.

Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma Holds 51 % Stake in Paytm Payments Bank, while Paytm Parent Company One97 Communications holds 49 %.

It will offer 4 % interest per annum on deposits, less than Airtel and India Post who are Offering respectively 7.25 % and at 4.5 to 5.5 % in their Payments Banks.

Payments Banks can accept Rs 1 lakh per account, as per RBI guidelines. Payments bank cannot give loans. It can issue cheque books and debit cards but not credit cards.

Punjab Government Updated Criteria for Pensioners, replacing Ration Card with Aadhaar Number. Pensioners will have to fill up new form by June End to continue getting pension.

RBI announced rate of interest on Floating Rate Bonds 2024 (FRB 2024) for half year May 7, 2017 to November 6, 2017 has been fixed at 6.30% per annum. This rate is average of implicit yields at he cut-off prices of last 3 auctions of Government 182 day Treasury Bills held up to May 7, 2017.

RBI will observe week June 5 - 9, 2017 as Financial Literacy Week across the country, with focus on 4 themes - KYC, Exercising Credit Discipline, Grievance Redressal and Going Digital (UPI and 99#).

Reliance Corporate IT Park Ltd signed MoU with enterprise application software firm SAP SE to launch 'SARAL GST' solution, enabling taxpayers to be GST compliant and smoothly access government's GST System.

Reliance Defence and Engineering Ltd (RDEL) received approval from Group of Lending Banks (Led by IDBI Bank) to exit from corporate debt restructuring scheme. RDEL’s existing debt of Rs650 crore will be converted into equity shares at a price of 59.35 a piece.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) extended deadline for companies undertaking billing business under the Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) to December 31, 2017. Extension is for companies intending to become an agent of an authorised Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit (BBPOU) or wants to exit business of bill payments.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has tightened rules around making Joint Lenders’ Forum (JLF), To make them more effective.

JLFs are meetings of Banks' held to revitalise stressed assets. In JLF, stressed assets are red-flagged early and a corrective action plan (CAP) is formed for tackling them.

RBI has now lowered threshold needed for implementing corrective action plan (CAP). Now, decisions agreed to by a 60% of creditors by value and 50% of creditors would be valid to implement CAP.

Reserve Bank of India announced that new 1 rupee note will be soon put into circulation.

The 1 rupee note was discontinued in 1994, due to high cost of printing.

New Re.1 one will be predominantly pink-green on the obverse and reverse in combination with other colours. It will be 9.7 by 8.3 cm in dimension.

It will have inset Letter L.

Reserve Bank of India has put restriction on Kolkata based UCO Bank’s lending and branch expansion plans as UCO Bank made net losses for 2 successive years.

RBI initiated Prompt Corrective Action* (PCA) framework on UCO bank on account of negative return of assets. UCO Bank is second to face business restrictions after IDBI Bank.

Reserve Bank of India permitted co-operative banks having their own ATM network to issue semi-closed prepaid payment instruments PPIs like mobile wallets, up to a limit of Rs INR 10,000.

Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) allowed investors to buy mutual fund schemes for up to INR 50000 through digital wallets.

Singapore - based fintech firm FinMomenta launched online platform Tachyloans that targets both individuals and SMEs that are not tapped by banks as they have poor credit score.

Note that RBI's Final regulations about digital peer to peer (P2P) lending space are yet to be finalized. It is assumed Risky as Lenders and Borrowers Meet directly here.

State Bank of India (SBI) launched a National Hackathon for developers, start-ups and students. Aims is to come up with innovative ideas and solutions for the banking sector.

State Bank of India Revised Service Charges (To Take effect from June 1, 2017) -

IMPS Fund Transfer Charges -

Upto 1 Lac - INR 5

1 - 2 Lc - INR 15

2 - 5 Lac - INR 25

Service Charges for exchange of Soiled/Imperfect Notes -

Uptp 20 Pieces and Upto Value of INR 5000 - Nil

Over 20 Pieces - Rs 2 Per Piece

Value Above INR 5000 - Rs 2 Per Piece OR Rs 5 Per Rs 1000 Value (Whichever is Higher)

ATM Cards - Only RuPay classic card will be issued free of cost

Withdrawls -

Four withdrawals in a month including ATM withdrawals free of charges.

Beyond 4 withdrawals - At Branch - Rs 50 per transaction, At other bank ATMS - Rs 20 per transaction, SBI ATMs - Rs 10 per transaction

STATE BANK BUDDY WALLET Service Charges -

Cash withdrawal from Wallet Balance through ATM - Rs 25 Per Transaction (Not to be confused with ATM Card Transactions)

Tech Firm Oracle launched its cloud computing service for India, aiming to support government's GST rollout in July. Oracle's ERP solution will provide support for GST Network integration, statutory reporting and payment processing etc.

Telangana launched digital wallet T-Wallet for people to make financial transactions, as first such Initiative by any state government in India.

To promote financial inclusion, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allowed opening mini branches / banking outlets without any prior permission from RBI, applicable to all domestic scheduled commercial banks except Regional Rural Banks. Banks need to open atleast 25 % of banking outlets in a year in unbanked rural centres.

US-based think tank Global Financial Integrity (GFI) in its report Illicit Financial Flows to and from Developing Countries: 2005-2014, has stated that $770 billion worth of black money entered India during 2005-2014, while $165 billion Black money went out of country.

Yes Bank tied up with Cashkaro.com , to launch India’s first Card Linked Offers (CLO) cash-back proposition. This customer loyalty platform will enable online and offline shoppers to avail cash-back offers with personalized merchant deals.

e-Commerce Firm Flipkart Agreed to Acquire Another Mainstream e-Commerce Firm Snapdeal.

International

India along with Argentina, Burkina-Faso, Chad, France, Ivory Coast, Mali, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda and Yemen launched a Joint study to define and structure a Common Risk Mitigation Mechanism (CRMM) for solar power generation projects in solar rich countries, to reduce cost of finance for renewable energy and the overall price of electricity.

This is being done as part of international efforts aimed at implementing the the Paris Declaration of the International Solar Alliance (ISA) adopted on 30 November 2015.

India ranked 2nd (in 40 nations) in 2017's Renewable energy country attractiveness index released by EY (Earnest and Young), with China at top and USA at 3rd Place.

India will supply cheap LED bulbs for citizens of London in United Kingdom, under Its Flagship UJALA scheme.

UJALA is among largest global efficiency programs and is run by India's Energy Efficiency Services Ltd.

24 teams from across the world including a team from India’s BITS Pilani (Hyperloop India) will participate in Hyperloop Pod Competition II To be organised by SpaceX (American aerospace manufacturer and space transport services company) in August 2017.

3 Indian companies - Gitanjali Gems (30th), Titan (31st) and PC Jeweller (44th) named in list of top 50 luxury companies in annual Global Powers of Luxury Goods report. List it topped by Paris Based Louis Vuitton.

Apple became first US company to top $800 billion market capitalization mark. It's shares have gained 33 % this year.

Global Report on Internal Displacement (GRID) 2016, by Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), India Ranks 3rd Highest Globally In Internal Displacement Numbers (2.4 million people displaced in 2016), after China and Philippines.

According to India Development Report released by World Bank, India ranks 120th among 131 countries in terms of women participation in workforce.

Share of women in services and industry in India is less than 20%. Indian women’s workforce participation is closer to Pakistan (24.6 percent) and the Arab world (23.3 percent) while neighboring Countries Nepal (79.9 percent) and China (63.9 percent) are way ahead.

Airlander 10, world’s largest aircraft successfully completed test flight by flying for a total of 180 minutes in Cardington (UK). It is a partly plane and partly airship filled with helium gas. It is 92-metre-long and 43.5m wide. It is built by manufactured by British manufacturer Hybrid Air Vehicles.

All 12 major domestic ports in India will soon switch to renewable energy to meet their entire power requirements, making India first in world to run all government ports on green energy. Indian Government will install 150 mw of solar power and 50 mw wind power generation capacity by year 2019 with Total initial investment of 500 crores.

Apple opened its first store in Southeast Asia in Singapore.

As per Asia Pacific Tax Complexity Survey by Deloitte -

Indian tax laws are 2nd most complex in Asia-Pacific region, after China. India's tax laws have become even less predictable over last 3 years.

As per Times Rich List 2017, 3 India-born citizens are among top 4 richest people in Britain. UK’s 1000 wealthiest people including 40 Indian-born citizens.

Hinduja Brothers (Srichand and Gopichand) are richest in UK with worth of 16.2 billion pounds.

David and Simon Reuben are 3rd Richest in UK with worth approx 14 billion pounds.

Steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal is ranked at 4th place this year.

Australia Returned 3 Antique Stone Sculptures to India, that were purchased by National Gallery of Australia from USA in 2007 and 2005.

Azraq became world's first refugee camp powered by renewable energy. UN refugee agency switched on a newly built $9.7 Million solar power plant here, To serve 20,000 Syrian refugees.

Bhutan announced to withdraw from India's ambitious BBIN (Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal) Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA), aimed at creating seamless connectivity between the four countries for enhanced sub-regional trade and movement of people.3

Brazil declared an end to public health emergency for Zika Virus after about 18 months of fight against this mosquito borne virus.

Canadian PM Justin Trudeau attended ‘Khalsa Day’ in Toronto, that saw felicitation of Sikh separatist elements and featured Khalistani flags and posters of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. India has expressed its protest with Canadian Government on this issue.

Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport Mumbai has become world’s busiest single-runway airport with 837 flights a day or one flight in 65 seconds on an average, during 2016-17 FY. It has overtaken London's Gatwick airport that had 757 flights a day.

China and 10 member of ASEAN agreed to a framework of a legally binding code of conduct aimed at preventing disputes in strategic South China Sea.

South China Sea is part of Pacific Ocean spreading an area of approx 35 lakh square km with 8 countries. It is located in international shipping route that sees passage of world’s half of merchant ships. It is rich in energy reserves including petroleum, mineral and fishing.

China has set up a 160 square-meter laboratory Yuegong-1 or Lunar Palace for simulating a lunar like environment (Moon Like environment). Four Postgraduate students from Beijing’s astronautics research university will live in laboratory for 200 days in a bid to prepare for China’s long term goal of putting humans on moon.

China launched national satellite navigation and positioning system which would provide positioning services for transport, emergency medical care and city planning and management. It includes 2,700 base stations, a national database center and 30 provincial level database centers.

China will launch its own online encyclopedia in 2018, as a rival to Wikipedia. Chinese Government is assuming that Chinese Internet users are being corrupted by foreign influence, due to Wikipedia.

China’s home - made C919 passenger jet took its maiden flight, aiming to take market share from Boeing and Airbus in huge global jet market. It is a part of China’s broader “Made in China 2025” plan aimed at boosting its domestic high-tech manufacturing.

Construction of Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) commenced in Chile (South America). It will be 5 times bigger than world’s largest optical telescope in use today.

ELT is scheduled to commence its operations in 2024 and budget is slated to be 1 Billion Euros. Main mirror of the ELT will measure some 39 meters (43 yards) across.

Dubai activated its visa-on- arrival facility for Indian nationals holding a valid US visa or a green card.

Dubai police inducted world's first operational robot police officer Robocop, during 4th Gulf Information Security Expo and Conference (GISEC).

Dubai will host Startup India Summit with Consulate General of India (CGT) Dubai and Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi in partnership with Indian Software product Industry Round Table (iSPIRIT). This is first Startup Summit being held in UAE.

Egypt Government approved new bill to regulate non-governmental organisations (NGO).

It restricts NGO activity to developmental and social work and introduces jail terms of up to five years for non-compliance and fines up to one million Egyptian pounds (more than $55000).

Al Jazeera and other media websites were also recently blocked in Egypt.

Under new law, foreign NGOs will have to pay up to 16500 dollars to start working in Egypt and renew their permit regularly.

First-ever women television channel of Afghanistan - Zan TV (Women’s TV) has been started.

Forbes 2nd Global Game Changers List (25 Top leaders who make huge impact in their industries) -

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani topped the List, op for his efforts to bring internet to India’s masses.

Top 5 - Mukesh Ambani (1st), Ziv Aviram and Amnon Shashua of Israel (2nd),  Stewart Butterfield of USA (3rd), John and Patrick Collison of USA (4th), James Dyson of UK (5th).

Forbes Global List 2017 in the consumer financial services sector -

HDFC is only Indian company to be named among top 10 consumer financial services companies in world (7th Place).

American Express topped the list, followed by Capital One Financial and Visa in the second and third place, respectively.

Gautam Adani Led Adani Group signed 74 million USD deal with Australian steel group Arrium to buy steel for a 400 km rail line for its Carmichael coal mine project (Australia).

Government approved phasing out Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB), allowing administrative Ministries / Departments to process applications for FDI requiring government approval.

Headquarter of Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) inaugurated in Saudi Arabia.

Health care Index in Lancet Medical Journal’s report Global Burden of Disease -

It assessed Performance of 195 countries for period of 25 years from 1990-2015, based on death rates from 32 diseases that could be avoided by effective medical care.

Top 5 - Andorra (1), Iceland (2), Switzerland (3), Sweden (4), Norway (5)

Bottom 5 - Chad (190), Guinea−Bissau (2), Somalia (3), Afghanistan (4), Central African Republic (5)

BRICS - Brazil (95), Russia (57), India (154), China (82), South Africa (119)

Neighbours - Nepal (142), Bangladesh (139), Sri Lanka (84), Pakistan (160)

India and Germany signed 12 agreements during visit of PM Narendra Modi to Germany. 12 agreements include 9 joint declarations of intent (JDIs) and 3 memoranda of understanding (MoU) -

JDI -

Establishment of a Indo-German Centre for Sustainability.

Cooperation in cyber policy

Advanced training of corporate and junior executives from India

Vocational education and skill development for machine tools.

Collaboration between Foreign Service institutes of both countries.

Cooperation in railway safety.

Cooperation for sustainable urban development

MOU -

Collaboration for facilitation of training of Indian skill development officers and cluster managers.

Cooperation in health sector and alternative medicine.

India and Mauritius signed 4 agreements during Visit of PM of Mauritius Pravind Kumar Jugnauth.

India extended a 500 million dollar line of credit to Mauritius (between SBM Mauritius Infrastructure Development Company and Export-Import Bank of India).

India and Mauritius agreed to keep a vigil against piracy, humans and drugs trafficking as well as illegal fishing and other forms of illegal exploitation of marine resources.

Both countries have also agreed to cooperate hydrography for a secure and peaceful maritime domain.

India is also supporting National Coast Guard of Mauritius to augment its capacity through Project Trident.

India and Pakistan will be made full member of China-backed Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), at SCO’s summit 2017 to be held in June in Astana (Kazakhstan).

India and Turkey signed 3 agreements During Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Visit to India -

An agreement for a cultural exchange programme for years 2017-2020.

MoU between Foreign Services Institute (FSI) of India and Diplomacy Academy of Turkey.

MoU for cooperation in information and communication technologies (ICT).

Erdogan was conferred Degree of Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) by Jamia Millia Islamia university.

India enabled Pacts for transfer of prisoners From Kazakhstan and Australia.

India has been elected to head UN-Habitat, United Nations’ Human Settlements Programme. M.Venkaiah Naidu (Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation & Information and Broadcasting) Chaired Governing Council Meeting of UN-Habitat in Nairobi (Kenya). Since UN-Habitat came into being in 1978, It is 3rd time that India has been elected to lead UN-HABITAT, after 2007 and 1988.

India imposed anti-dumping duty on certain types of glasses from Iran and aluminium radiators from China in order to protect the domestic industry from cheap imports. Duty imposed is USD 55.59 per tonne on clear float glass and USD 22.89 on aluminium radiators.

Anti-dumping duty also imposed on Chinese chemical amoxicillin (@ 8.71 USD / kg), used in pharma industry and aluminium foil (1.63 USD / kg).

India overtook Japan to become second-largest steel producer in world after China in 2016, as per data by International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF). India’s stainless steel production was 3.32 million tons in 2016.

India skipped 2 day OBOR (One Belt One Road) summit organised by China to showcase its plans to build a network of trade routes under China’s ambitious development strategy and framework that aims to boost its connectivity with Asia, Africa, Middle East and Europe.

It was proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013.

India refused to send any representative owing to sovereignty concerns related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

Sri Lanka supported India’s Boycott of OBOR (One Belt One Road) Meet in China and Justified India's concerns about CPEC (China-Pakistan Economic Corridor), saying that India can not accept CPEC as it goes through heart of Indian interests.

India will organise Tagore cultural Festival in Egypt to mark the 156th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore from May 8-12.

Rabindranath Tagore was famous Indian poet and first non-European to receive Nobel Prize in 1913, for his poems collection Gitanjali.

India will replace its Maitri research station in Antarctica with a new one in 3 - 4 years.

India's Second Research Station in Antartica is Bharati.

India's Prasar Bharati signed agreement with Morocco's Societe Nationale de Radiodiffusion et de Television (SNRT) to step up cooperation in broadcasting sector.

India's Taj Mahal become only Indian monument to figure in world's top 10 Travellers' Choice awards for Landmarks, ranked 5th. Top spot was accquired by world’s largest religious monument- Angkor Wat in Cambodia.

Jaipur Literature Festival 2017 started off in London (UK).

Japan approved bill to allow Emperor Akihito to step down and hand over crown to Prince Naruhito. This is first abdication by a Japanese emperor in nearly 200 years.

Joint Declaration of Intent With Germany for cooperation in sector of alternative medicine.

Jordan and USA Started annual military exercises Eager Lion, with 7,400 troops from more than 20 nations taking part in it.

MOUs Approved -

With Australia, for Cooperation in Combating International Terrorism and Transnational Organized Crime.

MOU Between National Defence College New Delhi and National Defence College Dhaka (Bangladesh).

With Tajikistan on Cooperation and Mutual Assistance in Customs Matters.

MoU Signed -

Bangladesh - Peaceful uses of outer space.

Spain - Organ Transplant Services.

Fiji - Defence

Mt Lhotse (between Tibet and the Khumbu region of Nepal) recorded its first summit in past 3 years. Mt Lhotse (8,516 metre) is 4th highest mountain in world after Mt Everest, K2 and Kangchenjunga.

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd.(RIL) is the highest ranked Indian firm in 2017 Forbes ‘Global 2000’ list. Total 58 Indian companies have featured in this list.

List is based on analysis of - Sales, Profits, Assets and Market Value

58 Indian Companies are featured in List - Reliance (106th), State Bank of India (244) and ONGC (246).

40% of companies in list are from China and US.

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) topped the list.

Mumbai, Delhi and 7 other Indian cities have featured in Jones Lang LaSalle's list of top 300 global cities which are the focus of commercial activity and interest. On Commercial Attraction Index, New York has ranked 1st, whereas in terms of Economic Size, Tokyo has ranked 1st.

PM Narendra Modi's Visited Spain. It was first visit by an Indian PM to Spain 30 years, since Rajiv Gandhi's visit in 1988. 7 MOUs Signed Between India and Spain -

Agreement for Transfer of Sentence Persons.

Cooperation in Organ Transplantation, Cyber Security, Renewable Energy, Technical Cooperation in Civil Aviation, Visa waiver for holders of diplomatic passports and MoU between Foreign Service Institute and Diplomatic Academy of Spain.

Philippines and US Armies began joint military exercises called Balikatan OR Shoulder-to-Shoulder.

Russia and Iran signed plan for creating safe zones in Syria, to further cessation of hostilities and a halt in fighting in the zones.

Savills Tech Cities Index 2017 -

Bengaluru (Karnataka) is named world’s most affordable tech city, out of 22 cities that were graded on different parameters.

Overall, Bengaluru is ranked 20th among tech cities in world. Austin (in Texas State of USA) topped the list, followed by San Francisco and New York.

South African government lifted ban on bidding for international rugby events after improvements in racial diversity in sport. Country will now bid for Hosting Rugby 2023 World Cup.

Taiwan’s constitutional court declared that same sex couples have the right to marry legally. This is the first such rule in favour of same sex marriage in Asia.

Tech Firm Apple reportedly has over $256 billion in cash and marketable securities, much more than reserves possessed by Other notable tech firms - Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon etc.

Apple’s cash reserve are about 70 % of India's foreign exchange reserves of $371.13 Billion.

To improve bilateral Trade, India and Chile will implement expanded Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA). Under this, both the countries have offered to lower or eliminate duties on a number of items traded with each other.

USA and 6 Gulf Members of Gulf Cooperation Council (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates) signed MOU to curb financing of terror organisations. MoU was signed during US President Donald Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia. Under this, Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (TFTC) will be established.

USA based SpaceX launched communications satellite for Inmarsat (London-based mobile broadband company) - Inmarsat-5 F4.

USA successfully conducted first-ever test of its defence system against an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). A ground-based interceptor was launched and it successfully shot down a mock ballistic missile.

USA will sale Joint Service Lightweight Integrated Suit Technology (JSLIST) protective clothing worth $75 million to India. It is For the first time that USA is selling such equipment to any nation. JSLIST protective clothing along with chemical protective mask would shield Indian Soldiers from exposure to any kind of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear warfare.

US’ Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system has been deployed in South Korea, to guard against nuclear missile threats emanating from North Korea.

United Nations released first draft of Nuclear ban treaty that would legally prohibit possession of Nuclear Weapons. It condemns use of nuclear weapons a violation of International humanitarian law.

WHO (World Health Organization) Declared an Ebola Disease Outbreak in African Nation Congo.

With inclusion of non- resident Indians among international tourists, India has jumped 16 places in revised World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) rankings to settle at 24th for 2014 and 2015.Earlier, it was ranked 41st and 40th in 2014 and 2015, respectively, as per the global ranking.

World Bank’s electricity accessibility list -

India jumped 73 spots to be ranked 26th in This year's List, compared to 99th place in 2014. Government has Provided eleictricity access to 13000 Villages, out of Over 18000 Villages that did not electricity till last year. This has been done under Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY)v launched with an aim to provide 24×7 uninterrupted electricity in rural areas supply by 2022.

World Economic Forum (using UN-Habitat data) report on world’s most crowded cities -

Dhaka (Bangladesh) is Most crowded city in world (44,500 people per square kilometre).

India's Mumbai (31,700 people per square kilometre) and Kota (Rajasthan) (12,100 people per square kilometre) are ranked 2nd and 7th respectively.

World Heritage listed Henderson Island (South Pacific Ocean) has been found to be most polluted place on the planet, with over 37 million pieces of Plastic littered on it.

Yemen declared a state of emergency in capital Sanaa over deadly outbreak of cholera disease.

Meetings

13th International Permaculture Convergence will be held in Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh) in November 2017 with theme 'Towards Healthy Societies'.

15th International Musculoskeletal Congress (IMC) 2017 held in Seoul (South Korea).

2017 Arctic Energy Summit (AES) will be held in Helsinki (Finland) in September 2017.

2017 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction held opened in Cancun (Mexico).India has been represented by Kiren Rijiju (Minister of State for Home Affairs).

28th Meet of North zonal Council held in Chandigarh, chaired by Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

28th North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit held in Brussels (Belgium). The 2018 NATO Summit will be held in IStanbul (Turkey).

3rd RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) Inter - sessional Ministerial Meeting Held in Hanoi (Capital of Vietnam). India was repressnted by Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

RECP is a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between 10 member Nations of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and 6 Nations with which ASEAN has existing free trade agreements - Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.

43rd G7 summit held in Taormina (Italy). G 7 Members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, USA and European Union. Theme for 2017 G7 Summit is Building the Foundation of Renewed Trust.

52nd Annual General Meeting of African Development Bank (AfDB) held at Gandhinagar in Gujarat. This is for the first time that Annual General Meeting of African Development Bank (AfDB) meeting is being held in India. Theme of he event is Transforming Agriculture for Wealth Creation in Africa. 4500 Delegates from 54 Member and 26 Non Member Nations participated in it.

Tiny island of Nauru (world’s smallest republic) became 6th country to ratify International Solar Alliance (ISA) Framework pact during ongoing annual meeting of African Development bank in Gandhinagar.

PM Narendra Modi called for the creation of an Asia-Africa growth corridor for the development of Africa.

Akinwumi Adesina is current chief of AFDB and its headquarters is in Abidjan (Ivory Coast).

Annual Meetings of African Development Bank (AfDB) will be held on 23rd May, 2017 at Gandhinahar (Gujarat), making it first time that the Annual Meetings of ADDB is being organized in India.

Dharmendra Pradhan (Minister of State (IC) for Petroleum and Natural Gas) attended 2nd India-OPEC Institutional Dialogue at OPEC headquarters in Vienna, Austria.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj inaugurated 8th conference of head of missions in New Delhi.

G20 Labour & Employment Ministers’ Meet held in Germany, Bandaru Duttatreya (Minister of State (IC) for Labour & Employment) will represent India.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated 2nd meeting of National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (NPDRR) in New Delhi.

India's Ministry of External Affairs hosted Pacific Islands Conference in Suva (capital of Fiji) V.K. Singh (Minister of State for External Affairs) attended on India'a Behalf. 8 MOUs Signed -

With FIJI for Cooperation on broadcasting between Prasar Bharti and Fiji Broadcasting Corporation for Exchange of Audio Visual Programmes.

With FIJI for Co-operation in field of Renewable Energy.

With FIJI for Cooperation in the field of Youth Development.

Establishing Centre of Excellence in IT with Fiji, Cook Islands, Nauru, Samoa, Niue.

J P Nadda (Minister for Health and Family Welfare) Visited Geneva (Switzerland) for participating in Plenary Meeting of 70th World Health Assembly.

Ninth annual ICT4D (Information and Communications Technologies for Development) Conference held in Hyderabad (Telangana).

National

Minister of Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh stated that Bihar is the Litchi producing State with 300 thousand metric tonnes of litchi being produced annually (40 % of country's total).

Haryana Government announced several incentives for journalists at Swarna Jayanti Journalists Meet in Panchkula.

INR 10,000 monthly pension scheme for those who are above 60 years and have completed 20 years in profession.

Life insurance covers of Rs.10 lakh and a cashless media claim policy of Rupees 5,00,000 for Media persons with 5 years in profession.

2 centres of Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPET) will be set up in west and south Haryana, at 175 Acres of Land.

A Supreme Court bench headed by Chief J S Khehar sentenced he Calcutta High Court judge, C S Karnan to 6 months of imprisonment for repeated incidents of contempt of court. This is first such case when SC has sent a HC judge to jail on charges of contempt.

A detailed publication by Lincoln Reang - Mapping with respect to Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups in Tripura has been published by Tribal Research and Cultural Institute. Reang is among the 19 tribes of Tripura and is the only one to be classified as a ‘Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG)’ in State.

A global cyberattack by cyber gang Shadow Brokers has crippled several countries including India.

Hackers carried out the attack by stealing a hacking tool called ‘Eternal Blue’ from USA's National Security Agency (NSA). Eternal Blue gives access to all computers using Microsoft Windows. It was developed by NSA to access computers used by terrorists and enemy states.

The attacks spreads Ransomware malicious software in computers and locks files in system until a Ransom (Amount) is paid for it (In form of Bitcoins). Famous Ransomeware - WannaCry, WanaCrypt0r 2.0, WannaCry and WCry (spread often through emails).

LinkingSky suggest its readers not to install any malicious software and email links received by them over next few weeks, As India is under purview of this huge cyberattack.

A team of Pune doctors performed country’s first uterus transplant on a 21 year old Solapur woman.

Afcons Transtonnelstroy and Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation implemented India’s first underwater tunnel under Hooghly river to link Howrah and Kolkata, as part of east west metro.

The length of Kolkata’s East West Metro is 16.6 km long. Out of which a length of 502 metres is under Hooghly river.

Agreements for purchase of 1000 MW wind power under Ministry of New and Renewable Energy’s first wind auction Scheme were signed between trading company PTC India and State Power Utilities of Uttar Pradesh (450 MW), Bihar (200 MW), Jharkhand (200 MW), Delhi (100 MW), Odisha and Assam (50 MW Each). It was first such auction process in India for wind power.

Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Radha Mohan Singh launched portal for addressing problems in agricultural sector, known as e-Krishi Samvad. It allows agricultural workers to directly approach Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for any problems they face.

Ahmedabad in Gujarat will host biggest ever International Yoga Day event on 21st of June, announced by Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev.

Aiming to provide comfort to passengers in inter-city journeys, Indian Railways launched 20 coach premier train Tejas Express on Mumbai - Goa Route.

Tejas service was promised in Railway Budget 2016-17.

Tejas Express is the first train of Indian Railways to have automatic doors and secured gangways for all coaches. LED Screens and Coffee Vending Machines also add to Luxury.

Fare of Tejas Express is similar to Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains.

Andhra Pradesh Government signed 500 Crore Deal with IT Firm HCL Technologies to set up an IT Research Facility in Vijaywada.

Andhra Pradesh Government signed MOU with Singapore, to speed up construction of its capital Amaravathi.

As per PFRDA - CRISIL report Financial security for India’s elderly – The imperatives, India will begin ageing gradually with every 5th Indian to be in 60s in contrast to every 12th person at present.

BHEL commissioned a 270 mw thermal unit in Maharashtra at Parli Thermal Power Station (TPS).

BSNL revised its existing Unlimited Broadband plans to offer 4 Mbps minimum speed in all circles.

Bank of Baroda (BOB) and IFFCO rolled out first set of co-branded debit cards for farmers, with inbuilt overdraft of Rs. 2,500 in special savings bank account. It could be used for purchase of various agri products at IFFCO sale counters.

Brand finance 2017 report for India's 100 most valuable brands -

Top 5 Indian Brands - 1 - Tata Group (13.1 Billion USD), 2 - Airtel ($7.7 billion), 3 - Life Insurance Corporation of India ($6.8 billion), 4 - Infosys ($6.2 Billion), 5 - State Bank of India ($5.5 Billion).

Cab aggregator Ola launched its ‘Progressive Web App’ (PWA), as a lightweight mobile website that offers users (especially in smaller cities), an app-like experience on simple smartphones.

Cab aggregator Ola partnered with Bharti Airtel, to launch a range of integrated digital offerings to customers.

Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved mission ‘Innovate in India empowering biotech entrepreneurs and accelerating inclusive innovation, aimed at accelerating research for development of bio-pharmaceuticals in India.

Mission would have Government investment of 1500 crores over 5 years. Half of this funding would be funded through World Bank loan. Mission will be implemented by Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC).

Cabinet approved New More Transparent Coal Allocation Policy for Power Sector - SHAKTI (Scheme for Harnessing and Allocating Koyala (Coal) Transparently in India).

It will make sure that allocation of coal Linkages for power sector shall be based on auction of linkages or through Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) based on competitive bidding of tariffs, except for State and Central Power Generating companies and exceptions provided in Tariff Policy 2016.

It will replace current system of coal allocation to Thermal Power Plants, paving way for more Transparency in coal allocation.

Central Government approved INR 200 crores to Jammu and Kashmir Salaries, for paying pending salaries of primary teachers under SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan).

Central Government will build an aerotropolis in Assam, in area of over 2000 acres. Asam State Government has been asked to allot land at an hour's journey from Guwahati, near Brahmaputra river.

An aerotropolis is an airport centric metropolitan hub, where infrastructure and economy are all based on access to airport serving as a commercial point.

Chhattisgarh auctioned its 3rd limestone block, Kesla-II to Dalmia Cement with highest bid received 96.15% of IBM (Indian Bureau of Mines) prices which are 20 times more than the reserve price. It is India's costliest limestone block auction.

Construction labourers in Haryana will now get food at heavily subsidised rates of Rs 5 for breakfast and Rs 10 for full meal, under Antyodaya Anna Yojana. Mobile vans would also be deployed to make food available to poor at the labour chowks.

Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma launched Swachh Bharat app at National Museum in New Delhi. It will enable visitors to report garbage on premises of the ASI monuments across country

Galleries in National Museum have already been equipped with a device that will make use of intranet to connect to the app, using Bluetooth.

Deep depression in Bay of Bengal has been declared intensified into a tropical cyclone named Mora. It has hit Bangladesh coast and caused heavy rains in West Bengal and North East Indian states.

Defence Minister Arun Jaitley inaugurated solar power plant of 16 MW capacity at the Ordinance Factory Medak (Telangana), developed by BEL.

Delhi Police launched Bicycle Patrols, for better and environment friendly policing across capital.

Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has been given back power to grant licenses for defence manufacturing, which was a few months back given to Home Ministry. Decision has been taken considering workload of Home Ministry which has to look after security concerns of entire country.

Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) signed agreement to establish Technology and Innovation Support Centers (TISC).

Discovery Communications will launch out Discovery JEET, as new entertainment channel across India which will focus on Local content from India. Channel will telecast 65-episode scripted biopic series on Baba Ramdev Swami Baba Ramdev: The Untold Story.

Election Commission of India launched National Contact Centre with a toll free number -1800111950. It will enable any citizen to get their query or complaint addressed at any time of the day.

Election contestants will now also have to declare their own and their spouses’ sources of earning in affidavits filed before contesting polls, additional to details of assets and liabilities for self, spouse and 3 dependents in Form 26.

FSSAI allowed using up to 5 % vegetable fats in chocolates.

Facebook has launched its Express Wi-Fi Facility in India and the service is now available via 700 hotspots across four states - Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Meghalaya.

Goa State government banned use of plastic bags below 50 microns, citing Plastic's environmental concerns.

Goa government signed MoU with Central Government under Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana (PMBJP) to provide subsidised medicines in state. All State Government Pharmacy Stores will be converted into Jan Aushadhi Kendras in Phased Manner.

Government accorded GI Tag for Banganapalle Mango of Andhra Pradesh.

GI tag specifies that product comes from a specific region, which conveys an assurance of quality and distinctiveness.

Government approved National Steel Policy (NSP) 2017 to push steel sector forward.

It aims to enhance domestic steel consumption and transform Indian steel industry into a technologically advanced and globally competitive steel industry.

Policy aims crude steel capacity of 300 million tonnes (MT), production of 255 million tonnes (MT) and steel per capita consumption of 158 Kgs by 2030 -31 (currently 61kgs). Policy aims to meet entire demand of steel in various sectors through local production.

It aims to increase domestic availability of washed coking coal from about 85% to 65% by 2030-31.

Government approved Pan-India implementation of Maternity Benefit Program, aimed at providing compensation for wage loss in terms of cash incentives so that the women can take adequate rest before and after delivery and not be deprived of proper nutrition. Under It, Pregnant Women will receive cash benefit of INR 5000 in 3 installments at several stages.

Government approved Vijayawada Airport (Andhra Pradesh) as International Airport, to improve connectivity of state and provide wider choice of service at competitive cost to air travellers.

Government approved amending Central Road Fund Act 2000 to allocate 2.5 % of proceeds of Central Road Fund (CRF) for development and maintenance of National Waterways (Approx INR 2000 Crore per annum).

Government approverd establishment of new AIIMS at Kamrup (Assam) at cost of INR 1123 crores, under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).

Government declared entire Assam as a disturbed area under Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act for another 3 months. In addition, 3 districts of Arunachal Pradesh - Tirap, Changlang and Longding and other areas falling under 16 police stations bordering Assam are diclared as disturbed areas under AFSPA.

Government inaugurated integration of E-Sanad with CBSE’s digital repository ‘Parinam Manjusha’, as an e-service for online verification and attestation of documents of Indian citizens. It aims to offer faceless, cashless, contactless and paperless document attestation services.

Government launched new campaign (led by Actor Amitabh Bachchan) titled Darwaza Band, to promote toilet use and freedom from open defecation across villages.

Government of Jharkhand and Tech Firm Oracle signed MoU to improve cloud-based citizen services and to make Jharkhand an attractive destination for start-ups.

Government will invest 11,000 crores to provide road connectivity to 44 Naxal-affected districts, including Sukma in Chhattisgarh that recently witnessed one of he deadliest Maoist attacks.

Government will set up Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra under Swachh Bharat Mission at Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti at Rajghat (New Delhi).

Guinness World Record for most number of people to sign up as organ donors in a single hour has been broken at a programme held to mark 70th birthday of AP Assembly Speaker Kodela Siva Prasada Rao in Narasaraopet. Here, 11987 people signed up as donors in just an hour.

Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) which markets its product under brand name ‘Amul’ signed MoU with ISRO for fodder acreage assessment using satellite observation and space technology.  As per MoU, ISRO would help in identification between food and fodder crops at the village level.

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar launched an Anti-Ragging Mobile App of University Grants Commission (UGC), to help students register complaints against ragging incidents.

Haryana Government will collect detailed data of every resident and every house would be allotted a smart house ID. It will make sure that benefits of 150 services of 87 departments are provided online through this data.

Haryana Government will set up Police Public Schools in all subdivisions to provide best education facilities to children of Police personnel by April 2018.

Haryana government launched e-textbook portal, to enable Students to download school books instantly from e-textbook portal of Haryana School Education Board.

Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises Minister Anant G. Geete inaugurated Test Track Facility at Oragadam (Chennai), built at approx 193 Crores by Global Automotive Research Centre (GARC) under National Automotive Testing & R&D Infra Project (NATRiP).

Home Minister Rajnath Singh announced new doctrine - SAMADHAN, to wipe out menace of Left Wing Extremism (Naxalists). SAMADHAN stands for - Smart Leadership, Aggressive Strategy, Motivation and Training, Actionable Intelligence, Dashboard Based KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), Harnessing Technology, Action plan for each Theatre, No access to Financing.

Hyderabad-based Turbo Megha Airways became first private airline to get licence to fly under government's scheme for subsidized regional flights - UDAN (Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik). 5 airlines awarded rights to fly UDAN flights so far are - Air India, SpiceJet, Turbo Megha, Air Odisha and G.R. Gopinath led Deccan Air.

IIT Kharagpur and Madhya Pradesh government’s  Department of Happiness has signed MoU to collaborate on development of a Happiness Index for measuring the well-being of the residents of the state.

India Mobile Congress 2017 (IMC 2017) will be held in September 2017 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. It will be country’s first & biggest platform to bring together all stakeholders from Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

India's first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at Gujarat International Finance-Tec City (GIFT) signed agreement with Gujarat National Law University (GNLU). GNLU will introduce a new course on International Financial Services Centre from June 2017.

Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology Shibpur (West Bengal) created country's first smart grid project that will generate power from renewable sources of energy.

Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode (IIM-K) launched LIVE (Laboratory for Innovation, Venturing and Entrepreneurship), as a business incubator and entrepreneurship development centre.

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur collaborated with British Geological Survey to turn Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) into a smart city by 3D geological modeling. It will improve building of new transport and services infrastructure in city.

Indian Light Combat Aircraft Tejas for the first time successfully test fired Air-to-Air Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missile in RADAR guided mode.

Indian Navy and ISRO Space Application Centre signed MOU on Data Sharing and Scientific cooperation in field of Meteorology and Oceanology.

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) launched home delivery of rail tickets and will allow passengers to make payment through any payment mode, including cash on delivery.

Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd (IRCTC) will start 2 new circuits of Its luxury train Maharajas’ Express - Southern Sojourn and Southern Jewels. Southern Sojourn will cover Goa, Hampi, Mysore, Ernakulam, Kumarakom and Trivandrum and Southern Jewels will cover Chettinad, Mahabalipuram, Mysore, Hampi and Goa.

Indian Railways will acquire 1000 End of Train Telemetry (EoTT) equipments to run trains without guards.

EoTT system comprises two units - Cab display unit (CDU) - Fitted on locomotive and Sense and brake unit (SBU) - Fitted on last coach of train. Units will be fitted with radio transmitter which can communicate with each other. Transmitter will send signals at regular intervals to the last coach to ensure that the train is running intact.

Indian Railways will install 19,000 high definition CCTV cameras at over 983 stations under Nirbhaya Fund, at cost of 500 crores, to ensure more security to passengers.

Indian cricketer Suresh Raina launched Gracia Raina Foundation (GRF), dedicated to creating awareness and work closely with mothers and children who require help ranging from physical and mental issues.

India’s first Aquatic Rainbow Technology Park (ARTP) will be set up in Chennai, as an ultra modern facility for Ornamental fish Equipped with multi species hatchery and live feed culture units.

India’s first electric vechiles fleet of 200 Units (taxis, buses, e-rickshaw and autorickshaws) launched in Nagpur (Maharashtra), as part of India's efforts for going all electric by 2030.

Jammu and Kashmir Government launched e-plant clinic service for farmers aiming to double farmer’s income by 2022, in collaboration with centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI).

Japan will build a war museum in Bishnupur district in Manipur, where a Japanese camp was located during World War II and about 70,000 Japanese soldiers died in battle.

Jharkhand become 2nd state (After Madhya Pradesh) to shift its financial year from April - March to January - December.

Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) inaugrated largest integrated steel plant of Odisha with commissioning of the country’s largest blast furnace at Angul. Angul steel plant has been expanded from 2 million tonne per annum (MTPA) to six MTPA.

Kochi Metro will employ 23 members from transgender community, making it first time that a government owned company has formally appointed transgenders.

Love Raj Singh Dharmshaktu became first Indian to summit Mount Everest for 6 times.

Maharashtra Government tied up with World Health Organisation (WHO) for eradication of Rubella measles. Vaccination drive for will start from March 2018 under which, children aged between 9 months to 15 years, will be vaccinated for Rubella.

Maharashtra government will form good morning squads, to monitor and prevent open defecation in villages and districts across the state.

Maharashtra state government banned sale of junk food in school cafeterias, citing childrens' health reasons.

Manipur Government declared Dailong village of Tamenglong district as a Biodiversity Heritage Site of state. The village, which covers an area of 11.35 sq km, has been declared as Biodiversity Heritage Site under Section 37(1) of Biological Diversity Act, 2002.

May 14 Observed as Mother's day in 2017.

It is Observed on Second Sunday of May. Date varies as per Countries.

On This occasion, Uttar Pradesh Government decided to Form Six Member Committee in State's Primary Schools with name - Maa. It will keep check on quality of mid-day meals served to students. Members of committee will comprise of six mothers from all sections of society, whose students are studying in that school.

Minister for Information & Broadcasting Venkaiah Naidu announced separate 24x7 DD channel for state of Jharkhand. However, till launch of 24x7 channel, DD Ranchi programmes would be telecast on DD Bihar.

Minister for Health and Family Welfare J P Nadda launched Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine as a new vaccine for Pneumonia, at Lal Bahadur Shastri Medical College Hospital in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh.

Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu inaugurated free Wi-Fi facility at 28 Railway Stations of Konkan Railway, in partnership with SYSCON/JOISTER.

Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari inaugurated 2 exhibitions - The Highway Saga past present and Future and Safe Road and Interstate Highways Transforming India (SRISHTI) during 3 day India Integrated Transport and Logistics Summit at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi.

Minister of State for Communications (IC), Manoj Sinha launched BSNL’s satellite phone service (initially for government agencies). Telecom Skill Excellence Award Scheme and Sanchar Kaushal Vikas Pratisthan Scheme were also launched in name of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya.

Ministry of Environment and Forests issued new regulations to ban sale of all kinds of cattle for slaughter across India, under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act 1960. It requires anyone purchasing cattle to provide an undertaking that the animals are bought for agricultural purposes and not slaughter.

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change organised Ozone2Climate Technology Roadshow in Agra (Uttar Pradesh), in collaboration with UN Environment OzonAction’s Compliance Assistance Programme.

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare's eVIN (electronic vaccine intelligence network) project is being implemented in country to Improve Vaccination system across India by enabling healthcare workers to effectively manage vaccine logistics and have real-time information on availability of vaccines.

Ministry of Urban Development will launch measuring of Liveability Index of cities in June 2017, based on detailed document Methodology for Collection and Computation of Liveability Standards in Cities. Index will measure the Liveability Standards of 140 cities including 53 cities with population of 1 million and above.

Ministry of Women and Child Development developed manual Living conditions in Institutions for Children in conflict with Law, To provide guidelines to States/UTs for establishing institutions for children in conflict with law and providing appropriate institutional and rehabilitative services to them.

Ministry of road transport and Highway and Skill Development Ministry signed MoU to set up 100 driver training institutes. Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Ministry will provide stipend up to Rs. 15000 per trainee to compensate wage loss during training.

NGT (National Green Tribunal) banned open defecation and waste dumping on floodplains of River Yamuna, with fine of INR 5000 violating the order. NGT also constituted a committee under Delhi Jal Board CEO Keshav Chandra, to oversee cleaning works on river Yamuna.

NITI Aayog conducted its first Samavesh meeting, Including National Steering Group and other knowledge partners, to bring together 32 premier educational and policy research institutions to boost the development process. Meeting was held Under chairmanship of NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.

National Book Trust (NBT) launched Panchayat Pustak Mela, aiming to organize regular book fairs in rural areas across country.

National Green Tribunal Banned vehicle over-speeding inside Kaziranga National Park (Assam), provisioning INR 5000 as fine for Violating the same.

National Green Tribunal ordered that anyone found dumping electronic waste (e-waste) on banks of Ramganga River in Moradabad (Uttar Pradesh) would be fined Rs 1 lakh.

National Highways Authority of India signed MoU with Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Limited (TIDCO), for development of a Multimodal Logistics Park in Ponneri Industrial Node area near Kamarajar Port in Tamil Nadu.

Ministry of Road Transport and Highways will develop Mutimodal Logistics Parks in under its Logistics Efficiency Enhancement Programme (LEEP) in 15 locations all over India at a cost of Rs 33,000 crores.

New MOUs Approved -

Japan - Railway Safety.

Spain - Civil Aviation.

New National Commission for Backward Classes will be constituted under Article 338B as a constitutional authority. Similar to National Commission for Scheduled Castes under article 338 and the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes under Article 338A.

Noted medical journal The Lancet stated that India can witness huge spike in cases of multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis by year 2040 (10 % of all diseases).

Odisha will introduce boat ambulance service in 4 districts where people face difficulties in getting health care service - Koraput, Malkangiri, Kendrapara and Kalahandi.

Online classifieds Firm Quikr acquired on-demand services Firm Zimmber for $10 million, to further expand its hyperlocal household services business.

PM Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s longest river bridge 'Dhola-Sadiya bridge' in Assam, to improve connectivity in Northeast as the bridge will be used by people of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh extensively. Length of this bridge is 9.15 km and is built cross river Lohit at easternmost tip of Assam. It has overtaken Bandra-Worli sea link in Mumbai.

The bridge will ensure 24X7 connectivity between upper Assam and Eastern part of Arunachal Pradesh, cutting down the distance between 2 states by cut 165 KM.

Cost of Bridge is approx 2036 Crores. PM also renamed the bridge as Bhupen Hazarika Bridge.

PM Narendra Modi inaugurated Patanjali Research Institute at patanjali Yogpeeth in Haridwar, built at cost of INR 2000 crores for research on forest products and produce herbal products.

PM Narendra Modi inaugurated Supreme Court’s Integrated Case Management Information System (ICMIS), to help litigants access data and obtain information about filing, delays etc. It would pave way for the integration of all courts in India.

PM Narendra Modi laid Foundation Stone of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute at Gogamukh in Assam’s Dhemaji district.

It is third IARI, after First in Delhi and 2nd in Ranchi (Jharkhand) (Under Construction).

PM Narendra Modi launched river conservation project ‘Narmada Seva Mission’ in Madhya Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh government also passed a resolution granting river Narmada the status of a living entity, committing itself to protection of its legal rights.

PM Narendra Modi released commemorative stamp on 1000th birth anniversary of Saint Ramanujacharya.

Palladium Cinema site at Lal Chowk of Srinagar will be developed as a heritage museum, whose Tourism attraction has been hit badly By Militancy.

Piyush Goyal (Minister of State (I/C) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines) launched Saral Eindhan Vitaran Application (SEVA), aimed at increasing the Consumer Connect as well as the Transparency and Accountability in Coal dispatch.

President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to Constitution (SC) Order Bill 2017, seeking to amend Constitution (SC) Order 1950 and Constitution (Pondicherry) SC Order 1964. Key Provisions -

Modify list of SCs for Odisha (Including Sualgiri and Swalgiri communities of Odisha as Scheduled Castes) and Modify name of Pondicherry (to Puducherry).

President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated Indian Institute of Liver and Digestive Sciences at Sonarpur (West Bengal).

Public Affairs Index (PAI) 2017 released by Public Affairs Centre Bengaluru -

Large States (Population Over 2 Crere)

Top 3 -Kerala (1), Tamil Nadu (2), Gujarat (3)

Last 3 - Bihar (18th), Jharkhand (17th), Odisha (16th)

12 small states (population under 2 crore)

Top 3 -Himachal Pradesh (1), Goa (2), Mizoram (3)

Last 3 - Meghalaya (12th), Arunachal Pradesh (11th) and Jammu and Kashmir (10th)

Category Wise Best States -

Eessential infrastructure - Punjab

Human development - Kerala

Implementation of Social Protection Policies - Kerala

Women and children welfare - Kerala

Fiscal management - Telangana

Law and order -Tamil Nadu

Economic freedom- Gujarat

Quality Council of India's Survey Among 39 Busiest Railway Nations, -

Top 3 Cleanest - Visakhapatnam (1st), Secunderabad (2), Jammu (3).

Darbhanga railway station in Bihar is dirtiest among busiest stations.

Rajasthan government has decided to introduce action plans at the district level in order to utilise locally available resources to reduce infant mortality rate (IMR), based on socio-economic conditions of each district.

Rajasthan government will introduce action plans at district level in order to utilise locally available resources to reduce infant mortality rate (IMR), based on socio-economic conditions of each district.

Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurated India’s First Integrated Bio‐refinery for Renewable Fuels & Chemicals for producing ethanol from a variety of biomass, situated at Rahu in Pune district of Maharashtra. This plant can produce 1 million litres of ethanol per annum by processing a variety of biomass like rice and wheat straw, cotton stalk, bagasse, cane trash etc.

Science Express Climate Action Special (SECAS II) is 9th Phase of Science Express, aimed at science popularisation across country till September 2017 (covering 19000 km). SECASE 2 was flagged off in February 2017.

Second Advance Estimates of Production of Horticulture Crops for 2016-17 in India is estimated to be Over 295 million tonnes.

State Government of Madhya Pradesh has banned sand excavation in Narmada River, keeping in view River's ecological Health.

Strategic anti-Naxal operations command headquarters of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has been shifted back from Kolkata to Raipur (Chhattisgarh), at the backdrop of ambush in Sukma district that killed 37 jawans of the paramilitary force. In 2010, central zone command headquarters of CRPF was shifted from Raipur to Kolkata owing to logistics and connectivity issues.

Swachch Bharat Survey 2017 (Swatch Survekshan 2017) carried out by Quality Council of India -

Total 434 Cities Included in Survey, With Indore (Madhya Pradesh) at 1st Place (Cleanest City in India) and Gonda (Uttar Pradesh) at 434th Rank.

Top 3 Cleanliest - Indore (MP) {1}, Bhopal (MP) {2}, Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) {3}

Top 3 Dirtiest - Gonda (UP) {434}, Bhusawal (Maharashtra) {433}, Bagaha (Bihar) {432}

Tamil Nadu government formed an expert committee to study the impact of 'Seemai Karuvelam' trees.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (Ethiopia) has become First African to be chosen as head of World Health Organisation (WHO)

WHO Headquarters is in Geneva (Switzerland).

Telangana became first state to introduce a logo for identifying vehicles driven by persons with hearing impairment. Logo is designed by graphic designer Manikanta Annapragada, who is the person to obtain a driving license in hearing impaired category.

Telangana hosted first outreach program of Ministry of External Affairs - Videsh Sampark, to engage State governments in creating awareness about various programmes of Ministry. Telangana also became first state to roll out pilot ‘e-Sanad’ project for online attestation of documents.

To fast-track India’s domestic nuclear power programme, Government approved construction of 10 units of indigenous Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWR) of 700 MW Capacity each.

India’s installed nuclear power capacity is Currently 6,780 MW from 22 operational plants, and another 6,700 MW is expected to be generated by 2021-22 through projects under construction.

It is expected to generate of 33000 Jobs in sector, with manufacturing orders to domestic industry nearly 70000 crores.

To improve India’s position in ocean research field, Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) will launch ‘Deep Ocean Mission’ by January 2018.

USA's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will jojntly inspect an archaeological site in Haryana's Fatehabad district, to verify claims of it being the oldest civilization in the world.

Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) declared results of civil services examination 2017 -

Nandini K R from Karnataka is Overall Topper while Anmol Sher Singh Bedi achieved 2nd Rank. Total 1099 Candidates selected for various civil services.

Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has decided to share online scores of candidates taking competitive exams in order to boost hiring by private sector. It will be done through Integrated Information System for Public Recruitment Agencies Portal.

Candidates can opt out of this disclosure scheme, during online application of UPSC Form. UPSC will share details of candidates who have reached final stage of examination (interview) but were not recommended.

Recruitment exams for armed forces will not be covered.

Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu flagged off Delhi Metro's Heritage Line, consisting of 4 stations- Kashmere Gate, Dilli Gate, Jama Masjid and Lal Quila.

Uttar Pradesh Government extended retirement age of doctors working under provincial medical service from 60 to 62 years.

Uttar Pradesh Government launched immunization drive in 38 districts to eradicate Japanese Encephalitis (JE). CM Yogi Adityanath also launched a toll free number to get or provide any information about encephalitis - 1800-180-5544.

Uttar Pradesh government Led by CM Yogi Adityanath will declare no school bag day on Saturdays in all state government schools. It is aimed at encouraging more involvement of children in creative activities on those days.

Uttarakhand Government Observed May 25 as Water Day in State. CM Trivendra Singh Rawat launched campaign on water harvesting and conservation on this occasion.

Vadodara (Gujarat) made new Guinness world record for maximum number of people sweeping a single venue (over 5000 People).

West Bengal State government has made Bengali mandatory in all schools, including private English medium schools.

Western Railways' first Humsafar Express between Ahmedabad and Chennai flagged off by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu.

Humsafar Express is AC Train with many enhanced facilities, including Coffee / Tea Vending Machines / LED Display for Stations etc.

First Humsafar Train was started between Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh) and Anand Vihar Terminus (New Delhi) in December 2016.

World Health Organisation (WHO) reported India's First three cases of Zika Virus affected patients, all from Ahmedabad in Gujarat.Virus is transmitted to people through a bite of an infected mosquito called Aedes Aegypti, which also transmits dengue and chikungunya.

World’s highest railway bridge will be built over Chenab River in Jammu and Kashmir. The bridge will connect Bakkal (Katra) and Kauri (Srinagar).

It will have height of 359 Metres, 35 metres taller than Eiffel Tower (Paris).

It will be built at cost of approx 1100 crores.

After completion, it will surpass record of Beipan river Shuibai railway bridge (275 m) in China.

Youth Affairs & Sports Ministry revamped National Youth Awards (NYA) to promote transparency -

Application process for award nominations is now made online at https://innovate.mygov.in/national-youth-award/

New Logo has been launched for National Youth Awards.

Number of Awards in Organization category is increased from 1 to 10 and prize money is now Rs 200000.

Number of awards in Individual category is increased to 25 and amount has been enhanced to Rs 50000.

Persons

Nepalese mountaineer Lhakpa Sherpa has set up new world record (by breaking previous record of her own) for most Everest summits by a woman, after scaling Everest for 8th time.

12 years old Indian Raj Gauri Pawar scored incredible 162 in British Mensa (largest and oldest high IQ society in the World). It beats Albert Einstein’s estimated score and that of professor Stephen Hawking, who scored 160.

14-year old Indian - American Student Pranay Varada won Prestigious National Geographic Bee competition. He gets $ 50,000 in scholarship and other prizes. Thomas Wright was declared runner up.

95 Year old Prince Philip (Duke of Edinburgh) of UK has permanently retired from royal duties.

Anil Madhav Dave, Current Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change has passed away. Upon his sudden demise, Dr. Harsh Vardhan (Minister of Science and Technology) has been Given additional charge of Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Ann Linde, Swedish Minister for Trade and EU Affairs and Foreign Affairs visited India for 18th Session of India-Sweden Joint Commission for Economic, Industrial and Scientific Cooperation (JCEC) held in New Delhi.

Anshu Jamsenpa (Arunachal Pradesh) became first Indian woman to scale Mount Everest for fourth time.

British Actor Roger Moore passed away, best known for playing Noted Character James Bond.

Deputy Prime Minister of the Russia Dmitry Olegovich Rogozin Visited India, to participate in India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC) in New Delhi.

Dronacharya Awardee Wrestler Chand Roop passed away.

Egyptian Swimmer Omar Hegazy became first amputee to swim across Red Se’s 20 km Aqaba Gulf from Egypt to Jordan.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg received an honorary doctorate degree from Harvard University.

Former Greek Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis passed away.

Former Puducherry Chief Minister S. Ramaswamy passed away.

Himachal Pradesh Cabinet Minister (Ayurveda) Karan Sharma Passed Away.

Historian Ramachandra Guha resigned as administrator of BCCI.

India received a stay order preventing Pakistan from executing death sentence awarded to former naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav from the International Court of Justice at The Hague (Netherlands).

Indian actress Priyanka Chopra attended UNICEF’s fundraising event in South Africa to highlight challenges faced by children affected by violence there.

Justice Leila Seth Passed Away. She was first woman Chief Justice of a State High Court (Bihar HC) and first female judge of Delhi High Court. She was also first woman to top London Bar exam.

KPS Gill, IPS officer of the Assam-Meghalaya cadre who is often credited with rooting out militancy in Punjab has passed away. He is most Credited for Leading Operation Black Thunder in May 1988 to eliminate militants hiding in the Golden Temple.

Mahmoud Abbas, President of State of Palestine and Palestinian National Authority Visited India.

5 MoUs signed - Exemption for diplomatic passport holder, Agriculture cooperation, Cooperation in IT & Electronics, Health sector and Youth affairs and sports.

Minister of Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman Visited Italy for Participating in 19th Session of India-Italy Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation.

Minister of Defence and National Security of Fiji, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola Visited India.

Minister of Finance, Defence and Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley visited Japan

He participated in Annual Meeting of Board of Governors’ of Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Spring Meeting of the Institute of International Finance (IIF).

Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari Visited United Kingdom (UK).

He launched National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Masala Bond at London Stock Exchange (UK). Initially benchmarked issue of Rs. 1,500 crore was upsized to Rs. 3,000 crore at a price yielding 7.30 % annually, after good response from investors.

Nepelase Sherpa Kami Rita became 3rd climber to scale Mount Everest for a record 21 times.

Noted Bollywood actress Reema Lagoo passed away.

Noted Pakistani Sitar maestro Ustad Rais Khan passed away.

Noted Telugu filmmaker and former Union minister Dasari Narayana Rao passed away.

Pushpa Kamal Dahal (also known as Prachanda) Resigned as Prime Minister of Nepal.

Supreme Court allowed former union minister Salman Khurshid to assist it in hearing of pleas challenging the constitutional validity of 'triple talaq', 'nikah halala' and polygamy among Muslims.

Supreme Court has held UB Group chairman Vijay Mallya guilty of contempt of court for transferring 40 million dollars to his children in violation of court’s order. Contempt petition was moved by a consortium of banks in July 2016, to recover approx 9000 Crores of Debt from Vijay Mallya.

Science

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch heaviest rocket ever made by India, Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III (GSLV Mk- III) on 5 June 2017.

It is called Fat Boy, as it is India's heaviest (640 tonnes) but smallest rocket (43 metres).

It may enable India to send Manned missions to Space. Only 3 Other nations are currently able to do so - US, Russia and China.

It will be able to place 4-tonne class satellites into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbits (much more than previous rocket's capacity of 2-tonne class).

It will have New indigenous cryogenic engine, developed by the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre of ISRO. A cryogenic engine provides more thrust for every kilogram of cryogenic propellant (liquid hydrogen or liquid oxygen) that it burns.

World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) announced start of Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP), as Part of Polar Prediction Project.

YOPP’s mission is to improve environmental prediction capabilities for polar regions and beyond by intensive observing, modelling, verification, user-engagement and education activities.

2 researchers from IIT Madras - Vikram Singh and Ashok Mishra have successfully produced white light using mixture of 2 natural extracts - Red pomegranate and turmeric -

While polyphenols and anthocyanins present in red pomegranate emit at blue and orange-red regions of wavelength respectively, curcumin from turmeric emits at green region of wavelength. White light emission is produced when red, blue and green mix together.

This is first time that white light emission has been generated using low-cost, natural and edible dyes.

A new species of Butterfly - Acentrias fritillary, has been found in Israel. It is first such discovery in Israel in past 109 years.

According to a study by scientists from University of Exeter (UK) Thinner Ice cover in Antarctica is causing Green cover (plant life) to expand in Icy Continent of Antartica.

Currently, plant life exists only in 0.3% of Antarctica. Thinner ice cover permits sunlight to penetrate into previously dark areas allowing plant to grow. This would bring ecosystem shift to Antarctica similar to what happened in Arctic.

Australian scientists discovered a faceless fish and other weird and wonderful creatures in deep waters of Australia during their research in parts of ocean never explored before. Scientists have been surveying dark and cold abyss that was four kilometres (2.5 miles) below the surface through nets, sonar and deep-sea cameras.

Fossils of New species of a pliosaur (large predatory marine reptile from the ‘age of dinosaur’) found in Russia.

Fossils of one of last living African dinosaurs has been discovered in a phosphate mine in northern Morocco. The species is named as Chenani Saurus barbaricus and is reportedly one of last ones to have survived on earth before an asteroid strike wiped them out 66 million years ago.

ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) successfully launched 2230 kg South Asia Satellite (GSAT-9) into its planned Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO), on board Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F09). Its project cost is approx 235 Crores.

South Asia Satellite will orbit Earth with perigee (nearest point to Earth) of 169 km and apogee (farthest point to Earth) of 36,105 km.

It will provide crucial information on tele-medicine, tele-education, banking and television KU-band broadcasting opportunities etc to the participating nations - India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Maldives and Sri Lanka. Pakistan has been left out of benefits of this satellite.

It has Planned duration of 12 years.

India's Global Positioning System, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS, alternatively named NavIC) is being tested for Accuracy and will be operational in 2018.

NAVIC will be significantly more accurate than GPS powered by American satellites.

American GPS with 24 satellites covers entire world while NavIC with 7 satellites covers India and its surroundings.

Indian Institute of Technology Delhi Researchers have developed device called Nasofilters, which is capable of restricting up to 95% of dust and air pollutants @ Cost of Only Rs 10.

Researchers involved in this project were recently awarded National Startups Award by President Pranab Mukherjee.

Nasofilter uses an efficient filter technology to protect against finest particulate pollutants especially PM2.5 concentration.

Device has an assembly of millions of small-sized pores that creates a thin flexible membrane capable of capturing very small particles.

India’s first indigenously developed high temperature drop tube reactor (DTR) has been installed by NTPC Energy Technology Research Alliance (NETRA), to be used for designing advanced ultra super critical technology, combustion characterisation of coal/biomass, and reducing carbon footprint from the fossil fuel plants.

NASA named a new bacteria discovered on filters of International Space Station (ISS) as Solibacillus Kalamii, to honour late Indian president Dr A P J Abdul Kalam (genus is Solibacillus and species name is kalamii).

NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes detected strong water signature in atmosphere of a distant Neptune sized planet - HAT-P-26b, with its atmosphere composed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft discovered Earth-sized cyclones at poles of the Jupiter, also unveiling storm systems that travel deep into the heart of Jupiter.

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe will be launched in the 2018, to explore sun’s atmosphere. This is the first time NASA has named a spacecraft after a living person, Eugene Parker.

Palaeontologists in Canada discovered a dinosaur mummy that had been encased in stone for over 110 million years. This discovery is incredible as Mummy's Skin has been completely Intact so far.

Remains are of armour-plated nodosaur, a 3000-pound plant - eating horned creature.

Rare cobra lilies scientifically known as Arisaema translucens have been rediscovered after a gap of 84 years, by K.M. Prabhu Kumar and Tarun Chhabra. One species was found in Thia Shola while other was spotted in Pennant Valley forest area of Nilgiris.

Renowned British physicist Stephen Hawking warned that Humans will need to leave Earth and colonise another planet within 100 years to escape from asteroid strikes, overpopulation and drastic effects of climate change.

Researchers at A Swedish Univerity have built fastest camera ever built, that can capture 5 trillion frames per second. Conventional cameras can at most take 100,000 frames per second.

Researchers at IIT Kharagpur developed new technology (known as ‘soil-to-soil’) to change the way biofuel is manufactured by making the process cheaper, quicker and pollution-free. Under this, team replaced chemical treatment with enzymes that degrade the lignin specifically thereby making the manufacturing pollution free. Lignin is a complex organic polymer deposited in the cell walls of many plants, making them woody.

Researchers from USA's University of Rochester identified a new way to slow down growth of cancer cells. The method involves a protein called Tudor-SN and the gene-editing technology CRISPR-Cas9.

Scientific Journal PLOS ONE Claimed that split of the common lineage of great apes and humans probably occurred in Europe and not in Africa, based on an analysis of 7.2-million-year-old fossil remains.

As of now, it was widely believed that the human lineage split from that of apes some 7 million years ago in Africa.

Scientists at University of Strathclyde (UK) have developed world’s highest gain high-power laser amplifier that could amplify sounds from rustling of leaves to that of a jumbo jet.

Scientists discovered a new glass frog species with transparent skin through which its beating heart is visible in Amazonian lowlands of Ecuador. Its scientific name is Hyalinobatrachium yaku.

Scientists from Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed world’s first quantum computer, claimed to be 24000 faster than conventional supercomputer technologies. It is being marked as a Huge step towards supercomputing.

Scientists from University of Exeter in the UK claimed that Earth Like Planet Proxima B orbiting closest neighboring Star Proxima Centauri may have potential to support alien life and water. Planet Proxima B  was discovered in 2016.

USA's National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) will launch world’s smallest satellite named KalamSat, Developed by Indian Student from Tamilnadu - Rifath Sharook. It has been named after Late India's nuclear scientist and former President APJ Abdul Kalam, weighing only 64 grams.

World's biggest X-ray laser started opearting (generating beams of light), allowing researchers to get glimpses of new materials, drugs and chemical reactions at atomic level.

3.4-kilometre-long European XFEL (Germany)'s X-ray light has a wavelength of 0.8 nanometre, 500 times shorter than that of visible light.

Sports

India's R Vaishali won women's title in Asian Continental Blitz Chess Championship in Chengdu (China).

Indian men’s football team achieved 100th Rank in FIFA world football rankings, for the first time in 21 years.

India's best ever rank was 94th spot, that it attained in February 1996.

19 year old Motorsports’ Indian driver Arjun Maini (drives for Jenzer Motorsport) became the first Indian to win a GP3 Series (a feeder series to GP2) race in Barcelona (Spain).

2017 Asian Wrestling Championships held in New Delhi.

Medal Table has been topped by Japan with Total 16 Medals.

India has been ranked 5th in Medal Table. India won 10 Medals (Including 1 Gold by Bajrang Punia in Men's 65 KG Freestyle).

2017 Mutua Madrid Open Tennis Title -

Men's Singles - Rafael Nadal (Spain) won by defeating Dominic Thiem (Austria)

Women's Singles - Simona Halep (Romania) won by defeating Kristina Mladenovic (France)

Men's Doubles - Lukasz Kubot (Poland) and Marcelo Melo (Brazil)

Women's Doubles - Chan Yung-jan (Chinese Taipei) and Martina Hingis (Switzerland)

29th Men's Asian Amateur Boxing Championships held in Tashkent (Uzbekistan).

India Finished 3rd (Joint Place with Mongolia) in Table, with Uzbekistan at Top.

Silver - Shiva Thapa and Sumit Sangwan, Bronze - Amit Panghal and Vikas Krishnan.

Ananya Kamboj, student from Chandigarh has been selected as a young journalist at global Football for Friendship (F4F) Social Programme in Russia. India joins the programme for the first time and 60 other countries will participate. She has been selected under Mission XI Million (a programme of the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017).

Argentinan Footballer Lionel Messi won European Golden Shoe for 4th time, equalling Portugese Player Christiano Ronaldo's record.

Arsenal FC won its 13th FA Cup defeating Chelsea FC.

Badminton Player PV Sindhu has been elected as member in Badminton World Federation (BWF) Athletes’ Commission.

Bengaluru FC won Federation Cup Football Tournament by defeating Mohun Bagan FC at final held in Odisha. This is second Federation cup title for Bengaluru FC.

Bibiana Steinhaus became first female referee in Europe’s top Football league - Bundesliga (Germany).

Borussia Dortmund defeated Eintracht Frankfurt to win in German Cup Football Title 2017. While Paris Saint-Germain defeated Angers to win 2017 French Cup for 11th time.

Chelsea FC beat West Bromwich to win English Premier League title 2017.

ESPN’s World Fame 100 list 2017 of Most Famous Active Atheletes -

Top 5 => 1 - Christiano Ronaldo (Football - Portugal), 2 - Lebron James (Basketball - USA), 3 - Lionel Messi (Football - Argentina), Roger Federer (Tennis - Switzerland), Phil Mickelson (Golf - USA).

Indian Atheletes - Cricketers Virat Kohli (13th), M S Dhoni (15th), Yuvraj Singh (90th) and Suresh Raina (95th).

Ferrari Racer Sebastian Vettel (Germany) won Monaco Grand Prix -

2017 Formula 1 Season -

Round Grand Prix Winner Date

1 Australian Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel (Germany) 26 March

2 Chinese Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton (Britain) 9 April

3 Bahrain Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel (Germany) 16 April

4 Russian Grand Prix Valtteri Bottas (Finland) 30 April

5 Spanish Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton (Britain) 14 May

6 Monaco Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel (Germany) 28 May

7 Canadian Grand Prix 11 June

8 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 25 June

9 Austrian Grand Prix 9 July

10 British Grand Prix 16 July

11 Hungarian Grand Prix 30 July

12 Belgian Grand Prix 27 August

13 Italian Grand Prix 3 September

14 Singapore Grand Prix 17 September

15 Malaysian Grand Prix 1 October

16 Japanese Grand Prix 8 October

17 United States Grand Prix 22 October

18 Mexican Grand Prix 29 October

19 Brazilian Grand Prix 12 November

20 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 26 November

Former India batsman V V S Laxman has been awarded honorary life membership to UK's Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). He is fifth Indian to receive the honour, after Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and Zaheer Khan.

French Footballer N'Golo Kante named as Player of the Year by English Premier League. He was also recently named 2017 Footballer of the Year by Football Writers’ Association.

Geneva Open Tennis 2017 -

Men's Singles - Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) won by defeating Mischa Zverev (Germany)

Men's Doubles - Jean-Julien Rojer (Netherlands) AND Horia Tecău (Romania)

Great Britain won Sultan Azlan Shah Cup (Malaysia) for first time ever in 23 Years, by defeating Australia.

Harmanpreet Kaur became first Indian Women cricketer to play in England T20 League known as Kia Super League.

Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL) will host Asian Junior Tennis Championship 2017 in Pune in May - June 2017, with Players from 11 countries participating in it.

Hockey Him (Himachal) defeated Hockey Mizoram in the 7th Junior Women's National Hockey Championship 2017 held in Madhya Pradesh.

India Claimed 2 medals (1 Gold, 1 Bronze) at World Para Athletics Grand Prix held in Beijing (China). Ramudu Someshwara Rao won gold medal in 200 m race and Shot Putter Hokato Sema won bronze.

India ended Grand Prix of Liberation Plezn (Czech Republic) 2017 shooting championships with seven medals - 1 Gold, 2 Silver and 4 Bronze.

Indian Fast bowler Jhulan Goswami has become highest female wicket taker in ODIs with 181 wickets in 153 matches. She Australia's Cathryn Fitzpatrick (180 wickets).

Indian Female Cricketers Deepti Sharma and Poonam Raut scored 320 in 45.3 overs against Ireland, making Biggest Partnership ever in ODI Cricket (Both in Male and Female). They went past 286 Runs partnership by Sri Lanka’s Upul Tharanga and Sanath Jayasuriya against England in 2006.

Indian Grand Master Pentala Harikrishna won Moscow FIDE Grand Prix Chess Tournament.

Indian Javelin Throwers Devender Singh and Neeraj Chopra qualified for 16th IAAF World Championships to be held in August 2017 in London (UK).

Indian Men’s compound archery team (represented by Abhishek Verma, Chinna Raju Srither and Amanjeet Singh) won Gold after defeating Columbia in archery World Cup stage 1 championships held in Shanghai (China).

Indian Milk Products Brand Amul will be prime sponsor of the New Zealand cricket team in upcoming ICC Champions Trophy to be held in June 2017 in England.

Indian Table Tennis Player Soumyajit Ghosh won singles and doubles titles at Seamaster 2017 ITTF Challenge Chile Open in Santiago (Chile).

Indian squash player Ramit Tandon won his first PSA (professional Squash Association) title by winning Sys Open 2017 in USA.

India’s C.A Bhavani Devi became first Indian to win a Gold Medal in an international fencing tournament after She won gold medal in sabre event of Turnoi Satellite Fencing Championship in Iceland.

India’s Ravichandran Ashwin won international cricketer of the Year Award at CEAT Cricket Rating (CCR) International awards 2017. Shubhman Gill has been awarded as Young Player of the Year award.

India’s Vikram Malhotra won his 4th PSA title (Professional Squash Association) after beating Egypt’s Youssef Ibrahim in Abu Dhabi Open.

International Cricket Council (ICC) enhanced prize money for Champions Trophy Tournament to be held in England and Wales in June 2017, to total USD 4.5 million. Winner will get $ 2.2 million while runner up will received $ 1.1 million.

International Cricket Council 2017 Women's Cricket World Cup to be held in England and Wales in June - July 2017.

It will be 11th edition of Women's Cricket World Cup, with 8 teams qualified to participate.

ICC raised Prize Money for The tournament to 2 Million USD (10 times of what it was in 2013 World Cup).

Italian Open Tennis 2017 -

Men's singles - Alexander Zverev (Germany) Novak Djokovic (Serbia)

Women's Singles - Elina Svitolina (Ukraine) won by defeating Simona Halep (Romania)

Men's Doubles - Franceh Pair of Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut

Women's Doubles - Martina Hingis (Switzerland) and Chan Yung - jan (Chinese Taipei)

Manchester United (England) won 2016–17 UEFA Europa League Football Tournament by defetaing Ajax (Netherlands) in Final.

Mercedes' Driver Lewis Hamilton (UK) won Spanish Grand Prix -

2017 Formula 1 Season -

Round Grand Prix Winner Date

1 Australian Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel (Germany) 26 March

2 Chinese Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton (Britain) 9 April

3 Bahrain Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel (Germany) 16 April

4 Russian Grand Prix Valtteri Bottas (Finland) 30 April

5 Spanish Grand Prix Lewis Hamilton (Britain) 14 May

6 Monaco Grand Prix 28 May

7 Canadian Grand Prix 11 June

8 Azerbaijan Grand Prix 25 June

9 Austrian Grand Prix 9 July

10 British Grand Prix 16 July

11 Hungarian Grand Prix 30 July

12 Belgian Grand Prix 27 August

13 Italian Grand Prix 3 September

14 Singapore Grand Prix 17 September

15 Malaysian Grand Prix 1 October

16 Japanese Grand Prix 8 October

17 United States Grand Prix 22 October

18 Mexican Grand Prix 29 October

19 Brazilian Grand Prix 12 November

20 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 26 November

Mohammad Anas from Kerala broke he national record in men’s 400 m race at third leg of Indian Grand Prix Athletics Meet in New Delhi. He also qualified for World Championships to be held in London in August 2017.

Mumbai Indians won Indian Premier League 2017 (IPL) by Defeating Rising Pune Supergiants at Finals held in Hyderabad (Telangana). It was 10th IPL Tournament and 3rd Title for Mumbai Indians.

Odisha Government Unveiled Logo and mascot Named OLLY, for 22nd Asian Athletics Championships to be held at kalinga stadium in July 2017. OLLY represents famous Olive Ridley Sea turtle.

R R Laxman of Integral Coach Factory won All India Open Rapid FIDE Rating Chess Tournament at Kolkata, West Bengal.

South Asian Junior Table Tennis championships held in Sri Lanka -

Indian Players won all 10 Gold Medals in this tournament, having won total 24 Medals.

South Korea defeated China to win their 4th Sudirman Cup Badminton title, hosted by Australia.

Sweden won 2017 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships by defeating Canada in Final. It was hosted by Paris (France) and Cologne (Germany).

Ticket sales Launched for FIFA Under-17 World Cup 2017 to be held in India. Tickets will be available at FIFA.com @ INR 48 Per Ticket.

Official Mascot of FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017 is a clouded leopard called Kheleo.

Vaishnavi shone from Tamilnadu won 2 gold medals in first Asia level yoga competition in Thailand.

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Round	Grand Prix	Winner	Date
1	Australian Grand Prix	Sebastian Vettel (Germany)	26 March
2	Chinese Grand Prix	Lewis Hamilton (Britain)	9 April
3	Bahrain Grand Prix	Sebastian Vettel (Germany)	16 April
4	Russian Grand Prix	Valtteri Bottas (Finland)	30 April
5	Spanish Grand Prix	Lewis Hamilton (Britain)	14 May
6	Monaco Grand Prix	Sebastian Vettel (Germany)	28 May
7	Canadian Grand Prix		11 June
8	Azerbaijan Grand Prix		25 June
9	Austrian Grand Prix		9 July
10	British Grand Prix		16 July
11	Hungarian Grand Prix		30 July
12	Belgian Grand Prix		27 August
13	Italian Grand Prix		3 September
14	Singapore Grand Prix		17 September
15	Malaysian Grand Prix		1 October
16	Japanese Grand Prix		8 October
17	United States Grand Prix		22 October
18	Mexican Grand Prix		29 October
19	Brazilian Grand Prix		12 November
20	Abu Dhabi Grand Prix		26 November