Defense
BrahMos supersonic cruise missile test-fired, hits target:
i. India on Friday successfully test fired the over 290-km range BrahMos land-attack supersonic cruise missile, it was launched from Pokharan firing range.
ii. DRDO chief S Christopher also congratulated the IAF, BrahMos team and DRDO scientists involved in the successful mission.
iii. This formidable missile system has empowered all three wings of the armed forces with impeccable anti-ship and land attack capability.
iv. IAF has acquired the missile system last year to take out targets like radars, communication systems near the borders so that their planes are not targeted by the enemy.
About BrahMos Missile:
a) BrahMos is a short-range ramjet supersonic cruise missile that can be launched from submarines, ships, aircraft or land.
b) It is a joint venture between Russia’s NPO Mashinostroeyenia and the Defence Research and Development Organisation of India. They have formed BrahMos Aerospace Private Limited to make the missile.
c) The name BrahMos is a portmanteau formed from the names of two rivers, the Brahmaputra of India and the Moskva of Russia.
India-Russia agree to export BrahMos, world’s fastest anti-ship cruise missile:
i. India and Russia have agreed ‘in principle’ to export the world’s fastest anti-ship cruise missile, BrahMos, to UAE, Vietnam, South Africa and Chile.
ii. The Indo-Russian joint venture will soon be testing it cruise missiles on Russian Su-30 Flanker C multi-role fighter aircraft for which the ground tests are already done.
National
Union Railways Ministry launches Rail Humsafar Saptaah:
i. The Union Ministry of Railways has launched Rail Humsafar Saptaah, a week-long initiative to highlight significant achievements made by Indian Railways in all spheres.
ii. The Rail Humsafar Saptaah starting on 26th May 2016 will conclude on 1st June 2016. The week-long initiative coincides with completion of two years of NDA Government at Centre.
iii. Each day of the Rail Humsafar Saptaah will focus on a particular theme and the days have been named as:
26th May (Swachchta Diwas), 27th May (Satkar Diwas), 28th May (Sewa Diwas), 29th May (Satarkata Diwas), 30th May (Saamanjasya Diwas), 31st May (Sanyojan Diwas), 1st June (Sanchaar Diwas).
Business & Economy
Islamic Development Bank to open its first branch in India at Ahmedabad:
i. Saudi Arabia’s Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has decided to open its first branch in India at Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
ii. In this regard, IDB and its private sector arm, Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD), already have met with top officials of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), EXIM Bank and India’s other nationalized banks.
iii. This announcement comes as part of MoU signed between IDB and India’s EXIM Bank during Prime Minister Narendra Modi visit to United Arab Emirates (UAE) in April 2016.
iv. As part of the MoU a US 100 million dollars line-of-credit (LoC) was to be given to IDB’s member countries to facilitate exports.
About Islamic Development Bank:
a) The IDB is a multilateral development financing institution based in in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Presently, it has 56 Islamic countries as its members.
b) It was founded in 1973 by the Finance Ministers at the first Organisation of the Islamic Conference (now Organisation of Islamic Cooperation).
c) IDB’s objective is to foster the economic development and social progress of member countries as well as the Muslim community in accordance with principles of Islamic (Shariah) law.
56 Indian companies on Forbes ‘Global 2000’ list:
i. As many as 56 Indian companies have been named in Forbes’ recently released ‘Global 2000’ list of the world’s largest public companies.
ii. Reliance Industries, ranked 121, emerged as the most valuable Indian company, followed by SBI (149) and ONGC (220).
iii. Globally, the top three spots were held by Chinese banks, with Industrial and Commercial Bank of China leading the list.
iv. Mortgage lender HDFC Ltd has been ranked among the world’s ten biggest and most powerful companies in the consumer financial services sector on a Forbes list topped by global major American Express.
v. Ranked 7th, HDFC is the only Indian company in top-ten in this category, where others include Capital One, Visa and MasterCard.
International
Barack Obama becomes first US president to visit Hiroshima bomb site:
i. Barack Obama became the first incumbent US president to visit Hiroshima memorial, site of the world’s first atomic bombing dropped on August 6, 1945.
ii. He paid tribute to the 140,000 people killed by the world’s first atomic bomb attack and laid wreath at Hiroshima nuclear memorial.
iii. The official trip of US President Barack Obama comes more than seven decades after an American plane, dropped its payload (nuclear bomb), dubbed ‘Little Boy’ over the western Japanese city.
iv. Three days later (On 9 August 1945) US dropped a second bomb dubbed as ‘Fat Man’ on the city of Nagasaki in which 70,000 more people were killed.
v. The twin bombings by US were dealt as the final blows to Japan which led to its unconditional surrender on August 15, 1945, bringing an end to World War.
v. These two nuclear bombs attack on Japanese cities, are only instance in warfare history of mankind in which nuclear weapons by any country were used against another.
Comment: The visit US President Barack Obama also marks seven years since he used his trademark soaring rhetoric to call for the elimination of atomic (nuclear) arms in a landmark speech in Prague that helped him win the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
Appointments & Resignations
Mamata Benarjee takes oath as Bengal CM for second time:
i. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who led her party to a huge victory in the assembly elections, took the oath of office for a second term on Friday.
ii. Banerjee and her ministers were sworn in by governor Keshari Nath Tripathi. This was first time that Bengal will witness a swearing-in-ceremony of a government outside the Raj Bhavan.
iii. In 2011, Mamata — Bengal’s first woman chief minister — was sworn in at the Raj Bhavan after she overthrew the 34-year-old Left Front regime from power.
iv. The ceremony took place in the presence of many eminent personalities including the Prime Minister of Bhutan, Tshering Tobgay, the industry minister of Bangladesh, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley.
v. Winning 211 seats out of the total 294, TMC became the first single party to win the seats without alliance in West Bengal’s history.
Awards & Honors
Two Indian-Americans win US Spelling Bee 2016:
i. Two Indian-Americans, Nihar Janga (11) and Jairam Hathwar (13), were on Thursday declared co-winners of the US Scripps National Spelling Bee 2016 competition.
ii. It was 28th annual edition of National Geographic Bee Competition which was held in at the National Geographic headquarters in Washington.
iii. This is the fifth consecutive year of National Geographic Bee championship in which an Indian-American has won the prestigious national tournament.
US Bioengineer Frances Arnold becomes first woman to win Millennium Technology Prize:
i. Bioengineer Frances Arnold from United States (US) has won the prestigious 2016 Millennium Technology Prize. With this she becomes first female to be awarded with this prestigious biennial award in its 12-year history.
ii. The Technology Academy Finland (TAF) had chosen Frances Arnold for this award in recognition of her discoveries that launched the field of directed evolution.
iii. Her discoveries mimic natural evolution to create new and better proteins in the laboratory.
About Millennium Technology Prize: The Millennium Technology Prize is one of the world’s largest technology awards. It seeks to promote technological research and Finland as a high-tech Nordic welfare state. It is awarded biennially and the prize is presented by the President of Finland.
Sunil Mittal gets highest Harvard B-School award:
i. Bharti Enterprises founder and Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal (58) was bestowed with 2016 Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award.
ii. Sunil Mittal is Indian telecom tycoon, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman and Group CEO of Bharti Enterprises, which has interests in telecom, financial services, retail and agri business.
iii. The Group flagship Bharti Airtel, with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa and has customer base of over 275 million. It is India’s largest telecom company and world’s third largest mobile operator.
iv. He is listed as the eight richest person in India by Forbes with a Net worth of 7 billion dollars. In 2007, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honour.
Short News
I. The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, also called ‘Toy Train’, is set to be preserved for posterity. The UNESCO and the Indian Railways are working on a Comprehensive Conservation Management Plan in this regard. Guidelines will be prepared for maintaining the railway, which is Asia’s first ‘industrial heritage’ site to be inscribed on the UNESCO’s World Heritage List.
II. Coach of IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab Sanjay Bangar has been appointed India’s head coach for the team’s tour to Zimbabwe. Bangar had previously worked as India’s assistant coach till the World T20 under team director Ravi Shastri.
III. Following talks with President Pranab Mukherjee, Chinese President Xi Jinping offered to allow more Indian pilgrims to visit Kailash and Mansarovar in Tibet through the Nathulla pass. The offer to increase the number of pilgrims was made by Chinese President Xi Jinping during his talks with Pranab Mukherjee in Beijing.
IV. The Centre has approved an investment of ₹5,534 crore for 111 Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) cities in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Odisha, Jharkhand and Meghalaya.
V. The first bullet train will run in India in 2023, and its work is on track, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said. The train will connect Mumbai and Ahmedabad and is expected to cover 508 km in about two hours, running at a maximum speed of 350 kmph.
VI. BCCI chief Anurag Thakur has promised to give ₹5 crore to the deaf, dumb and visually impaired cricketers as financial aid. BCCI has also planned other special initiatives, which includes ₹100 crore assigned one-year water conservation project and Creating ‘Mobile Coaching App’, which can be used by cricket academies in remote areas to provide access to state-of-the-art coaching lessons.
VII. Indian para-athlete, discus and club thrower, Amit Kumar Saroha has clinched the gold medal in the men’s club throw F-51 event at the 2016 French Open Athletics Championship. Saroha won the event with a record-breaking throw of 26.58 metres breaking his previous record of 25.44 metres.
VIII. As per recent study conducted by Assocham-KPMG, India has emerged as the world’s fifth largest electronic waste (e-waste) producer. India discards roughly 18.5 lakh tonnes of e-waste each year and telecom equipment alone accounts for 12% of it.
IX. Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has launched 20 Nirbhaya buses of Rajasthan State Transport Corporation (RSTC). These buses were launched by RSTC as a pilot project under the NIRBHAYA scheme. These buses are fitted with multiple IT-enabled safety measures to better protect women passengers and keep anti-social elements under check.
X. China has signed two agreements with Sudan, its close ally in Africa to build 600-megawatt (MW) atomic reactor. It was the first of its kind project to be built by China in African country.