International:
1. David Cameron’s Conservative Party won the UK General election 2015 by securing 331 seats in a Parliament of 650. With this win, the incumbent Prime Minister David Cameroon will continue to be in the office.
2. World Health Organization (WHO), a U.N. health agency has declared Liberia Ebola-free. WHO has hailed Liberia’s Ebola eradication efforts as an enormous development in the long crisis and monumental achievement as the virus has killed more than 4,716 people in the country alone.
3. Moody’s, the US research analytics firm released the quarterly Global Macro Outlook: 2015-16 report.
According to the report:
-> Stronger US dollar and shifts in capital flows will widen the gap between global economies in 2015-16.
-> The divergence will be between those economies that have built up resilience, like the US and India, and those that are vulnerable to negative shocks, like Brazil, South Africa and Turkey.
-> Moody’s forecasts US GDP growth of 2.8% in both 2015 and 2016.
-> The weaker euro and lower oil prices is forecast to give a boost to the euro area economy, with GDP growth of around 1.5 percent in both 2015 and 2016.
-> Moody’s maintains its forecast that GDP growth will slow to 6.8% in 2015 and 6.5% in 2016, from 7.4% in 2014.
-> India’s GDP will grow at a strong pace of 7.5% in 2015-16, which is the highest among G20 economies, helped by the reforms drive and lower oil prices. Moody’s forecasts that, the Make-in-India campaign will give a boost to domestic manufacturing and other reforms measures would bring in higher investment and boost growth.
4. Pablo Picasso’s painting Les Femme d’Alger (Version O) sold for 179.3 million US dollars during an auction at Christie’s in New York. With this sale, this painting became the most expensive painting to be sold at an auction. Les Femme d’Alger, a 1955 painting known in English as The Women of Algiers had a pre-auction estimate of 140 million US dollars.
5. Scientist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has discovered a big fish , named Opah, that lives deep in the Pacific Ocean and has been found to be warm blooded, like humans, other mammals and birds.
The Opah is a rusty reddish color fish which has white spots and bright red fins. It weighs up to 200 pounds (90 kg) and is about the size of a car tire, with an oval body shape. It spends most of its time at depths of 165 – 1300 feet (50 – 400 meters), hunting fish and squid. The warm blooded fish is also known as the moonfish, it averages 100 pounds and has a diameter of 3 feet and can grow to up to 6 feet long.
National:
1. State Government of Goa launched hot air balloon and amphibious vehicles in the picturesque state of beaches. It was launched with an aim to add attractions to its tourism portfolio.
2. National Green Tribunal (NGT) ordered that every household in Delhi will have to pay a monthly environmental compensation to clean up Yamuna River. The compensation to be paid will be directly proportional to the property or water tax whichever is higher, paid by a particular household. In case of unauthorized colonies households that do not pay property tax or water bill will have to pay an amount that would be between 100 rupees to 500 rupees.
3. Indian and Russian institutions of higher learning inked 11 Memorandum of Intent (MoI) to establish the Network of Institutions of Higher Education. Among those that signed the memorandum were IIT Bombay, Madras and Delhi and also University of Delhi, Indian Statistical Institute and Institution of Engineers.
4. Book titled Unbelievable – Delhi to Islamabad authored by senior Advocate Prof. Bhim Singh was released by Vice President M. Hamid Ansari in New Delhi.
5. President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated Namaste Russia, a festival of Indian culture in Moscow during the last leg of his tour in Russia. Namaste Russia will be six month long festival i.e. form May to November 2015. The festival seeks to enthrall the Russian audience with cultural events from India.
6. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the upgraded IISCO Steel Plant (ISP) in Burnpur, West Bengal. The ISP houses the largest blast furnace of India.
7. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched three mega social security schemes in Kolkata, West Bengal. Three schemes intend to widen the process of financial inclusion in the country include:
Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Yojana (PMJJBY).
Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY).
Atal Pension Yojana (APY).
8. Hyderabad will host the four-day Indo-Global Pharma Expo and Summit 2015 that is scheduled to be held on 24 July 2015. The theme of Indo-Global Pharma Expo and Summit 2015 will be Innovation and Advances.
9. The number of Asiatic lions in Gir sanctuary of Gujarat increased to 523, according to 2015 Lion census report released in the first week of May 2015. This 14th lion census registered 27% increase in the number of Asiatic lions compared to 2010 census which had registered 411 Asiatic lions.
10. Narendra Modi launched Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY) in Kolkata, West Bengal. It is an Accident Insurance Scheme (AIS) offering death and disability cover on account of an accident. It provides for the risk coverage of 2 lakh rupees for accidental death and full disability and 1 lakh rupees for partial disability due to an accident. It is available to people in the age group of 18 to 70 years having a savings bank account.
11. Telangana Government has inked a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) with tech giant Google Inc to build biggest campus outside US in Hyderabad. The MoU was signed between Telangana Secretary of IT Jayesh Ranjan and his counterpart David Redcliffe, Google’s global head of facilities and workplace in Google headquarters at Mountain View in USA.
12. Daniel Mookhey has become first Indian-origin Member of Parliament (MP) from the Australian state of New South Wales to be sworn in to Australian parliament on the Hindu religious text, the Bhagavadgita.
13. Union government has announced that, the current immunisation rate in rural areas is around 58% while it is over 67% in urban regions of the country.
14. Uttar Pradesh Government has launched Samajwadi water ATM scheme at bus stations. The scheme was launched by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. It seeks to provide potable water to bus passengers at reasonable price.
15. Tech giant IBM has chosen Surat, Allahabad and Vizag among 16 global locations for its smart cities programme to help them address challenges like waste management, disaster management and citizen services.
16. President Pranab Mukherjee appointed Governors in six states. Following are newly appointed Governors:
Jharkhand: Former Odisha Minister Droupadi Murmu was appointed as Governor of Jharkhand. She will replace Dr Syed Ahmed.
Manipur: Dr Syed Ahmed has been transfered to Manipur for remaining period of his term.
Arunachal Pradesh: J P Rajkhowa was appointed as Governor of Arunachal Pradesh. He will replace Lt. General (Retd.) Nirbhay Sharma.
Mizoram: Lt. General (Retd.) Nirbhay Sharma has been transferred and appointed as Governor of Mizoram for the remainder of his term.
Tripura: Tathagata Roy will be the Governor of Tripura.
Meghalaya: V. Shanmuganthan has been appointed as Meghalaya Governor.
17. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) released the report titled State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2014-15. The theme of this year’s report is Fiscal Consolidation: Assessment and Medium Term Prospects.
18. Punjab has become the first state in India to issue Soil Health Cards (SHCs), a Union Government initiative to all farmers in the state.
In this regard, every district of state has been assigned mobile soil testing lab. These labs will take soil sample from every farm and issue a digitalised soil health details.
Importance of SHC in Punjab:
-> The advent of green revolution in Punjab has made soil testing more necessary in view of over exploitation of soil.
-> It will help farmers in maintaining the balanced health structure of the soil and educate them to use right quantity of fertilisers in order to prevent soil from becoming arid.
19. Union Cabinet has given its approval to Benami Transactions (Prohibition) (Amendment) Bill, 2015. The Bill seeks to amend the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988 by adding additional provisions that provides for stringent measures against violators in order to curb and check the generation of black money in the country.
20. Union Cabinet gave its approval to 5% disinvestment in National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) and 10% in Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).
21. The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) approved the Gujarat State Climate Change Action Plan 2015-2020. The plan was submitted in August 2014. In the action plan, the state government proposed to invest more than 21000 crore rupees to create environment-friendly water resource management, public health projects, forest and environment improvement projects and agriculture improvement projects by 2020.
22. Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) gave an in-principle approval for setting up an IIIT (Indian Institute of Information Technology) in Nagpur, Maharashtra. It will be the first IIIT to be set up in the state.
23. Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the flagship Namami Gange Program. The program integrates the efforts to clean and protect the River Ganga in a comprehensive manner by involving differed States and grassroots level institutions.
24. Supreme Court (SC) issued a slew of guidelines on regulation of public advertisements.
This guidelines seeks to prevent ruling politicians at all levels from misusing tax payers’ money to enhance their image or of their parties as it is against democratic principles.
Guidelines set by Supreme Court:
Ban on the use of photographs of ministers and party leaders in the government advertisements released by government institutions and autonomous bodies.
Only photographs of the President, Prime Minister (PM) and Chief Justice of India (CJI) can feature in the government advertisements with their prior approval.
Besides, the photos of late national leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru can be used in these advertisements.
Henceforth, official advertisements should not carry the name of any political party, political symbol, logo or flag.
In order to regulate the issue of public advertisement and to keep check on framed guidelines to prevent its violation, Union government must constitute a three-member committee.
Sports:
1. State Government of Haryana included Deaflympics in its Sports Policy. It was included to enable Deaflympian medalists to get cash rewards, jobs and other benefits. Decision to this effect to include Deaflympics in sports policy was taken during a state cabinet meet chaired by Chief Minister Manohar Lal at Chandigarh.
2. Indian discus thrower Vikas Gowda won Gold at Jamaican International Invitation meet. The meet was held in Kingston, Jamaica. He came up with an effort of 65.14m to win his event.
3. Lee Alan Johnson of England was named as the Head Coach of Under-19 football team of India. He was named by the All India Football Federation (AIFF).
4. Tejaswini Sagar of India won under-15 category of World School Chess Championships in her maiden attempt. In the ninth and final round played at Pattaya, Thailand she defeated Kavinya Miyuni Rajapaksa of Sri Lank to win gold medal. In this championship, Tejaswini scored seven points out of nine by winning six, drawing two and losing one game.
5. Mutua Madrid Open 2015:
Men’s singles Title
Britain’s ace tennis player Andy Murray has won the 2015 Mutua Madrid Open Men’s Singles Title. In the final match he defeated defending champion Rafael Nadal of Spain by 6-3, 6-2 score. This is Andy Murray’s first Mutua Madrid Open title.
Women’s singles Title
Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic has won the 2015 Mutua Madrid Open Women’s Singles Title. In the final match she defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia by 6-1, 6-2 score. This was Petra Kvitova’s second Mutua Madrid Open Women’s Singles Title. Earlier she had won it in 2011.
Men’s doubles Title
Rohan Bopanna (India) and Florin Mergea (Romania) pair won the 2015 Mutua Madrid Open Men’s doubles Title. In the final match, they defeated Marcin Matkowski (Poland) and Nenad Zimonjic (Serbia) pair by 6–2, 6–7, (5–7), [11–9] score.
Women’s doubles Title
Casey Dellacqua (Australia) and Yaroslava Shvedova (Russia) pair won the 2015 Mutua Madrid Open Women’s doubles Title. In the final match, they defeated Spanish pair Garbiñe Muguruza and Carla Suárez Navarro by 6–3, 6–7,(4–7), [10–5] score.
Economics:
1. Indian Army signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Bank of India (BOI) on the Defence Salary Package.
-> This MoU will benefit a large number of serving and retired Army personnel who own their accounts with BOI.
-> It will provide for Air insurance, Home Loan Insurance on Army Welfare housing Organization (AWHO) for deaths on account of war/external aggression/ terrorist attack for up to 50 lakh rupees.
-> It will provide applicability of PAI and overdraft facility to pensioners and waiver of merchant service fee (MSF) for transaction on BOI POS Terminal installed at CSD Canteens for BOI Card holders.
2. The Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with SIDBI Venture Capital Ltd to provide easy finance to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) for their growth.
3. Lok Sabha passed Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets (Imposition of Tax) Bill, 2015 by a voice vote.
Scope: Provisions will applicable to both undisclosed foreign income and assets including financial interest in any entity and the Act will be applicable to all persons resident in India.
Rate of tax: A flat rate of 30 percent tax will be applied to undisclosed foreign income or assets. In case of any carried forward losses, no exemption or deduction or set off will be allowed which may be admissible under the existing IT Act, 1961.
Penalties:
-> Violation will entail stringent penalties. Following are penalties mentioned
-> For nondisclosure of foreign income or assets outside India, penalty will be equal to three times the amount of tax payable i.e. 90 percent of the undisclosed income in addition to tax payable at 30%.
-> In case of failure to furnish return in respect to foreign income or assets, there will be of 10 lakh rupees.
Prosecutions
-> For various types of violations, the bill proposes enhanced punishment. They are
-> For willful attempt to evade tax, the punishment will be rigorous imprisonment from 3years to 10 years and a fine.
-> In case of failure to furnish a return of foreign assets the punishment will be rigorous imprisonment of 6 months to 7 years with fine.
One-time compliance opportunity
-> It also adds provision of one-time compliance opportunity to persons for limited period who have undisclosed foreign assets that has not been disclosed for the purposes of Income-tax.
-> In this case, such persons will be permitted to file a declaration before a tax authority, and pay a penalty at the rate of 100%.
4. Union Communication and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad launched a dedicated E-Commerce Centre of India Posts, a government-operated postal system which was launched in New Delhi to cater the e-commerce business enterprises.
5. RBI advised all public sector banks (PSBs) to appoint internal Ombudsman. This internal Ombudsman will be designated as Chief Customer Service Officer (CCSO) and it should not have worked in the bank in which it has been appointed as CCSO.
Objective: To further boost the quality of customer service and to ensure that there is undivided attention to resolution of customer complaints in banks.
Appointment:
1. Senior IPS officer Navneet Rajan Wasan was appointed as (DG) of Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPR&D). The post of Director General (DG) of Bureau of Police Research and Development had been lying vacant since March 2015 following the retirement of Rajan Gupta.
2. Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has renominated Prof. Kuruppassery Varkey Thomas as Chairman of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for a second term of one year. For the first term, Thomas was nominated in August 2014. He is the senior Congress Parliamentarian from Ernakulum Constituency, Kerala.
3. Kundapur Vaman Kamath was appointed as the first President of the New Development Bank (NDB) of BRICS nations.
4. K. Satish Reddy, the Chairman of Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd., was appointed as the Chairman of the National Safety Council (NSC).
5. President Pranab Mukherjee has appointed Justice Cyriac Joseph as acting Chairman of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
6. Indian-origin Priti Patel was appointed as Minister of State for Employment in British Government. Prime Minister David Cameron promoted Priti Patel to his Cabinet after his surprise victory in general elections.
7. Arvind Saxena was appointed as a Member of Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). His appointment was made by the President Pranab Mukherjee.
8. Indian-born Nikesh Arora appointed as the President of Japan’s multinational telecommunications and internet company SoftBank Corp.
9. Deepak Iyer was appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Managing Director (MD) of Bharti AXA General Insurance.
10. Sh. Achal Kumar Joti has assumed charge as the new Election Commissioner (EC) of India.
11. Syndicate Bank today announced elevation of its executive director Arun Shrivastava to the post of Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.
12. Indian-origin councilor Harbhajan Kaur Dheer of Labour Party became the first Asian woman to be elected as mayor in United Kingdom.
13. Samsung Group heir apparent Jay Y. Lee, aged 46, will take over from his father Lee Kun-hee as head of two key foundations. He will succeed his 73-year-old father, who has been hospitalised since suffering a heart attack more than a year ago, as chairman of Samsung Life Public Welfare Foundation and Samsung Foundation of Culture.
Awards & Recognition:
1. Veteran actor and film producer Shashi Kapoor has been conferred with prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke Award 2014.
2. Writer Neel Mukherjee’s novel The Lives of Others has won the United Kingdom’s Encore Award for the best second novel. The novel The Lives of Others reflects the political and social convulsions of an entire society and based upon story of one family living in Calcutta in 1960s.
3. Dr. Sivanadane Mandjiny, an Indian-American Professor in US is named UNC Pembroke’s recipient of the UNC Board of Governors 2015 Award for Excellence in Teaching. He will receive this award along with each professor of the other 16 UNC campuses. The award carries commemorative bronze and US $ 12,500 cash prize.
4. President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the Presidential Awards for Classical Tamil for the years 2011-12 and 2012-13. It was bestowed on scholars who have made outstanding contribution to the development of Classical Tamil language and literature.
Tolkappiyar Award for lifetime achievement in Classical Tamil was given to SV Shanmugam for year 2011-12 and R Krishnamurthi for year 2012-13.
Kural Pitam Award was given to Eva Maria Wilden of Germany for 2011-12.
Young Scholar Awards was presented to E. Ezhilvasanthan, K. Jawahar and K. Iyyappan for 2011-12 while for the year 2012-13 was given to R. Venkatesan, A. Sathish, M.R. Devak, U. Alibava and B. Jaiganesh.
Mergers & Acquistion:
1. Global mobile multi-channel messaging platform mGage acquired Bengaluru-based counterpart Unicel Technologies. However, the deal value was not disclosed by both the companies.
Science & Technology:
1. North Korea successfully test-fired a newly developed Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile (SLBM). The nation described the missile as a world level strategic weapon. This underwater ballistic missile is capable of striking and wiping out hostile forces in any waters. This missile programme has violated the UN resolution that prohibits Pyongyang from conducting ballistic missile tests.
2. Facebook signed up with nine publishers to launch Instant Articles. Instant Articles will publish articles directly to the social network’s mobile news feeds.
The launch partners for Instant Articles are NBC, The Atlantic, The Guardian, BBC News, Spiegel and Bild. Instant Articles will let stories load more than 10 times faster than standard mobile web articles and will include content from publishers such as the New York Times, BuzzFeed and National Geographic.
3. Bangalore-based Strides Arcolab today said US health regulator has approved its drug used for treating HIV infection in adult and children for sale in US market.
Important Days:
1. Every year, `National Technology Day’ is observed across India on May 11. This day glorifies the importance of science in day-to-day life and motivates students to adopt science as a career option. National Technology Day is being commemorated to celebrate the anniversary of first of the five tests of Operation Shakti (Pokhran-II) nuclear test which was held on 11th May 1998 in Pokhran, Rajasthan.
Death:
1. Veteran Hollywood actress Elizabeth Wilson passed away on 9th May 2015.
2. Eminent Bengali writer Suchitra Bhattacharya passed away on 12th May 2015 following a cardiac arrest in Kolkata, West Bengal. She was one of the most popular and powerful novelists of contemporary Bengali literature.