1. Delhi no longer most polluted – Iran’s Zabol the most polluted in the world says WHO

a) Released on 12th of May, a survey based on urban air quality database from WHO says that Delhi is no longer the most polluted city in the world. However, India is still a home to four of the five worst cities.

b) Zabol, which frequently suffers from dust storms, has the dirtiest air in terms of PM 2.5 (fine particulate pollution).The next four cities were all Indian: Gwalior, Allahabad, Patna and Raipur.

c) Delhi now stands at number 11 amongst the 3000 cities from the survey of 103 countries.

d) The report also states that despite the improvements in some areas, the overall global urban air pollution levels have hiked by 8%.

2. President Pranab Mukherjee confers Florence Nightingale Awards

a) On account of commendable work and commitment, President Mukherjee conferred the Florence Nightingale Awards to 35 nurses at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

b) The awards were presented on the occasion of International Nurses day which is given by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for the appreciable services rendered by the nursing professionals across the country.

c) Recognizing nurses as the greatest workforce in the healthcare industry, President also said that a budget of Rs 2,150 crore has been allocated to the programmes and schemes for the improvement of nursing services in India under the 12th Five Year Plan.

d) The Florence Nightingale Awards carries Rs 50,000/- in cash, a certificate, a citation certificate and a medal.

3. US president Obama appoints an Indian – American to the key administrative post

a) Manjit Singh, an Indian American engineer is the co-founder of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund. He has been appointed as the member of President’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

b) He is the President of Agilious, a technology consulting firm founded by him in the year 2013.

c) He served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Guru Gobind Singh Foundation and also as a Member-at-Large of The Board of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan in Washington.

d) Singh achieved his B.E from University of Bombay, India and an M.Sc from the State University of New York at Albany.

4. Drought declared in 29,000 villages in Maharashtra

a) Maharashtra government declared drought in 29,000 villages most of which are located in the parched Marathwada and Vidarbha regions.

b) Maharashtra has around 78% of drought affected districts and has been alloted with the largest sum of relief fund amounting to Rs. 3,049 crores. The state government also stated that all help prescribed in the Drought Manual, 2009, would be provided to the drought stricken areas.

5. Uday Kotak, the only Indian in Forbes 40 Most Powerful in the world of Finance

a) Uday Kotak, the CEO of Kotak Mahindra Bank is the only Indian who made it to the Forbes list of 40 most powerful people in the financial world.

b) The 57 year old stood 33rd in the list called ‘Money Masters: The Most Powerful People In The Financial World.

c) Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of the Blackstone Group topped the list with a net worth of $10.2 billion and oversees assets worth $344 billion.

d) Kotak has a net worth of about $7.1 billion.

6. Automatic sharing of country by country reporting enabled between India & China

a) A multilateral Competent Authority agreement was recently signed between six countries namely India, China, Israel, New Zealand, Canada & Iceland.

b) This agreement is aimed at exchanging country-by country reports (CbC MCAA) with each other automatically.

c) This agreement will also help to provide a proper understanding of method of MNEs various operations while ensuring that the confidentiality of such information is safeguarded.

d) Country-by-country reporting norms were proposed under the base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS) norms pioneered by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) as part of the minimum standards that governments are expected to adopt by 2017.

d) MNEs have to provide information regarding their business, global allocation of income and taxes paid, etc. It will also cover information about which entities do business in a particular jurisdiction and the business activities each entity engages in.

e) With inclusion of these six countries, the total number of signatories summed up to 39.

7. Rwanda will host 26th World Economic Forum on Africa

a) 26th World Economic Forum on Africa will be held in Rwandan capital in Kigali. More than 1,500 delegates from global and regional corporations are expected to attend this summit.

b) The goal of the World Economic Forum is to promote public-private partnership. The theme of this year’s summit is: Connecting Africa’s Resources Through Digital Transformation.

c) The forum comes amid a stark economic slowdown in Africa. The global drop in price of oil and other commodities have hit some countries, like Nigeria, hard.

8. PM headed authority on Ganga Rejuvenation recommended

a) In its report on Ganga Rejuvenation, the estimates committee of parliament has recommended to form a fully empowered authority headed by Indian Prime minister.The committee also recommended to curb the red tapism in various ministries of state governments which are responsible for securing the nirmalta (purity) and aviralta (flow) of the Ganga by July 2018.

b) This committee was chaired by well known BJP party member Murli Manohar joshi.

9. Ritu Rani & VR Raghunath recommended for Arjuna award by Hockey India

a) VR Raghunath, Dharamvir Singh and Ritu Rani have been recommended for the Arjuna Award while Sylvanus Dung Dung has been recommended for the Major Dhyan Chand Lifetime Achievement Award while veteran Coach CR Kumar is recommended for the Dronacharya Award.

b) Debuted in 2005, VR Raghunath was a part of the Indian team that won the bronze in the 2007 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, silver in 2008, gold in the 2007 Asia Cup and silver in 2013.

c) Likewise, Dharamvir was also a part of the Asian Games gold medal winning team. He was also in the team which won the silver medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and the bronze medal at 24th Sultan Azlan Shah Cup.

d) Ritu Rani led the team from the front and helped it achieve the 2016 Rio Olympic berth.

e) Coach CR Kumar served as the head coach for the junior men’s hockey in 2011 and helped it achieve Junior world cup in Hobart.

10. Congress member of Rajya Sabha Praveen Rashtrapal passes away

a) Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Praveen Rashtrapal (76) passed away on 12th of may after suffering a cardiac arrest.

b) He was elected to the 13th Lok Sabha (1999-2004). He was a member from the Upper House from April 2006 to April 2012 and was re-elected in April 2012.

c) Praveen Rashtrapal was associated with the trade union movement of Income Tax employees. He served as Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax before he begun his journey in politics.

d) He published books like The Betrayal, 2003 (in Gujarati), Worshipping False God (A Review) 2003, Socialism, Bin Sampraday and Samanta, 2003, Sadak Thi Sansad, 2004 and NISBAT-collection of articles.

11. Stephen Curry becomes NBA’s most valuable player again

a) Recently, Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry became the NBA’s Most Valuable Player for the second straight year.

b) In 61 year old history of these awards he is the first player to be chosen unanimously. He has become the 11th person to win back to back MVP awards after veteran players like James, Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.

c) He received total 1310 points to top the list of basketball players. The Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell Westbrook (stood at fourth place with 486 points) and Kevin Durant (stood at fifth place with 147 points).

12. Shashank Manohar elected as independent ICC chairman

a) Shashank Manohar has been elected by the Board unanimously and unopposed as the Chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) following the ICC Full Council’s approval of constitutional amendments proposed by the Board following its April meeting.

b) He is the first elected independent chairman and will serve for a term of two years.

c) Manohar is a Nagpur based lawyer who served his first stint as the BCCI President from 2008-2011. He was re-elected as the president of BCCI following the passing of Jagmohan Dalmiya.

13. Suspension on Sri Lankan wicket player Kusal Perera lifted

a) International Cricket council (ICC) has lifted provisional suspension imposed on Sri Lankan Wicket Keeper Kusal Perera.

b) While on New Zealand tour in 2015, Perera was tested positive by a banned substance and was recalled from the tour.

c) But, the WADA accredited laboratory in Qatar withdrew its original Adverse Analytical Finding following further investigations. So, now Perera can resume his domestic and international cricket career.

14. ICICI launched country’s first contactless business credit card

a) India’s first ever contactless business credit card was recently launched by ICICI bank in association with Jet Airways for small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their employees.

b) The card is branded as ‘Jet Airways ICICI Bank Business Advantage card’. It will help customers to save their business expenses.

c) This card is powered by the ‘VISA payWave’ contactless technology that enables the cardholder to make payments by simply tapping the card at contactless enabled terminals in more than 48 countries, including India.

15. World’s biggest refugee camp in Dadaab soon to be closed

a) The Kenyan government has decided to close down world’s biggest refugee camp in Dadaab. This camp is home to around 3,30,000 Somali refugees.

b) This decision came because this camp is known to have become safe haven for terrorist organizations in the region like ‘al-Shabaab’ which are becoming threat to Kenya’s national security.

c) The camp was established in 1991 to help the Somali citizens who were fleeing from the civil war in their country.

16. MoU between SEBI & FSRA Abu Dhabi approved by union government

a) Union Cabinet recently gave a green signal to a MoU signed between Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) & with Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), Abu Dhabi.

b) This MoU will facilitate mutual co-operation & technical assistance between these two financial organizations.

c) This MoU will also work towards strengthening the information sharing framework, development of securities markets, etc.