1. Jain community in Gujarat received minority status

a) As per the recent Gujarat government resolution (GR) the Jain community in Gujarat has been given the minority status. This decision was taken by Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel.

b) This newly grant minority status has no connection with reservation. It will rather benefit the poor among Jain community where they will be benefitted with various government welfare schemes and scholarships.

c) Jain institution will also receive special status as the institutions of other minority communities in the state. Other minority communities in the state are Muslims, Christians, Parsis, Sikhs & Buddhists.

d) At present around 50 lakh people are part of Jain Community in India. This community is considered prosperous as most of the population is associated with business.

2. A multi partner trust fund launched by UN for Zika response

a) UN Zika response Multi-Partner Trust Fund(MPTF) was recently launched by United Nations to finance critical unfunded priorities in response to Zika outbreak.

b) This fund was launched to provide coordinated response from UN & its partners. This fund will directly benefit WHO’s Zika strategic response framework.

c) Under the programme, the donors will contribute to a central point and an Advisory Committee will direct funds to the highest-priority activities in the affected countries.

3. Novak Djokovic emerged victorious in Mutua Madrid Open

a) By defeating Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic bagged the Mutua Madrid 2016 Open title in Madrid, Spain.

b) With this win, Djokovic has a total of five wins out of 6 ATP 1000 competitions. He also reached a record of 29 Masters 1000 titles.

c) Serbian player Novak Djokovic, is currently at the top position in men’s singles tennis. Till this date, he has won total 11 Grand Slam titles.

4. Shashi Kapoor’s Biography released

a) Biography of veteran bollywood actor, Shashi Kapoor, authored by film Journalist Aseem Chhabra was recently released. The book titled as Shashi Kapoor – the householder, the star talks about life events and journey of Shashi Kapoor in bollywood as an actor.

b) Born as a member of veteran Kapoor family in Bollywood, Shashi Kapoor appeared in many bollywood films as an actor. He also played part of assistant director and director of few movies.

c) He has also acted in few English language films, mostly from the Merchant-Ivory productions.

d) He was awarded with Padma Bhushan in 2011 & in 2015 he was awarded with Dadasaheb Phalke award.

5. Nagaland’s vehicle monitoring system awarded

a) National award for smart policing in the category of Road safety & Traffic Management was bagged by Nagaland’s SMS based vehicle monitoring system. This award was instituted by Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FICCI).

b) Union Minister of state for Home Affairs, Haribhai Chaudhari presented this award to Nagaland Police.

c) This monitoring system was executed by Ben Imchen, a postgraduate from IIT Delhi and proprietor of Elysium Enterprises. It was started in April, 2015 and resulted in great reduction in the 4 wheelers theft across the state. It provides a common platform for police and the citizens to report theft and alert various field formations just by sending a SMS.

6. Bundi, Rajasthan to get digital mapping

a) Bundi in Rajasthan will be the first in India to get digital mapping with comprehensive database of its demographical and geographical information, including small lanes, streets, trees, drains, electric poles and houses, besides monuments with detailed information.

b) The digital mapping will keep the illegal constructions in the check. The database created under this project can be accessed by anyone where dimension of the house or any other construction can be easily checked.

7. Atomic oxygen detected in Mars

a) Atomic oxygen was found in the upper Martian atmosphere called mesosphere. Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) detected atomic oxygen in the atmosphere of Mars for the first time since the last observation 40 years ago.

b) Atomic oxygen affects how other gases escape Mars and therefore has a significant impact on the planet’s atmosphere. Scientists detected only about half the amount of oxygen expected, which may be due to variations in the Martian atmosphere.

c) SOFIA is a Boeing 747SP jetliner modified to carry a 100-inch diameter telescope. It is a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center.

8. India ranked at ninth position in Crony Capitalism index.

a) India is ranked at 9th position in the Crony Capitalism index released by Economist in the first week of May 2016.

b) Crony sector wealth accounts for 3.4% country’s GDP while Non crony sector wealth in India accounts for 8.3% of the GDP.

c) Russia is at the top position, followed by Malaysia, Philippines and Singapore. Russia’s 18% of the GDP accounts for crony sector wealth.

d) Considering the whole world’s statistics, among the 22 great economies in the world, the crony wealth has fallen by 116 Billion US dollars since 2014. The worth of billionaires in crony industries Worldwide is soared by 385% between 2004 and 2014 to 2 US dollars trillion.

e) This index was made by Ruchir Sharma of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Aditi Gandhi and Michael Walton of Centre for Policy Research of New Delhi in 2014. The index indicates the livelihood of the people from certain country or city with capitalist economy is easily affected by crony capitalism.

9. From 1 Jan, 2017 Dial 112 for any emergency anywhere in the India

a) From 1st January, 2017 ‘112’ can be dialed to get help of immediate services like police, ambulance & fire department. It will be similar to the all-in-one emergency number 911 in US.

b) This number can be easily accessed even through SIMs & landlines whose outgoing call facility is stopped or temporarily suspended.

c) All-in-one emergency service number was approved by Union telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.

10. Chan’s Megastick bug of China declared as world’s longest insect

a) Chinese stick insect Chan’s Megastick has created a record of being the world’s longest insect. The length of this insect is around 62.4 cm.

b) The bug is also known as Phobaeticus chani. It was discovered two years ago in southern province of Guangxi China.

c) The bug was named after Malaysian naturalist Datuk, Chan Chew Lun. This bug was among the top 10 new species described in 2008 by the International Institute of species Exploration in Arizona.

d) This bug broke the record of 56.7 cm long Malaysian stick insect discovered in 2008.