Current Affairs, May 2015– Important Events

1st May 2015:

• World Labour Day celebrated today.

• Microsoft announced Edge as its next Web Browser’s name which will replace the Internet Explorer as default browser.

2nd May 2015:

• Eminent Indian scientist C N R Rao was conferred with Japan’s highest civilian award for his outstanding contributions to science and Indo-Japanese science cooperation.  

3rd May 2015:

• UNESCO presented the 2015 UNESCO-Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize to Syrian journalist and rights activist Mazen Darwish.

• Floyd Mayweather Jr. of America defeated Manny Pacquiao in a championship boxing match in Las Vegas by unanimous decision.

• Chelsea wins the English Premier League title as they defeated Crystal Palace 1-0 in Stamford Bridge with three more match to play.

• The World Press Freedom day was observed globally.

4th May 2015:

KBUNL - Unit of BHEL in Kanti, Muzaffarpur, Bihar

• Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) commissioned a 195 MW thermal unit of Kanti Bijlee Utpadan Nigam Limited (KBUNL) in Muzaffarpur, Bihar.

5th May 2015:

• Indian Army inducted the first regiment of the indigenously-developed Surface-to-Air missile Akash Weapon System (AWS).

• World Asthma Day was observed across the world.

6th May 2015:

• Lok Sabha passed the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill, 2014 which is also known as Constitution (122nd Amendment) Bill.

• The Rajya Sabha passed a bill to operationalise the Land Boundary Agreement with Bangladesh for disputed land exchange between the two countries.

• The Canadian House of Commons on 6 May approved the Bill C-51, Anti-Terror Act, 2015 that empowers the country’s spy agency.

7th May 2015:

• Lok Sabha passed Juvenile Justice Bill that will allow children who are 16 and above to be tried as adults in serious crimes to become a law.

• Former Gujarat Chief Secretary Achal Kumar Jyoti appointed as the Chief Election Commissioner.

• State Bank of India (SBI) launched State Bank RuPay Platinum debit card in association with National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).

8th May 2015:

• Land-to-land configuration of BrahMos missile successfully test-fired from the Car Nicobar Islands. BrahMos Block–III version i.e. land-to-land configuration of missile was launched from a Mobile Autonomous Launcher (MAL) for its full-range of 290-km test.

• British Prime Minister David Cameron and his Conservatives Party win in the British general election.

• Microsoft confirms that Windows 10 will be its last Operating System.

9th May 2015:

• Three social security schemes-"Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana" (accident insurance), "Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Yojana" (life insurance) and "Atal Pension Yojana" launch nationwide, with PM Narendra Modi flagging off the process in Kolkata.

• World Health Organization (WHO), a U.N. health agency declared Liberia as Ebola-free.

10th May 2015:

• Today is celebrated as Mother's Day across the globe.

• Actor and filmmaker Shashi Kapoor received the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke award by Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley at Prithvi theatre in Mumbai.

• Today PM Modi inaugurated the upgraded IISCO Steel Plant (ISP) at Burnpur, West Bengal. The ISP houses the largest blast furnace of India.

• Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg of Germany won Spanish Grand Prix Formula 1 World Championship title at Barcelona in Spain.

11th May 2015:

• Former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu J Jayalalithaa has been acquitted by a Bangalore Court in a corruption case that had led to her being jailed.

• KV Kamath who is presently non-executive Chairman of ICICI Bank, appointed as the President of the New Development Bank of the BRICS.

12th May 2015:

• Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav launched Samajwadi water ATM scheme at bus stations.

• Rashtrapati Bhavan announcing the appointments V Shanmuganthan as Governor of Meghalaya, J P Rakkhowa as the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh. Lt Gen(retd) Nirbhay Sharma, who was serving as Governor of Arunachal Pradesh transferred and appointed as Governor of Mizoram. The Governor of Jharkhand Syed Ahmed has been shifted to Manipur as new Governor.

• A painting by surreal Spanish artist Pablo Picasso has set a new world record for the most expensive artwork to be sold at auction after reaching $179m (£115m) in New York.

13th May 2015:

• The Supreme Court has said that government ads can feature pictures of only the Prime Minister, the President, and the Chief Justice of India with the approval from them.

• The Black Money Bill passed by parliament.

• Punjab became the first state in India to issue Soil Health Cards to farmers.Punjab Agriculture Department  launched a pan-state programme to monitor the soil health of every farm in the state by issuing them personalised Soil Health Cards (SHCs).

 14th May 2015:

• Supreme Court orders investigation on the former CBI chief Ranjit Sinha for abusing the powers of his office.

16th May 2015:

• An Egyptian court sentenced deposed Islamist president Mohamed Morsi and more than 100 other defendants to death over jail breaks during the 2011 uprising.

• PM Narendra Modi left for Mongolia, on the second leg of his three-nation tour which is a first visit by an Indian prime minister to Mongolia.

• Infosys announced establishing its first overseas centre outside India in China.

17th May 2015:

• Maria Sharapova of Russia won the Rome Masters tennis tournament women’s singles title.  Novak Djokovic of Serbia won Rome Masters Tennis men’s single title.

19th May 2015:

• Now callers can call STD Mobile Numbers without adding '0' or '+91' as Prefix.

• Draupadi Murmu sworn in as first woman Governor of Jharkhand.

20th May 2015:

• Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai has been announced as the winner of the sixth Man Booker International Prize 2015.

21st May 2015:

• Barcelona wins the Spanish La Liga title for the 23rd time.

23rd May 2015:

• J Jayalalithaa sworn in as Tamil Nadu Chief Minister for a record fifth term.

24th May 2015:

• Director Neeraj Ghaywan's film Masaan has bagged two awards at the prestigious 68th Cannes International Film Festival.

• Ireland becomes the first country to Legalize Gay Marriage by Popular Vote.

• Mumbai Indians wins the Indian Premier League 2015 after defeating Chennai Super Kings by 41 runs.

• Dwayne Bravo wins the Purple Cap as highest wicket taker with 26 wickets. David Warner wins the Orange Cap as he scores highest total of 562 runs.

26th May 2015:

• PM  Modi launched Doordarshan's farmer-centric channel known as DD Kisan.

• The middle order batsman Ajinkya Rahane was named as the CEAT Indian Cricketer of the Year 2015.

28th May 2015:

• AFSPA act removed in Tripura after 18 years.

• Swiss authorities arrested seven top FIFA football officials following a US request in a corruption probe.

29th May 2015:

• Power Secretary Pradeep Kumar Sinha appointed as the next Cabinet Secretary.

• Muhammadu Buhari sworn in as new President of Nigeria.

• Sepp Blatter has been re-elected as president of FIFA for a fifth term.

30th May 2015:

• The Union Government cleared the contentious land ordinance for the third time after failing to win parliamentary approval.

• A case lodged against Nestle India over safety standards of its Maggi product by the UP food regulator FSDA (Food Safety and Drug Administration).

31st May 2015:

• World No Tobacco Day observed today globally.

Miscellaneous

• World’s Mothers 2015 report titled “The Urban Disadvantage” has been prepared by “Save the Children” organisation and was launched in India by Union Minority Affairs Minister Najma Heptulla. According to the report, India was placed at 140th position out of 179 countries. Top 5 countries as per 2015 Mother’s Index are – Norway (1st), Finland (2nd), Iceland (3rd), Denmark (4th) and Swedan (5th).

• India was ranked at a low 100th position on a global Human Capital Index, which measures the countries in terms of the economies leveraging their human capital, where Finland has topped the 124-nation list. In this list, compiled by World Economic Forum (WEF), other emerging economies such as Russia, China, Brazil and South Africa are ranked ahead of India.

• US magazine Forbes released Global 2000 Companies list. According to the list, India has 56 of the world’s 2000 largest and most powerful public companies. The list is topped by US (579 companies), followed by China (232 companies) and Japan (218 companies). Reliance Industries, the topmost Indian company is ranked 142 on the list.

• HDFC (7^th rank) has emerged as the only Indian company among the world’s 10 biggest consumer financial services firms, after giants like American Express, Visa and Master card.

• SBI Chief Arundhati Bhattacharya (30^th rank), ICICI bank head Chanda Kochhar (35^th rank), Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (85^th rank),  and HT Media Chair Shobhana Bhartia (93^rd rank),  were listed in the 12th Forbes’100 Most Powerful Women List. The world’s most powerful woman in the list is German Chancellor Angela Merkel who fetched the first rank.