Lt General S K Saini has taken over as the new commandant of prestigious Indian Military Academy (IMA) .
•    Lt General Saini assumed the office of commandant on May 21. Earlier, he was a senior directing staff in National Defence College (NDC), New Delhi, according to press release issued by IMA.
•    Lt General Saini is an alumni of National Defence Academy (NDA) and IMA. In 1981, he was commissioned to seventh battalion of Jat regiment.
•    In his career of 36 years, he has held many important posts.
•    The Indian Military Academy, Dehradun is the officer training Academy of the Indian Army. IMA was established in the year 1932.
•    During the Indian independence struggle, Indian leaders recognized the need for a local military institution to meet the needs of an armed force loyal to sovereign India. 
•    The British Raj was reluctant to commission Indian officers or to permit local officer training. 
•    Until World War I Indians were not eligible for commission as officers in the Indian Army.

On 22 May 2016 Anurag Thakur was unanimously elected as 34th BCCI President at the board’s special general meeting (SGM) in Mumbai. 
•    He will serve as President until September 2017.
•    Thakur is a BJP MP in Lok Sabha from Himachal Pradesh's Hamirpur district, is the second youngest BCCI chief. 
•    Fateh Singh Gaekwad in 1963 became the youngest BCCI President at the age of 33.
•    Thakur succeeds Shashank Manohar who stepped down from the position to take up the ICC chief's job. Manohar was elected the ICC's first independent chairman on 12 May 2016.
•    Before being appointed as President, Thakur resigned as BCCI Secretary. Thakur, 41, will also represent the BCCI on the ICC executive board and the Asian Cricket Council.
•    He is the son of Prem Kumar Dhumal, the former Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh.
•    He has been a member of 14th, 15th and 16th Lok Sabha.
•    He was elected as the Honorary Secretary of the BCCI in January 2015.
•    He played one match in first-class cricket representing Himachal Pradesh and leading the team as captain in a match against Jammu and Kashmir in the 2000/2001 season.

Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party elected President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to become its new leader and prime minister, paving the way for a constitutional overhaul that would allow the president to extend his powers.
•    Binali Yildirim, the sole candidate for prime minister, received votes from all 1,405 delegates at a party congress. 
•    Later Mr. Erdogan gave Mr. Yildirim the official mandate to form a government.
•    The previous Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, abruptly stepped down on May 5 after a public rift with Mr. Erdogan.
•    Mr. Yildirim, 60, is expected to play a subservient role to the president, and to push forward a series of constitutional amendments that would allow Mr. Erdogan to establish an all-powerful presidential system.
•    Party leaders announced that the new government would work in harmony with the president to realize central goals for Turkey’s future.
•    Sentiments expressed at the party congress have been echoed by pro-government columnists, who have called for “obedience” to the “chief” since Mr. Davutoglu’s resignation.

The ISRO successfully launched the first 'Made in India' space shuttle
•    It is called the Reusable Launch Vehicle.
•    It was launched early on 23rd May morning from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
•    The test launch is important because in 2011, the U.S.'s Nasa abandoned its reusable space shuttle project
•    The RLV-TD is described as "a very preliminary step" in the development of a reusable rocket, the final version of which is expected to take 10-15 years.
•    The government has invested Rs 95 crores in the project.•    ISRO chairman Kiran Kumar said that it is essentially an attempt bring down the cost of making infrastructure for space.•    The RLV is a mechanism to bring down the cost of launch. We intend to go through a series of technology demonstration exercises, the first one of which we call HEX-01, that is a hypersonic experiment. It is called a winged body," Kumar said.•    This is the first of a series of experiments and India still have a long way to go till it reach the actual RLV, which will give a tremendous capacity in terms of launching at a very low cost.

BJP leader and former IPS officer Kiran Bedi was on 22nd may 2016 appointed as Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry.
This post was under the additional charge of Lt Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Island for nearly two years.
•    The appointment comes three days after the Congress-DMK alliance won 17 seats in the 30-member state Assembly. AIADMK, which contested the elections on its own, won four seats while BJP could not get even a single seat.
•    The LG post in the Union territory had been lying vacant after the Narendra Modi Government sacked UPA nominee Virendra Kataria on July 12 barely a year after he had been appointed. Lt Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Island Lt Gen Ajay Singh had been given additional charge of Puducherry.
•    Kiran Bedi is a retired Indian Police Service officer, social activist, former tennis player and politician from India. 
•    She remained in service for 35 years before taking voluntary retirement in 2007 as Director General, Bureau of Police Research and Development.

On 21st May ‘International Buddha Poornima Diwas 2016’ was celebrated to commemorate Buddha’s Birth, Sambodhiprapti and Mahaparinirvana falling on the auspicious full moon day of the month of Vaishakh. 
•    Rajnath Singh, Union Minister for Home Affairs was the Chief Guest. Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Culture & Tourism (I/C) and Civil Aviation, Shri Kiren Rijiju, Minister of State for Home Affairs and Shri Upendra Kushwaha, Minister of State for Human Resources Development were present at the occasion. 
•    Bhaghwan Buddha was a very large hearted person and solutions to all problems of mankind are contained in his teachings. 
•    Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar adopted Buddism as he was greatly influenced with the sacred teachings of Bhagwan Buddha. 
•    He wished all Buddhists worldwide on this auspicious occasion.
•    Ministry of Tourism has launched a programme namely “Swadesh Darshan” which has a special component of “Buddhist Circuit” which connects all religious places of Buddhism very conveniently
•    Government of India attaches great importance to Buddh Poornima and now onwards it will be celebrated every year like this.
•    UN recognizes the importance of this day. The UN Day of Vesak Celebration is internationally a cultural and humanistic festival of the United Nations International Organizing Committee. 

Former Finance Secretary,Ratan P Watal has been appointed as the Principle Adviser for social sector in Niti Aayog. He has been appointed to the post for three years. 
The new appointment for Watal comes a fortnight after his two-month extended tenure ended in April. He was to retire in February. However, Watal later got a two-month extension as the Finance Secretary. 
Watal, a retired IAS officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre, had been Finance Secretary between August last year and April this year.
•    The National Institution for Transforming India Aayog  or NITI Aayog is a Government of India policy think-tank established by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to replace the Planning Commission.
•    The stated aim for NITI Aayog’s creation is to foster involvement and participation in the economic policy-making process by the State Governments of India.
•    It has adopted a “bottom-up” approach in planning which is a remarkable contrast to the Planning Commission’s tradition of “top-down” decision-making.
•    One of the important mandates of NITI Aayog is to bring cooperative competitive federalism and to improve centre state relation .
•    This is well reflected when Indian Prime Minister appointed three sub-groups of chief ministers for making recommendations in three important areas (centrally sponsored schemes, skill development and Swachh Bharat).
•    NITI Aayog will provide opportunities, that the previous Planning Commission structure lacked, to represent the economic interests of the State Governments and Union Territories of India.

Tsai Ing-wen was sworn-in as the President of Taiwan on 20 May 2016. With this, she became the first woman to hold the post in Taiwan.
•    Before being presented the official seal, 59-year-old, Tsai swore the presidential oath in front of national flag. She succeeded outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou.
•    Tsai has said she will preserve the status quo in relations with China, but that Beijing must respect Taiwan's democracy.
•    Earlier in January 2016, Tsai led the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to a landslide win in parliamentary and presidential elections.
•    This is the only second time that DPP has won an election in Taiwan. The Kuomintang (KMT) has been in power for most of the past 70 years.
•    The DPP has traditionally leaned towards independence from China, and its victory has led to a cooling of cross-straits relations. China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province, which it has threatened to take back by force if necessary.

Rakesh Kumar Mishra, has been appointed as the new Director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
•    He is a noted expert in the study of function of genes,
•    He had joined CCMB in 2001 as a senior scientist after stints at the IISc, Bangalore, the University of Bordeaux, France, Saint Louise University, USA and the University of Geneva, Switzerland for post-doctoral experience.
•    An MSc from Allahabad University, Mishra's research interests include investigating evolutionarily conserved features of genome organisation, chromatin structure and epigenetic regulation of genes during embryonic development stages.
•    The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology or CCMB is an Indian Biotechnology research establishment of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research located in Hyderabad, India, and a designated Center of Excellence for Global Molecular and Cell Biology Network, UNESCO. 

Election Commission on 19 May 2016 announced results of 2016 Legislative Assembly Election Assam. 
•    The elections were held in two phases on 4 April 2016 and 11 April 2016 for 126 assembly seats.
•    In the election, BJP and its alliance partners have won an absolute majority in Assam state assembly election.
•    It has won 60 seats on its own in the 126 member House. Its ally AGP has won 14 seats while another ally BPF has bagged 12 seats.
•    BJP has thus made history by winning an assembly election in the state. Ruling Congress has bagged 26 seats, AIUDF 13 and one seat has gone to an independent.
•    BJP Chief Ministerial candidate Sarbananda Sonowal has won from Majuli seat, defeating his nearest rival by more than 18000 votes. 
•    Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has won in Titabar, with a margin of over 17000 votes.
•    This thumping win of BJP in north-east India can be seen as its entry in the north-eastern part of India or expanding political influence beyond its traditional heartland. 
•    The interesting fact of the results is that the party managed to break into Congress stronghold.
•    Assam is known for Assam tea and Assam silk. The first oil well in Asia was drilled here. 
•    The state has conserved the one-horned Indian rhinoceros from near extinction, along with the pygmy hog, tiger and various species of Asiatic birds. 
•    It provides one of the last wild habitats for the Asian elephant. The Assamese economy is aided by wildlife tourism, centred around Kaziranga National Park and Manas National Park which are World Heritage Sites. 
•    Sal tree forests are found in the state, which as a result of rainfall looks green all year round. Assam receives more rainfall compared to most part of India.