The President of India Pranab Mukherjee on 29 May 2016 presented the Malti Gyan Peeth Puraskar for the year 2016 at a function held at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
•    The award was conferred upon 15 teachers from Punjab for their rare contribution in the field of education.
•    The awardees were facilitated with 1 lakh rupees cash, certificate of excellence, a Robe of Honour and a medal.
•    The initiative was mainly taken to promote the quality teaching in the schools besides encouraging the hundred percent attendance of girl students in the government schools.
•    The Malti Gyan Peeth Puraskar was instituted by Mohinder Singh Syngle Education & Research Society.
•    It was instituted in honour of its founder Malti Mohinder Singh Syngle, eminent educationist and social worker.
•    Every year, government school teachers from Punjab Government’s High & Higher Secondary Schools receive this award for their contributions in the field of education.
•    The teachers already awarded with the National or State Awards were not considered for this award.

The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) on Wednesday launched a multilingual knowledge portal www.bharatavani.in that has more than 130 dictionaries, glossaries and terminology books in text and PDF formats.
•    The content in print and other formats will be completely digitized and put onto the portal in the form of searchable text. 
•    The portal has been launched in 22 scheduled languages, which eventually   will be extended to 100 more languages,
•    The App has 35 multilingual Dictionaries and HRD aims to extend it to 250 dictionaries in a year’s time
•    Bharatavani aims to foster national integration by emphasizing on            multilingual and cross-lingual learning tools and technologies.
•    The Bharatavani Portal would publish the content in the following main      sections:
Paa Thyapustaka Kosha : Textbooks by various authorities
Jnana Kosha : Encyclopedic Knowledge base in all languages
Shabda Kosha: Dictionaries, Glossaries, Terminologies,
Bhasha Kosha: Language learning books
Suchanaa Praudyogikii Kosha : It tools ( right now linked to TDIL)
Bahumaadhyama Kosha: Multimedia content
•    More than 130 Dictionaries, Glossaries and Terminology books have been   posted on the web portal. These dictionaries are available in text and PDF   formats.

Intel India announced a series of initiatives that strengthen its support for the Digital India programme launched by the Government of India. Intel detailed three projects designed to accelerate digital literacy at the grassroots level by reaching out to the population in non-urban India, up-skill citizens in tier II cities and beyond, and encourage innovation from the local level
•    Building on the momentum of its 'Ek Kadam Unnati Ki Aur' initiative, the company aims to accelerate access to technology in non-urban India, Intel India e-launched its latest 'Unnati Kendra at Common Service Centre' (UK at CSC) in Karnal.
•    Intel India also announced the Digital Unnati website, being set up in collaboration with the CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd. 
•    It will enable Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) to learn how to assemble a PC online and up-skill their technology know-how.
•    Trained personnel at these centers are also conducting in-depth sessions on digital literacy, computer skills and internet facilities, along with dedicated guidance sessions in entrepreneurship, language and vocational training, with the goal of creating opportunities for non-urban education, employment and empowerment.

It is going to be mandatory for public transport buses to install emergency buttons, CCTV cameras and vehicle tracking devices to ensure the safety of women commuters, Road Transport and Highways. 
•    Government will issue a notification on June 2, laying down the safety measures to be installed in public transport buses across the country.
•    The statement came at an event at Bikaner House in Delhi where Gadkari launched 20 such Rajasthan government buses. 
•    The 20 Mahila Gaurav Express buses that would run between Delhi and Rajasthan are part of a pilot project. 
•    The Rajasthan government plans to eventually bring over 2,300 more buses under the project’s ambit.
•    Many women are also scared of the ‘consequences’ of confronting harassers. Only 36% of those surveyed say they would help a co-passenger being harassed; 22% others feel it’s safer to ignore such regular incidents

The Union Ministry of Human Resource Development has decided to launch, a student tracking system programme ASMITA.
•    It is acronym for All School Monitoring Individual Tracing Analysis.
•    It will be launched under Shala Asmita Yojana (SAY).
•    It aims to track the educational journey of school students from Class I to Class XII across the 15 lakhs private and government schools in the country. 
•    ASMITA will be an online database which will carry information of student attendance and enrolment, learning outcomes, mid-day meal service and infrastructural facilities among others. 
•    Students will be tracked through their Aadhaar numbers and incase those not having unique number will be provided with it.
•    The Ministry of Human Resource Development is responsible for the development of human resources. 
•    The Ministry is divided into two departments: the Department of School Education and Literacy, which deals with primary, secondary and higher secondary education, adult education and literacy, and the Department of Higher Education, which deals with university education, technical education, scholarship etc. 

The Union government announced the names of 13 more cities that will be developed under the Centre’s “Smart City Mission.” 
•    Lucknow in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh tops the list, followed by Warangal in Telangana and Dharamshala in Himachal Pradesh.
•    These cities were chosen from the 23 that failed to get representation in the first round of a competition held in January, and participated in the “fast-track competition.” 
•    The results were announced by Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on 24th May 2016.
•    Other cities on the list are Chandigarh, Raipur (Chhattisgarh), New Town Kolkata, Bhagalpur (Bihar), Panaji (Goa), Port Blair (Andaman and Nicobar Islands), Imphal (Manipur), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Agartala (Tripura) and Faridabad (Haryana). 
•    The 13 cities selected in the competition have proposed a total investment of Rs. 30,229 crore. 
•    The  investment proposed by 33 cities under the smart city plans is now Rs. 80,789 crore
•    Of the 13 cities that qualified for the project, four are from BJP-ruled States while two are from Congress-governed States.
•    Lucknow is in Samajwadi Party-ruled Uttar Pradesh
•    Warangal is in Telangana, which is ruled by the Telangana Rashtra Samithi.
•    Chandigarh and Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar Islands were also among the winners of this round.
•    Assured water and power supply, sanitation and solid waste management systems, efficient urban mobility and public transportation, IT connectivity, e-governance and citizen participation are some of the highlights of the smart city project.
•    It aims to transform 100 cities by 2019-20, with the Union government providing financial support of Rs. 48,000 crore over five years.

Anti-Terrorism Day observed Across India on 21 May 2016. The day is celebrated as Death Anniversary of former Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi. 
•    Every Year Union Home Ministry administers the Anti-Terror pledge to Government employees.
•    The staff of the Northeast Frontier Railway Construction Organisation observed Anti Terrorism Day by pledging to work for promoting peace.
•    The objective behind the observance of Anti-Terrorism Day is to wean away the people from terrorism and violence. 
•    The Day is observed to generate awareness in the country among all sections of people, about the danger of terrorism and violence and its effect on the people, society and the country as a whole.

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.

The term Medicines with the Red campaign was appreciated by the Global Review on Antimicrobial Resistance.
•    The review was commissioned by the UK Prime Minister David Cameron in 2014 and chaired by economist Jim O’Neil.
•    As per the review, India led the way so far with its idea of a ‘Red Line Campaign’ for antibiotics packaging.
•    It has several key messages - learn how to identify prescription drugs; curb self medication; and become more aware of the dangers of misusing antibiotics.
•    The campaign was named so as it was mandated that all prescription only drugs should be marked with a vertical red line on the pack.
•    The packs with red lines should be consumed only on doctor’s advice and the patients need to complete full course as prescribed by the doctor.
•    The campaign was launched by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in February 2016.
•    The launch of the campaign became inevitable due to growing misuse of antibiotics across the country.

On 19^th May President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated an Intelligent Operations Centre (IOC) in Rashtrapati Bhavan.
President Mukherjee also launched a Mobile App Monitor for transformation of President’s Estate into a smart township. The Smart President’s Estate will work around the 4H theme of a Humane, Hi-tech,Heritage and Happy Township.
•    The IOC is a software solution designed by IBM.
•    It helps collect and make sense of the rich data streaming in from several sources within the Estate to provide intelligent insights.
•    It offers integrated data visualization, near real-time collaboration and deep analytics that will help agencies prepare for problems, coordinate and manage response efforts and enhance efficiency of services.
•    The Monitor mobile application is a Residents collaboration tool of the Intelligent Operation Center.
•    The application will help residents and domain (Energy, Water, Horticulture, Waste and Security) supervisors to collaborate in a smarter way for their observations.
•    It will enable residents to report issues such as broken street lights, electricity failure, water wastage etc. and check resolution status using their mobile devices.
•    It will allow residents to report these issues using their mobile devices in the Estate on a real time basis.
•    These reported observations can be used to provide enough details such as location coordinates, address to concerned departments.
•    This will help the residents of the Estate become more socially responsible, aware and collaborative.