GK and Current Affairs Updates

Indian Air Force has launched its Electronic Maintenance Management System (e-MMS) Project, an automated military maintenance system. 
•    It was inaugurated by the Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha at the Air Force Station in Pune, Maharashtra. 
•    The e-MMS project is one of the largest Maintenance Repair Overhaul (MRO) IT implementation in the world. The project has been designed and developed by the Indian IT giant Wipro. 
•    IAF had signed the contract for the project e-MMS with Wipro as a System Integrator (SI) in 2013. 
•    The e-MMS system has a central console that will help IAF to get rid of paper works and heavy logbooks. It seeks to seamlessly connect squadrons, wings, commands, and Air Headquarters after its implementation. 
•    It will transform IAF’s paper-based legacy maintenance system to an online system as it will be implemented in IAF’s hierarchy and functioning. 

Senior audit service officer Hindupur Pradeep Rao was today appointed as Deputy Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
•    Rao, a 1981 batch officer of Indian Audit and Account Service, is presently working as Additional CAG.
•    The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the appointment of Rao as Deputy CAG with effect from July 1, 2016, an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training said.
•    The Comptroller and Auditor General is country's top auditing body. 
•    In another order, the ACC has appointed A K Mittal as Member (Engineering) in Railway Board here.
•    Mittal, who belong to Indian Railway Service of Engineers, is presently General Manager of East Central Railway.
•    He has been appointed to the new post with effect from June 1, 2016.

Former beauty queen, Bollywood actress and global human rights activist Celina Jaitly, will be honored May 13 by the Harvey Milk Foundation at the second annual Diversity Honors at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
•    She is a strong supporter of repealing Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalizes homosexuality,
•    Jaitly will receive the Harvey Milk Foundation’s Lilla Watson Global Champion Medal at the gala co-presented by the Harvey Milk Foundation and The Pride Center at Equality Park.
•    Jaitly, is an official Champion of the United Nations Free & Equal Campaign, will be honored for her advocacy and support for the LGBT rights movement in India. 
•    A former Miss India winner and Miss Universe runner-up, she is one of the most visible advocates against the criminalization of same-sex relationships in the world’s largest democracy.
•    Jaitly will join other Diversity Honors notables to be celebrated for their commitment to transforming lives by living authentically and advancing inclusiveness.
•    Guests at Diversity Honors will preview the North American premiere of the Levi’s X Harvey Milk Foundation Pride 2016 Collection 
•    The awards presentation will be hosted by WSVN news anchor Omar Lewis and will include Stuart Milk’s 2016 “State of the Global Equality” address.

Anjali Chandrashekar, won the third prize at the United Nations Poster for Peace Contest. 
•    She received the award at the U.N. Headquarters in New York on May 3.
•    Two of Anjali’s works were selected — ‘Break Free’ and ‘Cutting a Peace Deal’. 
•    ‘Break Free’ shows white peace doves fly out of a cage shaped like a nuclear warhead, while the other poster was about affirmative action — the dove acts like scissors and cuts through the image of a warhead, towards peace.
•    Anajli, who studied at PSBB Senior Secondary School and went on to graduate from Pratt Institute in the U.S., is no stranger to using her talent for a cause — to raise funds and to create awareness. She’s been doing it since she was 10, and has participated in several U.N. campaigns in the past.
•    This campaign was to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the first General Assembly Resolution and to reaffirm the U.N.’s historic commitment to nuclear disarmament. At the U.N., she also met the President of the General Assembly Mogens Lykketoft and actor Michael Douglas, long-standing U.N. Messenger of Peace.

China has successfully launched a remote sensing satellite which will focus on experiments on survey of land, crop yields and disaster relief.
•    The satellite named Yaogan—29 was carried by a Long March—4C rocket after it was launched on Thursday from Taiyuan in the country’s northern Shanxi province.
•    This is the 219th mission for the Long March rocket family. China launched the first “Yaogan” series satellite, Yaogan—1, in 2006.
•    The satellite will be used for experiments, land surveys, crop yield estimates and disaster relief, state—run Xinhua news agency reported.
•    Western analysts believe the series of satellites are of a military nature, using electronic intelligence, electro—optical and synthetic aperture radar sensing equipment.
•    This launch comes weeks after China had successfully launched Yaogan—28.

Olympics runner Sudha Singh, who created a national record in women's 3000m steeplechase at the International Association of Athletics Federations Diamond League in Shanghai last week.
•    Sudha's new record — 9:26:55secs — rewritten 15 days after Asian champion Lalita Babar's national mark in New Delhi, has intensified the friendly rivalry between the duo who train under same foreign coach Nikolai Snesraev.
•    Lalita has already qualified for the Rio Olympics in women's 3000m steeplechase.
•    For Sudha, the the IAAF Diamond League race was her first international outing on track since the 2014 Asian Games and she admitted to have butterflies in her stomach prior to the prestigious event in Shanghai, where she finished eighth in the women's 3000m steeplechase.
•    Sudha, finished fourth in her pet event at the 2014 Asian Games.
•    Lalita, who finished eighth in the World Championships in Beijing last year, said she could not run her natural race in Shanghai.

Andy Murray on 15 May 2016 won his first Italian Open Men's Singles Tennis title. In the final played in Rome, third-ranked Murray defeated the top-ranked Djokovic 6-3, 6-3.
•    It is Murray's first title in Rome and it comes exactly a week before the French Open begins on 22 May 2016.
•    The only other British man to win the tournament was George Patrick Hughes in 1931. 
•    He is also the first British singles champion in Italy since Virginia Wade won the title in 1971.
•    On the other hand, Serena Williams ended a nine-month title drought with a 7-6, 6-3 win over Madison Keys in an all American women's Singles final.
•    Besides, Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis won the Women's Doubles 
•    In the final, the World Number One pair defeated the 7th seeded Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 6-1, 6-7, 10-3.

World No. 1 women's doubles team of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis on 15 May 2016 captured the Italian Open title. The pair defeated Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova 6-1, 6(5)-7, 10-3 in the final to clinch the title.
With the win, Mirza and Hingis also captured their 14th women's doubles title together.
•    Sania Mirza is currently ranked No. 1 in the women's doubles rankings.
•    From 2003 until her retirement from singles in 2013, she was ranked by the Women's Tennis Association as India's No. 1 player, both in singles and doubles.
•    Throughout her career, she has established herself as the most successful female Indian tennis player ever.
•    Martina Hingis is a Swiss professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 1 in doubles by the WTA.
•    She spent a total of 209 weeks as the singles world No. 1.
•    The Italian Open is an annual tennis tournament held in Rome, Italy.
•    It is one of the most prestigious red clay tennis tournaments in the world after the French Open.
•    The tournament is played on clay courts, currently during the second week of May.
•    The event is also known as the Rome Masters and the Italian Championships.
•    Rafael Nadal has won the title a record seven times.
•    The 2015 Italian Open women’s doubles title was won by Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic.
•    Serene Williams is the winner of 2016 Italian Open women’s singles title.
•    Andy Murray is the winner of 2016 Italian Open men’s singles title.

Dutch teenager, Max Verstappen, on 15 May 2016 became Formula One's youngest race winner after winning the Spanish Grand Prix. 
•    His teammate Sebastian Vettel stood at the third position.
•    Verstappen drove to triumph after, Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg crashed out in the first lap of the race.
•    At 18 years and 228 days, Max Verstappen is the youngest race winner in F1 history. The Dutchman was two years and 210 days younger than the previous youngest winner, Sebastian Vettel.
•    Max is the son of former F1 driver Jos Verstappen who never finished better than third in his career.
•    He became the first Dutchman to win a Formula One race and just the second to stand on an F1 podium. The other is his father, Jos, who scored two podium finishes in 1994 with Benetton.
•    He made debut aged 17 at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix for Toro Rosso, this made him the youngest driver to compete in the history of the sport.
•    Verstappen is also the sport’s youngest race leader and youngest podium finisher.
•    He is also the youngest F1 point scorer and the youngest driver to start a Grand Prix, both achieved 2015 season.

World governing body for football, FIFA (International Federation of Association Football) on 14 May 2016 appointed Justice (retd) Mukul Mudgal as deputy chairman of its Governance Committee.
•    Portuguese Luis Miguel Maduro, Advocate General of European Court of Justice (ECJ), was appointed as the Chairman of the Governance Committee.
•    Justice Mudgal was also appointed as the head of the FIFA’s first Independent Review Committee along with Luis Miguel Maduro.
•    Mudgal is the former Chief Justice of Punjab and Haryana and headed the IPL spot-fixing probe. He was also involved in overseeing the conduct of international cricket matches and IPL games at the Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium in Delhi. The inclusion of justice Mudgal to FIFA’s is being seen as a major development for Indian football and judiciary.
•    The decision to appoint Jutice Mukul Mudgal was taken at the 66th FIFA Congress which was held at the Mexico City.
•    The Committee has been set up to protect the organisation against any conflict of interest in the approval of any appointments to the key committees and bodies.