GK and Current Affairs Updates

Apple said it invested $1 billion in Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing. 
Didi is the world’s largest mobile transportation service platform that offers mobile technology-based transportation options across over 400 major Chinese cities, including taxi hailing, private car hailing, social ride-sharing, Chauffeur, DiDi Bus, DiDi Test Drive and DiDi Enterprise Solutions.
•    Company saw a total of 1.43 billion rides on its platform in 2015.
•    In February 2016, DiDi became the world’s second largest online transaction platform. 
•    The company said it completes more than 11 million rides a day, with more than 87 percent of the market for private car-hailing in China.
•    One of the major reasons behind making the investment was the chance to learn more about certain segments of the China market. 
•    Apple is entirely confident of growing business in the the long term in China’s economy. 

On 11 May 2016 Charlotte Edwards, England’s women cricket team captain, announced her international retirement.  
The 36-year-old, Edwards will continue to play at domestic level including the first edition of the forthcoming Women’s Super League.
•    She was a top-order batswomen who debuted in 1995 at the age of 16 against New Zealand at Guildford.
•    When she debuted she was the youngest women to play for England, which now rests with Holly Colvin who debuted at the age of 15, in the first Ashes Test in 2005.
•    She is the first female cricketer to score 2000 runs in T20 Internationals and the first player either male or female, to score 2500 runs in T20 internationals.
•    She won the World T20, the World Cup and the Ashes five times for England.
In Test match she Batted in 43 innings of 23 test matches and scored 1676 runs.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 12 May 2016 gave its approval to Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), Abu Dhabi.
•    The MoU is for mutual co-operation and technical assistance between the two financial regulators.
•    It will promote further development of economic links and cooperation between the two signatories
•    It will help to create conditions for development of securities markets in the two countries.
•    It would also contribute towards strengthening the information sharing framework between the two regulators.
Apart from Abu Dhabi, SEBI also signed bilateral agreements with a number of countries which include Mauritius, Bangladesh etc
SEBI is a signatory to global market regulators' grouping IOSCO's MoU which encourages the exchange of information and assistance

On 13 May 2016 Baba Hardev Singh, the Spiritual leader and chief of Nirankari Mission, died in a road accident in Montreal, Canada. He was 62.
•    Born on 23 February 1954, Baba Hardev Singh became a member of the Nirankari Seva Dal in 1971.
•    In 2005, he established the Nirankari Museum in Sant Nirankari Sarovar complex in New Delhi.
•    He had 10 to 15 million followers around the world.
•    The mission was established in 1929, by Baba Buta Singh who previously belonged to the Nirankari sect. He was succeeded by Baba Avtar Singh.
•    The mission began as a reform movement within Sikhism.
•    It started in form of the Sant Nirankari Movement or Universal Brotherhood Movement that believed in the importance of a living leader.
•    The mission flourished after base of the mission was shifted to Delhi from West Punjab, after partition of India in 1947.
•    As of 2016, the organization has 2000 centers and millions of followers all over the globe.

On 13 May 2016 FIFA Council named a Senegalese UN diplomat Fatma Samba Diouf Samoura as its first female Secretary General (SG).
Samoura, 54-year-old, will assume the role of FIFA Secretary General before mid-June after undergoing an eligibility check administered by an independent review committee. 
The announcement was made by FIFA President Gianni Infantino at the 66th FIFA Congress in Mexico City.
•    Samoura is a 21-year veteran of United Nations programmes who is currently the UN’s Resident/Humanitarian Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Nigeria.
•    Fatma is a woman with international experience and vision who has worked on some of the most challenging issues of our time.
•    Since starting her UN career as a senior logistics officer with the World Food Programme in Rome in 1995, Samoura has served as country representative or director in six countries, namely Djibouti, Cameroon, Chad, Guinea, Madagascar and Nigeria.
•    She speaks French (her mother tongue), English, Spanish and Italian.
•    Prior to joining the UN, Samoura spent eight years in the private sector, working in the fertiliser trading sector for Senchim, a subsidiary of Industries Chimiques du Senegal.

On 13 May 2016 The Supreme Court agreed with constitutional validity of penal laws on defamation. 
The two-judge bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Justice Prafulla C Pant said the right to life under Article 21 includes the right to reputation.
•    It said that the current criminal defamation law is constitutionally valid.
•    It held that criminalization of defamation to protect individual dignity of life and reputation is a reasonable restriction on the fundamental right of free speech and expression.
•    The court said that Sections 499 and 500 of the Indian Penal Code make defamation a criminal offence.
•    The bench said that the freedom of right to speech and expression does not confer any right to a person to trample the reputation of others.
•    It said that defaming a person amounts to offence against society and the government is entitled to lodge a case against a person under criminal defamation law.
•    The bench in its 268-page verdict dismissed apprehensions and said that criminal defamation may have a chilling effect on the freedom to circulate one’s independent view.
Besides, the petitioners who are facing criminal defamation trial were given eight weeks time to approach the High Court’s concerned under Article 226 and Section 482 of the Cr.

On 12 May 2016 The World Health Organisation (WHO) in a survey announced that New Delhi is no longer the worst polluted city in the world in terms of air quality. However, India is home to four of the five cities in the world with the worst air pollution.
•    The dirtiest air was recorded at Zabol in Iran, which suffers from months of dust storms in the summer. Zabol clocked PM2.5 measure of 217.
•    The next four cities in the list were Gwalior, Allahabad, Patna and Raipur.
•    New Delhi was the survey's 11th worst city, measured by the amount of particulate matter under 2.5 micrograms found in every cubic metre of air. Delhi had an annual average PM2.5 measurement of 122.
•    Populations in low-income cities are the most impacted.
•    98% of cities in low- and middle income countries with more than 100000 inhabitants do not meet WHO air quality guidelines. 

Former Pakistan president General (Retd.) Pervez Musharraf has been declared a proclaimed offender in a high treason case.
•    The special court, ordered for advertising the verdict in an English and Urdu daily each.
•    The court, also directed to place the copy of the order outside Musharraf's residences and before it
•    The former military ruler was in March 2014 formally charged with treason for imposing emergency and the Provisional Constitutional Order on November 3, 2007.
•    Pervez Musharraf  is a Pakistani politician and a retired four-star army general who tenured as the tenth President of Pakistan from 2001 until tendering resignation, to avoid impeachment, in 2008.
•    On 31 March 2014, Musharraf was booked and charged with high treason for implementing emergency rule and suspending the constitution in 2007.
•    Pervez Musharraf was born on 11 August 1943, to an Urdu-speaking family in Delhi.
•    He is the son of Syed and Zarin Musharraf.
•    His father, Syed Musharraf, graduated from Aligarh Muslim University, in Aligarh, India and was a civil servant under Government of India.

On 12 May 2016 Shashank Manohar got elected as the Chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC) by the Board.
•    Manohar is the first elected independent Chairman of the Cricket governing body and will serve for two-year term with immediate effect.
•    He resigned from the post of President of Board for Control of Cricket in India on 10 May 2016.
•    ICC directors were allowed to nominate one candidate till 23 May 2016
•    ICC Council It comprises 10 full members, 38 associate members and 57 affiliate members
•    The role of Chairman is an honorary one.
•    Shashank is a prominent Indian lawyer who served his first stint as the BCCI President from 2008-2011. 
•    He was re-elected as the BCCI President in October 2015 
•    The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the international governing body of cricket. 
•    It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from England, Australia and South Africa, renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965, and took up its current name in 1989.

The Drowned Detective authored by Neil Jordan depicts genre-defying story about a private investigator 
Investigator arrived in a small Eastern European city because he was told about the opportunities opening up in former Soviet countries.
•    The book’s first few pages are about a wayward minister who cheats on his wife.
•    The minister is tracked by the detective whose name is Jonathan.
•    One day, an elderly couple approached Jonathan to investigate the disappearance of their daughter.
•    Jonathan feels compelled to find the daughter as the faded photograph of the little girl reminds him of his own daughter.
• Neil Patrick Jordan is an Irish film director, screenwriter and novelist.
• He won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Crying Game.
• He also won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival for The Butcher Boy.