GK and Current Affairs Updates

On 12 May 2016 Maharashtra government declared drought in over 29000 villages of the state, most of them in parched Marathwada and Vidarbha regions.
•    The state is implementing various schemes and taking measures to mitigate the water scarcity in drought-hit areas, and more particularly in Marathwada and Vidarbha regions.
•    The villages that have now been declared as affected by drought were already receiving benefits from the government and that the Drought Manual provided only for the word drought-like.
•    On 7 May 2016, the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested 10000 crore rupees as relief for the parched state. 
•    7500 crore rupee was to be spent on completing irrigation projects in Marathwada and Vidarbha over the next three years.
•    Maharashtra is a state in the western region of India and is India's third-largest state by area and is also the world's second-most populous sub-national entity. 
•    It has over 110 million inhabitants and its capital, Mumbai, has a population of approximately 18 million. 
•    Nagpur is Maharashtra's second capital as well as winter capital

On 12 May 2016 US President Barack Obama appointed an Indian-American engineer, Manjit Singh, as the member of President's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.
The announcement came along with several other appointments made by the US President.
•    Singh is the President of Agilious, a software technology consulting firm he founded in 2013.
•    He is the co-founder of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a national Sikh American media, policy and education organization.
•    He served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Guru Gobind Singh Foundation and also as a Member-at-Large of The Board of the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan in Washington.
•    He is an engineering graduate of Bombay University.
•    He also received a Master of Science degree from the State University of New York in US.
•    Council work for :
•    Identifying best practices and successful modes of delivering social services.
•    Evaluating the need for improvements in the implementation and coordination of public policies relating to faith-based and neighborhood organizations.
•    Making recommendations to the President and the Administration on changes in policies, programs, and practices.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 12 May 2016 approved to sign the inter-governmental agreement between India and Mauritius. 
This is based on cooperation in cooperatives and related fields.
• The agreement between the two countries will be for duration of five years.
• It provides for promoting cooperation through short and medium term programmes.
Both countries also signed a protocol on taxation that amend the convention for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income and capital gains on 10 May 2016.
• A joint meeting was held on September 2012 in Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers Welfare followed by Ministerial level meeting after a year in September, 2013.
• It was discussed for the possibility of signing an MoU between the two countries for exchange of legislation governing cooperatives, exchange of information and technicalities pertaining to the cooperative sector, establishment of institutional linkages and deputation of experts under ITEC programme.

On 12 May 2016 President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the Florence Nightingale Awards to 35 nurses 
It was done on the occasion of International Nurses Day at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
The day is celebrated worldwide on May 12 every year to commemorate the birth day of Florence Nightingale and to mark the nurses’ contributions towards public health.
•    These awards are given to the outstanding nursing personnel employed in Union, State/Union Territories.
•    The awards carry 50000 rupees cash prize, a certificate, a citation certificate and a Medal.
•    Dorothy Sutherland in the year 1953 first proposed this very idea
•    It was first celebrated by the International Council of Nurses (ICN) in the year 1965.
•    May 12 was declared to be celebrated as the birthday anniversary of the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale in January in 1974.

On 10 May 2016 The Supreme Court asked the Delhi Government to not register the new diesel cars. 
•    It relaxed its April 30 order of imposing ban on diesel taxis in Delhi-NCR from 1 May 2016
•    It allowed the existing All India Tourist Permit (AITP) diesel taxis to operate in the national capital till the expiry of their permit.
•    The permits which are issued for a period of five years, however, will not be renewed after expiry.
•    It further underlined that diesel taxis will eventually have to go off the roads
•    It is likely to free up more than 60000 taxis, which had to go off roads since they had not switched to CNG.
•    The court-mandated stipulation regarding fare compliance with government norms may affect ‘surge pricing’ used by taxi aggregators, which the Delhi government had sought to stop during odd-even phase 2.

On 11 May 2016 Australian archaeologists announced discovery of a piece of the world's oldest axe. 
•    It was found in the remote Kimberley region of Western Australia.
•    The axe fragment is about the size of a thumbnail and dates back to a Stone Age period of 45000 to 49000 years ago.
•    It is an axe with a handle attached.
•    Its antiquity coincides with or immediately follows the arrival of humans on the Australian landmass.
•    New studies of the fragment revealed that it comes from an axe that had been shaped from basalt then polished by grinding it on another rock until it was very smooth.
•    The axe fragment was initially excavated in the early 1990s by Professor O’Connor 
•    This type of axe must have been very useful for a variety of tasks like chopping down or taking the bark off trees.

On 11 May 2016 Hockey India recommended Indian women’s team captain Ritu Rani, VR Raghunath, Dharamvir Singh for Arjuna Award.
•    It also recommended Sylvanus Dung Dung for Major Dhyan Chand Lifetime Achievement Award 
•    It also recommended CR Kumar for Dronacharya Award.
•    VR Ragunath debuted for Indian Hockey team in 2005 against Pakistan for bilateral series.
•    He was part of Indian team that won the bronze in the 2007 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup and Silver in 2008.
•    Ritu Rani led the team to achieve the 2016 Rio Olympic berth.
•    Dharamvir Singh was also a part of the 2014 Asian Games gold medal winning team.
•    Sylvanus Dung Dung  was part of the Indian team that won the gold at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games 
•    CR Kumar is best known for guiding the Indian junior men’s hockey team to glory in the 2011 Junior World Cup.

On 11 May 2016 Forbes magazine released the list of the Most Powerful People in the Financial World. 
•    The only Indian in the list is Uday Kotak, the CEO of the Kotak Mahindra Bank. 
•    He is ranked 33rd in the list 
•    He has a net worth of 7.1 billion dollars and oversees assets worth 34.6 billion dollars.
•    The list has been topped by Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone Group 
•    Next on the list is David Tepper of Appaloosa Management and Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan Chase & Co.
•    Stephen Schwarzman is the CEO of Blackstone Group, the world’s biggest private equity firm. 
•    David Teppere is the CEO of Appaloosa Management.
•    Jamie Dimon is the CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co, America’s largest bank. 
The candidates on the list were judged on net worth, assets under management or overseen, three-year track records and influence on markets.

On 11 May 2016 The Uttar Pradesh government gave its nod to develop nearly 200-km long bicycle highway from Agra to the lion safari in Etawah..
•    The highway will not run along the Agra-Etawah main road but will cover various historical and tourism centres.
•    It will cover areas such as Raja Bhoj ki Haveli, Bateshwarnath Temple, Mela Kothi Jarar, Naugava ka Quila and other rural areas to reach lion safari in Etawah.
•    Cabinet also approved the implementation of Prime Minister Crop Insurance Scheme from the Kharif season 2016. 
•    Cabinet also approved transfer policy for 2016-17 for employees. 
•    The Cabinet approved the construction cost for an international cricket stadium in Saifai.
•    It decided to construct a new ultra modern state-of-art model bus station at Kaiserbagh bus station in the state capital.

On 6 May 2016 United Nations released a new report terming  Fast-Track stress on to end the AIDS epidemic .
•    It reveals that the extraordinary acceleration of progress made over the past 15 years could be lost.
•    UN through report urges all partners to ensure that the global AIDS epidemic is ended as a public health threat by 2030.
•    It also underlines the critical role civil society has played in securing many of the gains made and the leadership provided by people living with HIV.
•    The report also calls the shortfalls in the implementation of the 2011 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS distressing. 
•    The report draws attention to regions where new HIV infections are continuing to rise, such 
•    The report gives strong emphasis to the links between the response to HIV and the success of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
•    To reach these goals include reaching the 90–90–90 treatment target for 2020.