GK and Current Affairs Updates

Indian Parashar Kulkarni won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize for 2016, for the Asia region. 
He was awarded for his politically grounded unpublished short fiction 'Cow and Company'.
He will get a cash prize of 2500 pounds (3835 US dollars).
Parashar Kulkarni is an assistant professor in Social Sciences at Yale NUS College Singapore.
He is one of the five winners of 2016 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Winners from other four regions are:
• Faraaz Mahomed - ‘The Pigeon’ with its playful tone and unreliable narrator
• Stefanie Seddon - Eel, a simply told and moving story of childhood
• Lance Dowrich - comedic ‘Ethelbert and the Free Cheese’
• Tina Makereti - ‘Black Milk’, which impressed with a lyricism that takes the reader into another world while keeping them always on earth
Now the regional winners will compete with each other for being selected as the overall winner of the 2016 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. This will be announced at the Calabash International Literary Festival in Jamaica on 5 June 2016.
The overall winner will receive 5000 pounds (7670 US dollars).
Other Indian authors, who were shortlisted for the award in the regional shortlist include
• Kritika Pandey for Dirty White Strings
• Sumit Ray for Girdhars Mansion
• Vinayak Varma for Instant Karma

On 5 May 2016 National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) signed a partnership agreement with Facebook 
•    This is done to build a product design initiative in India.
•    This initiative is aimed towards encouraging Indian entrepreneurs to become problem solvers and develop solutions.
•    Nasscom Product Council aim at supporting over 500 product start-ups on product design.
•    It focuses on training over 5000 product designers in two years.
•    This is the second time that NASSCOM and Facebook have partnered to promote entrepreneurship and startup initiatives in India. 
•    Earlier in 2015, NASSCOM partnered with Facebook for its initiative called Leaders Building for the Next Billion.
•    Facebook is a corporation and an online social networking service headquartered in Menlo Park, California, in the United States. 
•    Its website was launched on February 4, 2004, by Mark Zuckerberg with his Harvard College roommates and fellow students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes.
•    The founders had initially limited the website's membership to Harvard students, but later expanded it to colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. 
•    It gradually added support for students at various other universities and later to high-school students. 
•    Since 2006, anyone in general who has attained an age of 13 years or more has been allowed to become a registered user of the website, though variations in the minimum age requirement exist depending on applicable local laws.

On 5 May 2016 a state of emergency was declared in the city of Fort McMurray due to a massive wildfire destroyed several of homes.
•    At least 80000 residents were ordered to leave the northern Alberta city. 
•    Wind whipped wildfires, which broke out on 1 May 2016, have destroyed at least 1600 homes and forced more than 80000 residents to flee.
•    More than 250 firefighters are battling the blaze that was actively burning in residential areas. 
•    Officials also issued mandatory evacuation orders for the Anzac, Gregoire Lake Estates .
•    Alberta is a western province of Canada. 
•    It is Canada's fourth-most populous province and the most populous of Canada's three Prairie Provinces. 
•    Alberta and its neighbor Saskatchewan were districts of the Northwest Territories until they were established as provinces on September 1, 1905

On 4 May 2016 The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs gave its approval for development of two laning with formation of four lane of Shimla Bypass (Kaithlighat to Shimla section) on National Highway-22 in Himachal Pradesh.
•    The work will be completed under the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) Phase-III. 
•    The total length of the road will be 28 kilometres.
•    The cost for the project is estimated to be 1583.18 crore rupees. 
•    Total number of 4076 mandays are required for construction of one kilometre of highway. 
•    111914 mandays will be generated locally during the construction period of this stretch.
•    The development of this stretch will also help in uplifting the economic condition of the State 
•    It would also increase employment potential for local laborers for project activities.

•    The Union Cabinet gave its approval for the MoU between Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Central Bank of United Arab Emirates (UAE) on co-operation concerning currency swap agreement. 
•    The Agreement was signed in February, 2016 during the official visit of Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan to India. 
•    The MoU commits that RBI and Central Bank of UAE will consider signing a bilateral Currency Swap Agreement on mutually agreed terms and conditions. 
•    The MoU will help to further strengthen the close economic cooperation and relationship between India and UAE. 
•    A currency swap involves exchange of principal and interest in one currency for the same in another currency. 
•    It is considered to be a foreign exchange transaction. 
Reserve Bank of India is India's central banking institution, which controls the monetary policy of the Indian rupee. It commenced its operations on 1 April 1935 during the British Rule in accordance with the provisions of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934.

Indian shooters ended their journey at the International Shooting Sport Federation Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany at a creditable fourth position.
•    India ended this journey with three gold, four silver and three bronze.
•    From April 29-May 5 a total of 585 junior athletes from 48 countries participated but only 24 nations made it to the medals table
•    Tally was topped by Italy with seven gold, four silver and one bronze.
•    Russia stood second with five gold, six silver and nine bronze
•    Germany came third with five gold, three silver and three bronze medals.
•    For India, Rituraj Singh won two gold medals in both the individual and team events of the men's 25m Standard Pistol.
•    Shivam Shukla also won a gold and a silver. 
•    Arjun Das won a yellow metal and a bronze for Team India.
•    Yashaswini Singh Deswal won two silver medals, both in the individual and team sections of the 10m Air Pistol event. 

Infosys will set up its second biggest facility worth nearly Rs 600 crore in Bangalore 
•    It received necessary clearances from the Karnataka Government.
•    The new facility will be set up in north Bangalore 
•    It can accommodate 8,000 employees.
•    The Karnataka Government cleared Infosys' proposal to set up an ‘Special Economic Zone' (SEZ) near the Bangalore International Airport.
•    According to Industries Department officials, the company had sought an additional 60 acres of land adjacent to the 40 acres of land already allotted to it.
•    In May, Infosys received clearance for 7.23 acres of land near its existing IT SEZ campus in South Kanara. 
•    Infosys had said that it plans to open a software development centre of 2 million built up sq ft area with an investment of Rs 700 crore.
•    The land will be allotted by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board 
•    It will also provide 13 lakh litres of water a day.
•    Wipro has also received formal approval, both from the State Government and the SEZ Board of Approval to build and operate an SEZ in Bangalore.

The Union Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu in the presence of Minister of State for Development of North Eastern Region (I/C), Prime Minister’s Office, Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh flagged off Train 74619/74620 Banihal-Baramulla Fast Passenger (DEMU) and 74617/74618 Budgam-Baramulla Demu through Video Conferencing between Rail Bhawan New Delhi and Anantnag Railway Station. 
•    Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir Ms. Mehbooba Mufti graced the inaugural function at the Anantnag Railway Station along with other dignitaries. 
•    The State of Jammu & Kashmir has great importance from the tourism point of view where national and international tourists visit throughout the year and thus this connectivity will give a boost to tourism in the State.  
•    Railway is also working with the help of IRCTC to bring Jammu & Kashmir on a tourism map which will not only promote tourism but also promote its handicraft industry and its delicious cuisines
•    New train services will reduce the journey time of the people of Valley and will also be cost effective as the fares of trains are less as compared to road transport.

On 5 May 2016 IPS Officer Kumar Rajesh Chandra got appointed as the Chief of Bureau of Civil Aviation Security.
Chandra has been appointed in place of IPS officer G S Malhi. 
•    Chandra is a 1985 batch IPS officer of Bihar cadre.
•    He is currently working as Additional Director General (Modernisation), Bihar Police.
•    BCAS acts as regulatory authority for civil aviation security.
•    In January 1978, the BCAS was established as a department of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. 
•    BCAS became an independent agency of the Ministry of Civil Aviation on 1 April 1987 after the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182.
•    The main responsibility of BCAS is to lay down standards and measures in respect of security of civil flights at international and domestic airports in India.

Vice Admiral Sunil Lanba, got appointed as the next Chief of the Naval Staff on 5 May 2016. 
•    He will assume the charge on 31 May 2016 as the 23rd chief of Indian Navy .
•    He will succeed present Navy Chief Admiral Robin K. Dhowan.
•    He was commissioned into the Executive Branch of Indian Navy on 1 January 1978.
•    His sea Command includes commanding the minesweeper INS Kakinada, frigate INS Himgiri and Executive Officer of INS Viraat, the aircraft carrier.
•    Before FOC-in-C, Western Naval Command, he was FOC-in-C, Southern Naval Command, 
•    He was also the Vice Chief of the Naval Staff and Commandant, National Defence College.
•    He is a qualified specialist in navigation and direction course.
•    He attended the course at the Royal College of Defence Studies, UK.
He was Born on 17 July 1957,  and has been recipient of Param Vishist Seva Medal and Ati Vishist Seva Medal.