Monthly Current Affairs-May 2015

• NASA’s 11 year old mercury mission “MESSENGER” (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geo-chemistry and Ranging) ended up crashing into mercury on 30th April.
• Nadia district of Bengal declared as the first Open Defecation Free (ODF) district in the country on 30 April 2015.
• Broadcaster Audience Research Council (BARC)- new rating mechanism for television in India that announced its first data for week 16 of 2015 on 30 April 2015 and is now being seen as a replacement to the existing ratings provider, TAM. BARC uses an advanced, audience measurement technique -audio watermarking, to track content through its broadcast cycle.
• Zimbabwe became the first to make a cricket tour of Pakistan since 2009 as announced on 30 April 2015. Pakistan has not hosted international cricket since the 2009 attack by gunmen on the visiting Sri Lankan cricketers.
• INC-29(incorporation form )- New form issued by central govt. as against eight forms earlier entrepreneurs have to fill for opening new business. This initiative is part of the government‟s drive to improve India‟s ranking on the globally tracked parameter of ease of doing business.
• May1- International labour day
• Edge-Edge is the name of the new web browser of Microsoft that was till now wrapped under secretive named “Project Spartan‟.Edge would be available only for Windows 10 and further. 
• Maharashtra govt. banned “Horn Ok Please” on the rear side of commercial vehicles.
• The Parliamentary Committee on Empowerment of Women recently “mooted shifting of ladies‟ coaches from end to the middle of the train”.
• An FIR was filed against e-commerce giant SNAPDEAL by Maharashtra’s Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) on 1 May 2015 on charges of selling prescription drugs online.
• “Fight of the Century”- The Professional Boxing Match between American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.(US) and Manny Pacquiao (the Philippines) created sensation all around the world. This bout welterweight category bout was held at MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas (US). It was won by Floyd Mayweather.Event was described as “Fight of century”and “Battle of greatness”.
• On 2 May 2015 The Department of Telecom (DoT) extended deadline to fully implement the mobile number portability (MNP) across the country was extended by two months.
• Odisha govt. launched Niramaya, a free drug distribution scheme to cover whole state on 1 May 2015.
• 3rd May - World Press Freedom Day
• Prof. C.N.R. Rao (bharath ratna winner )was chosen for “Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star” , Japan‟s highest civilian award. He is a National Research Professor and Honorary President of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru.
• 62nd National Film Awards 2015 winners:
• Best Feature Film : Court (Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati &English),
• Best Popular Film for Providing Wholesome Entertainment : Mary Kom
• Best Direction : Srijit Mukherji for Chotushkone(Bengali)
• Best Actress : Kangana Ranaut for Queen
• Best Actor : Vijay for Nanu Avanalla Avalu (Kannada)
• Surender Singh-New Director General of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). He succeeded Arvind Ranjan.
• Indira Gandhi International Airport (Delhi) was recently presented the world’s best airport award for the year 2014 by Airports Council International (ACI), under the category of handling 25 to 40 million passengers per annum.
• Indian Army on 5 May 2015 inducted an indigenously developed supersonic surface-to-air missile AKASH (developed by DRDO)which is capable of targeting enemy helicopters and aircrafts from a range of 25 km.
• Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (DMRC Limited) completed 20 years of its establishment during May 2015.
• Kishore Biyani and Rajan Bharti Mittal announced the merger of Biyani’s Future Retail with Mittal’s Bharti Retail on 4 May 2015. This move is expected to create one of the largest retail networks in the country.
• Chelsea won its fourth English Premier League (EPL) title for 2014-15.
• Mugalwali, a small village in Haryana came to news with the discovery of huge water resources from a field , a discovery some experts believed to be part of the mystic Saraswati River described in Rigveda.
• The National Commission for Backward Classes (NCBC) recommended to the Centre to raise the “creamy layer‟ criterion for other backward castes (OBCs) from the present annual salary of Rs. 6 lakh to Rs. 10.50 lakh.
• Chennai became the city having the highest vehicle density in India.
• In an important development, India’s 41-year-old border issue with Bangladesh was settled on 7 May 2015 as Indian Parliament unanimously passed a historic bill to operationalise the Land Boundary Agreement that provides for exchange of territories.
• India and Iran on 6 May 2015 signed an agreement to develop a strategic port (Chabahar Port )in southeast Iran.
• India’s first satellite-controlled solar power plant was inaugurated in Punjab on may6. plant was opened in Lalpur village in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district. The project will produce 4.2 MW of electricity.
• 2015 Mothers index: It was prepared by “Save the Children” organization.India’s position was 140 out of 179 countries .Norway was at top of index while Somalia was last. The Index was prepared on five criteria ,maternal health, children’s well being, educational status, economic status and political status.
• Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party won British Parliament election defeating Labour Party.
• Norwegian envoy to Pakistan Leif Larsen and Domingo Lucenario ,Philippines envoy to pak were killed in this helicopter crash which took place in the Gilgit-Baltistan territory of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (POK).
• A high level panel headed by Justice A.P. Shah was set up by finance minister to examine the issue of minimum alternate tax (MAT) on foreign institutional investors (FIIs).
• Achal Kumar Jyoti was appointed as Election Commissioner on 7 May 2015 to fill one of the two vacancies in the three-member body.
• Red Flagged Account (RFA)- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) formulated a new concept in framework for banks to check loan frauds , RFA. An RFA is one where a suspicion of fraudulent activity is thrown up by the presence of one or more early warning signals (EWS). These signals in a loan account should immediately put the bank on alert regarding a weakness or wrong doing which may ultimately turn out to be fraudulent. No restructuring or grant of additional facilities may be made in the case of RFA or fraud accounts.
• Flipkart completed India’s single largest office space leasing deal so far by signing up for a 2-million sq. ft. custom-built office campus in Bengaluru .
• “INS Sardar Patel”- A new strategic naval base of the Indian Navy established in porbandar(Gujarat). 
• National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has reduced the switching fee it charges banks for processing inter-bank ATM transactions by five paise. Formerly it was 50paise and now it is 45paise per transaction.
• To mark 70 years of Russian victory over Nazi Germany in World War II Russia staged a massive and extravagant parade on Red Square in Moscow. Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Pranab Mukherjee of India and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon were among more than 20 world leaders who watched this parade. Nine Grenadiers regiment of Indian Army took part in this parade.
• Liberia was declared EBOLA free by WHO on May9.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 10 May 2015 inaugurated a revamped and modernized 2.5 million tonne steel plant of IISCO at Burnpur on the occasion of his maiden visit to West Bengal. IISCO (former name Indian Iron and Steel Company) is a subsidiary of the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL).
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the first prime minister in last 30 years to visit Naxal hotbed of Dantewada (Chhattisgarh) on 9 May 2015. Rajiv Gandhi was the last to do so.
• HDFC became only private sector financial entity from India that has listed among world’s 10 biggest consumer financial services firms complied by Forbes magazine.HDFC ranked 7th . American Express is placed on the top followed by Capital One Financial, Visa, Discover Financial Services and Orix in the top-five.
• Nico Rosberg (Germany) won the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix.
• Namaste India- 7-month long festival of Indian arts and culture that will be held across Russia. It was inaugurated by President Pranab Mukherjee in Moscow on 10 May 2015.
• KV Kamath  appointed as the first President of the $100-billion New Development Bank (NDB) of the BRICS countries. He retired as MD and CEO of ICICI bank .NDB is based in shanghai (China).
• Greenfield airport – the Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport (Andal in West Bengal), started its symbolic operations on 10 May 2015 as Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the first passenger to fly out of the airport on this day.
• China surpassed the United States to become the largest crude oil importer in the world.
• 11th May - National Technology Day
• 12th May - International Nurses Day.
• A Japanese forecast on 12 May 2015 confirmed the return of the “El Nino” phenomenon. El Nino is the name given to a weather pattern which can drive droughts and flooding. This will adversely affect agricultural based economies like India. El Nino events were observed in 2002–03, 2004–05, 2006–07 and 2009–10.It develops in Pacific ocean.
• Justice Cyriac Joseph was appointed as the acting Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) by the President Pranab Mukherjee on 12 May 2015. Former NHRC chairperson K.G. Balakrishnan had completed his tenure on 11 May
• The largest-ever rankings of global schools prepared by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) was released on 12 May. Singapore headed this list and followed by Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan for the top 5 places. Countries like India and China were not included in these rankings.
• Les femmes d‟Alger (Version ‘O’) - name of Picasso painting which smashed the record for the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction when it soared to $179.4 million (around Rs. 1100 crore) at Christie’s auction on 11 May 2015.
• On 12 May 2015 Google announced integration of Indian Railways schedules as well as updated information about public transport in eight Indian cities on Google Maps. This facility would be made available under Google Transit. Google Transit is the feature in Google Maps that helps plan travel using public transport.
• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi started his historic 3-day official visit of China from ancient Chinese city Xi’an on 14th may.
• New governors appointed
• V. Shanmuganathan -Meghalaya
• Draupadi Murmu –Jharkhand
• Tathagata Roy -Tripura
• J.P. Rakkhowa -Arunachal Pradesh
• The Union Govt. on 13 May 2015 gave its clearance for disinvestment of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC)(10%) and NTPC (5%).It is expected to get over Rs 15,000 crore from selling its share .
• The Supreme Court in its order given on 13 May 2015 said that picture of only three officials ,the President, the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice of India can feature in government advertisements that are placed by the centre and state governments to publicize various schemes.
• Hyderabad would become the first in India to get Google Street View.
• 24 agreements worth over 10 billion dollars were signed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese premier Li Keqiang at Beijing on 15 May. These agreements include – protocol for establishment of consulates in Chengdu and Chennai, agreement on the establishment of sister states Sichuan and Karnataka, action plan between railways of the two countries, MoU on education exchange programme, MoU between India‟s between NITI Aayog and Development Research Centre of China, etc.
• Indian Prime Minister made the announcement of the opening of the second route for the Kailash-Manasarovar Yatra by China through Nathu La (Sikkim) from June 2015.
• Online fashion retailer Myntra became app only service from may 15.
• Kayakalp Council-Council formed for revamping, business re-engineering and introducing a spirit of innovation in the Railways. The first-ever meeting of the council, headed by its Chairman Ratan Tata, was held on 13 May at New Delhi.
• Bloomberg Philanthropies (BP) – Us consultancy firm which was selected by the Ministry of Urban Development as the knowledge partner for smart cities mission in which this firm would assist in selecting the cities for financing under the mission.
• As mentioned in the 24 agreements signed between India and China on 15 May 2015 during Prime Minister Narendra Modis state visit to China the three sets of Sister Cities will be , Chennai-Chongqing, Hyderabad-Qingdao and Aurangabad-Dunhuang.
• Jahn-Teller metal-The name given to a new state of matter by scientists from Tohoku University (Japan).They claimed that this substance exhibited the properties of an insulator, superconductor, metal, and magnet all in one.
• Fiscal deficit (estimated) for 2014-15 is 4% of the GDP as announced by the Union Finance Ministry on 17 May 2015.
• Sudirman Cup (for Badminton) won by china defeating Japan .
• Nelong Valley  of Uttarakhand state was opened recently for tourists for the first time since the 1962 Indo-China war.
• Aruna Shanbaug passed away in Mumbai at Kings Edward Memorial (KEM) Hospital on 18 May 2015 after being in coma for 42 years after a sexual assault by a ward-boy in 1973.
• Kerala based private sector Federal Bank entered into credit card segment with the launch of a co-branded credit card with SBI.
• The Finance Ministry to set up Gold Monetisation Scheme. The new scheme will allow the depositors of gold to earn interest in their metal accounts and the jewellers to obtain loans in their metal account.This scheme is aimed at bringing out around 20,000 tonnes of gold lying idle with households.
• S.S. Ahluwalia will head the 30-member Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to look into the provisions of the controversial Land Acquisition Bill.
• Britain slipped into deflation as disclosed by the government. Deflation is the economic stage of an economy when there is decrease in prices of commodities and services. It occurs when the inflation rate falls below 0%.
• Laszlo Krasznahorkai of Hungary won the 2015 Man International Booker Prize .This prize is awarded twice a year in recognition of a writer’s overall contribution to fiction rather than to a single novel.
• BSE(Bombay stock exchange) announced the introduction of the first-of-its-kind Overnight Liquid Fund product which will provide the facility to invest even for a single night in liquid funds
• The State Bank of India (SBI) on 20 May 2015 signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Amazon to develop payment and commerce solutions for customers and small businesses.
• AstroSat- India’s first space observatory which has been developed by ISRO, and expected to be launched in October 2015.
• With an objective to make IAF fighter aircrafts capable of using national highways for emergency landing , a Mirage-2000 fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) successfully landed on the Yamuna Expressway near Mathura.
• 21st May - Anti-Terrorism Day
• SBI on 21 May 2015 signed an MoU with which leading international digital payments company PayPal to facilitate cross-border transactions.
• The State Bank of India (SBI) on 21 May 2015 entered into a seller financing scheme agreement with SNAPDEAL under which it will provide loans to small and medium enterprises(MSMEs) at easier interest rates. These MSMEs are associated with Snapdeal and sell their products through its portals.
• Bank unions and the Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) on 25 May 2015 signed a wage revision agreement to hike salary of bank employees by 15%.
• Ireland became the first country in the world to give its approval to same-sex marriage.
• ICICI Bank launched Voice Password Service for its customers. Under this customers can make transactions using just their voice.
• Mumbai Indians won their second IPL title as they defeated Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by a convincing margin of 41-runs in the finals of the 8th edition of IPL played at Kolkata‟s Eden Gardens on 24 may. Player of the Tournament: Andre Russell (KKR). Orange Cap: David Warner (Sunrisers Hyderabad). – For scoring highest runs (562 runs) .Purple Cap: Dwayne Bravo (CSK). – For getting highest wickets (26 wickets). Emerging Player of the Season: Shreyas Iyer (Delhi Daredevils).
• Nico Rosberg of Germany won the Monaco F1 Grand Prix on 24 May 2015.
• Vijay Kelkar was appointed as the head of the newly constituted committee that will give recommendations to recast the model of the so-called public-private-partnership (PPP) model in India. Vijay Kelkar is a renowned economist and a former Finance Secretary.
• 125 obsolete laws have been repealed by the Union Govt. with the passage of two Bills in Parliament recently.
• DD Kisan- Television channel exclusively for farmers, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel topped Forbes’100 Most Powerful Women List. State Bank of India Chief Arundhati Bhattacharya ranked 30th and ICICI bank head Chanda Kochhar ranked 35th.
• According to UN Annual Hunger Report 2015 population of hungry people globally in 2015 is 79.5 cr.In india hunger population is 19.4 cr.
• Tripura Government on 27 May 2015 revoked the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) with the claims of decline in insurgent activities in the state. AFSPA was enacted in the state in 1997.
• Dr. Manabi Bandopadhyay created history of sorts when she became the first-ever person from the third gender (transgender) community to be appointed the principal of an Indian college, the Krishnanagar Women’s College.
• Sepp Blatter was re-elected as FIFA president for a fifth term at the 65th Annual Congress of FIFA held at Zurich on 29 May 2015. Prince Ali bin al-Hussein (Jordan) stood against him.
• Pradeep Kumar Sinha appointed as next Cabinet Secretary replacing Ajit Seth.
• Union Govt. on 28 May 2015 appointed Selvin Christopher as the new Director General (DG) of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
• The 4th North East Youth Festival was inaugurated on 29 May 2015 at Majuli in Assam.
• 31st May - World No Tobacco Day.
• Arun Jha appointed as Secretary, Tribal Affairs.
• Arun shrivastava appointed as MD & CEO, Syndicate bank.
• Dr Syed Ahmed appointed as Governor, Manipur.
• G Mohan Kumar appointed as Secretary, Ministry of Defence(MoD).
• M J Joseph appointed as Controller General of Accounts (CGA).
• The Finance Ministry on 31 May 2015 released new simplified income tax return forms for different classes of tax payers. The new forms – ITR 2 and ITR2A, have only three pages as compared to the earlier controversial forms that comprised of 14 pages.
• The United States on 29 May 2015 officially removed Cuba from its list of countries that sponsor terrorism.
• George Yeo (former foreign minister of Singapore) was named as the new Chancellor of the Nalanda University on 30 May 2015 to replacing Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.

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