MAY 2012

NATIONAL

• Bihar Government prohibited the sale and manufacturing of all the tobacco products for next one year. Madhya Pradesh was the first state to ban all the food products containing tobacco.
• Union government announced the constitution of a committee under the chairman C. Rangarajan to review the existing production sharing contracts (PSCs)
• Union Government of India decided to streamline debt worth 35000 crore rupees to rescue cash-strapped textile industry. The textiles industry of the country is under an outstanding debt of 155809 crore rupees.
• Union Finance Minister announced 25 foreign direct investment (FDI) proposals worth Rs.2973.40 crore
• Union government of India approved the changes in the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill.As per amendment wife and children will get a clearly-defined share in the husband’s immovable residential property in case of divorce.
• The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) banned Kolkata Knight Riders co-owner and Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan from entering the Wankhede Stadium for five years due to misbehaving with its officials and violating its rules.
• Under the chairmanship of principal secretary of the finance department a committee is formed by Delhi Government to promote the welfare of Delhi Transport Corp (DTC) workers.
• Veteran Bengali Author Mahashweta Devi resigned as the chairperson of the Bangla Academy, an autonomous body set up to promote the Bengali literature.
• Supreme Court of India directed the Union Government to eliminate the Haj subsidy completely by reducing it gradually over the next ten years. Court instructed that the amount of Haj subsidy to be used for the uplift of the community.
• Union minister of labour and employment Mallikarjun Kharge inaugurated the E-Challan and Receipt (ECR) to bring transparency and accessibility for employers in depositing monthly Employees’ Provident Fund or EPF contributions of their workers.
• Union government constituted an Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) for developing a coordinated approach for optimal exploitation of coal bed methane (CBM), underground coal gasification and shale gas.
• A new report by Save the Children, titled Born Too Soon: the Global Action Report on Pre-term Birth revealed, India has the highest number of deaths due to premature births, and ranks 36th in the list of pre-term births globally. The ranking included 199 countries.
• Union Cabinet of India approved the proposal by Oman to hike the gas price for an Indian fertilizer plant in the Gulf nation to 1.5 per million dollar metric British thermal unit (mmBtu), a move that will ensure uninterrupted supply of urea to the Indian market.

INTERNATIONAL

• Shakeel Afridi, the man behind the killing of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Abottabad in Pakistan sentenced to 33 years imprisonment under the colonial vintage Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR)
• Nepal President Ram Baran Yadav removed Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai from his post, he has been asked to keep the charge until some alternative arrangements are put into place.
• Pakistan successfully test-fired a short-range Hatf 9 (Nasr) missile. The missile which has a range of 60 kilometers is capable of carrying nuclear warheads.
• United States decided to ease the stiff economic sanctions imposed on Myanmar and named the first ambassador to the former pariah state in the past 22 years.
• Serbian Progressive Party leader Tomislav Nikolic won the Serbia’s presidential election.
• Former Sri Lankan Army chief, Sarath Fonseka, was released from the high-security Welikada prison
• Qualcomm, the US chipmaker, received the broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum by the department of telecommunications (DoT).
• 50 people on board were killed in a Superjet 100 aircraft crash about 40 miles (64 km) south of Jakarta
• Pakistan successfully test-fired Hatf III Ghaznavi missile. The missile has a range of 290 km and it can hit its target in India. The missile is capable of carrying nuclear warheads. The missile was launched at the conclusion of the annual field training exercise of Army Strategic Force Command.
• Jean-Marc Ayrault a moderate Socialist took over as the France’s new Prime Minister
• Vladimir Putin the former Russian Prime Minister and the president of the United Russia Party took the oath as the President of Russia.

INDIA AND WORLD

• The Union Cabinet approved the 7.6 billion dollar TAPI gas pipeline project . The TAPI gas pipeline project which originates from the central Asian nation Turkmenistan and reaches to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan is also referred to as the “peace pipeline” as some of the countries that it passes through don’t enjoy good relationship with each other.
• As per report from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India topped China as the largest importer of arms during 2007-11 and accounted for 10 per cent of global arms import as compared to Chinese share of five per cent.
• GAIL (India) Limited inked the gas sale and purchase agreement (GSPA) with TurkmenGaz, Turkmenistan's national oil company, for the 7.6-billion TAPI project . The agreement would enable India to bring gas from Turkmenistan.
• As per report published by the Security and Defence Agenda (SDA) and McAfee ranked fifth in the list of countries affected of cyber crime.

SPORTS & GAMES

• Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) defeated the defending champion Chennai Super Kings (CSK) to win their maiden Indian Premier League (IPL) title at the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chennai
• Praveen Rana, the young Indian wrestler, clinched the 66kg freestyle title on the final day of the first Hari Ram Indian Grand Prix wrestling championship at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium
• Ace Indian chess player Vishwanathan Anand claimed the FIDE ( Federation Internationale des Echec) World Chess Title for the record fifth time. The defending champion Anand beat Israeli opponent Boris Gelfand in a rapid-chess tie-breaker. Anand received 1.5 million dollar as the winning amount, while rival Gelfand bagged 1 million dollar.
• Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova defeated Li Na of China to retain the Italian Open title.
• Chelsea, the English football club defeated German football club Bayern Munich to win its first Union of European Football Association (UEFA) Champions League.
• Spaniard Rafael Nadal defeated world no. 1 Novak Djokovic to claim his sixth Italian Open Title
• Fifth ranked Sriram Balaji defeated Swiss Joss Espasandin in the summit clash of the MCC-SR Subramaniam Memorial ITF Futures men's tennis tournament in Chennai
• India’s leading discus thrower Krishna Poonia created a new national record by winning the silver medal at the Altius Track Crew Throwdown meet in Maui Island, Hawaii. Krishna hurled the discuss to 64.76 meters and broke the existing national record of Seema Antil who had hurled 64.64 meters.
• Indian athletes bagged four gold, one silver and four bronze medals, in the first leg of the Asian Grand Prix in Bangkok. Sajeesh Joseph bagged gold in the men's 800m in 1:47.78 while, MR Poovama clinched the women's 400m in 52.94.
• Swiss tennis star Roger Federer defeated Czech Tomas Berdych to win Madrid Open title
• Malaysia defeated Pakistan to win the Junior Hockey World Cup
• Manjeet Singh Panghal defeated Gurleen Singh to clinch the 69kg title in the 45th National junior boxing championship at Patiala
• Ace Indian wrestler Sushil Kumar won the 66kg freestyle title at the World Qualifying Tournament in Taiyuan, China
• Spanish Football club Real Madrid clinched its 32nd Spanish league title and first in four years
• Seven-time World snooker champion Stephen Hendry announced his retirement after losing in the quarterfinals at the World Championships.
• Indian women squash team won its maiden gold at the 16th Asian Squash Championship in Kuwait.Women team created a history by defeating the top seeded Hongkong team in the title clash.
• Shon Wan Ho of Korea defeated Chinese defending champion Lee Chong Wei in the final clash and clinch his maiden Super Series title, at the India Open badminton.
• India's top-seeded snooker player Aditya Mehta defeated compatriot and seven-time world champion Pankaj Advani to win 28th Asian snooker title concluded in Doha.

PERSONALITIES

• Shouryya Ray a 16-year-old Indian-origin student from Germany cracked a 350-year old mathematics puzzle.
• Cyrus Mistry, the Chairman-designate of Tata groups was appointed as an additional director on the board of Tata Steel.
• Ranbir Kapoor roped in as the brand ambassador by Chinese computer Lenovo in India.
• Gajanan Verma , Rajasthani Hindi lyricist, musician and poet died.
• Tamae Watanabe(73 year) bettered her own record of being the world’s oldest women to climb the Mount Everest the world's highest mountain peak.
• Saurabh Chandra, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, was slated to hold the additional charge of the post of Secretary of the Department of Commerce on 14 May 2012.
• Debashree Mukherjee, IAS officer, was appointed the new Chief Executive Officer of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).
• BV Vanchoo was appointed the Governor of Goa on 28 April 2012.
• Vidya Balan roped in as the brand ambassador for improving the state of sanitation in the country by Union Rural development Ministry
• Pranab Mukherjee elected as Chair of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) Board of Governors. India will host the 46th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank in New Delhi in 2013.
• Achla Sachdev Bollywood actress died in Pune.
• Bikram Singh took over the reins of Indian Army.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

• Malaysiaian private equity company Navis Capital Partners acquired the stake of Samir Kuckreja the co-owner of Nirula’s to gain complete control over homegrown fast food chain.
• Sahara India Pariwar signed an agreement with the Bangladesh government to design and develop a new city Notun Dhaka (New Dhaka). Sahara Matribhumi Unnayan  Corporation signed the MoU with the Ministry of Housing and Public Works (MoPW) of Bangladesh Government.
• India’s third largest private sector lender Axis Bank signed an agreement with Ahli United Bank B.S.C., Bahrain for remitting money from Bahrain to any person in India.
• Korean mobile giant Samsung surpassed the Finland based mobile manufacturer Nokia to be become the market leader.
• Bharti Airtel India’s leading telecom company acquired 49 per cent stake in Qualcomm’s broadband wireless access (BWA) business in India in a deal worth 165 million dollar (about 922 crore rupees).
• Leading two-wheeler manufacturer Bajaj Auto launched the Discover 125 ST bike, the composition of a sports bike and a commuter motorcycle. The Discover 125 ST is powered by Bajaj's patented ‘DTS-iTwin Spark' technology.
• Honda launched Dream Yuga, its first low cost mass motorcycle in Indian market . Dream Yuga, Honda’s cheapest motorbike worldwide is priced at 44652 rupees.
• Reserve Bank of India published guidelines for implementation of the new global capital adequacy norms, called Basel III. Indian banks will have to maintain Tier I capital, or core capital, of at least 7 per cent of their risk weighted assets on an ongoing basis. The objective is to strengthen risk management mechanism.
• German luxury car maker Audi launched a new version of its largest selling sedan A4 in Indian market. The luxury car launched in both the petrol and diesel variants has a starting price of 27.33 lakh.
• Leading mobile manufacturer Nokia on launched its new web-enabled mobile Asha 202 priced at 4149 rupees.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

• India successfully test-fired the indigenously built Akash missile from the DRDO’s (Defence Research Development Organisation) Interim Test Range (ITR), at Chandipur in Balasore district of north Odisha. 5.7 meter long and 720 kg in weight, anti-aircraft missile can hit its target locating at a distance of 25 to 30 kms. The missile is capable of carrying both conventional as well as nuclear warheads up to 60 kg.
• The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University unveiled a list of the 10 best newly discovered species of 2011.  A monkey found in the high mountains of Myanmar, Rhinopithecus stryker, figured in the list. A beautiful but venomous jellyfish, a night-blooming orchid and an ancient walking cactus creature are also on the list.
• Tripura Industrial Development Corporation (TIDC) announced to set up North-East India’s fifth Software Technology Park in Tripura. The projected is suppurated by Software Technology Park of India (STPI). This will boost information technology in northeast India and to reach out to people of rural and remote areas with e-governance.
• The Union Government of India appointed Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar as the new chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for a three-year term.

AWARDS & HONOURS

• Rahul Bhattacharya, Delhi-based author, won the prestigious Ondaatje Prize for his book  'The Sly Company of People Who Care'.
• The South Asian Cinema Foundation (SACF) in association with British Film Institute (BFI) Southbank and The Nehru Centre decided to honour the work of veteran Indian filmmaker Shyam Benegal with the South Asian Cinema Foundation's 'Excellence in Cinema Award'
• The Tibetan spiritual leader, The Dalai Lama, received the 1.7 million dollar Templeton Prize for his role in promoting links between spirituality and science.
• Bollywood actor Mithun Chakravarti received the PC Chandra lifetime achievement award in Kolkata.
• Noted Tamil writer Ashokamitran, known for his novel Thanneer and other works was declared the recipient of the 6 NTR National Literary Award