Top Headlines of the week at a glance

1. The Union HRD Minister, Smt Smriti Irani launched the multilingual Bharatvani portal (www.bharatvani.in) and mobile app at Lucknow. Bharatavani is the first knowledge portal of its kind in India which focuses on becoming a single point source for multiple language learning, content and technology. 

2. ICICI Bank has introduced a "Positive Pay" feature in its mobile banking application which allows customers to transfer images of the cheques they have issued to the bank. 

3. Government has finally enforced the decision of retirement fund body EPFO to almost double the maximum sum assured under its insurance scheme to 6 lakh. In September, Employee Provident Fund Organisation's apex decision making body Central Board of Trustees (CBT) had decided to increase benefits under the Employees' Deposit Linked Insurance (EDLI) scheme from Rs 3.6 lakh to Rs 6 lakh. 

4. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave ex post facto approval to increase the foreign investment limit in YES Bank to 75 percent. Bank's present foreign equity is 41.87 percent. 

5. According to a joint study by Assocham-KPMG, India, which is has emerged as world's second largest mobile market, is also the fifth largest producer of e-waste, discarding roughly 18.5 lakh metric tonnes of electronic waste each year. 

6. The Union Cabinet gave its ex post facto approval to amend the Institutes of Technology Act, 1961 to incorporate 6 new Indian Institutes Technology (IITs) at Tirupati, Palakkad, Bhilai, Goa and Jammu and conversion of Indian School of Mines (ISM), Dhanbad to an IIT. 

7. Minister of State (Independent Charge) for AYUSH Shri Shripad Yesso Naik launched the new website of theMinistry of AYUSH and a web portal for International Day of Yoga (IDY) in New Delhi. 

8. Renowned Chinese writer Yang Jiang died. She was 104. 

9. Newborns may soon start getting Aadhaar as part of the Narendra Modi government's efforts to provide the unique identification number to all residents by March 2017. 

10. Indian-American students have swept the prestigious national bee competitions, securing the first threepositions for this year's National Geographic Bee championship finals. Rishi Nair from Florida took top honours at the 28th annual National Geographic Bee while Saketh Jonnalagadda and Kapil Nathan held the second and third positions respectively. This is the fifth consecutive year that an Indian-American has won the prestigious national tournament. 

11. CPI-M leader Pinarayi Vijayan sworn in as the 22nd Chief Minister of Kerala.

12. India signed a $100 million (about Rs 677 crore) loan agreement with multilateral lending agency World Bank for Karnataka Urban Water Supply Modernisation Project. 

13. The government announced the names of 13 more cities to be developed as smart cities, taking the total count to 33. Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh has topped this list and the other selected cities are Warangal in Telangana, Dharmashala in Himachal Pradesh. 

14. Islamic Development Bank (IDB) of Saudi Arabia will set up its first branch in Gujarat, India. IDB will also give 30 medical vans to Gujarat. IDB's main objective is to foster the economic development and social progress of member countries as well as the Muslim community in accordance with principles of Shariah. The bank has 56 Islamic countries as its members. 

15. Tech Mahindra announced dropping of its plans to start a payment bank. TechM became the third license winner to pull out of their plans to set up a payments bank in the country. 

16. BJP MLA Leader of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal sworn in as the chief minister of Assam. 

17. The Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (Viklangjan Sashaktikaran Vibhag) will now beknown as "Divyangjan Sashaktikaran Vibhag" in Hindi as per a change in the Government of India (Allocation of Business) 1961 rules now approved by President Pranab Mukherjee. 

18. Newly-elected AIADMK legislator from Thiruparankundram in Tamil Nadu, S.M. Seenivel died. He was 65. 

19. Subhash Chandra has resigned from the post of Director and Non-Executive Chairman of Zee Media.

20. Renowned scientist S K Sharma was appointed the Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL). 

21. Uttarakhand Governor K K Paul released a book "Visual Disability - a resource book for teachers". The book has been prepared by the National Institute for the Visually Handicapped (NIVH) in collaboration with experts on the matter. 

22. Tyre Maker Apollo Tyres and Wildlife Trust of India have entered into a partnership to restore a critical mangrove project in Kerala's Kannur district. 

23. Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu inaugurated five new activities namely (i) New AC Weekly Express train between H. Nizamuddin-Pune, (ii) Expansion of VIKALP Scheme of Alternate Train Reservation to Delhi-Howrah, Delhi- Chennai, Delhi-Mumbai and Delhi-Secunderabad Circuits, (iii) Pilot Project of Sale of Unreserved Tickets through Hand Held Terminals, (iv) Launching of Ergonomically Redesigned & Optimised Tools for Track Gangs, Keymen & Patrolmen and (v) Pilot Project for Improving Safety at Unmanned Level Crossing. 

24. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government notified its policy for app-based Premium Bus Service. As per the policy, bus aggregators will have individual apps — like Ola, Uber — and will be allowed to decide their fares, determine the routes and schedule of trips, which will be uploaded on their app; operators will have to freeze bookings and display a list of passengers five minutes before departure on each trip. 

25. The country’s third-largest private sector lender, Axis Bank, has hit the international debt markets with its maiden green bond issue to raise $500 million. 

26. Mohamed Nasheed, the former president of the Maldives, has been granted refugee status in Britain. 

27. Barcelona lifted its 28th Copa Del Rey title by defeating Sevilla by 2-0 in the final match. 

28. Louis van Gaal has been sacked as manager of Manchester United, with former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho set to be named as his replacement. 

29. Markus Kattner, acting Secretary General of International Governing body of football, FIFA has been sacked.

30. India successfully tested its first indigenously made reusable launch vehicle (RLV) from Sriharikota Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh. 

31. Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling was conferred the "Yug Kavi Siddhicharan Award" by Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli for his commendable contributions in promoting Nepali literature in India. 

32. BJP leader and former IPS officer Kiran Bedi was appointed as lieutenant governor of Puducherry, a post which was under the additional charge of Lt Governor of Andaman and Nicobar Island for nearly two years. 

33. Ken Loach won his second Palme d’Or award for "I, Daniel Blake" at the 69th Cannes Film Festival and the Indian film "The Cinema Travellers", a documentary on the traditional art of travelling cinema in Maharashtra, has won the documentary award. 

34. Lieutenant General S K Saini took over as the new commandant of the Indian Military Academy (IMA). 

35. J Jayalalithaa sworn in as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. With this she has created history by becoming the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for the second time. 

36. Iran and India signed four agreements for the development on the southern coast of Chabahar port, to establish aluminum smelter plant and rail-related agreements. 

37. Veteran sports photo journalist Bikash Sandhu died. He was 64. 

38. India's star cueist Pankaj Advani created history in Abu Dhabi by clinching the Asian 6-Red Snooker title. Advani thus became the first in the world to hold both world and continental titles in 6-red snooker at the same time. 

39. Anurag Thakur was unanimously elected as the second youngest BCCI President, while Ajay Shirke was chosen as Secretary.

40. The 41-year- old Anurag Thakur replaced Shashank Manohar who quit the position to take up the ICC chairman's job, he was unanimously elected as the youngest BCCI President post-Independence, taking up the most high-profile position in Indian cricket. 

41. Aparna Kumar IPS of Uttar Pradesh cadre conquered the world's highest peak Mount Everest hereby hoisting flag of India and making history. 

42. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first visit of Iran shall be for enhancing connectivity, trade, investment andenergy partnership. 

43. AIADMK leader J. Jayalalithaa will take the oath of Tamil Nadu chief minister for the second time. A total of 28 ministers in the cabinet, including his trusted O Pannirselvm shall take oath. 

44. Turkey's Transport Minister Binali Yildirim will be appointed as head of the ruling party and as the new PM,strengthening the grip on power of President RecepTayyip Erdogan. 

45. Major global technology company Apple chief Tim Cook, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi. During that hediscussed about the Apple products manufacturing in India and the possibility of connecting with the skilled youth. 

46. On May 13, the country's foreign capital reserves reduced to$ 96.8millionto become361.0267 billion (23982.3 billion rupees) Because of this country's special drawing rights (SDRs) down by $ 69 were recorded, 1.5038billion dollar. 

47. Sachin Tendulkar launched Smash Sachin Virat cricket Carnival at smash center located in Noida DLF mall .Sachin is smash’s brand ambassador. The company was started by Smash Entertainment Pvt Ltd. -smash game is a world-class entertainment center, where games offered are of unrivaled range.

Google doubles down on artificial intelligence with Home and Allo

Alphabet's Google Inc (GOOGL.O) unveiled its answer to Amazon's (AMZN.O) Alexa virtual assistant along with new messaging and virtual reality products at its annual I/O developer conference, doubling down on artificial intelligence and machine learning as the keys to its future.

Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai introduced Google Assistant, a virtual personal assistant, along with the tabletop speaker appliance Google Home.

He also unveiled Allo, a new messaging service that will compete with Facebook's WhatsApp and Messenger products and feature a chatbot powered by the Google Assistant. Allo, like WhatsApp, will also have end-to-end encryption when it is rolled out this summer.

Amazon's Echo, a surprise hit that has other tech giants racing to match it, uses a virtual assistant called Alexa, a cloud-based system that controls the Echo speaker and responds to voice-controlled commands by users.

Like Alexa, Google Assistant can search the internet and adjust your schedule. However, Pichai said Google Assistant can use images and other information to provide more intuitive results.

Top Headlines of the week at a glance

1. India and Slovenia signed a Protocol amending the existing Convention and Protocol between the two countries for avoidance of double taxation and prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income in Ljubljana. 

2. Seeking to attract more foreign investment, the Reserve Bank laid down rules allowing FDI up to 100 per cent in credit information companies (CICs) if ownership of the investor company is well diversified. However, the FDI cap will be 49 per cent if the ownership is not well diversified. 

3. President Pranab Mukherjee inaugurated an Intelligent Operations Centre (IOC) in Rashtrapati Bhavan andlaunched a Mobile App ‘Monitor’ for transformation of President’s Estate into a smart township at a function to be held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. 

4. Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif inaugurated the Pakistan-China Optical Fibre Cable Project. The $44million, 820-kilometre- long cable project stretching from Rawalpindi to Khunjerab in Gilgit-Baltistan, will becompleted by the Special Communication Organisation in two years. The project, which will provide an alternate telecommunication route between Pakistan and China. 

5. Google CEO Sundar Pichai introduced its new products Google Assistant, Google Home and Google Duo. Along with this in order to compete with WhatsApp, Google now launched its app called Google Yellow. The app has many features that make it better than WhatsApp. This is a messaging app that automatically sends text message templates without user intervention. 

6. Turkey's ruling party nominated Binali Yildirim as country's new Prime Minister. At present, Yildirim is theTransport, Maritime and Communication Minister of Turkey. 

7. A 14.62-carat blue diamond became the world’s most expensive jewel ever auctioned after it fetched a whopping $57.5 million (approx. Rs.388 crore) at the Christie's auction. The world’s largest blue diamond is named as “The Oppenheimer Blue”. 

8. Leading industrialist Ratan Tata has invested in niki.Ai, an artificial intelligence (AI) based chatbot. 

9. Moody's Investors Service said that Indian economy will be 7.5 per cent in the next fiscal year. 

10. The US House of Representatives has approved a bipartisan legislative move to bolster defence ties with India and bring it at part with other NATO allies in terms of sale of defence equipment and technology transfer. 

11. Tsai Ing-wen sworn in as the president of Taiwan. Tsai is Taiwan's first female president. 

12. Spain's Football Club Sevilla defeated Liverpool by 3-1 to win its third consecutive title and fifth overall Europa League Title.

13. The US Senate has confirmed the nomination of an Indian-American Entrepreneur Deven Parekh to the board of directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). 

14. State-run Himachal Pradesh Electricity Board Ltd (HPEBL) and Solar Energy Corp of India (SECI) signed a pact to set up India's first solar wind hybrid power plant in the state. 

15. Justice (Retd) Mihir Kumar Jha and former bureaucrat Kirti Chandra Saha took oath as members of the three-member Bihar Lokayukta. 

16. The public-sector Punjab National Bank, reported a loss of Rs. 5,367 crore for the March quarter, the biggest-ever quarterly loss reported by an Indian bank. 

17. Rupa Iyer, an Indian-American Associate Dean, Research and Graduate Studies at the University of Houston's College of Technology, has been presented the "Distinguished Leadership in Teaching Excellence Award". 

18. Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Ltd, has been awarded the prestigious Othmer Gold Medal for his entrepreneurial leadership. 

19. Apple Inc. announced the opening of a new office in Hyderabad that will focus on development of Maps (Apple Maps) for Apple products, including iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. 

20. India successfully test-fired its indigenously-developed nuclear capable Prithvi-II missile as part of a user trial by the army from a test range at Chandipur in Odisha. With a strike range of 350 km, the Prithvi-II is capable of carrying 500 kg to 1,000 kg of warheads and is thrusted by liquid propulsion twin engines. 

21. India's star batsman and Royal Challenger Banglore Captain Virat Kohli became the first batsman to score 4000 runs in Indian Premier League (IPL). He achieved this record in the match against Kings XI Punjab. 

22. The Indian 4x100m women's relay team broke the 18-year- old national record to finish in 4th position at the IAAF World Challenge.

23. Indian-American politician Swati Dandekar has been nominated by the US Senate to the post of Executive Director to the Asian Development Bank. She will replace Robert M. Orr, who has held this position since 2010.

24. British author J.K. Rowling has received PEN’s Literary Service Award for her “extraordinary creativity” and other humanitarian causes.

25. India is the 12th largest foreign holder of the US government securities. Despite reducing its exposure to $ 1245 Arab Dollars, China remained the top holder of these securities in March, as per the latest data released by the US Treasury Department.

26. The government constituted a five member panel under Former Revenue Secretary and Rajya Sabha MP N.K. Singh to review the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act of 2003. The panel will also consider the possibility of replacing absolute fiscal deficit targets.

27. The Income Tax department has launched a special electronic grievance redressal system called "e-nivaran" in order to fast track taxpayer grievances and ensure early resolution of their complaints.

28. Sujoy Bose, the global co-head for infrastructure and natural resources at International Finance Corporation, is likely to be appointed as the first CEO of India’s pioneering quasi-sovereign wealth fund, (SWF) the National Infrastructure and Investment Fund (NIIF).

29. The government has amended patent rules to offer a ‘Tatkal’ option for speedy clearance of applications by start-ups or those that choose India as the destination for first filing of patent. In an ambitious move, India is also planning to reduce the time frame for the grant of patents to two-and- a-half years immediately and one- and-a- half years by March 2018, from the current 5-7 years.

30. Leicester City’s manager Claudio Ranieri has picked up another piece of silverware after being elected "Manager of the Year" award by England’s League Managers Association (LMA).The 64-year- old Italian, who led Leicester to a 5,000-1 Premier League title triumph, becomes only the second non-Briton to win the award after Arsenal’s French manager Arsene Wenger, who was honoured in 2002 and 2004.

31. The State Bank of India has kick-started the process of merging its five associate banks with itself at one go. The merger is expected to be completed by the end of the current financial year. The SBI board, which discussed the issue, and also explored the possibility to merge Bharatiya Mahila Bank.

32. Continuing his investment spree in the Indian start-ups, Tata Sons chairman Ratan Tata has now invested an undisclosed amount in San Francisco-based medical emergency response start-up MUrgency Inc.

33. South Korean author Han Kang won the Man Booker International Prize for fiction “The Vegetarian,” an unsettling novel in which a woman stops eating meat and desires to become a tree.

34. A 65-year- old Indian American scientist Rakesh K Jain will receive the prestigious ‘National Medal of Science’ award from US President Barack Obama.

35. The World Bank's Board has approved $625 million loan to support India's grid-connected rooftop solar programme to generate clean energy.

36. Indian Foreign Service officer Namgya C Khampa has been appointed as Director in Prime Minister's office.Khampa is an Indian Foreign Service officer of 2000 batch.

37. The trial run of India’s first-ever driverless metro train will be conducted by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation(DMRC). The trial is going to be conducted at Delhi Metro’s new Mukundpur depot, where 14 such high-tech trains have been ferried from South Korea.

38. Justice Deepak Gupta was sworn-in as the new Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court.

39. The first technology demonstrator (TD) launch of the Indian Space Research organizations’ Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), or the space plane in popular parlance, will take place on May 23 at 9.30 a.m. from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota, according to ISRO officials. Visually, the RLV-TD is a rocket-aircraft combination measuring about 17 m, whose first stage is a solid propellant booster rocket and the second stage is a 6.5 m long aircraft-like winged structure sitting atop the rocket.

40. A 15-year- old Indian-American boy, Syamantak Payra has won the prestigious "Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award" for developing a low-cost electronically-aided knee brace. Syamantak Payra, a Texas resident, won the USD 50,000 award along with 17-year- old Kathy Liu.

41. Retirement fund body EPFO is likely to consider and approve a proposal next month to provide life insurance cover to its subscribers for three years after cessation of employment. “EPFO trustees, in the meeting expected next month will take up and consider the proposal to provide insurance cover under its EDLI scheme to its subscribers for three years after losing job,” a source said. “The maximum sum assured under the Employees’ Deposit Linked Scheme (EDLI) will soon be enhanced to Rs. 6 lakh this month.

42. Batting with an injury, Kohli impressed with his unflinching spirit to score an unbeaten 75 (51b, 5x4, 3x6) hoist 752 in 12 innings. This helped him surpass the previous highest aggregate in a season set by his current teammate Chris Gayle and Michael Hussey, who owned the record so far with 733 runs scored in 2012 and 2013 seasons respectively.

 

43. According to Ernst and Young report, India’s renewable energy sector has been ranked third in the Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index (RECAI) with China at second and the US on top.

44. Wholesale price-based inflation turned positive after 17 months, posting an annual gain of 0.34% in April. The April Wholesale Price Index-based inflation was at (-) 0.85% in March.

45. Former Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi has been awarded with an honorary fellowship by a UK student body to "celebrate and acknowledge his contributions in shaping the present and future of India". Deputy High Commissioner of India Dr Virender Paul bestowed the Honorary Fellowship on Quraishi at an event organised by the "100-Foot Journey Club" and the "National Indian Students and Alumni Union" (NISAU), UK. 

46. An Indian-origin pioneering Tamil scholar and author, Cundasamy Kuppusami who was instrumental inpersuading the South African government to introduce Tamil as a language at secondary schools, died. He was 103. 

47. India successfully test fired an indigenously developed Advanced Air Defence interceptor missile, Ashwin. It was launched from the complex of Abdul Kalam Island (formerly known as Wheeler Island) off Odisha coast. 

48. Four Indian peacekeepers and a civilian, who laid down their lives while serving in the U.N. peacekeepingoperations, will be honoured along with other 124 personnel with a prestigious U.N. medal awarded posthumously for their courage and sacrifice. These people will be honoured with the Dag Hammarskjold Medal on the International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers. 

49. United Nation's International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will provide grants worth USD 150million (about Rs 1,001 crore) to India in the next three years to aid the farm sector. 

50. India's oldest living Test cricketer, Deepak Shodhan died. He was 87. He was the first Indian to make a Test century in his debut innings. 

51. The ICC appointed Claire Furlong as the world cricket body's General Manager - Strategic Communications.Furlong is the current Head of Sport at Hanover Sport with clients including England and Wales Cricket Board, NFL and Asian Football Confederation. 

52. Indian Tennis star Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis won the WTA Italian Open by defeatingEkaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the final. This is their first ever title on red clay court. 

53. Mosinet Geremew powered to impressive victory at the ninth TCS World 10K. Geremew became the first athlete to win the title for the second time. Peres Jepchirchir won the titles in the women category. 

54. Max Verstappen took advantage of a jaw-dropping first-lap collision between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to become Formula One's youngest-ever winner of an incredible Spanish Grand Prix.

 

Top Headlines of the week at a glance

1. MOU between Securities and Exchange Board of India and Financial Services Regulatory Authority, Abu Dhabi for Mutual Co—operation. 

2. Ajay Manikrao Khanwilkar, Chief Justice of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, to be a Judge of theSupreme Court of India . 

3. Shri Ram Vilas Paswan, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution states Foodgrains worth Rs. 10,000 crore better targeted with computerisation of PDS. 

4. Indian Air Force has launched its Electronic Maintenance Management System (e-MMS) Project, an automated military maintenance system. It was inaugurated by the Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha in Pune, Maharashtra. 

5. The Solar Impulse 2 plane touched down in Tulsa, in the south-central US state of Oklahoma ending the latest stage of its record-breaking quest to circle the globe without consuming a drop of fuel. 

6. Antonov An-225 Mriya, Worlds largest Cargo Plane, Comes to India Lands in Hyderabad. It has maximum takeoff weight of 640 tonnes. 

7. The Union Cabinet approves the National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy that will lay the future roadmap for intellectual property in India. 

8. Former India captain Anil Kumble was re-appointed ICC Cricket Committee chairman for a second term of three years while his one-time team-mate and batting great Rahul Dravid was named member of the top panel. Kumble, the all-time highest wicket-taker for India, was appointed as the chairman for his first term in 2012 and will now continue to head the panel until 2018. 

9. US tech giant Apple has raised its stakes in China by investing USD 1 billion in ride hailing app Didi Chuxin, the single largest investment received by the Chinese cab-service company. Didi said that it has received USD 1 billion in strategic investment from Apple.

10. Kotak Mahindra Bank Chief Uday Kotak, who has a net worth of about $7.1 billion, is the sole Indian in Forbes' list of 40 of the most powerful people in the financial world who control the flow of trillions of dollars around the global economy. The Forbes list of "Money Masters: The Most Powerful People in the Financial World" is topped by Blackstone Group's CEO Stephen Schwarzman.

11. Former BCCI President Shashank Manohar was elected unopposed as ICC's first independent Chairman.

12. Setting up a new record, Rajya Sabha passed five Bills. The Bills passed includes The Finance Bill, 2016, The Appropriation Bill, 2016, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016, The Rajendra Central Agricultural University Bill, 2015 and The Indian Trusts (Amendment) Bill 2015.

13. The Development Commissioner (Handlooms), Ministry of Textiles, Government of India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NDTV Ethnic Retail Ltd. for popularizing India Handloom textiles as a fashionable product for youth.

14. President Pranab Mukherjee presented the National Florence Nightingale Awards to nursing personnel atRashtrapati Bhavan on the occasion of International Nurses Day.

15. Kanakia Group private limited has roped in French football legend and Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane as a brand ambassador for its project Kanakia Paris in Mumbai's business district in Bandra-Kurla Complex. This is for the first time an international sportsman is being hired as an ambassador of any real estate project in the country.

16. Renowned West Indies cricket writer and commentator Tony Cozier died. He was 75.

17. Grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram of India and Uurinntuya Uurtsaikh of Mongolia became Champions in the Asian Junior Open and Girls Championship respectively.

18. Long-serving England women’s captain Charlotte Edwards announced her retirement from International cricket.

19. After Salman Khan, Sachin Tendulkar and Abhinav Bindra, Oscar winning music composer A R Rahman also became the Goodwill Ambassador of the Indian Olympic contingent for Rio Olympics 2016.

 

20. Bureaucrat-turned- politician N K Singh was honoured with Japan"s second highest national decoration for his contribution in strengthening Indo-Japan ties in the field of trade and investment over last few decades. The prestigious "The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star" award was conferred on Singh by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the Imperial Palace.

21. India and Mauritius have signed the much awaited protocol amending the double tax avoidance arrangement between the two countries. The protocol provides for grandfathering of investments and the revised position shall only be applicable to investments made on or after April 1, 2017.

22. Western Union "My Stamp" was released to mark 15 years of collaboration between the money transfer service provider and India Post. This is the first time that the Department of Post has released "My Stamp" to commemorate a milestone with a multinational corporation.

23. Minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu inaugurated Comrade Umraomal Purohit Memorial Research Centre situated in All India Railwaymen’s Federation (AIRF) Office Complex, New Delhi.

24. South Indian actor Mohanlal has become the brand ambassador of the country's largest streaming platform,Hotstar, which provides over 80,000 hours of world class entertainment content in eight Indian languages.

25. Brazil's state oil firm Petrobras signed a preliminary deal with the Export-Import Bank of China (China EximBank) on a 1-billion- U.S. dollar loan.

26. An Indian-American woman elementary teacher Revathi Balakrishnan from Texas has been honored by USPresident Barack Obama at the White House for her excellent work in the field of education. Revathi Balakrishnan, a teacher at Patsy Sommer Elementary School, was also named 2016 "Texas Elementary Teacher of the Year"

27. Hockey India (HI) recommended national men's team players V.R. Raghunath and Dharamvir Singh and women's team captain Ritu Rani for the Arjuna Award.

28. Shashank Manohar resigned from the post of BCCI President.

 

Top Headlines - 11.05.2016

1. Google announced the launch of its free high-speed public Wi-Fi service at Ujjain, Jaipur, Patna, Guwahati and Allahabad railway stations. 

2. The three-day Technical Meeting & 4th Ministerial Meeting of South Asian Initiative to end Violence against Children (SAIEVAC) began in New Delhi. Delegates from the governments and civil society organizations of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are taking part in this meeting. 

3. The Government has launched a web-based application on Integrated Waste Management System (IWMS) – www.iwms.nic.in for better management of waste. 

4. Union Minister for Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Sushri Uma Bharti launched nine projects for rural sanitation initiatives under Namami Gange Programme for conservation of river Ganga in Sahibganj, Jharkhand. 

5. National Rice Research Institute (NRRI) has developed a mobile app ‘riceXpert’ that will provide information related to farm practices. The app will provide information to farmers in real time on insect pests, nutrients, weeds, nematodes and disease-related problems, rice varieties for different ecologies, farm implements for different field and post-harvest operations. 

6. Mrugank Paranjape took over as the new Managing Director and CEO of Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX).His term is for 3 years. 

7. Indian boxers finished third in the overall standings at the 7th Asian Youth Championships with three silver and a bronze medal in the tournament held in Pavlodar, Kazakhstan. 

8. American star tennis player, Serena Williams continues to be on the top in the latest women's singles rankings and Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis maintained their joint top position in the women's doubles. 

9. Indian philosopher saint Basaveshwara's birth anniversary was for the first time celebrated in Britain with an event at his statue that was erected in London last year. It was 882nd birth anniversary of Basaveshwara. 

10. Actor Pawan Shankar has been honoured with the Bharat Excellence Award 2016 for his contribution in the education sector.