04 May
IPCI Info

International News Affairs

  • Today (4th May 2017) is International Firefighters’ Day.
    • It was instituted after proposal emailed out across the world on January 4, 1999 due to the deaths of five firefighters in tragic circumstances in a wildfire in Australia.
    • May 4 used to be a traditional Firefighters’ Day in many European countries, because it is the day of Saint Florian, patron saint of firefighters.
  • Prince Philip, the 95-year-old husband of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II shall retire from his public duties this autumn, the Buckingham Palace announced today.
    • However, the 91-year-old Queen shall continue to carry out her full programme of engagements.
  • India will discuss and take a decision on the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status given to Pakistan, MoS for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman announced today.
  • China is going to launch its own online encyclopaedia next year rivalling Wikipedia and Britain’s Encyclopaedia Britannica.
    • This project will be executed under the guidance of the state-owned China Publishing Group.
03 May
IPCI Info

Current Sports Affairs

  • The Indian T20I team slipped a spot to the 4th place in the ICC T20I team rankings, according to the latest ICC rankings released today.
    • Indian team, with 118 rating points, is three points behind World T20 2009 winner Pakistan and World T20 2010 winner England.
    • New Zealand with 125 rating points is the top-ranked T20I team.
    • Top 10 in the List :
      • New Zealand
      • England
      • Pakistan
      • India
      • South Africa
      • Australia
      • West Indies
      • Sri Lanka
      • Afghanistan
      • Bangladesh
03 May
IPCI Info

Banking, Business & Economic News

  • After PM Narendra Modi pitched for shifting to a January-December financial year, Madhya Pradesh has decided to adopt the January-December financial year format from the present April-March cycle.
    • Important Note : With this, Madhya Pradesh has become the first in the country to adopt the change.
    • With this, the next budget in Madhya Pradesh will be presented in December 2017.
  • India’s third largest IT firm Wipro has replaced its multi-coloured sunflower logo, which was introduced in 1998, with a new one.
    • The new logo comprises dots, which according to Wipro, represent the way the company “connects the dots” for its clients.
  • In just six months of launching its telecom operations, Reliance Jio has accounted for nearly 40% of India’s broadband connections, according to data by telecom regulator TRAI.
    • Reliance Jio accounted for 102.84 million users, the highest, followed by Bharti Airtel at 46.69 million broadband connections.
03 May
IPCI Info

Awards & Honors

  • President Pranab Mukherjee will give way the 64th National Film Awards in New Delhi today.
    • These awards had been announced last month.
    • Akshay Kumar has been chosen for the Best Actor Award for Hindi movie ‘Rustom’.
    • Surabhi has been named as the Best Actress for her role in Malayalam film ‘Minnaminungu-The Firefly’.
03 May
IPCI Info

Science & Technology

  • The Indian Army today successfully test-fired an advanced version of the BrahMos land-attack cruise missile in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
  • Israel showed off its three new F-35 stealth fighter jetsrecently delivered from the United States as part of an air show marking its annual Independence Day celebrations.
    • Important Note : The F-35 jet is the most expensive weapons system in history, costing nearly $1.5 trillion throughout its decade and a half of development.
03 May
IPCI Info

National News Affairs

  • India’s first full-length feature film ‘Raja Harishchandra‘ was released 104 years ago on this day (3rd May) in the year 1913.
    • This film was produced and directed by Dadasaheb Phalke.
  • The Madhya Pradesh Cabinet today decided to grant the status of “living human entity” to Narmada river.
    • The proposal to grant the status to Narmada river came after the Uttarakhand High Court accorded the status to Ganga and Yamuna rivers.
  • Sualgiri and Swalgiri communities of Odisha have been notified as Scheduled Castes after President Pranab Mukherjee gave his assent to the Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order (Amendment) Act, 2017.
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi today inaugurated the Patanjali Research Institute at Patanjali Yogpeeth in Haridwar.
    • This institute will be the first organisation in India to conduct clinical trials as per international standards in the field of Ayurveda.
  • The Karnataka government passed an order putting a cap of ₹200, exclusive of taxes, on the price of movie tickets at cinema halls, including multiplexes, across the state.
  • World’s highest railway bridge which will be 35 metres taller than the Eiffel Tower is to come up over the Chenab River in Jammu and Kashmir at a cost of around Rs. 1,100 crore in around two years from now.
    • This bridge will connect Bakkal (Katra) and Kauri (Srinagar).
03 May
IPCI Info

International News Affairs

 

  • World Press Freedom Day, proclaimed by the United Nations in 1993, is celebrated today (May 3rd).
    • This day is being observed every year to draw focus on the freedom of information, protecting journalism from censorship, and ensuring safety for journalists.
    • This day marks the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in 1991.
    • Theme of World Press Freedom Day 2017 : “Critical Minds for Critical Times: Media’s role in advancing peaceful, just and inclusive societies”

 

02 May
IPCI Info

Current Sports News

  • English professional snooker player Mark Selby won his third World Snooker Championshipin four years after registering an 18-15 comeback victory against John Higgins today.
  • BCCI has nominated Cheteshwar Pujara and Indian women’s team member Harmanpreet Kaur for the Arjuna award.
    • In the recently concluded Test season, Pujara scored 1,316 runs, the highest ever aggregate of runs by an Indian in a single Test season.
    • Kaur, who represents Sydney Thunder in the Women’s Big Bash League, was a significant part of India’s Asia Cup victory.
  • Indian table tennis player Soumyajit Ghosh became the 3rd Indian to win a men’s singles title at an ITTF Challenge Series at the Chile Open today.
02 May
IPCI Info

Awards & Honours

  • Sanjay Pratihar, a scientist at Assam’s Tezpur University, has been selected for the prestigious Indian National Science Academy (INSA) medal for the Young Scientist Award, 2017, for his contribution to “multi-metal complexes, theoretical understanding, selective sensing of Hq2+ions and important applications in agriculture”.
  • Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu has been selected for the ‘Transformative Chief Minister Award‘ in recognition for his role in advancing the US-India partnership at the state level.

 

02 May
IPCI Info

Science & Technology

  • Samsung has received approval from the South Korean government to begin testing self-driving cars on public roads in the country.
    • The company will use a modified Hyundai car equipped with sensors and camera equipment to run its own software for autonomous driving.
  • The Department of Telecommunications has launched a web portal called the ‘Tarang Sanchar’ that will allow tracking of radiation emitted from mobile towers within their locality and check for their compliance with the Electromagnetic field (EMF) emission norms defined by the government.