Current Affairs - May 8, 2017 Current Affairs

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highway Nitin Gadkari inaugurated the country's first bio-refinery plant at Rahu in Pune. This produces ethanol from the variety of biomass and it is capable of producing one million litres of ethanol per annum by processing a variety of biomass like rice and wheat straw, cotton stalk, bagasse, cane trash, corn cobs & stover with superior product yields.

India has been elected as the president of the UN-Habitat, an organ of the United Nations promoting sustainable human settlements across the globe. On behalf of India, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister M Venkaiah Naidu will preside over the deliberations of the 58-member Governing Council (GC) of the UN-Habitat for the next two years.

India will organise Tagore cultural Festival in Egypt to mark the 156th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore from May 8-12. It will be organised by the Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture (MACIC), which is the cultural wing of the Indian Embassy in Cairo. It contains a dance drama based on Tagore's work called Chitrangada will be performed by the Kolkata-based Dancers Guild.

The Hinduja Brothers - Srichand and Gopichand retained their top spot in the United Kingdom's the SundayTimes Rich List 2017 with an estimated fortune of 16.2 billion pounds, a massive 3.2 billion pound hike in their fortunes over the previous year. Their investments in industries such as oil and gas, automotive, IT, energy, media, banking, property and healthcare sectors.

Odisha planed to introduce boat ambulance service in Koraput, Malkangiri, Kendrapara and Kalahandi where people face problems in availing 108 ambulance service due to intervening large water bodies in the form of rivers and dams. Rs 21 crores will be spent towards extending emergency ambulance services in the entire state.

The twenty-sixth session of the Governing Council of UN-Habitat will take place from 8 - 12 May 2017 in Kenya. The theme of the twenty-sixth session of the Governing Council (GC26) is 'Opportunities for the effective implementation of the New Urban Agenda'. The session follows the adoption of the New Urban Agenda during the Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in Quito.

The World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day is observed every year on May 8 to commemorate the birth anniversary Jean Henry Dunant. The theme of 2017 World Red Cross Red Crescent Day is "Less Known Red Cross Stories".

India's First Integrated Bio-refinery for Renewable Fuels & Chemicals for producing ethanol from a variety of biomass. The plant is situated at Rahu in Pune district of Maharashtra. The demonstration plant has been built by Praj industries. It is capable of producing one million litres of ethanol per annum by processing a variety of biomass like rice and wheat straw, cotton stalk, bagasse, cane trash, corn cobs & stover with superior product yields.

India won 7 medals at 48th Grand Prix of Liberation Plzen Shooting meet. Deepak Sharma won the bronze medal. Indian shooter Heena Sidhu won a bronze medal in the women's 10-metre Air Pistol event. Neeraj Kumar won the gold medal and Harpreet Singh won silver medal.

Three Indian Scientists Krishna Chatterjee, Subhash Khot, Yadvinder Malhi elected as the Fellows of The Royal Society, a premier scientific academy of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth, for their outstanding contributions to science. The Royal Society is a self-governing fellowship society of the world's most distinguished scientists drawn from all areas of science, medicine and engineering.

India overtook china to emerge as the world's biggest market for two-wheelers. A total of 17.7 million two-wheelers were sold last year whereas China achieved 16.8 million of two - wheelers.

India's cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar conferred with Fellowship Award at the 7th annual Asian Awards in UK.

India assists $65.68 million for a solar-diesel hybrid rural electrification project in the north African country Mauritania. Total exports from India to Mauritania were $30.62 million with imports of $1.60 million.

World Red Cross Day is observed on May 8 every year to commemorate the birth anniversary of Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross as well as the founder of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will travel to Srilanka on May 11 to attend the biggest Buddhist festival Vesak Day. It is an important day in the Buddhist calendar, marks the commemoration of Lord Buddha's birth, enlightenment.