Current Affairs - May 13, 2017 Current Affairs

The World Health Organisation today appointed Amitabh Bachchan as its goodwill ambassador for hepatitis in South-East Asia region to boost awareness and intensify action to arrest the epidemic. This seeks to provide a road map for sustainable prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care for all forms of hepatitis within the universal health care framework.

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has decided to share online scores of candidates taking competitive exams. This is part of the government's proposal to boost hiring by the private sector. The available scores will act as a useful database to other employers to enable them to identify good, employable candidates.

Nagpur will be the first Indian city to get electric radio cabs. The electric taxi is one of the ambitious projects of the NDA government, part of the UNDP millennium goals and also a method to tackle increasing pollution in the country. The project will be undertaken by Nagpur Municipal Corporation.

Anil K Gupta have been appointed as General Manager (GM) of the Western Railway zone. The Western Railways has Mumbai Central, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Bhavnagar and Ratlam divisions under it.

Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat & Divya Kakran have bagged silver medals at the Asian Wrestling Championship. Divya Kakran and Vinesh Phogat bagged silver in the 69 kg and 55kg categories.

The former India batsman V.V.S. Laxman became the latest ex-India player to be awarded an honorary life membership to the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). He scored 8,781 Test runs at an average of 45.97 and 2338 ODI runs at 30.76.

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari launched the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) Masala Bond for Rs 3,000 crore at the London Stock Exchange. The initial issue amount of Rs 1,500 crore was upsized to Rs 3,000 crore at a price yielding 7.30% annually in view of the highly positive response from the investor market.

Surface-to-air PYthon and DERby(Spyder) missile system was test fired from the mobile launching complex-III of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, Odisha. The defence system comprises two missiles - Python and Derby with an active onboard radar which makes the Spyder system more lethal. Both the missiles are smokeless which makes it harder to detect them visually and the launch position.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh launched a mobile-based grievance redressal application for central paramilitary personnel and BSFMyApp' for the personnel of the Border Security Force which can be downloaded from the website of the respective forces and the MHA app from the home ministry's official portal.

The Election Commission of India launched National Contact Centre with a toll-free No. 1800111950. It is operated on a National Grievance Redressal System Software, a single window platform to manage complaints and feedback received through calls, emails, SMS and website access in an integrated and time-bound manner.

China has set up a 160-square-meter (1,720-square-foot) laboratory called as "Yuegong-1", or "Lunar Palace" for simulating a lunar-like environment to test a life-support system that may allow future astronauts to spend longer periods of time in space.

Justice (Retd) Mukul Mudgal was elected as head of FIFA's governance committee at the world football governing body's 67th Congress in Bahrain's capital city of Manama. Mudgal has been involved in overseeing the conduct of international cricket matches and IPL games at the Ferozshah Kotla Stadium.

ICICI Bank CEO and Managing Director Chanda Kochhar has become the first Indian woman to receive the Woodrow Wilson Award for Global Corporate Citizenship. It was conferred on Kochhar for demonstrating a commitment to the common good beyond the bottom line.