• On 11^th April, India celebrated ‘Eid-ul-Fitr’ –  the festival of breaking fast on the first day of Shawwal,  after the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting according to the Islamic lunar (Hijri) calendar.
•  11^th April is also celebrated as the ‘National Safe Motherhood Day’ in commemoration of the birth anniversary of Kasturba Gandhi, for spreading awareness to women about safe pregnancy and delivery.
• Observing the birth anniversary of Dr. James Parkinson, 11^th April is celebrated as ‘World Parkinson’s Day’. He was the person who discovered the first case of this curelessprogressive neurological disorder in which a patient holds limited or no control over his movement and body balance, and wrote an essay on it.
  • This disease is caused by the degeneration of nerve cells in the substantia nigra of human brain.
• 11^th April is the birth anniversary of the prominent 19^th century social reformer and thinker Mahatma Jyotirao Phule whose fight against the ills of the pre independent society to attain equal, social and economic benefits of the lower classes in Maharasthra had inspired mammoths like MK Gandhi and Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in the coming times.
  • In 1873, he established the Satyasodhak Samaj.
• 12^th April is celebrated as International Day of Human Space Flight commemorating the first human space flight in Vostok-1, by Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961.
  • Theme 2024: “Encouraging Scientific Curiosity”.
  • Space –firsts:
    • First Satellite in Space – Sputnik I by USSR in 1957.
    • First Man in Space – Yuri Gagarin of USSR in Vostok I in 1961.
    • First Woman in Space – Valentina Tereskova of USSR in Vostok VI in 1963.
    • First Man on the Moon – Neil Armstrong of NASA on Apollo 11 in 1969.
• On 13^th April 2024, India celebrated Vaishakhi, the Punjabi new year at the beginning of the harvest season and according to the Sikh calendar, the beginning of the month of Baishakh.
  • This Vaisakhi festival of the Sikh is also significant because it was on this occasion in 1699 that Guru Govind Singh Ji, the 10^th Sikh Guru established the Khalsa Order.
• 13^th April,2024 marked the 105 years of the barbarous Jalianwalabagh Massacre in 1919.
  • On this day in 1919, Brigadier General Reginald Dyer ordered his 50 Gurkha and Baloch riflemen to open fire in an unarmed crowd of 20,000 people who assembled in the Jallianwalla Bagh enclosure to celebrate Baisakhi and to protest the arrest of Dr. Satya Pal and Dr. Saifuddin Kitchlew under Rowlett Act, 1919.
  • The Rowlatt Act was brought into force on March 10, 1919 to authorize the Government to imprison or confine, without a trial, any person associated with seditious activities.
  • Although the official record registers the casualty to a few hundred, in reality over 1000 people lost their life in the carnage.

Appointments

• Ms. Jagjit Pavadia has been elected for the third time by the UN ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council) as a member of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) from 2025-30.
• Mr. Harendra Singh has been appointed as the National Women’s Hockey Coach of India.
• Mr. Sushil Sharma got appointed as the new Chairman and Managing Director of the SJVN Limited , a Miniratna CPSE.
  • Recently, SJVN Ltd was awarded the 15^th CIDC Vishwakarma Awards 2024 for CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility).
• World Champion Boxer Mary Kom steps down as India’s Chef-de-mission for the upcoming Paris Olympics due to some personal reasons.
• Linda Cameron has been commissioned by UK as its first Woman High Commissioner to India.

Books

• Digital Coach Siddharth Rajsekhar has come up with his new volumes of his book series ‘I Can Coach’.

Obituaries

• Nobel Laureate Physicist and the proponent of “God Particle”, Peter Higgs has passed away at the age of 94.
  • Explaining how matters formed after the Big Bang, Higgs predicted the existence of a new particle known as the ‘Higgs Boson’ in 1964. According to him this particle was the sub-atomic particle that was responsible for explaining how other particles and all the stars and planets acquired mass.
  • In 2013 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work.

Awards

• Hollywood film behemoth, creator of world famous hits like the Star Wars and Indiana Jones, George Lucas is going to receive honorary Palme d’Or  at the 77^th Cannes Film Festival 2024.
• Payal Kapadia’s debut feature film, “All We Imagine As Light” becomes the first Indian film to compete for Palme d’Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 30 years after Shaji N Karun’s ‘Swaham” in 1994.
  • ‘Neecha Nagar’ by Chetan Anand is the only Indian Film till now to win a Palm d’Or (Golden Palm) at the Cannes Film Festival in 1946.
• Jain Acharya Lokesh Muni becomes the first Indian Monk to be honored with the American President’s Gold Volunteer Service Award for his work towards the public good and humanity.
  • The Award was established during the presidency of George W. Bush in 2003.
• ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 team gets honored with the John L “Jack” Swigert Jr Award at space symposium.

Rankings and Indices

• QS World University Rankings By Subject 2024:
  • Released by : Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a London based analytics firm.
  • The ranking comprised of 1559 institutions among which 69 are Indian.
  • India’s Highest Ranked University: JNU (20^th in Developmental Studies).
  • IIM Ahmedabad is among the top 25 global institutes for business and management, IIM Kolkata and Bangalore being in the top 50.
  • Saveetha institute of Medical and Technical Sciences (SIMATS) of Chennai secured 24^th global ranking for dentistry studies.
  • India,69, is the second most represented country in Asia after China with 101.
  • Total number of Ranked entries: India – 4^th (454), China – 1^st (1041), Japan – 2^nd and South Korea – 499.
  • India registered a 16% growth in the International Research Network Indicator, posing it as one of the most rapidly expanding global research entries.
  • India is now world’s 4^th largest producer of research after China, US and UK.

National

• During the hearing of a case concerning the survival of the endangered Great Indian Bustard species and the problem of their colliding natural habitat and flight routes with power transmission lines in Gujarat and Rajasthan, the Supreme Court, in its first, has passed a marquee judgment that recognized a right to be free from the adverse effects if climate change as a distinct  right – deriving its authority and base from Article 14 (Equality before law and the equal protection of law) and Article 21 (Right to life and personal liberty) of the Indian Constitution.
  • The CJI DY Chandrachud , linking the right against climate change to Article 21 and 14, has said the rights to life and equality could not be fully realized without a clean, stable and healthy environment.
  • The right to health, a part under the Article 21, gets impacted due to factors such as air pollution, shifts in vector-borne diseases, rising temperatures, food shortages due to crop failure, storms and flooding.
  • The right to life and the right to equality gets marred due to the inability of the underserved communities to adapt to climate change.
  • The apex court highlighted interconnection b/w climate change and various human rights and also pointed at the absence of any single umbrella legislation in India relating to climate change and the stark concerns.
• On a recent judgment, the Supreme Court has asserted that the election contesting candidates need not disclose each and every moveable asset owned by them or their family  unless they reflect a luxurious lifestyle.
  • The bench of Justices Aniruddha Bose and Sanjay Kumar has said that a voter has absolutely no right to know about each and every asset of a candidate as a candidate possesses the right to privacy regarding matters irrelevant to his candidature, and it does not amount to ‘Corrupt practice’ under section 123 of the Representation of People Act, 1951.
• According to WHO’s latest 2024 Global Hepatitis Report, India has accounted for the second-highest number of cases of Hepatitis B and C after China in 2022, which is 11.6% of the total disease burden globally.
  • Hepatitis, a liver inflammatory disease is a viral disease having five strains – A, B, C, D and E.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi becomes the only second Indian Prime Minister after Indira Gandhi to get featured on the cover page of the New York based magazine ‘Newsweek’.
• Gopichand Thotakura is going to be the first Indian Space Tourist who got selected as one of the six crew members of Blue Origin’s New Shepard – 25 (NS-25) Mission.

Banking and Finance

• HDFC Bank becomes the first private bank of India to open its branch in the Lakshadweep islands.
• Moody’s Analytics has projected India’s growth rate at 6.1% in 2024.

International News

• Simon Harris has become the new PM of Ireland replacing Leo Varadkar.

Current Affairs              14^th & 15^th April, 2024

Day

• 14^th April, also known as ‘Equality Day’, is celebrated as the Birth Anniversary of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar.
  • Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the father of the Indian constitution is also the First Law Minister of India.
  • Some of his most famous books are: ‘Annihilation of Caste’, ‘Buddha and His Dhamma’.
  • His memorial, ‘Chaitya Bhoomi’ is located in Mumbai.
• 14^th April is also celebrated as the ‘World Quantum Day 2024’,  as a reference to 4.14, which are the rounded first digits of Planck’s Constant. Quantum mechanics deals with science of atoms and particles in our world.
• 13^th April marked the 40 years of ‘Operation Meghdoot’ by the Indian Army. On this very day in 1984 The Indian Army took control of the Siachen glacier preventing Pakistan army from taking control of it in the eastern Karakoram Range of the Himalayas and denying them the strategic advantage this high elevated point offered in the disputed region.
  • Before this, according to the Shimla Agreement 1972 after the Indo-Pak War 1971, neither of the countries had a presence beyond Point NJ9842,which was by then an uncharted territory.
  • But under Captain Sanjay Kulkarni, the Indian Army successfully accomplished the ‘Operation Meghdoot’. Along with the main glacier, the Indian Army also took control three surrounding passes: Sia La, Bilafond La and Gyong La.
• 15^th April is celebrated as the ‘World Art Day’ since 2012 commemorating the birth of the great artist Leonardo Da Vinci – mostly famous for his designs and the famous portrait of ‘Mona Lisa’.
  • Theme 2024– A Garden of Expression: Cultivating Community through Art.
• 15^th April is also celebrated as the “Himachal Day’, commemorating the same date in 1948 when it was created as a province after integration of 30 erstwhile princely states in the region.
  • And January 25 is the Himachal Statehood Day as in 1971, it was on this date that Himachal Pradesh became the 18^th state of the Indian Union.
  • Himachal Pradesh:
    • CM – Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu
    • Governnor – Shiv Pratap Shukla
    • Ramsar Wetlands: Chandertal, Pong Dam, Renuka Wetland ( Smallest in India)
• Longte festival is being celebrtated in Arunachal Pradesh. It is one of the oldest and agriculturally important festival of the Nyishi tribe.
  • Nyishi is the largest ethnic group in Arunachal Pradesh.
• In a tribute to the historic Pran Pratistha ceremony of Ram Lalla in Ayodhya’ Ram Mandir, the Central government has introduced a limited-edition 50gm colored souvenir silver coin for public sale during the 19^th foundation day of the Security Printing & Minting Corporation of India (SPMCIL).

Appointments

• Sachidananda Mohanty has been appointed as the new Member of the UGC (University Grants Commission).
  • The University Grants Commission (UGC) is a statutory body responsible for coordinating, determining, and maintaining standards of higher education in India.
• Senior IPS Officer Anurag Kumar has been appointed as the Joint Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
  • Director of CBI: Praveen Sood.
• Tarun Bajaj, the former revenue secretary has been appointed as the head of the US-India Tax Forum by  the US-India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF).

Books and Authors

• Renowned author Salman Rushdie has launched his all new book based on his horrible experience of being near-fatally stabbed at a public event in 2022 by the title ‘KNIFE: Meditations After an Attempted Murder’.
  • His popular novels are: The Booker Prize winning ‘Midnight’s Children’, ‘The Satanic Verses’ , ‘Shame’.

Awards

• Dr. Gaagandeep Kang, Director of Global Health at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been selected for 2024 John Dirks Canada Gairdner Global Health Award for her valuable contributions in the Global health sector.

Reports and Indices

• World Cybercrime Index :
  • Published by PLoS ONE.
  • An international team of researchers has ranked around 100 countries identifying key hotspots according to various categories of cybercrime like ransomware, credit card theft and scams.
  • India has been ranked 10^th in the World Cybercrime Index, its domain most commonly being scamming people by forcing them to make advanced payments.
  • Top 10: Russia> Ukraine > China > The United States > Nigeria > Romania > North Korea > UK> Brazil > India
  • US and Romania found to specialize in both high-tech and low-tech crimes.
• Plastic Overshoot Day Report:
  • Published by: Swiss Non-profit organization EA (Earth Action).
  • Plastic Overshoot Day marks the point when the amount of plastic waste generated exceeds the world’s capacity to manage it, resulting in environmental pollution.
  • Findings:
    • In 2024, the Global Plastic Overshoot Day is projected to occur on 5^th September.
    • In 2024, 220 million tons of plastic waste will be created and 70 million tons will end up in nature.
    • Plastic Waste has risen up by 7.11% since 2011.
    • India is among the 12 countries responsible for 60% of the planet’s mismanaged plastic waste.
    • The 12 countries are: China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Vietnam, Iran, Indonesia, Egypt, Pakistan, the US and Turkey.
    • Belgium is the top generator of plastic waste.
    • Oman tops the list of countries in terms of mismanaged plastic per person in 2024.
    • India will reach its own plastic overshoot day on April 23^rd.

Defense

• 5^th Joint Military exercise ‘Dustlik 2024’ has been conducted between the armies of India and Uzbekistan.
• The Ministry of defense of the Indian Government has placed its largest ever tender of Military equipment of Rs. 65,000 crore for 97 made-in-India Tejas LCA Mark-1A fighter jets to the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
  • The insertion of Tejas fleet in the IAF will replace the existing MiG fleet.
• The Indian Army and DRDO has jointly conducted the successful trials of the MPATGM (Man-Portable Anti-Tank Guided Missile) Weapon system at the Pokhran Field Firing Range(PFFR).

Science and Tech

• The scientists from the IISc has developed a Sustainable Hydrogel – a unique intertwined polymer network that can bind the contaminants and degrade them using UV Radiation, as a measure to combat the abundance of microplatics in water.
• ISRO has announced that it is planning the Chandrayaan-4 mission, under which samples from the lunar surface will be brought back to the earth.
  • India has the aspiration of landing an astronaut on the moon by 2040.
• NASA is going to launch its ‘Clipper’ spacecraft that will commence a journey to Jupiter’s 4^th largest moon- Europa – in search of traces of life. By 2031, the spacecraft will reach Europa.
  • Europa is about 90% the size of the earth, having a thin atmosphere mainly of consisting oxygen.

Sports

• Novak Djokovic becomes the Oldest top seeded Tennis Player to hold the rank 1. This feat was previously hold by Rodger Federer.
• Panthoi Chanu of Manipur creates history by becoming the first Indian to play in Australian Professional league for Metro United WFC in South Australian Women’s National Premier League.
• Rohit Sharma becomes the first Indian Player to hit 500 T20 Sixes.
  • Most Sixes in T20 : Chris Gayle (1056) > Kieron Pollard (860) > Andre Russel (678).
• Dipendra Singh Airee creates history after becoming the only third person to slam six sixes in an over during Kamran Khan’s over in the Nepal v/s Qatar match at the ACC Men’s Premier Cup in Oman.

Banking and Finance

• Phone Pe has partnered with Nepal’s digital wallet service – eSewa and the HAN (Hotel Assn of Nepal), Pokhara to promote UPI in Nepal.

International News

• On 14^th April, Iran launched an attack of a flurry of 300 drones and missiles on Israel. This attack comes days after Israel bombed on the Iranian Consulate in Damascus (Syria) in an airstrike on which two Iranian generals were killed.
  • Iran has also warned the US against any involvement in Israel’s retaliation otherwise Iran would strike the US Military bases.
  • Also the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran has took under custody an Israel lined vessel – MSC Aires , having 17 Indian nationals on board.
  • Despite heightened tensions for a prolonged time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran, this is the first time Iran launched a full scale military assault on Israel.
  • Iran – Israel relations:
    • Historically Iran is the only official Shia Muslim country in the Islamic world.
    • Despite its opposition to the partition of Palestine in 1948 according to the UN resolution, Iran was one of the first Muslim countries to recognize Israel as a state.
    • But after the Islamic Revolution in 1979 in Iran, its monarch Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was ousted and the religious supreme leader of Iran Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei adopted a policy of offence against the “arrogant” world.
    • Yet, limited co-operations in sectors like energy, infrastructure and defense existed between the two nations till 1980.
    • But sooner, Iran and Israel locked horns in shadow proxy war: Iran started nurturing insurgent groups in the Israeli fronts – Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, and other such groups in Syria and Jordan; Iran also funded Hamas in the Gaza strip time and again, while Israel resorted to secret damage and cyberattacks to Iran’s critical infrastructures like its budding nuclear program (which it labelled as for peaceful purposes), military equipment etc.
    • Hezbollah has been launching rockets into Iran since the start of Israel-Hamas war in October 2024.

Current Affairs        17th April, 2024 to 20^th April

Day

• 17^th April, 2024 is being celebrated as ‘Ram Navami’ according to the Navami tithi of Shula Paksha in the Chaitra month of the Hindu calendar.
• 17^th April is also celebrated as the World Hemophilia Day since 1989 by the World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) commemorating the birthday of WFH founder Frank Schnabel, to increase awareness about hemophilia disease and other inherited bleeding disorders.
  • Theme: – “Equitable access for all: recognizing all bleeding disorders”.
  • Hemophilia is an inherited rare disease in about 1 among 1000, where the ability of blood to clot is damaged.
• 18^th April is celebrated as the World Heritage Day to honor and protect the cultural legacy of the world since 1982 by the International Council for Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS).
  • Theme: ‘Discover and Experience Diversity’.

Obituaries

• Legendary Carnatic musician and Padmashree awardee K G Jayan has passed away.
• The oldest surviving pilot from the Indian Air Force, squadron Leader Dalip Singh Mathijia has passed away at the age f 103.
  • Sqadron leader Mathijia had served as the flight commander of the famous No.4 squadron, ‘the Fighting Oorials’ from 1942 to 1943 in Burma during the WWII.
• England’s most successful spin bowler in history, legend Derek Underwood has passed away at the age of 78.

Appointment

• Vice Admiral Dinesh K Tripathi is has been appointed as the next Navy Chief; his tenure will start from April 30 after the superannuation of the current Naval Chief Admiral R. Harikumar.
• After his retirement from the post of Supreme Court Judge, Justice Anirudhdha Bose has been appointed as the Director of the National Judicial Academy, Bhopal.
• Space Technology and Education Pvt. Ltd, a.k.a SPACE India has appointed Sanjana Sanghi as its new brand ambassador.
  • SPACE India is a pioneering ISRO affiliated institute that promotes astronomy, Space Science & STEM Education.
• Kristalina Georgieva has been re-appointed as the Managing Director of the IMF (International Monetary Fund).
  • IMF HQ: Washington D.C., USA.

Books and Authors

• Former RBI Governor and former finance secretary D. Subbarao has launched his new memoir “Just a Mercinary?: Notes From My Life and Career”.
• Retd. IAS and former UN Official Bhimeswara Challa has launched his latest book ‘India – the Road to Renaissance: A Vision and an Agenda’.

Awards

• Legendary Actor Amitabh Bachchan has been honored with the prestigious 3^rd Lata Deenanath Mangeshkar Award. Previously Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Asha Bhosle was awarded this honor in 2022 and 2023 respectively.
• 8 Indians among which 2 are Indian citizens and 6 are Indians by descent, have featured on the TIME’s 100 Most Influential People of 2024 List.
  • 2 Indian Citizens – Alia Bhatt and Sakshi Malik.
  • 6 other individuals who are Indian by descent:
    • Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
    • World Bank President, Ajay Banga.
    • Yale university professor, Priyamvada Natarajan.
    • Darjeeling Express restauranteur Asma Khan.
    • US Dept of Enegy’s Loan Programs Office Director, Jigar Shah.
• Skytrax World Airports Awards 2024 (Oscars of the Airline Sector):
  • Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Hyderabad has been awarded the ‘Best Airport Staff in India & South Asia 2024’.
  • Displacing Singapore’s Changi Airport after 12 years, Doha’a Hamad International Airport has become the best airport of the world.
  • In the top 100 airports of the world, 5 are from India: Delhi’s IGI Airport – 36^th,  Bengaluru’s Kempegowda Intl Airport – 59^th, Hyderabad Airport – 61^st, Goa’s Manohar Intl Airport – 92^nd, Mumbai Airport- 95^th.
  • World’s top three airports:
    • 1^st – Doha’s Hamad.
    • 2^nd – Singapore’s Changi.
    • 3^rd– Seoul’s Incheon.

National

• The Government of India has introduced ‘CDP:SURAKSHA’ , a Horticulture Subsidy scheme to help the booming Horticulture sector of India.
  • SURAKSHA – “System for United Resource Allocation, Knowledge and Secure Horticulture Assistance”.
  • It is a new platform to distribute subsidies to horticulture farmers under the Cluster Development Program (CDP).
• The Govt. of India, in an effort to market the Indian Kasturi Cotton as a global brand has planned to set up 6 new Cotton Testing labs in 6 states – Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat and Karnataka.
  • India has the world’s largest cotton cropping area but unlike global cotton brands like Supima and Giza, it doesn’t have a distinguished flagship brand of its own.
• India is going to launch 250 Kmph indigenous bullet train, developed by Integral Coach Factory (ICF) in Chennai, that will run on the existing Vande Bharat tracks along the north, south and east corridors.
  • The Bullet Train Project will be executed by the National High-Speed Rail Corporation Ltd (NHSRCL).
• India has clinched 2 sliver and 2 bronze medals at the 13^th European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad 2024 in Tskaltubo, Georgia.
• The Government of India has constituted a committee under the Chairmanship of Defense Secretary Rajiv Gauba on the welfare of the LGBTQ+ community on the suggestion of the Supreme Court in the Supriyo Chakraborty v/s Union of India Case.
  • The Supriyo Chakraborty v/s the Union of India Case, 2023:In the case the Special Marriage Act, 1954 was challenged because of did not permit same sex marriage.The plaintiff had argued that it was against Article 14 of the Fundamental Rights.
  • The Committee has involved all the important ministries of the government like Home Ministry, Ministry of Women and Child Development, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Law and Justice Ministry.
• Uttar Pradesh has become the state with most number of GI tag products with the number reaching 75 after the latest addition of ‘Tirangi Barfi’ from Kashi – a tricolored sweet which was made a trademark during the Quit India Movement.
• Madhya Pradesh has become the leading state in India to implement center’s Green Credit Initiative Program (GCP) which was launched by the PM during the COP 28 Summit, Dubai.
  • Launched with an objective of incentivizing states to adopt eco-friendly practices and undertake projects for environmental conservation, this is an initiative within the Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) movement of the Government.
• The Doordarshan News (DD News) has adopted a new logo of Saffron color before the polls.

State News

Kerala

• Kerala has introduced SOPs under the ‘One Health’ Initiative, a part under the World Bank aided Rebuild Kerala Project.
  • The SOPs will cover 8 diseases like Hepatitis, Nipah and Avian Influenza, aimed at early disease surveillance, prevention and investigation at the state-;eve; on the One Health Platform.

Reports and Indices

• According to a recent report of the Airports Council International (ACI) World – a global air traffic measuring organization – the Delhi Airport (Indira Gandhi International Airport) is the 10^th busiest airport of the world.
  • Among the top 10 busiest airports, five of the airports are from USA only.
  • Top 10 Busiest airports:
    • Atlanta Airport (USA)
    • Dubai (UAE)
    • Dallas/ Fort Worth (USA)
    • London (UK)
    • Tokyo (Japan)
    • Denver (USA)
    • Istanbul (Turkey)
    • Los Angeles (USA)
    • Chicago (USA)
    • New Delhi (India)
• According to the Global Trade Outlook and Statistics report 2024, India has become the 4^th largest exporter of digitally delivered assets in the world. It registered a 17% growth in comparison to the previous year.
  • 1^st– US. 2^nd – UK , 3^RD– Ireland
  • The digitally delivered services included professional services in education, gaming and music streaming.

International News

• Lawrence Wong is going to taw over as the Prime Minister of Singapore  on May 15.
• Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah has been appointed as the New Prime Minister of Kuwait.
  • Kuwait: Capital – Kuwait City, Currency – Kuwaiti Dinar.
• India and Mauritius has signed a protocol to amend the double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA), to include a Principal Purpose Test (PPT) to decide whether a foreign investor is eligible to claim the benefits of the DTAA Treaty, 1983.
  • Mauritius has been a traditional trade partner of India and is India’s 4^th largest FPI source after the US, Singapore and Luxembourg.
  • In 1983, the GoI and the Mauritius Govt. had come to an agreement regarding the avoidance of double taxation called the DTAA.
  • Historically, Mauritius has preferred a jurisdiction for investing in India due to the non-taxability of capital gains from the sale of shares in Indian companies until 2016.
  • In 2016, India and Mauritius revised the treaty on tax agreement, by which India got the right to tax capital gains in India on transactions in shares routed through Mauritius April 1, 2017 onwards.
  • Mauritius: Capital – Port Louis , Currency – The MUR (Mauritius Rupee).
• The United Arab Emirates has recorded the heaviest rain ever – more than 142 millimeters of rain- in one day after a severe thunderstorm hit the country. It resulted in temporarily flooding the desert city of Dubai.
  • The primary reasons, although is a storm system in the Arabian Peninsula, but experts have argued that it worsened because of UAE’s Cloud Seeding efforts.
  • Cloud Seeding: It is a process of spraying salt mixtures like silver iodide in clouds that results in condensation of the clouds and eventually rainfall.
• 16^th World Future Energy Summit has been held in Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre, Dubai.
• Thousands of residents has been displaced after the ‘Ruang Volcano’ of Indonesia erupted. Indonesia is vast archipelagic nation that wholly sits in the ring of fire.
• The Indo – Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) is scheduled to host its first clean economy investor forum in Singapore on June 5-6.

Sports

• The Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA) Stadium, Dharamsala has become the first BCCI accredited venue to install a state-of-the-art ‘Hybrid Pitch’.
  • In future IPL and International matches will be played on this track developed by Netherlands based ‘SISGrass’. The Hybrid Pitch will transform the game by providing a more durable, consistent, and high-performing playing surface.
• Sunrisers Hyderabad has broken their own record to register the highest score in IPL of 287 runs for 3 wickets.
  • In the game, v/s Royal Challengers Bengaluru, SRH’s Travis Head has scored the 4^th fastest century of the tournament – in 39 balls.
  • Chrish Gayle has the fastest century in IPL – in 30 balls.
  • The most runs in a  T20 match till now was scored by Nepal of 314 for 3 against Mongolia in the Asian Games.
• Australian Men’s Captain Pat Cummins and England women’s all-rounder Nat Schiver-Brunt has been named as  the leading cricketers (Men and Women respectively) in the 2024 edition of Wisden Cricketer’s Almanack.
  • Wisden Cricketer’s Almanack is colloquially known as ‘the Bible of cricket’ and it is a reference book published annually in the UK.
• Stefanos Tsistpas of Greece has won the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 after defeating Casper Rudd of Norway.
• Rohit Sharma becomes the 2^nd player to play 250 IPL matches after MS Dhoni.

Science and Tech

• Nigeria becomes the first country to roll out Men5CV vaccine against Meningitis according to WHO.
• While addressing the 42^nd Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee (IADC) annual meeting in Bengaluru, ISRO Chief S. Somanath has announced that India is aiming to achieve debris-free space by 2030.
• Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory’s Gaia Mission has spotted the most massive Black Hole of the Milky Way – ‘Gaia BH3’. It is the second closest black hole from the earth after Gaia BH1 situated in the Aquila constellation. It is 33 times bigger in size than the sun.

Defense

• DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) has conducted as  successful flight test of long range subsonic Indigenous Technology Cruise Missile (ITCM) from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) , Chandipur off the Odisha coast.
  • DRDO Chairman – Dr. Samir V Kamat.
• According to the military deal worth $375 million between India and Philippines in 2022, India has delivered 1^st batch of BrahMos Missiles to Philippines. It consists of three batteries of BrahMos missiles.
  • BrahMos Missiles are Supersonic cruise missile having a range of 450km, developed jointly by DRDO of India and NPOM of Russia. It is named after two rivers of the two countries – Brahmaputra of India and Moskova of Russia. The missiles has omni-installation features: It can be launched from sea, land, sub-sea and air against surface and sea based targets.
• SPACE – Submersible Platform for Acoustic Characterization and Evaluation  –  Testing Hub, developed by DRDO was inaugurated in Idukki, Kerala by DRDO Chairman Dr. Samir V Kamat.
  • This underwater acoustic research facility has been designed as a premier testing and evaluation  hub for SONAR systems for India Navy’s testing purposes. It will augment India’s anti-submarine warfare capacity and research.
• IIT Kanpur and Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) has signed an MoU to develop new technologies to address health problems faced by soldiers in tough terrains.
• For the first time, Indian Navy’s INS Talwar in cooperation with CTF (Combined Task Force) 150 of the CMF (Combined Maritime Forces) has seized drugs over 940kgs in the Arabian Sea.
  • CMF is the 43 nations’ joint – largest international naval partnership for the purpose of upholding the international rules-based order by promoting security and stability across 3.2 million sq miles of water.
    • CMF HQ: Baharain.
    • US Navy admiral serves as the commander and UK Royal Navy commodore serves as the deputy commander of the CMF.
    • India became a member of the CMF in November, 2023.