Business & International:

  • KV Kamath who is presently non­executive Chairman of ICICI Bank appointed as the President of the New Development Bank of the BRICS.
  • Microsoft announced Edge as its next Web Browser’s name which will replace the Internet Explorer as a default browser.
  • British Prime Minister David Cameron and his Conservatives Party wins in the British general election.
  • Rating agency CRISIL has assigned the highest corporate credit rating of ‘CCR AAA’ to National Securities Clearing Corporation Ltd (NSCCL). For seventh consecutive year, CRISIL has assigned this rating to NSCCL.
  • A case lodged against Nestle India over safety standards of its Maggi product by the UP food regulator FSDA (Food Safety and Drug Administration).
  • Indian-born Nikesh Arora has been named as the President of Japan’s multinational telecommunications and internet company SoftBank Corp.
  • South Korean President Park Geun-Hye named incumbent Justice Minister Hwang Kyo-Ahn as the new Prime Minister.
  • German Chancellor Angela Merkel again topped the Forbes annual list. Merkel has made the list 10 times over the past 12 years, nine times as No.1.
  • SBI Chief Arundhati Bhattacharya (30th rank), ICICI bank head Chanda Kochhar (35th rank), Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (85th rank), HT Media Chair Shobhana Bhartia (93rd rank) are among the world’s 100 most powerful Indian women according to the Forbes’ 12th annual list.

National:

  • The Tripura cabinet has withdrawn the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) with immediate effect from the state, where the controversial law was in effect for the last 18 years to curb insurgency.
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Doordarshan’s farmer­centric channel known as DD Kisan.
  • Union finance minister Arun Jaitley inaugurated the country’s first new pulp line unit for production of bank note paper at Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh.
  • India is home to 6 million undernourished people, the highest in the world, according to the annual report by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.
  • India has been placed at a lowly 100th position on the global Human Capital Index, which measures countries on development and deployment of human capital. Finland tops the 124-country list.
  • Uttar Pradesh has emerged as biggest contributor to India’s agriculture and allied sector as of 2013-14 with a share of about 13%, according to a recent ASSOCHAM study.
  • Nadia district of West Bengal was on 30 April 2015 declared as the first open defecation-free district in India, has won the United Nations Public Service Award 2015 in the category of improving delivery of public services.

 Persons in News:

  • Eminent scientist and recipient of Bharat Ratna CNR Rao was conferred Japan’s highest civilian award “the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star”.
  • The government has appointed distinguished scientist S. Christopher as Director-General of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and Dr. G.S. Reddy as Scientific Advisor to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.
  • Draupadi Murmu was sworn in as first woman Governor of Jharkhand.
  • Award-winning journalist and litterateur Amitabha Chowdhury died on May 1, 2015, after a prolonged illness.
  • Tanishq Abraham, an 11-year old Indian-American has become youngest ever in the US to graduate high school on May 23, 2015.
  • The Centre has appointed J. Joseph as the Controller General of Accounts (CGA) in the Ministry of Finance.
  • Manobi Bandopadhyay became the first person from the transgender community to head an educational institution in India.
  • John Forbes Nash Jr., a mathematical genius whose struggle with schizophrenia was chronicled in the 2001 movie A Beautiful Mind, has died on May 24, 2015, along with his wife in a car crash on the New Jersey Turnpike.
  • Pramod Patil, a Pune-based ornithologist, has earmarked the £35,000 prize money he got with the Whitley Award (Green Oscar) for conserving the bird.
  • Surendrajeet Singh Ahluwalia has been appointed a chairman of a Joint Committee of Parliament that will look into the provisions of the Land Acquisition Amendment Bill, 2015.

Sports:

  • The middle order batsman Ajinkya Rahane was named as the CEAT Indian Cricketer of the Year 2015.
  • 15-year-old boxer Mandeep Kaur, has won two gold medals at World Junior Boxing Championship by beating Ireland’s Niamh Earley in the final match by a 3-0 margin.
  • Mumbai Indians wins the Indian Premier League 2015 after defeating Chennai Super Kings by 41 runs.
  • Dwayne Bravo wins the Purple Cap as highest wicket taker with 26 wickets. David Warner wins the Orange Cap as he scores the highest total of 562 runs.
  • Barcelona wins the Spanish La Liga title for the 23rd time.
  • Floyd Mayweather emerged with an emphatic win over Manny Pacquiao and thus he adds one more achievement in his 19-year unbeaten record of winning 48 matches.
  • Chelsea wins the English Premier League title as they defeated Crystal Palace 1­0 in Stamford Bridge with three more matches to play.
  • Kochi has been provisionally selected as a host of the 2017 under-17 FIFA World Cup.

 Miscellaneous:

  • Hungarian writer Laszlo Krasznahorkai has won the Man Booker International Prize 2015.
  • The republic of Ireland became the first country in the world to be legalized same-sex marriage through popular vote.
  • French film Dheepan has been awarded Palme d’Or Award at 68th Cannes Film Festival.
  • Director Neeraj Ghaywan’s film Masaan has bagged two awards at the prestigious 68th Cannes International Film Festival.
  • President Pranab Mukherjee presented the 62nd National Film Awards. Shashi Kapoor has been honored with the Dadasaheb Phalke award this year. Kangana Ranaut received the best actress honour from the President. The Best Actor award was picked up by Vijay for his “subtle and non-stereotypical playing of a woman trapped in a man’s body”, in Kannada film Nanu Avanalla Avalu.
  • The 6th National Conference on Nuclear Energy was organized by ASSOCHAM on May 15, 2015, in New Delhi. The theme of the conference was “Nuclear Energy: a ‘Clean’ Energy option”.
  • Nebraska on became the first conservative state in more than 40 years to abolish the death penalty.
  • Indigenously-built guided missile stealth frigate INS Satpura and anti-submarine corvette INS Kamrota participated in SIMBEX-15, a bilateral naval exercise with Singapore.

Important Days in May:

  • 1st May : International Labour Day (Worker’s Day of May Day)
  • 2nd May : World Asthma Day
  • 3rd May : World Press Freedom Day
  • 8th May : World Red Cross Day
  • 2nd Sunday of May : Mother’s Day
  • 21st May : Anti-Terrorism Day
  • 22nd May : Biodiversity Day
  • 23rd May : World Biodiversity
  • 24th May : Commonwealth Day
  • 31st May: World Anti-Tobacco (and No-smoking )