Current Affairs (2018-2019)

National News

• On the event of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s 94th birth anniversary, Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a Rs. 100 commemorative coin in the memory of the former PM. The coin features Emblem on India on the front side, portrait of Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the reserve. It weighs 135 grams and is made of 4 metals viz. Silver (50%), Copper (40%), Zinc (5%) and Nickel (5%).
• Haryana Government has started mobile app ‘Shiksha Setu’ which would have all information related to attendance, fee, online admission and scholarships in all government colleges of the state besides having details of lecturers of government colleges and officers of the Directorate.
• A mobile application ‘Chuppi Tod’ (break your silence) was launched in Patna, Bihar to fight the rampant social evil of child marriage and sexual harassment.

It was launched by noted women rights campaigner Prashanti Tiwari. The application will educate women and girls on the evils of sexual harassment and child marriage, besides offering innovative provisions for them to share their experiences, either confidentially or anonymously.

• Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has launched Heart Attack Rewind, a mass media campaign calling for the elimination of industrially-produced trans-fat in the food supply. It will support FSSAI’s global target of eliminating trans-fat in India by the year 2022, a year ahead of the global target by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the complete elimination of trans fat. 
• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change launched the ‘Asiatic Lion Conservation Project’ with an aim to protect and conserve the population of Asiatic Lion. The total budget of the project for three years that amounts to nearly Rs. 9784 lakh will be funded from the Centrally Sponsored Scheme- Development of Wildlife Habitat (CSS-DWH) with the contributing ratio being 60:40 of Central and State share.
• India’s first asymmetrical cable-stayed bridge “Signature Bridge” was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal across the Yamuna River, Delhi. The bridge connects Outer Ring Road on the western flank of the Yamuna River with the Wazirabad Road on the east. It shortens the travel time between north and northeast Delhi. The 675-metre long bridge, originally conceptualised in 2004, has finally available for public use from November 5.

The pylon of the Signature Bridge is tallest structure in Delhi and is double the height of Qutb Minar, which act as selfie points for people.

• In Uttar Pradesh, Nari Sashaktikaran Sankalp Abhiyan or Women Empowerment campaign was launched by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in Lucknow. The month-long campaign aimed to empower women in the state through various programmes. It includes many issues like education, self-employment, health, cleanliness, nutrition.
• Union Minister for Law and Justice and IT Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad launched a tele-law mobile application that is integrated with a dashboard and an application called Nyaya Bandhu. The application will offer Pro Bono Legal Services.
• Graduates of Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay (IIT-B) who are Co-founders of a start-up called Emotix have launched India’s first advanced personal robot Miko 2 for Kids. Miko 2 is India’s first advanced robot that can see, hear, sense, express, talk, recognize faces, remember names, Identify moods and initiate a conversation.
• The Union Government has launched a unique initiative called Bhasha Sangam to introduce school students to 22 Indian languages. The initiative aims to enhance linguistic tolerance and respect and promote national integration.

The programme under 'Ek Bharat Shreshtha Sangam' has been initiated to celebrate the spirit of national integration.

• The Department of Defence Production has instituted a new framework titled ‘Mission Raksha GyanShakti’ which aims to provide a boost to the Intellectual Property Right (IPR) culture in indigenous defence industry. The Directorate General of Quality Assurance (DGQA) has been entrusted with the responsibility of coordinating and implementing the programme.
• Notes of a Dream: The Authorized Biography of A.R. Rahman was written by Krishna Trilok. It is a biography launched in association with Landmark and Penguin Random House.
• Haryana’s Maharshi Dayanand University has been declared the cleanest government varsity by the HRD Ministry, followed by Guru Nanak Dev University in Punjab’s Amritsar.
• The United Nations has officially selected Uttar Pradesh’s Noida and Greater Noida to participate in its Global Sustainable Cities 2025 initiative.The twin-cities in Gautam Buddha Nagar district have been selected in the ‘University City’ category ahead of Mumbai and Bengaluru as the only invitee from India.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched ‘One Nation, One Card’ Model/‘National Common Mobility Card’ (NCMC) from Ahmedabad, Gujarat for seamless travel through different metros and other transport systems.  The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs introduced the ‘National Common Mobility Card’ (NCMC) to enable seamless travel by different metros and other transport systems across the country besides retail shopping and purchases.
• The West Bengal government will observe ‘Rosogolla Day’ on November 14 and the day will be observed to commemorate the first anniversary of the State’s famous sweet getting Geographical Indication (GI) tag as ‘Bengal’s Rosogolla’.
• Cyclone 'Titli' struck Odisha in October 2018. It is the rarest of rare in terms of its characteristics such as recurvature after landfall and retaining its destructive potential. It was named as ‘rarest of rare’ cyclone by RIMES.
• The government of India released an Rs 75 commemorative coin on the occasion of 75th anniversary of the hoisting of Tricolour for the first time by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at Port Blair. The coin has the portrait of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose saluting the flag on the background of cellular jail.

It is composed of 50% silver, 40% copper, and 5% each of nickel & zinc.

• Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched the 'Mo bus' service in Bhubaneswar in which buses feature free Wi-Fi, CCTV surveillance, public information display system and on board announcements.
• The Kerala Tourism Department has launched 'SMiLE Virtual Tour Guide', which links tourists with their places of attraction and providers of experiential services.
• Delhi Police commissioner Amulya Patnaik launched the e-Learning portal of Delhi Police called 'NIPUN'. The portal will give online training and information through specialised courses designed by experts in the field of law, standing orders, Investigation checklists, forms for case files and the latest Supreme Court and High Court rulings.
• The Pune district and sessions court have become first courts in India to launch the e-payment system. This will help in reducing corruption and bring in transparency.
• Admiral Sunil Lanba, chief of the Naval Staff, released a book titled ‘Blue Waters Ahoy!’. It tells Indian Navy’s History from 2001-10.

International News

• Slovenia became the first North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) country with the female Army Chief after appointment of Major General Alenka Ermenc to the post of Head of its Army. She was serving as the Army's Deputy-chief of Staff before as appointment to the post of Army.
• Australia becomes the first country in the world to recognize orphanage trafficking as a form of modern slavery. Children from smaller countries are recruited in orphanages in the West for the purpose of profit through foreign aid.
• The UK’s Cambridge Dictionary has recently declared ‘Nomophobia’ as the People's Word of the year 2018. It describes the stress and anxiety caused by being separated from your mobile.
• Australia overtook Qatar as the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) for the first time in November. In November, Australia loaded 6.5 million tonnes of LNG for exports while Qatar exported over 6.2 million tonnes, the data showed.
• Spiking Neural Network Architecture (SpiNNaker) is the largest brain-mimicking supercomputer of the world. It is designed to work in same way as human brain and switched on for the first time. It was designed and built at University of Manchester in UK.
• The world's first underground hotel “the Inter Continental Shanghai Wonderland” opened in Shanghai, China. It is buried almost 90 metres deep in an old quarry.
• Indonesia’s Medan city inaugurated ‘Little India Gate’ to recognise the contribution of Indian community in the development of Medan city. It is the first-of-its kind structure in the country.
• The Conrad Maldives Rangali Island has officially announced the opening of the world's first underwater hotel residence. It is set more than 16 feet below the Indian Ocean. Its name is "Muraka," which means ‘coral’ in the Maldives' local language Dhivehi.
• Japan declared ‘Reiwa’ as the name of its new imperial era that will begin on May 1, 2019 once the new Crown Prince Naruhito ascends the Chrysanthemum Throne. Crown Prince Naruhito will succeed his father Emperor Akihito, who will abdicate the empire on April 30, 2019, putting an end to three decades long ‘Heisei’ era. The new era will be the 248th in the history of Japan. 
• South Korea launched the world’s first nationwide 5G mobile networks. The system will bring smartphones near-instantaneous connectivity-20 times faster than existing 4G- allowing users to download entire movies in less than a second.
• Portuguese charter airline HiFly became the first airline to perform a completely Single Use Plastic-Free Flight. The flight took off from Lisbon to Natale, Brazil, without a single piece of single-use plastic on board.
• The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) Plenary 2018, was held in Brussels, Belgium, from 12^th-16^thNovember 2018.EU handed over the Chairmanship of KPCS to India from 1^stJanuary, 2019.
• Panini language laboratory was inaugurated at Mahatma Gandhi institute in Mauritius to promote reading and writing Hindi amongst young and its further development. It was launched by External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj.
• World Health Organization (WHO) has launched comprehensive plan “REPLACE” to eliminate industrially-produced artificial trans-fats from global food supply by 2023. REPLACE stands for Review, Promote, Legislate, Assess, Create awareness and Enforce.
• Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina secured her third consecutive term and has been elected as the Prime Minister for the fourth time. Her ruling party Awami League and its allies won 288 of the 300 parliamentary seats contested, surpassing its previous election wins. She is the longest serving prime minister in the history of Bangladesh.
• Burundi declared Gitega as its new capital instead of capital Bujumbura. The previous capital Bujumbura, on the north-eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika, would in future function solely as the country’s economic centre.
• Japan withdrew itself from the International Whaling Commission (IWC)in 2019. It will resume commercial hunting of whales in its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone from July 2019.
• The UAE President Sheikh Khalifa Nahyan declared 2019 as the 'Year of Tolerance' and it will focus on five main pillars. It would highlight the UAE as a global capital for tolerance, instilling the values of co-existence and peace in local, regional and international communities.
• The European Union has unveiled a strategy to become the first major economy to go 'climate neutral' by 2050. Climate neutrality is achieved when carbon emissions are at zero.
• The European Central Bank (ECB) launched the first pan-eurozone instant payment system called ‘TARGET Instant Payment Settlement’(TIPS) system.

It will let people and companies in Europe transfer money to each other within seconds. It will settle transactions only in euros and is restricted to European Union banks only.

Government Schemes

• Assam government launched the Wage Compensation Scheme for Pregnant Women in tea gardens of the state. Under the scheme, each pregnant woman in tea gardens will get a sum of Rs 12,000 so that she can take better care of herself and her unborn baby without compromising the livelihood of her family.
• Maharashtra Government has launched World Bank assisted State of Maharashtra‘s Agribusiness and Rural Transformation (SMART) Project to transform rural Maharashtra. This project aims to revamp agricultural value chains, with special focus on marginal farmers across 1,000 villages.
• Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis launched the Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee International School on the occasion of 94th birth anniversary of the late prime minister. The school is affiliated to the Maharashtra International Education Board (MIEB), which the state government had set up with an aim to achieve higher education standards.
• Delhi government has launched ‘Mukhyamantri Tirth Yatra Yojana’ for senior citizens which offers free travel packages on five religious circuits for senior citizens from the national capital.
• Haryana Government has launched the “Pashu Sanjeevni Sewa” in the state under which free of cost quality veterinary services and health care facilities for the livestock would be made available at the doorstep of livestock farmers through mobile veterinary clinic.
• In Assam, the Namrup-based Assam Petrochemicals Limited (APL) rolled out Asia's first cannisters based and India's first  “Methanol Cooking Fuel Program” was launched. The project has been promoted by NITI Aayog.

The safe handling cannister based cooking stoves are from Swedish Technology and through a Technology transfer a large-scale cooking stove manufacturing plant will come up in India in the next 18 months producing 10 lakh Cookstoves and 1 Crore Cannisters per year. This technology is very unique, it handles methanol extremely safely, does not need regulator or any piping system. It is a joint initiative of the union and state governments and is the biggest project of its kind in northern India. 

• Maharashtra has become the first state in the country to appoint out-of state trade representatives. The Maharashtra State Agriculture Marketing Board (MSAMB) appointed six trade representatives to promote trade in semi-perishable commodities. They will also collect relevant market information. They have been posted in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Assam, and Tamil Nadu.
• Odisha's Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched the ‘Peoples Empowerment Enabling Transparency and Accountability’ (PEETHA) programme. It is a sub-scheme of the Odisha government's flagship 'Ama Gaon Ama Bikas Yojana'.

The aim of the programme is to create transparency and awareness of various government schemes.

• The Ministry of Human Resource Development launched the Scheme for Higher Education Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills (SHREYAS) for providing industry apprenticeship opportunities to the general graduates exiting in April 2019 through the National Apprenticeship Promotional Scheme (NAPS). The program aims to enhance the employability of Indian youth by providing ‘on the job work exposure’ and earning of stipend.
• Ministry of Human Resource Development launched Leadership for Academicians Programme (LEAP), which is a 3 weeks flagship leadership development training programme for second level academic functionaries.

Economy News

• The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) has given its approval for the revamped Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRSs) scheme.

Under this, Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRSs) will be set up in every block where Scheduled Tribes population is more than 50% and has at least 20,000 tribal persons.

• Facebook Inc.-owned messaging service WhatsApp has appointed Abhijit Bose as head of WhatsApp India, the local entity that is expected to begin operations next year amid calls to check the spread of fake messages.
• Finnish mobile telecom network maker Nokia and Indian IT services firm Infosys have formed a strategic alliance to help enterprises digitalize their operations by applying the latest in artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and lean management coupled with the ubiquitous connectivity offered by today's mobile broadband and Internet of Things (IoT) networks.
• Virtual currency exchange Unocoin installed India’s first Cryptocurrency ATM in Kemp Fort Mall, Bengaluru. It allows customers to deposit and withdraw minimum amount of Rs 1000 from the platform and transact in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and others.
• The Karnataka government has launched an initiative ‘DataCity’ in partnership with France-based utility company Suez and a start-up accelerator Numa to foster innovation and solve global challenges. DataCity will be an international open innovation programme to bring city authorities, corporates and start-ups to address cities’ challenges and develop solutions using data and technology.

It is a 7-month programme that aims to bring together Bengaluru and corporates to identify relevant innovative start-ups from a pool of applications and to experiment with solutions using data.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the APIX (Application Programming Interface Exchange), a banking technology platform designed to reach nearly two billion people worldwide who are still without bank accounts. He launched it at the Fintech Festival, Singapore.
• Google has announced a partnership with Polis, the international journalism think-tank at London School of Economics and Political Science, to create 'Journalism Artificial Intelligence (AI)' project. The 'Journalism AI' project will focus on research and training for newsrooms on the intersection of AI and journalism. The project is the part of Google News Initiative (GNI).
• India will by 24 multi-role MH-60 ‘Romeo’ Seahawk helicopters from the United States at an estimated cost of 2.4 billion US dollars. The MH-60 Romeo Seahawk helicopter is considered to be the world's most advanced maritime helicopter. These are built by Lockheed Martin and are designed to hunt down submarines, as well as knock out ships and conduct search-and-rescue operations at sea.
• The 'Tata' brand has entered the list of top 100 most valuable brands according to the Brand Finance Global 500 2019 report released at the World Economic Forum in Davos. It has been ranked at 86th position this year and the Tata brand is the only Indian brand in the Top 100.
• As per its annual report, the RBI bought nearly 8.5 metric tonnes of gold between December 2017 and June 2018 taking the level of gold reserves to 566.23 metric tonnes. This was the first time that the central bank had bought gold since its purchased 200 million metric tonnes from the International Monetary Fund in 2009.
• Union Ministry of Civil Aviation approved operations on 13 water aerodromes under Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik-3 (UDAN-3). The very first seaplane could run within Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Four different islands from Andaman and one island from Nicobar have been selected to fly seaplanes. These are Havelock, Long Island, Neil Island and Hutbay Island in Andaman and Car Nicobar in Nicobar.
• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) constituted a high-level committee that will work towards deepening digital payments in India and will be headed by Nandan Nilekani.
• Yoga guru Baba Ramdev's Patanjali  launched a new swadeshi messaging application called Kimbho to compete with WhatsApp. 
• India signed a USD 3 billion deal with Russia for leasing of a nuclear-powered attack submarine for the Indian Navy for a period of 10 years. The two countries signed an inter-governmental agreement capping months of negotiations on price and various other aspects of the deal. Under the pact, Russia will have to deliver the Akula class submarine, to be known as Chakra III, to the Indian Navy by 2025.
• The Indian Space Research Organisation will launch its second mission to the moon — Chandrayaan-2 — on July 15 in a mission that it said would be the most complex operation ever to be undertaken by the space agency. It  will be the first such operation near the south pole of the moon, and will make India just the fourth country to complete a soft landing on the lunar surface. Chandrayaan-2 consists of an orbiter, a lander (Vikram), and a rover (Pragyan).
• Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch its Radar Imaging Satellite, the RISAT-2BR1 from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. The RISAT, a remote sensing satellite, provide all-weather surveillance using synthetic aperture radars (SAR). RISAT's are the first all-weather observation satellites from ISRO and are designed to provide a continuous view of earth either at day or night for the forces to detect border infiltration. Earlier, the observation satellites banked mainly on optical and spectral sensors which often were handicapped by cloud cover.
• Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) and Libcoin (20% is owned by Magnis) will build India’s first Lithium-ion Battery Gigafactory. The consortium plans to start with initial capacity of 1GWh plant with proposal to scale it up to 30GWh.
• NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), was officially inaugurated in Bengaluru.
• The government has issued a notification taking over the National Housing Bank (NHB) after buying entire stake for Rs 1,450 crore from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The RBI has exited the NHB, thus making it a fully government-owned entity. The central bank was holding 100 per cent stake in the NHB, the housing finance regulator.
• The Reserve Bank of India has extended the last cut-off timing for customer transactions through Real Time Gross Settlement Systems (RTGS) from 4.30pm to 6pm on all working days, effective June 1, 2019.
• The sea phase of the Indo-French naval exercise 'Varuna' began on 8 May 2019.This year's edition of the Indo-French naval exercise currently underway off the Goa coast is the largest ever undertaken by the two navies. The exercise, began on May 1, will culminate on May 10 after sea phase operations.
• A government-appointed advisory group has suggested issuance of 'Elephant Bonds' (25-year sovereign bonds) wherein people declaring undisclosed income will have to mandatorily invest half of that amount in these securities. The fund will be utilised only for infrastructure projects.
• Mukesh Ambani's oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries has toppled state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) to become the country's biggest company by revenue. Reliance in the 2018-19 fiscal year that ended March 31, reported a turnover of Rs 6.23 lakh crore. In comparison, IOC posted a turnover of Rs 6.17 lakh crore for the fiscal, according to regulatory filings by the two companies. It was also the most profitable company in the country with a net profit of more than double that of IOC in FY2019.
• The Defence Ministry approved Indian Navy's proposal to acquire 10 Kamov-31 choppers from Russia at a cost of around Rs. 3,600 crore to strengthen its capability against aerial threats to its aircraft carriers and large warships.

Sports News

• Sascha Bajin has been chosen as the first winner of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Coach of the Year award after helping Naomi Osaka collect the U.S. Open title.
• Shubhankar Sharma became the youngest Indian to clinch the Asian Tour Order of Merit. He is the fifth Indian golfer to join this club. Indians who have achieved the feat in the past - Jyoti Randhawa (2002), Arjun Atwal (2003), Jeev Milkha Singh (2006 and 2008) and Anirban Lahiri (2015).

India's Shubhankar Sharma became the first Indian to emerge as the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year. He is the third Asian in last four years to win this European Tour accolade, after Byeong Hun An (2015) and Wang Jeunghun (2016).

• Raninder Singh becomes the first Indian to be elected ISSF Vice President. He is currently the president of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).
• Novak Djokovic (Serbia) has been named as the 2018 International Tennis Federation (ITF) world champion for the sixth time.
• Simona Halep (Romania) has also been named as the 2018 International Tennis Federation (ITF) world champion. It is the first year that Halep has been recognised.
• Mary Kom was named the Brand Ambassador of the 10th edition of the Women’s World Boxing Championships (WWBC-2018). She is a five-time World Champion. The World Championships was held at the IG Stadium’s K.D. Jhadav Hall in New Delhi from November 15 and 24, 2018. 
• Simone Biles became the first ever gymnast to win 13 world championship gold medals at the world gymnastics championships in Doha, Qatar. She broke the all-time record set by Belarusian male gymnast Vitaly Scherbo in 1996.
• Maharashtra topped the medal tally with 37 gold at the Khelo India Youth Games in Pune. Maharashtra had 111 medals in its kitty with 37 gold, 31 silver and 43 bronze. Delhi continues to follow second with 35 gold and Haryana too maintains its third position with 29 gold. 10-year-old, Abhinav Shaw teamed up Mehuli Ghosh and won the gold medal in 10 m air rifle mixed team event in Khelo India Youth Games. This makes him the youngest gold medallist at Khelo Games.
• Asian Games gold medallist Vinesh Phogat has become the first Indian athlete to earn a nomination in one of the seven main categories of the Laureus Sports Awards. It is one of the prestigious award ceremony honouring top individual and team performances of the year.
• Simone Biles (USA) Gymnastics has been named as the Sportswoman of the Year at Laureus Award 2019.
• Novak Djokovic, (Serbia) Tennis has been named as the Sportsman of the Year at Laureus Award 2019.
• All India Football Federation President Praful Patel was elected as a FIFA Council member. He is the first Indian to enter the prestigious panel in a landmark development. 
• Australia cricket team won the 'Women's World Twenty-20' title by defeating England. Australia's Ashleigh Gardner was named 'Player of the Match' and Austrailia's Alyssa Healy was named 'Player of the tournament'.
• GS Lakshmi became the first ever female match referee to be included into the International Cricket Council (ICC)’s International Panel of Match Referees. Previously in 2008-2009 she officiated her first match in women’s domestic cricket and has also supervised 3 women’s One Day International (ODI) and 3 T20 International matches.
• Pakistan off-spinner Sana Mir become the most successful women’s ODI spinner in history after she took her 147th wicket, highest ever by any spinner in One-day International (ODI) cricket. Currently, Mir is placed on the third position in the ICC’s ODI bowling ranking, which is topped by Indian pacer Jhulan Goswami. 
• Mumbai Indians (MI) clinched the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2019 title. MI defeated Chennai Super Kings (CSK) by one run on the last ball. With this, Mumbai Indians set the record for winning the most number of Indian Premier League titles. This became the first team to win the IPL title for 4 times.

People in News

• Salome Zurabishvili has won Georgia’s presidential election, becoming the first woman to hold the office.
• Vedangi Kulkarni from Pune became the fastest Asian woman to cycle around the globe. The girl had covered 29,000 kms in 159 days, covering 300 km daily. The trip began from Perth in Australia in June. British adventurer Jenny Graham, 38, is the fastest woman to have cycled the globe in 124 days in 2018, which was three weeks faster than the previous record.
• Maharashtra government has appointed Dr Jagannath Dixit as the Brand Ambassador of its anti-obesity campaign. He has been appointed due to his experience and knowledge in the field.
• President Ram Nath Kovind has nominated Justice SA Bobde of the Supreme Court as Executive Chairman of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA). The NALSA is a statutory body constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 to provide free Legal Services to the weaker sections of the society.
• Justice Gita Mittal was sworn in as the Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court becoming the first woman judge in the history of the court to occupy the post.
• Justice Sindhu Sharma was sworn in as the first woman judge of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court.
• Azim Premji won the Forbes 'Lifetime Achievement Award 2018'. He is the chairman of Wipro.
• Lisa Michelle Borders is the former president and chief executive officer of Time’s Up. She was formerly the president of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the former vice president of global community affairs at The Coca-Cola Company.
• Nicholas Koumjian of the United States has been appointed as the head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar. The Independent Investigative Mechanism (IIM) for Myanmar was established by the Human Rights Council on September 27, 2018.
• United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has appointed popular singer Nahid Afrin (17) of Assam as the first ‘Youth Advocate’ of the northeastern region to fight for child rights.

UNICEF engages ‘Youth Advocates’ to harness their voice as agents of change in society.  

• Hima Das has been appointed as UNICEF India’s Youth Ambassador. She also clinched a gold medal in Women's 4 x 400 m Relay event at the 2018 Asian Games
• Electric carmaker Tesla has appointed Robyn Denholm as the Chairman of the company's board of directors, replacing Elon Musk. She has been on the Tesla board as an independent director since 2014.
• MC Mary Kom was conferred with the title of “Meethoileima” for her exemplary achievement in the field of boxing.  The title “Meethoileima” – can be loosely translated as “great or exceptional lady”. MC Mary Kom as Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom is known as Magnificent Mary, created history in women’s boxing the previous month after she won her sixth world championship gold at the 10th World Women’s Boxing Championship in New Delhi.
• Goa's Prathamesh Maulingkar has become the first Asian/Indian to win ‘Mister Supranational 2018’. The third edition of 'Mister Supranational 2018' pageant took place in Poland.
• Mexico's Vanessa Ponce de Leon won the coveted 'Miss World 2018' crown. She is a volunteer for 'Migrantes en el Camino' and is on the board of directors of a rehab centre for girls.
• State Bank of India (SBI) has appointed Swapna Barman as Brand Ambassador for its digital app 'YONO'. She won the gold medal in Heptathlon in Jakarta Asian Games 2018.
• Gagandeep Kang becomes first Indian woman scientist to be awarded Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS), United Kingdom. Gagandeep Kang is a clinician-scientist. She is well known for her key role in the development of Rotavac. She is currently appointed as executive director of Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (THSTI), Faridabad. Rotavac is India's first indigenously developed vaccine for rotavirus infections, which is responsible for childhood diarrhea. It was developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech Limited and Pune-based Serum International. Rotavac was licensed for use in India in 2014 and is manufactured by Bharat Biotech International Limited.

Awards

• The LAMO Center, Ladakh, India has won the award of distinction at the 2018 UNESCO Asia-Pacific award for Cultural Heritage conservation.
• The renewal of the early 20th-century ‘Shijo-cho Ofune-hoko Float Machiya, Japan has received the Award of Excellence in this year’s UNESCO Asia-Pacific Awards for Cultural Heritage Conservation.
• The 64th Filmfare Awards ceremony, presented by the Times Group, honoured the best Indian Hindi-language films of 2018. The ceremony was held on 23 March 2019 in Mumbai.

• Veteran journalist and writer Mark Tully won the Lifetime Achievement Award and renowned poet Jayanta Mahapatra was named the poet laureate for 2018. HarperCollins India was named publisher of the year 2018.
• Rattan Lal was awarded 'Glinka World Soil Prize 2018' in a ceremony held at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) headquarters in Rome.

He was awarded for his outstanding contribution to sustainable soil management and the protection of soil resources. The 'Glinka World Soil Prize' is considered the highest honour in the soil science profession.

• Oman Author Jokha Al Harthi won the prestigious Man Booker International Prize for "Celestial Bodies", the story of three sisters of a desert country confronting its slave-owning past and a complex modern world. Jokha Alharthi, the first Arabic-language writer to take the prize, will split the 50,000 pounds or 64,000 US dollar purse with her UK-based translator, Marilyn Booth.
• US President Donald Trump awarded golfer Tiger Woods the US's Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country's highest civilian honour. The award described the 43-year-old as a true legend who transformed golf and then fought through years of injury to return to the sport's summit. He was awarded after his fifth Masters' title.
• The World Press Freedom Prize also known as UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize 2019 is formally conferred every year by Director-General of UNESCO, on occasion of World Press Freedom Day observed on 3 May. In 2019 award would be shared by two jailed Myanmar journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo who reported on alleged human rights violations in the state of Rakhine, Myanmar.
• Two schemes, Utkarsh Bangla and Sabooj Sathi, of the West Bengal government for skill development and distribution of bicycles to students have won the prestigious World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) awards of the United Nations.