MAY NEWS

1. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh arrived on a two-day visit during which he will hold talks with his Thai counterpart Yingluck Shinawatra to outline the framework of a Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement and elevate bilateral ties into a “strategic partnership”.
2. Bihar food safety commissioner-cum secretary, health, Sanjay Kumar has been selected for the prestigious 'World No-Tobacco Day Award 2013' by the WHO. In different categories, India has got six awards this year.
3. The seventh regional Pravasi Bhartiya Divas will be held in Sydney from November 10 to 12 with an aim to woo overseas investors and deepen two-way engagement with the Indians living there.
4. TVS Motor Company has announced its long-term cooperation agreement with BMW. The aim of the cooperation is to join forces to develop and produce a new series of motorcycles that will cater to the segment below 500 cubic centimeters.
5.  Four Indian business leaders – Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, P N C Menon, Vineet Nayar and Ronnie Screwvala – figure in this year's list of Asia-Pacific's most remarkable "givers".
6. Reserve Bank of India on 27 May 2013 imposed restrictions on banks and NBFCs for providing loans against gold coins as well as units of gold ETFs and mutual funds to curb demands for gold.
7.  Odisha on 27 May 2013 clinched the boy’s title while Haryana won the girl’s championship at the third National Sub-Junior Hockey tournament.
8. English physicist Peter Higgs, Belgian Francois Englert and CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, have won Spain's Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research, local news said on Wednesday.
9. Swedish luxury carmaker Volvo has signed golfer Jeev Milkha Singh as its Brand Ambassador.
10. Tata Steel has announced decision to merge group firm Tata Metaliks, which is into pig iron manufacturing, with itself.
11. Chandigarh-born Indian-American legal luminary Srikanth 'Sri' Srinivasan made history  as the US Senate confirmed his nomination as a top US judge in a 97 to 0 vote.
12. Nasa is looking for commercial operators to lease a historic launch pad in Florida used for the first Moon missions and by the shuttles.
13. Yitang Zhang achieves breakthrough in solving the longstanding problem of twin prime conjecture.
14. ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 organisers have appointed Ticketek as the ticketing provider for the International Cricket Council’s flagship tournament, to be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand in February and March 2015. Ticketek is the leading ticketing provider in Australia and New Zealand for major events and sports.
15. Germany is the most positively viewed nation in the world in this year's annual Country Ratings Poll for the BBC World Service.
16. The raging spot-fixing saga in the IPL turned murkier today with controversial Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf being withdrawn by the ICC from next month's Champions Trophy in UK for his alleged role in the scandal which is growing bigger by the day.
17. A boat carrying Rohingya Muslims has capsized off western Burma. The boat said to be carrying up to 200 passengers, was evacuating people ahead of Cyclone Mahasen, which is expected to hit the area later in the week.
18. New Chinese Premier Li Keqiang will visit India and Pakistan on his first foreign trip since assuming office.
19. Nasa is looking for commercial operators to lease a historic launch pad in Florida used for the first Moon missions and by the shuttles.
20. President Pranab Mukherjee conferred the 47th Jnanpith Award for the year 2011 on Dr. Pratibha Ray at a function at the Balyogi Auditorium here on Wednesday.
21. A Group of Ministers, headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, today approved merging of 147 Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) into 70 across various sectors for efficient implementation and monitoring in the 12th Five Year Plan.
22.  India, the United States and Australia have joined hands to develop new climate-resilient varieties of rice and wheat, two of the “big three” primary crops required to feed the world.
23. Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is set to inaugurate Lakulish Yoga University, claimed to be the first ever such private sector self-financed institution in the country, on May 23, at Ahmedabad, which has been set up by the Surendranagar-based Life Mission Trust.
24. Sathwik Karnik, a 12-year-old Indian-American boy, has won the prestigious National Geographic Bee contest after getting all five questions right as the children of community members continue to dominate the geography bee and the spelling bee competitions in the US.
25. NASA's Landsat has captured a 9000-kilometre swathe of land in an unbroken panorama.
26. India, the United States and Australia have joined hands to develop new climate-resilient varieties of rice and wheat, two of the “big three” primary crops required to feed the world.
27. American short story writer Lydia Davis won the fifth Man Booker International Prize for fiction on Wednesday for a body of work that includes some of the briefest tales ever published.
28. Liu Tienan, the deputy director of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, is under investigation for corruption that includes an alleged bank fraud scheme tied to a long-shuttered pulp mill in northern British Columbia.
29. Kenya is making a new push to terminate proceedings at the Hague against President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy,William Ruto.
30. Arctic Council has been expanded to include six new nations, including India, as observer states.
31.  Awais Sheikh, the Pak lawyer of slain Indian prisoner Sarabjit Singh, and his son were abducted and briefly held by unidentified men in an area near the border with India.
32. Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd has postponed the expected date of commissioning of the first unit of Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant to next month.
33. The Tamil Nadu Government will implement the Rs 1,481 crore Coastal Disaster Risk Reduction Project with financial assistance from the World Bank.
34. The Finance Ministry has approved payment of 8.5% rate interest for 2012-13, up from 8.25% in the previous fiscal, benefiting over 5 crore EPFO subscribers.
35. The U.N. General Assembly is set to vote on Wednesday on a draft resolution that condemns Syrian authorities and accepts the opposition Syrian National Coalition as party to a potential political transition.
36. The board of Air Asia India has appointed Singapore based Mittu Chandilya to head the operations of the company in India.
37. The EU has pledged half a billion euro to rebuild Mali as fighting against Islamist militants continues in the north.
38. Gujarat government today kept on hold its decision to seek death penalty for former minister Maya Kodnani, Babu Bajrangi and eight others in the 2002 Naroda Patiya riots case.
39. Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt's hope of getting relief in 1993 Mumbai blasts case was dashed with the Supreme Court dismissing his plea seeking review of its judgement on his conviction and five-year jail term.
40. Information and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari presented Dadasaheb Phalke award to Pran at his home in Mumbai.
41. Malaysia's long ruling National Front coalition have won control of parliament securing 112 seats needed to ensure to extend its 56 year rule.
42. Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh today said that 4,000 towns from different parts of the country are to be brought under the ambitious 'PURA' (Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) project.
43. Liu Tienan, the deputy director of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, is under investigation for corruption that includes an alleged bank fraud scheme tied to a long-shuttered pulp mill in northern British Columbia.
44. Egypt’s Prime Minister Hisham Qandil replaced the finance and planning ministers in a broader Cabinet reshuffle as the country struggles to conclude a long-stalled $4.8 billion International Monetary Fund loan deal.
45. The US and the 10-member ASEAN have discussed a wide range of pressing regional issues, including maritime security and transnational crime,during the just-concluded annual dialogue here between the two sides.
46. The US has honoured 15 Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI)women, including two Indian-Americans -- Aparna Bhattacharyya, Pramila Jayapal-- as "champions of change"in recognition of their significant contribution to the community.
47. Market regulator SEBI has approved an angel fund of $10 million to address the problem of resource crunch for start-up companies across the country.
48. The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) will shortly come out with its clarifications on issuing licences for more private sector banks.
49. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will challenge the acquittal of Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.
50. Scientists have identified the problem in Nirbhay cruise missile, which led to its malfunction during the first test flight last month, and corrective design is being implemented, Defence Minister AK Antony today said.
51. The mysterious Martian mountain that beckons NASA's Curiosity rover was likely built primarily by wind rather than water, as previously believed, a new study suggests.
52. Union Defence Minister AK Antony will commission MIG-29 K fighter planes into the Indian Navy on 11 May in Goa.
53. Secretary General BanKi-moon has expressed grave concern about the reported Israeli air strikes in Syria and called on both sides to exercise maximum calm and restraint.
54. Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who assisted in saving several thousand Jews during the Holocaust has been given the distinction of becoming Australia's first honorary citizen.
55. India opened their medal account in the Junior World Weightlifting Championships with Saikhom Mirabai Chanu bagging three bronze in the women`s 48 kg category on the opening day of the competition in Lima, Peru on Sunday.
56. World Asthma Day is being observed across the world on 7 May 2013 as it is observed every year on the first Tuesday of May.