SNIPPETS

May 1-10

The International Monetary Fund has thrown a $17-billion lifeline to recession-wracked Ukraine, whose
President has admitted that authorities are powerless to prevent pro-Russian militants over-running the
east of the country. The Washington-based IMF said that $3.2 billion would be available immediately, as
the West tries to shore up the government in Kiev, which has put its armed forces on full combat alert
amid fears of a Russian invasion.

The Delhi government came out with the draft notification making it mandatory for women travelling on
two-wheelers, driving or riding pillion, to wear helmets.

Gulzar honoured with Dada Saheb Phalke award.

Kedarnath reopens after a year of flash floods.

India finally tested its first indigenous air-to-air missile "Astra" from a Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jet, marking a
significant turning point in the decade-long tortuous developmental saga of the complex beyond visual
range (BVR) weapon.

Libyan businessman Ahmad Mitig was chosen as interim Prime Minister after receiving 121 votes in the
country's parliament, the General National Congress. There are continuing disagreements over the legality
of the vote. Libya has been without an interim Prime Minister since Ali Zeidan was voted out by the GNC in
March.

Tata group Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata has become the first Indian since independence to receive the
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE), one of the highest civilian honours of the UK.

Controversial former IPL commissioner Lalit Modi, who has been living in exile after being slapped with a
life ban, was elected president of the Rajasthan Cricket Association, prompting a livid BCCI to indefinitely
suspend the RCA.

Coming down heavily on the Sahara Group for systematically frustrating all the orders on refund of over
Rs 20,000 crore to depositors, the Supreme Court dismissed the petition of its chief Subrata Roy against
his detention saying the order jailing him was legal''. Upholding its order to detain him, the court asked
the group to make a fresh proposal for depositing Rs 10,000 crore to get a bail.

Pakistan's parliament voted unanimously to lift a ban on YouTube, in a non-binding resolution that was
nonetheless welcomed by free speech campaigners as an important symbolic move. The video-sharing
website has been blocked in Pakistan since September 2012 over its hosting of the "Innocence of
Muslims" movie that sparked furious protests around the world.

Start- up carrier AirAsia India a joint venture between Malaysiabased low- cost carrier AirAsia, Tata
Sons and Arun Bhatia of Telestra Tradeplace finally got a licence from aviation regulator DGCA to
operate in India.

The Supreme Court banned Tamil Nadu's centuries-old Jallikattu bull fights.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said that banks should allow customers to prepay floating rate term loans
without any penalty. The central bank in its first bi-monthly policy on 1 April 2014 had said that banks
should also not take undue advantage of customer difficulty or inattention.

Thailands Constitutional Court dismissed Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and nine ministers for abuse
of power, leaving the government clinging to power but the nation still locked in a political crisis.The
Cabinet swiftly appointed a deputy premier Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan as Ms Yinglucks
replacement as the ruling party struggled to regain its footing after the judicial blow.

South Africa's ruling ANC notched up a commanding victory in the fifth post-apartheid election, giving
President Jacob Zuma a second term in office after the first was marred by controversies including claims
of corruption and a sluggish economic growth. The elections are the first since the death of Nelson
Mandela.

President Vladimir Putin flew in to Crimea, marking the Soviet victory in World War Two and proclaiming
the success of the peninsulas seizure from a Ukraine that Russia says has been taken over by fascists.

After India suspended construction on an internal container port on India-Myanmar border, the two
countries signed an agreement on border cooperation, promising to exchange information on insurgents
and drugs and human trafficking.

Reliance Industries and partners BP plc of UK and Canada's Niko Resources slapped an arbitration notice
on the government over the delay in implementing the revision of natural gas prices.

May 11- May 20

The curtains came down on 12 May, 2014, on the marathon Lok Sabha elections with an all-time record
high turnout of 66.38 per cent as the final phase of polling covering 41 seats in three states replicated the
trend of increased voters' participation seen in the previous 8 rounds. The overall turnout in all the nine
phases of polling this year stood at 66.38 per cent, posting the highest in the history of Lok Sabha
elections, surpassing the previous best of 64.01 per cent in 1984 in the wake of the assassination of the
then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The turnout in 2009 was 58.19 per cent. .

CBI constituted a Special Investigation Team to probe the Saradha chit fund case in which investors in
four states were allegedly duped of over Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion). The SIT, to be headed by Joint
Director Rajeev Singh, will also probe the role of market regulators like Securities Exchange Board of India
and RBI.

Lakhdar Brahimi resigned as United Nations special envoy in charge of mediating peace talks on the civil
war in Syria, further dimming prospects for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

The 23-year-old ban imposed on terror group LTTE has been extended by five years by the government
which said the outfit is a threat to India's sovereignty and integrity. The home ministry said the LTTE,
even after its military defeat in May 2009 in Sri Lanka, has not abandoned the concept of 'Eelam' and has
been clandestinely working towards the 'Eelam' cause by undertaking fund raising and propaganda
activities. LTTE, which was behind the assassination of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, has been banned
since 1991.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) established a simple majority on its own in the Lok Sabha, according to
election results that gave the main opposition party more than five times as many seats as the ruling
Congressbuoying the stock markets and the rupee. The BJP, led by its prime ministerial candidate
Narendra Modi, won the Lok Sabha elections, with 282 seats on its own. The alliance it leadsNational
Democratic Alliance (NDA)has 336 seats in the lower house of the Parliament. This is the highest
number of seats won by any party on its own since the 1984 Lok Sabha elections, when the Congress, led
by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi won a landslide victory. The 1991 Congress government was a
minority one, and the party had just 244 seats in the Lok Sabha.

Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) is all set to form the first government in the new state of Telangana while
Telugu Desam Party (TDP) swept the coastal districts to form the next government in the new state of
Seemandhra.TRS won 65 of the 119 Assembly seats, riding on Telangana state sentiment. In
Seemandhra, the TDP won 103 of the 175 seats against all odds.

A Russian rocket carrying its most advanced communication satellite to date fell back to Earth minutes
after lift-off in the latest blow to the country's once-proud space industry.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar submitted his resignation to Governor D.Y. Patil, a day after his party
Janata Dal (United) suffered a drubbing in the general elections.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh resigned from office after two successive terms, a day after his Congress
party lost the national election.

Pawan Chamling was sworn in as Sikkim Chief Minister for the record fifth consecutive time.

President Pranab Mukherjee dissolved the 15th Lok Sabha as part of a formality before the constitution of
the new Parliament.

Pradesh Congress Committee president Nabam Tuki was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Arunachal
Pradesh, bringing the curtains down on the months-long leadership crisis in the border State.

China lashed out at the ASEAN for backing Vietnam over tensions in the South China Sea sparked by
Beijing's deployment of an oil rig in disputed waters and asked the 10-member grouping to stay neutral to
avoid "detrimental" impact on bilateral ties.

Narendra Modi, who steered BJP and the NDA to a landslide victory in the Lok Sabha election, was
appointed Prime Minister, ushering in a new era of a non-Congress government with an absolute majority
on its own in 30 years.

Mahadalit leader Jitan Ram Manjhi was sworn in as Bihar Chief Minister after Nitish Kumar quit the post in
the wake of a rout in the Lok Sabha elections.

May 21 onwards

Gujarat Revenue Minister Anandiben Patel was elected leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party Legislature
Party, who will succeed PM-designate Narendra Modi as chief minister of the state.

Biju Janata Dal president Naveen Patnaik was sworn-in as Chief Minister of Odisha for the fourth
consecutive term in Bhubaneswar.

Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal was arrested and sent to Tihar Jail after he refused to furnish a
bail bond in connection with a criminal defamation complaint filed against him by BJP leader Nitin
Gadkari.

An Egyptian court on Wednesday sentenced ousted president Hosni Mubarak to three years in prison on
charges of stealing public funds.

Russia and China have signed a 30-year, $400bn (237bn) deal for Gazprom to deliver Russian gas to
China in a deal that underscores Russia's shift towards Asia amid strained relations with the west.

Kathleen Stephens is the new interim US Ambassador to India..

US search engine Google has overtaken rival technology titan Apple as the worlds top brand in terms of
value, global market research agency Millward Brown said. Google's brand value shot up 40 per cent in a
year to $158.84 billion (115 billion euros), Millward Brown said in its 2014 100 Top BrandZ report.

T.R Zeliang, leader of Naga Peoples Front (NPF), was sworn in as the chief minister of Nagaland following
the resignation of Neiphio Rio, who has been elected to Lok Sabha.

The United Nations imposed sanctions on Boko Haram, blacklisting it as an al-Qaida-linked terrorist
organization as protesters stepped up demands on Nigeria to release 200 kidnapped schoolgirls. The
terror designation, immediately welcomed by the US, subjects Boko Haram to an arms embargo and asset
freeze, though it remains unclear what practical impact it will have. The group, which demands the
creation of an Islamic state in mainly Muslim northern Nigeria, has recently escalated its campaign of
attacks that have left thousands dead since 2009.

Indonesia and the Philippines signed a maritime border accord, hailing it as a model for peacefully settling
increasingly tense territorial disputes in the region. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said
the agreement, the result of 20 years of negotiations, showed that the escalating rows in the South China
Sea could be resolved without violence.

In a double blow to the Aam Aadmi Party, Shazia Ilmi (a founder member) and Captain GR Gopinath
resigned. Blaming the party for lacking inner-party democracy, Ms Ilmi accused the party of
sensationalism and taking impulsive decisions.

Malavath Purna, a 13-year-old tribal student from Nizamabad district in Andhra Pradesh, created history
by becoming the youngest girl in the world to scale the Mount Everest.

Real Madrid won the UEFA Champions League final for its record 10th European title by beating Atletico
Madrid 4-1.

Narendra Damodardas Modi was sworn-in as the 15th Prime Minister of India on 26 May 2014. Along with
him, 45-member Council of Ministers that includes 23 Ministers with Cabinet rank, 10 Ministers of State
with independent charges and 12 Ministers of State also took oath of their offices. The Prime Minister and
his Council of Ministers were appointed in term of Article 75 of the Constitution of India..

Thailands coup leader, Prayut Chan-O-Cha, received royal endorsement to lead the politically divided
kingdom and quickly issued a stark warning that he would brook no further opposition to his takeover
following a series of angry protests.

The Narendra Modi government has set up a special investigation team (SIT) to to implement the
Supreme Court's order on unearthing the black money stashed abroad.

Retired IAS officer and former chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Nripendra Misra was
finally appointed as principal secretary to PM Narendra Modi after a determined government swiftly
promulgated an ordinance to clear the way for him to take over the coveted post.

PEOPLE IN NEWS
Ahmed Matiq
Despite the protest from a number of non-Islamist parliamentarians, Libya's interim parliament on May 4 swore in
42- year-old businessman Ahmed Matiq in a televised session headed by the second deputy of parliament, Saleh
al-Makhzoum, and member of the Muslim Brotherhood's Justice and Construction Party.

Ajit Kumar Doval

Ajit Kumar Doval was appointed as the new National Security Advisor (NSA) of India, under Prime Minister
Narendra Modis government. He was formerly the Director of Intelligence Bureau (IB) and played various
important roles during his highly acclaimed career as an intelligence officer.

Assi Dayan
Assi Dayan, one of the most celebrated actor/directors in the Israeli entertainment industry, and also one of its
most troubled souls, died in Tel Aviv at the age of 68.

Dalia Grybauskaite
Lithuanias Iron Lady Dalia Grybauskaite won an unprecedented second term in a presidential runoff held amid
widespread apprehension over a resurgent Russia.

Donald Levine
Hasbro toy company executive credited as the father of G.I Joe for developing the world's first action figure, died
in Rhode Island.

Gary Becker
Gary Becker, a Nobel Prize-winning professor of economics and sociology at the University of Chicago whom
colleagues called one of the most influential economists of the 20th century, died at 83.

General Wojciech Jaruzelski

Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, the last Communist leader of Poland, who sent tanks to crush Solidaritys stirrings for
democracy in 1981 and went on to preside over the death of the system that had nurtured him, died in Warsaw at
90.

Gordon Willis
Legendary cinematographer Gordon Willis, the "Prince of Darkness" who was responsible for the look of such eradefining

films

of

the

Seventies

as

the

first

two Godfather films, All

the

President's

Men,

Annie

Hall and Manhattan, died Sunday at the age of 82.

Hemant Batra
Hemant Batra of Haryana has been unanimously re-elected as the secretary general of the South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation in Law (SAARCLAW). His name was proposed by India and Pakistan and was
seconded by Bhutan and Bangladesh during an election to the executive council of SAARCLAW held in Kathmandu
in May.

Jagjit Pavadia
India's candidate Jagjit Pavadia won the closely-contested election to the International Narcotics Control Board for
the 2015-2020 term. Pavadia was the first woman to be appointed Narcotics Commissioner of India.

Kathleen Stephens
Kathleen Stephens, a former US ambassador to South Korea, will be her countrys interim envoy in New Delhi.
Nancy Powell, who was the US ambassador in New Delhi until her resignation in April, has left for the US. Ms
Stephens, is expected to take up her new assignment in early June. She will serve as the interim envoy until a
new permanent ambassador is nominated and confirmed by the US Senate, according to the US state department.

Kenneth Adrian Raine Kennedy

Kenneth Adrian Raine Kennedy, doyen of south Asian archaeology in the U.S. and a close associate of Deccan
College, Pune, passed away in New York. As part of his field studies in south Asia, Prof Kennedy excavated the
Stone Age site of Langhnaj in Gujarat and also took part in many excavations conducted by various institutions in
India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Luis Guillermo Solis

Luis Guillermo Sols Rivera of the progressive Partido Accin Ciudadana (PAC) was sworn in as President of Costa
Rica, replacing outgoing leader Laura Chinchilla Miranda and her National Liberation Partys (PLN) 8-year hold on
the presidency.

Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou, a modern Renaissance woman who survived the harshest of childhoods to become a force on
stage, screen, the printed page and the inaugural dais, has died. She was 86. Angelou defied all probability and
category, becoming one of the first black women to enjoy mainstream success as an author and thriving in
virtually every artistic medium.

Mukul Rohatgi
The government appointed senior Supreme Court advocate Mukul Rohatgi as the new Attorney General of India,
the top law officer of the country. Mr Rohatgi will hold the post for three years.

N Srinivasan
N Srinivasan, one of the pioneers of the Indian atomic energy programme and the first project director of Indira
Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), passed away in Chennai at 84.

N. Janardan Reddy
Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister and a sitting Rajya Sabha member from Andhra Pradesh who served as
chief minister from December 1990 to October 1992 and served also as state minister and legislator in his long
political career spanning several decades, died on May 9 in Hyderabad.
Narendra Kumar Verma
Narendra Kumar Verma was on May 21 selected to head ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL). Mr. Verma is currently
for Exploration in OVL's parent company, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

Director

Narendra Modi
Narendra Modi, the Hindu nationalist politician who won a landslide victory in India's general election, was sworn
in as the 15th prime minister of the world's largest democracy, in a spectacular ceremony in Delhi. Arun Jaitley, a
senior BJP leader deeply involved in the recent electoral campaign, will be joint finance and defence minister, while
Rajnath Singh, president of the BJP and a key supporter of Modi's prime inisterial candidacy, will be home
minister.The new cabinet is about half the size of that of the outgoing Congress government, which had more than
75 ministers.

New Chief Ministers

Arunachal Pradesh: Nabam Tuki
Bihar: Jitan Ram Manjhi
Gujarat: Anandiben Patel
Nagaland: T.R. Zeliang
Odisha: Naveen Patnaik
Sikkim: Pawan Kumar Chamling
Nripendra Mishra
Nripendra Mishar was appointed as principal secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, soon after the President,
acting on advice of the Union Cabinet, promulgated an ordinance amending the Telecom Regulatory Authority Act,
1997, to enable former chairpersons of the regulatory body to take up employment with the government.

Rajiv Mathur
Former Intelligence Bureau chief Rajiv Mathur was appointed the new chief information commissioner by President
Pranab Mukherjee. The 64-year-old Mathur succeeds Sushma Singh as the sixth chief of the transparency
watchdog. Mathur's term will be a short three months.

Russi Mody
Russi Mody, former joint chairman of Air India and chief of erstwhile TISCO, died at 96, Mody was a leading
member of the Tata Group and served it in various capacities, later earning the sobriquet of Indias Steel Man.
Recipient of the nations third highest civilian award Padma Bhushan in 1989 for his exemplary contribution to the
Indian industry, the flamboyant Mody unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election from Jamshedpur in 1998
as an Independent. He came second, getting about 200,000 votes, but lost by a margin of over 97,000.

S. Narsing Rao
Coal India Chairman and MD S. Narsing Rao has resigned, seeking to play a key role in the new state of
Telangana.

Sir Jack Brabham

Sir Jack Brabham, a three-time Formula One world driver' champion and icon of world motorsport, has
died at the age of 88. The Australian won the championship in 1959, 1960 and 1966 the final time in a car of
his own construction. He retired in 1970, was knighted in 1978, and was named a National Treasure in 2012.

Sultan Azlan Shah

The Sultan of Perak, who is regarded as the "Father of Malaysian Hockey", known for his colossal contribution to
the sport for over 41 yearsboth as a player and an administrator, started the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey
tournament in 1983, died on May 28.

Thomas Kochery
Catholic priest and trade union leader, Thomas Kochery, who has been mainly, associated with fight for fishermen
rights over the past three decades, died at 74. One of the organisers of the famous Kanyakumari march of 1989
that sought to protect Inidas coastal ecology, he had mobilised the fishing community to fight the foreign
industrial fishing fleets. A crusader against coastal pollution, he spearheaded protests against the Kudankulam
Nuclear Plant in Tamil Nadu and was a member of the Coastal Zone Management Authority of India.

Yingluck Shinawatra
Thailand's Constitutional Court has dismissed caretaker Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office, ruling that
she is guilty of violating the country's constitution for reassigning a senior security official in 2011. Deputy PM and
Commerce Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan has been nominated by the cabinet as the next caretaker
prime minister.

AWARDS & HONOURS

CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
Nuri Bilge Ceylan's three-hour plus drama "Winter Sleep" won the Palme d'Or at the awards ceremony for the
2014 Cannes Film Festival. The film beat out Xavier Dolan's hyped-about "Mommy," which settled for the Jury
Prize, along with Jeal-Luc Godard's "Goodbye to Language." The runner-up Grand Prix award went to Alice
Rohrwacher's Italian-language film "The Wonders."
Bennett Miller nabbed Best Director for "Foxcatcher." The film failed to win the Best Actor prize for Steve Carell's
much-praised lead performance. Instead the jury decided to award the prize to Timothy Spall for his turn as J.M.
W. Turner in Mike Leigh's "Mr. Turner." Julianne Moore won Best Actress for playing an actress in David
Cronenberg's Hollywood satire "Maps to the Stars."
FELLOWS OF ROYAL SOCIETY
Two prominent Indian-origin academicsLord Sushantha Bhattacharyya and Rajesh Thakkerare among 60
eminent scientists elected as 2014 Fellows of the Royal Society, which is the world's oldest scientific academy in
continuous existence since 1660 with Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin as past fellows. Lord
Bhattacharyya, who founded the Warwick Manufacturing Group in 1980 that has the Tata Group as one of its key
partners, is a widely recognised figure in the area of engineering. Rajesh Thakker, who is the Professor of Medicine
at the University of Oxford, has made sustained series of major contributions to endocrinology, particularly
parathyroid and renal disorders affecting calcium homeostasis.
GAANA AWARDS
The winners of the first ever Gaana Awards, an initiative by Times Internet, have been announced. The eight
awards were determined on the basis of actual play-outs and user consumption across digital platforms on
Gaana.com, which is India's No 1 music broadcasting service with 9 million active monthly users and 6 million
apps downloaded in about a year's time. Winners of Gaana Awards 2013 are:
Most Popular Hindi Album: Aashiqui 2
Most Popular Hindi Song: Tum Hi Ho (Aashiqui 2)
Most Popular English Song: Exotic (Priyanka Chopra)
Most Popular Singer (Female): Shreya Ghoshal
Most Popular Singer (Male): Arijit Singh
Fastest to First Song: Badtameez Dil (Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani)
Most Popular Tamil Song: Vaanganna Vanakkanganna
Most Popular Kannada Song: Thangali

INMA AWARD
Ravi Dhariwal, the CEO of BCCL, which publishes The Times of India, the world's largest-selling English broadsheet
and the Economic Times, the world's second largest financial daily, has been awarded the International News
Media Association's (INMA) highest honour for volunteer service to, and lifetime achievement in, the media
industry. Dhariwal introduced INMA to the South Asian continent and later became president of the global nonprofit organization.

International Ashden Awards

Indias information technology major Infosys bagged the prestigious Ashden Award for Sustainable Buildings in
London for its cutting-edge design of new buildings which helps keep offices cooler and maximises natural
light. The Bangalore-headquartered firm won the annual award, referred to as the Green Oscars, for seizing every
opportunity to reduce energy consumption in its existing buildings - from reducing the size of chiller plants for air
conditioning, to painting roofs white so they reflect the heat. The Ashden Clean Energy for Women and Girls
Award also went to an Indian project, Mumbai-based Greenway Grameen. The rapidly growing clean cookstoves
business, co-founded by entrepreneurs Neha Juneja and Ankit Matthur, was recognised for its affordable
cookstoves to improve the quality of life for Indian women.

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire

Ratan Tata became the first Indian to be awarded the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE)
since India became a Republic in 1950. The KBE is one of the highest honours given by the British queen to
civilians. It commonly appears on the Diplomatic Service and Overseas list but can also be given to Britons based
abroad or in an honorary capacity to foreign nationals. Tata successfully guided one of India's oldest business
empires through rough seas. The former chairman of Tata group - under whose leadership the group's revenues
grew to around Rs 475,721 crore in 2011-12 from Rs 10,000 crore in 1991 retired on Dec 2012 after a 50-year
run at the helm.

LONGITUDE PRIZE
Three hundred years after the British government set up the greatest scientific challenge of the early eighteenth
centuryhow to pinpoint a ship's location at sea by knowing its longitudethe Longitude Prize was revived on May
19 with a 10 million bounty. The prize, first instituted in 1714, was worth 20,000, which was won by John
Harrison, a clockmaker and carpenter, who solved the challenge by designing the chronometer, the first clock that
allowed accurate navigation and led to safer sea travel that opened up global trade. The Longitude Committee has
now set up six challenges, voting for which will take place between May 22 and June 25. Voters on the BBC's
Horizon website will choose which 'problem' needed to be chosen. The question is: "If you had 10 million to make
one change to the world, what would you do?"

Metroplus Award
Anshuman Acharya, Bangalore-based writer and theatre artiste, is the winner of The Hindu-MetroPlus Playwright
Award 2014 for his entry, In the Name of the Bully. The award was instituted by The Hindu for the best original
and unpublished English script.

National Geographic Bee contest

Akhil Rekulapelli, a 13-year-old Indian-American student, won the prestigious National Geographic Bee contest
that carries a USD 50,000 college scholarship, outclassing nine others including four Indian-origin contestants.

National Florence Nightingale Awards

President Pranab Mukherjee presented the National Florence Nightingale Awards to nursing personnel on the
occasion of International Nurses Day at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on May 12.

United Nations' Public Services Awards

A union communications and IT ministry project on "mobile governance" has won the second prize at the
prestigious United Nations' Public Services Awards. The project, called "mobile seva" was launched by the Dept. of
Electronics and Information Technology's (DeitY) in January 2012, and won in the category "Promoting Whole of
Government Approaches in the Information Age" for Asia Pacific. The first prize in the category was bagged by the
Korean health and welfare information service.

WEBBY AWARDS
Google, Jay Z and crowdfunding site Kickstarter are among the winners of this years Webby Awards, a celebration
of Internet achievement that got its start nearly two decades ago. The awards are presented by the International
Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a group of about 1,000 Web experts and Internet professionals. Each
Webby category is split in two: Theres an award from the academy and a peoples voice award for which anyone
can cast an online vote. A big winner in the latter category was Google with five wins. Others include Beyonc,
Tumblr, the NASA website and satirical news site "The Onion" (which was also the academys pick in the humour
category).

Business & Economy

Newly-launched airline AirAsia India, a joint venture between Malaysia-based low-cost carrier AirAsia,
Tata Sons and Arun Bhatia of Telestra Tradeplace, has finally got the licence from aviation regulator DGCA
to operate in India. This once again heralds the Tata Group into the aviation, after the Indian government
in 1953 nationalised Air India, which was initially set up by JRD Tata in 1932. The DGCA has granted the
licence initially for a period of one year. After the new airline has five aircraft in its fleet, its licence will be
automatically extended thereafter for another four years.

Apple Inc and Google Inc's Motorola Mobility unit have agreed to settle all patent litigation between them
over smartphones, ending one of the highest-profile lawsuits in technology. Apple and Google have also
agreed to work toqether in some areas of patent reform.

Canara Bank has entered South Africa by opening a branch in Johannesburg as a part of its global
expansion plans. The bank has 4,750 branches across India apart from presence in London, Hong Kong,
Shanghai, Bahrain and Moscow. 1,027 branches were added only last year across the country.

India's current account deficit (CAD)a measure of the difference between dollar inflows and
outflowsdropped sharply to 1.7% of GDP or $32.4 billion in 2013-14, from 4.7% of GDP or $87.8 billion
in the previous year, aided by plunging gold imports.

Singapore has replaced Mauritius as the top source of foreign direct investment into India, accounting
for about 25 per cent of FDI inflows in 2013-14. During the last financial year, India attracted 5.98 billion
in FDI from Singapore, whereas it was 4.85 billion from Mauritius.

Hindustan Motors Ltd (HM) on May 24 announced that the production of the iconic Ambassador has
been halted till further notice.

Cooperative major IFFCO's board has elected Balvinder Singh Nakai as its new Chairman and N P Patel as
the vice-chairman of the cooperative.

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority in a recent meeting with executives of the life
insurance companies has asked them to tie up with all insurance repositories to be able to offer electronic
policies to customers after July. The electronic account will do away with the need for know your customer
(KYC) norms including address and identity proof for every purchase and will bring in the benefits of
demat including automatic reminders for premium.

Jet Airways, Indias second-largest domestic carrier by market share, reported its biggest-ever quarterly
loss of Rs. 2,154 crore against Rs. 496 crore a year ago. The Naresh Goyal-led airline, which has been
without a full-time chief executive since January, also named Australian Cramer Ball as its new CEO,
pending regulatory approvals.

Manoj Vaish, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX),
resigned within three months of taking over reigns of the commodity exchange. He took over as the MD
and CEO of the Exchange on February 1, 2014 after the resignation of the Shreekant Javalgekar in
October, 2013. MCX is the only commodity exchange in the country which is listed on a stock exchange. It
was promoted by the Jignesh Shah-led Financial Technologies India Ltd (FTIL), which has also promoted
the now-defunct National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL). NSEL was in the midst of a default of around Rs,
5,600 crore, and many cases were filed against its officials by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the
Mumbai Police. The commodity market regulator, Forward Markets Commission (FMC), had asked the FTIL
to reduce its stake in MCX from around 26 per cent to less than 2 per cent and FTIL was in the process of

diluting the stake. However, an audit report on MCX, prepared by the audit firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers
(PwC), which was submitted to the BSE, indicted FTIL on various instances of interference in the working
of MCX by it, which resulted in conflict of interest. FTIL strongly denied these charges and called it as a
convenient report and said that MCX had violated principle of natural justice by not sharing the report
and by not allowing FTIL to provide its clarification on PwC findings.

The economic offences wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police, which is probing the Rs 5,600 crore cheating
case involving the National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL), arrested Jignesh Shah, chairman of Financial
Technologies (FTIL) group, and MCX CEO Sreekanth Javalgekar for their alleged role in the biggest
payment default in the Indian commodity market.

Government on May 21 recommended Narendra Kumar Verma as the head of ONGC Videsh Ltd, the
overseas acquisition arm of flagship explorer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.

Oracle Corp won a legal victory against Google Inc as a U.S. appeals court decided Oracle could
copyright parts of the Java programming language, which Google used to design its Android smartphone
operating system.

RBI will shortly issue bank notes of Rs. 1000 denomination in the Mahatma Gandhi series 2005 bearing
the signature of Governor Raghuram Rajan.

RBI asked banks not to levy penalties on customers who don't maintain a minimum balance in any
inoperative account as part of a consumer protection initiative.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on May 7 directed that henceforth banks will not be permitted to
charge foreclosure charges or pre-payment penalties on all floating rate term loans sanctioned to
individual borrowers. The charges by some banks were as high as two per cent of the outstanding loans.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on May 21 allowed star trading houses (STH) and premier trading
houses (PTH) to import gold under the 20:80 scheme. According to the guidelines of the scheme, RBI has
also permitted banks to provide gold metal loans (GML) to domestic jewellery manufacturers out of the
eligible domestic import quota to the extent of GML outstanding on their books as on March 31, 2013.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU)
on mutual co-operation with Financial Intelligence Unit, India (FIU-IND) in May 2014. This is as part of
continued coordinated efforts in effective implementation of requirements of the Prevention of Money
Laundering Act (PMLA) and the rules framed there-under.

Shasun Pharmaceuticals Ltd. acquired the global rights to develop and commercialise the 12-hour
extended release analgesic tablets Ibuprofen from US-based Scolor Pharma along with those of pain killer
Nuprin trademark for an undisclosed sum.