Daily Current Affairs May 2015

Daily Current Affairs GK Update – 24,25 May 2015

 

Ireland becomes first country to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote[ALL]:

  • First country to do so by voting.
  • Around 62% of the Irish Republic’s electorate voted in favour of legalizing same-sex marriages
  • Ireland has a written constitution which can only be amended by referendum.popular voting.
  • With the passage this referendum, now Irish constitution gives equal status to marriage between two people of the same-sex as compared to a marriage between a man and a woman.
  • About Ireland:
  • Capital:Dublin
  • It is the third-largest country in Europe.

 UN’s prestigious Dag Hammarskjold Medal posthumously awarded to 2 Indians [All]:

  • Lance Naik Nand Ram and Raju Joseph  have been chosen posthumously for United Nation’s Dag Hammarskjold Medal.
  • Both has served as UN Peacekeepers.
  • They will be presented with this medal on May 29, 2015 which is observed by UN as the  International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers.
  • Lance Naik Nand Ram had served with the UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO).
  • Raju Joseph had served in a civilian capacity with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
  • About Dag Hammarskjold Medal:
  • This medal is awarded posthumously to members of UN peacekeeping operations who lost their lives during service with a peacekeeping operation.
  • It is named after 2nd UN Secretary General and Swedish diplomat Dag Hammarskjold.
  • Hammarskjold died in a mysterious plane crash in 1961.
  • He was posthumously awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1961 which made him one of only two persons ever been awarded the Noble Prize posthumously.

 

5 new Earthquake-observing centres to be set-up[All]:

  • Geological Survey of India is planning to set up 5  new Earthquake-observing centres.
  • These observatories called as ‘Seismo-Geodetic monitoring stations’ will be used for real-time monitoring of various features of seismic activities.
  • The study of the features and nature of Earthquake would enable to take proper precautionary measures in these earthquake-prone areas.
  • These will be set-up in Agartala in Tripura, Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh, Mangan in Sikkim, Nagpur in Maharashtra and Jammu.
  • Central Hub and Research centre called Data Receiving and Processing centre (DRPC) would be set-up at GSI office at SaltLake in Kolkata.
  • Seismograph is an instrument to measure Seismic waves while Accelerograph is used to measure strong motion of earthquakes that makes the conventional seismograph go off-scale.

 

Orissa govt. requests Google to promote Nabakalebara festival through Google-Doodle[All]:

  • Nabakalebra festival is the festival of three deities of Shree Jagannath Temple at Puri.
  • This festival is taking place after 19 years and over 10 million tourists are likely to attend.

 

Nico Rosberg wins Monaco Grand Prix.
[Non-UPSC]:

  • Nico Rosberg from Germany wins the Monaco Grand Prix Formula One (F1) World Championship title.
  • With this win, he has become the fourth driver in history of F1 to win three Monaco Grand Prix titles in a row.
  • Nico Rosberg is a Mercedes Driver.

 

China sets up largest gold sector fund for nations along ancient Silk Road
[All]:

  • China which is the world’s largest gold-producer, has set-up a Gold-sector fund involving countries along the ancient silk-route.
  • This fund is expected to raise 16.1 billion USD.
  • The fund will be led by Shanghai Gold Exchange (SGE)
  • It is the largest fund set up by China in the gold sector.

 

ICICI bank launches voice password facility for users[All]:

  • This service allows customers to make transactions using their voice rather than using traditional means of authentication like entering id and password.
  • ICICI is India’s largest private bank.

 

Russia enacts law banning undesirable NGOs[All]:

  • Russia enacted a law banning undesirable non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the country.
  • The newly enacted law allows government authorities to Prosecute foreign NGOs or firms designated as undesirable on national security grounds.

John Nash, Nobel Laureate Game Theorist, dies in a car accident[All]:

  • John Nash, the famous American Mathematician and Game Theorist, died in a car crash along with his wife Alicia Nash.
  • He was known for his works in Game Theory (mathematical study of decision-making), differential geometry and partial differential equations.
  • His theories especially Nash Equilibrium in Game Theory are used in modern computing, economics, evolutionary biology, artificial intelligence, accounting, politics and military theory.
  • He received Nobel Prize in Economics with game theorists Reinhard Selten and John Harsanyi in 1994 for his work in Game Theory.
  • In 2015, he received the Abel Prize along with Louis Nirenberg for his work on nonlinear partial differential equations.
  • He suffered from Paranoid schizophrenia but by 1970s he recovered from this mental illness.
  • Nash’s struggle with schizophrenia was chronicled in the 2001 movie ‘A Beautiful Mind’ .The movie was based on the unauthorised biography of John Nash ‘ A Beautiful Mind ‘ written by Sylvia Nasar.
  • Russell Crowe played the role of John Nash in the movie. In 2002, the film won four Academy Awards (Oscars) for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress.

 

French film Dheepan wins Palme d’Or Award at 68th Cannes Film Festival[Non-UPSC]:

  • Dheepan is based on the story of Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka’s who pretend to be a family in order to flee their war-torn country to France.

Mumbai Indians beat Chennai Super Kings to win IPL 2015 for second time[Non-UPSC]:

  • MI defeated CSK by 41 runs in the finals played at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
  • This is the second IPL win for MI after they won thier first title in 2013.
  • This was Chennai’s sixth final in 8 editions of IPL.
  • Chennai has now lost four finals of 2008, 2012, 2013, 2015 in six appearances and had won in 2011 and 2012 IPL seasons.
  • IPL Awards:
  • Man of the Match:  Rohit Sharma.
  • Player of the Tournament: Andre Russell (KKR).
  • Emerging Player of the Season: Shreyas Iyer (Delhi Daredevils).
  • Most Valuable Player: Andre Russell (KKR).
  • Orange Cap : David Warner (Sunrisers Hyderabad).
  • Purple Cap : Dwayne Bravo (CSK).

 

Indian Film Masaan wins  prize at 68th Cannes film festival [Non-UPSC]:

  • It won the prestigious critics prize in the Un-Certain Regard category at the 68th Cannes Film Festival being held in France.

India-Singapore holds joint bilateral naval exercise SIMBEX-15 [All]:

  • 3-days Joint Naval exercise SIMBEX-15 between India and Singapore commenced on 23 May 2015 in Singapore.

Tanishq Abraham, an 11-year-old Indian-American, creates record by graduating from California College[Non-UPSC]:

  • Tanishq Abraham created a record by graduating from California College with three associate degrees in science, maths and foreign language studies.
  • In 2014, he also  became one of the youngest ever in the US to graduate high school.

 

India set to become Water-scarce by 2015: A Report[UPSC]:

  • Main Points of report:
  • Nearly 70% of water  for irrigation and 80% of water for domestic use comes from Ground-water which is rapidly depleting.
  • The Water sector is expected to receive 13 billion USD investment from overseas players with Maharashtra as the biggest destination for this investment.

 

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