TNPSC CURRENT AFFAIRS 2016

1. First Muslim Mayor of London is Sadikh Khan 

• Sadiq Khan of the British Labour party has been elected the new Mayor of London. Sadiq Khan became London’s first Muslim mayor. Sadikh Khan is the son of bus driver,  immigrants from Pakistan who settled in London in the 1960s. 

2. Indian Artist Wins Award at UN Poster Contest on N-Disarmament 

• A 22-year-old Indian artist, Anjali Chandrashekar, a New York-based designer and "artivist", won the third prize in UN Poster for Peace contest presented by the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs (ODA) to raise awareness of the need for Nuclear Disarmament. 

• Titled 'Cutting Barriers through Peace', the poster features a peace dove slicing through a nuclear weapon.

3. G-7 summit 2016

• G7 Finance Ministers and central bank governors have held discussions on the world economy, ahead of next week's G7 summit to be held in Ise-Shima, central Japan. 

• The first day of the 2-day meeting ended in the northern Japanese city of Sendai 19.05.2016.  Among world economic issues that they have discussed are the slowing Chinese economy and lower crude oil prices. 

• They also discussed ways of dealing with tax evasion and questionable tax avoidance in reaction to disclosures in the Panama Papers.

4. UN Honours over 100 Peacekeepers who Lost lives while Serving

• The United Nations has honored peacekeepers, who lost their lives while serving under the UN flag around the globe. 

• A wreath-laying ceremony in honor of all men and women who lost their lives in peacekeeping operations worldwide was held at UN headquarters in New York. More than 3,400 United Nations peacekeepers have died since 1948.

5. Billion people face global flooding risk by 2060

• A British aid charity is warning that by 2060 more than a billion people worldwide will live in cities at risk of catastrophic flooding as a result of climate change. 

• BBC reports quoting a study by Christian Aid that the US, China and India are among the countries most threatened. It says the Indian cities of Kolkata and Mumbai will be most at risk. The eight most vulnerable cities on the list are all in Asia, followed by Miami in the US. 

• The study says that the priority should be to rapidly reduce carbon emissions and limit temperature increase by switching from fossil fuels to low-carbon energy.

6. Egypt Air crash

• Egyptian military found the wreckage of the crashed Egypt Air aircraft in the Mediteranean Sea. The ill-fated plane flying to Cairo from Paris went down with 66 people on board 19.05.2016.

7. ROANU’ cyclonic storm moves towards Bangladesh

• The cyclonic storm “Roanu” has been named by Maldives.The word “Roanu” means “coir rope” in Maldivian.

• The cyclonic storm ‘ROANU’ over northwest and adjoining west-central Bay of Bengal moved east-northeastwards and lay centred at about 160km east of Paradip in Odisha and 435 km southwest of Chittagong in Bangladesh over northwest Bay of Bengal.

8. Indian-American student wins prestigious Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award

• A 15-year old Indian-American student has won the prestigious Intel Foundation Young Scientist Award for creating a device for people who can not walk well through disease or injury. 

• Syamantak Payra, a student at Clear Brook High School in Friendswood, Texas, received one of two Intel Foundation Young Scientist Awards worth 50,000 dollars for developing a low cost electronically aided knee brace that allows an individual with a weakened leg to walk more naturally. 

9. World Hypertension Day being observed on 17.05.2016

• Nearly one billion people are estimated to be affected by Hypertension worldwide, and this figure may increase to 1.5 billion by 2025; right treatment and lifestyle can help in containing hypertension. 
• 20. India and Iran sign 12 bilateral agreements in various areasIndia and Iran signed 12 Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) and Agreements in various areas including building and operating the Chabahar port by India. 

• The other agreements include cooperation in science and technology, culture, library sciences, and cooperation between the EXIM banks of both the countries. These agreements were signed after the delegation level talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

10. Indian-American scientist wins Springer Theses Award

• An Indian-American scientist,  Arnab De has received the prestigious Springer Theses Award in recognition for his outstanding research in which he developed transgenic mice to study a critical tumor-suppressor called A20. 

• The thesis prize is awarded by Springer, a leading global publisher of renowned scientific journals and books, to recognize outstanding PhD research. Internationally top-ranked research institutes select their best thesis annually for publication in the book series: "Springer Theses: Recognising Outstanding PhD research"