GK & Current Affairs – May 2016

1. Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana will be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at  Ballia

.The scheme aims to provide LPG connections without security deposit to 50 million women from BPL households over the next three years, using the money saved from 1 crore 13 lakh cooking gas users voluntarily giving up their subsidies.

2.China has recently developed the world’s first graphene electronic paper that will catapult the material to a new level. It is developed by The Guangzhou OED Technologies in partnership with a company in Chongqing Province of China. As compared to traditional e-papers, graphene e-paper is more flexible and has more intensity and has high-light transmittance, which means optical displays will be much brighter. The production cost of graphene e-paper (derived from carbon) will be much lower than the traditional e-papers, which use the rare, expensive metal indium.

3.The Gujarat Government has recently declared 10% reservation quota for Economically Backward Classes (EBCs) in general category for higher education and government jobs. The new category would cover all upper castes whose family income does not exceed Rs 6 lakh per annum. The reservation announced by the state government will cross 50% reservation limit set by the Supreme Court of India (SCI) and may face legal hurdles. The state government is already providing 50% reservation to SC/STs and OBCs.

4.India has recently signed four MoUs with Papua New Guinea (PNG) in areas of infrastructure, healthcare, information technology and agriculture. For this, India will provide $100 million credit line for development of infrastructure and will establish India-Papua New Guinea Centre for Excellence in IT in PNG.

5.Tabassum Adnan, a women’s rights activist from Pakistan’s Swat valley, has won the 2016 Civicus Nelson Mandela Graca Machel Innovation Award in individual activist category at Bogota, Colombia. She is the founder of NGO Khwendo Jirga (Sister’s Council), the first women-only ‘jirga’ in Pakistan, to address issues of women’s right, including honour killings and acid attacks.