1. China becomes world’s top crude buyer
i. Despite a slowing economy, China overtook the
United States as the world’s top importer of crude oil for the first time in
April.
ii. According to the Reuters latest data, China’s
crude oil imports hit a record of almost 7.4 million barrels a day (bpd) last
month, putting it ahead of the United States’ estimated imports of 7.2 million
bpd for April.
Note: China is already the world’s biggest energy
consumer. Overtaking the US will see China become the top user of almost all
commodities, including coal, iron ore and most metals, with far-reaching
consequences for markets that continue to shift from West to East.
Note: Saudi
Arabia is the world’s top crude exporter. Its state-owned oil firm has an
over 10% market share in China and it expects its Chinese operations to grow
with Chinese demand.
2. SBI launches
contactless card payment tech
i. India’s largest bank, State Bank of India
(SBI), has introduced contactless card payments technology that allows payments
by waving or tapping of the cards near the machines.
ii. The bank has launched the sbiINTOUCH
Contactless Debit Card and SBI Signature Contactless Credit Card for quick,
secure and hassle-free payments at merchant outlets.
iii. According to SBI, Contactless cards use the
near-field communication (NFC) technology, enabling users to make payments by
waving or tapping the card near the contactless reader instead of swiping or
dipping it.
iv. Customers can make payments up to Rs. 2,000
per tap and pay transactions at select point-of-sale (POS) machines.
3. RBI allows
value up to Rs. 2000 in ‘Tap and pay’ transactions without
PIN
i. Reserve Bank of India today allowed banks to
enable transactions in contactless cards for values up to Rs 2,000 without
requiring a separate PIN authentication.
ii. RBI’s announcement comes on the day that
State Bank of India announced the
largest roll-out of contactless card payments in the country.
ii. The move is expected to hasten acceptance of
`tap and pay’ electronic payments at retail outlets, in transport services and
for toll payments.
Note: ‘Tap
and pay’ refers to the use of near field communication technology in payment
cards where instead of the traditional swiping of the card and punching in
payment details, all the customer needs to do is wave a card in front of an
acceptance device for the bill to be settled.
4. “Instant
Articles” programme launched by Facebook
i. Facebook, has launched “Instant Articles”, a
programme that directly host articles from news organizations so that users do
not have to click out and wait for websites to load.
ii. For Instant Articles” programme it has tied
up with nine media companies – The New York Times, National Geographic,
BuzzFeed, NBC, The Atlantic, The Guardian, BBC News, Spiegel and Bild – available
on iPhone to start with.
iii. According to Facebook Chief Product Officer
Chris Cox, Instant Articles lets them deliver fast interactive articles while
maintaining control of their content and business models,”.
iv. Instant Articles makes the reading
experience as much as ten times faster than standard mobile web articles.
5. Harbhajan Kaur Dheer elected
first Asian woman Mayor in UK
i. Indian-Origin Harbhajan Kaur Dheer became the first
Asian woman to be elected as mayor in the United Kingdom (UK).
ii. Before taking charge as a Mayor, she was the Deputy
Mayor in UK. She is a Punjabi by origin and migrated to Britain in 1975 for
pursuing higher education.
6. Suchitra
Bhattacharya, eminent Bengali writer passed away
i. Suchitra Bhattacharya, an eminent Bengali
writer passed away following a cardiac arrest in Kolkata, West Bengal.
ii. She was one of the most popular and
powerful novelists of contemporary Bengali literature.
7. 2014 Encore
Award conferred on Neel Mukherjee
i. The 2014 Encore Award conferred on Indian author Neel Mukherjee for his
novel The Lives of
Others.
ii. The
Lives of Others was also shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize and the
Costa Novel Award. Neel Mukherjee’s first novel, A Life Apart, was published in 2010.
8. Karan
Menon wins National Geographic Bee competition
in US
i. Indian-American student,
Karan Menon (14-year-old) has won the
prestigious National Geographic Bee competition
in the US.
ii. He received a USD 85,000 college scholarship, lifetime
membership in the National Geographic Society and an expedition for two to the
Galapagos Islands aboard the Lindblad ship National Geographic Endeavour.
iii. The final
question, which clinched the win for Menon, was: “If completed, the
proposed Grand Inga Dam would become the world’s largest hydropower plant. This
dam would be built near Inga Falls on which African river?” The Congo River was the correct answer.
9. Maharashtra’s
first IIIT to be set up in Nagpur
i. Maharashtra state has received approval
letter for the state’s first Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT)
to be set up in Nagpur. The information was tweeted last night by Chief
Minister Devendra Fadnavis.
ii. Earlier there were two options to set up the
IIIT in Maharashtra, either in Pune or at Nagpur.
iii. In 2008, the HRD ministry decided to set up
IIITs during the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-12) to address the challenges faced
by the Indian IT-industry and growth of the domestic market in the sector.
iv. It was decided to set up 20 IIITs on
private-public partnership (PPP) in the country where the Centre and state
along with the industry would be stakeholders.
10. ‘Act for
Mahseer’ a conservation campaign launched by Tata Power
i. Tata Power has launched the ‘Act for
Mahseer’, a sustainable programme focused at conservation of the Mahseer, an
endangered species of fish.
ii. The programme aimed at spreading awareness
about the mighty Mahseer to help preserve this valuable fish species in a big
way at national level.
iii. As part of the campaign, various activities
like a microsite will be launched on Mahseer conservation, and a Mahseer
travelogue series will be initiated in the ‘educate’ phase.
11. India moves up to fourth
place in ICC Test rankings
i. Team
India has moved to 4th place in latest ICC Test rankings.
ii.
South Africa extended its advantage over Australia from six points to 22 points
at the top of the ICC Test rankings. Australia lost 10 points from the annual
update while South Africa gained six. New Zealand remain 3rd in the list.
iii.
Fifth-ranked England and sixth-ranked Pakistan have slipped on the
ladder after dropping five points apiece. Eighth-ranked West Indies has
gained five ratings points.
12. Tejaswini bags gold in under-15 World School Chess Championship
i. Indian youngster Chess player Tejaswini
Sagar won her maiden world title bagging the gold in the under-15 category of
World School Chess Championship.
ii. She defeated Kavinya Miyuni Rajapaksa of Sri
Lanka in the final round.
iii. She scored seven points out of a possible
nine, winning six, drawing two and losing one game.
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