CURRENT AFFAIRS MAY/15/2015

• Indian-origin councillor woman Harbhajan Kaur Dheer becomes the first Asian elected mayor in UK
  • Harbhajan Kaur Dheer,  an Indian-origin councillor woman , became the first Asian woman to be elected as mayor in London.
  • Harbhajan Kaur Dheer, 62, at a ceremony at the Victoria Hall at Ealing Council was made Mayor of Ealing Council in London 
  • She was holding the post of Deputy Mayor before assuming the present position.
  Facts about Harbhajan Kaur Dheer:-
  • Harbhajan Kaur was born in Punjab in 1953 and came to Britain in 1975
  • Her husband councillor Ranjit Dheer is a former Mayor of Ealing 
  • Early years in Britain were difficult for her and she had to work very hard to establish herself and raise two children. 
  • She had studied Social Sciences at Kingston University and obtained a degree in 1995
  • She had worked as an Approved Mental Health Professional in Surrey County Council until 2003 
  • She is a passionate advocate of rights of children and elderly including those with mental health issues  
• Tejaswini  Sagar wins gold at Under-15 World School Chess Championship
  •  Talented youngster of India Tejaswini Sagar won her maiden world title bagging the gold in the under-15 category of World School Chess Championship
  •  Aurangabad-girl defeated Kavinya Miyuni Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka in the ninth and final round
  •  Tejaswini scored seven points out of a possible nine, winning six, drawing two and losing one game
  • Irina Barbayeva of Russia had to be content with the silver medal after losing to her Kazakhstan rival
  • Nur Abidah Shanti of Indonesia wont he bronze medal in this section.
• Punjab Government to launch sports awareness campaign  
  • Punjab sports department would launch a state wide sports awareness campaign in  collaboration with Australian Trade Commission 
  • Campaign would begin with a seminar  that will be held at Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Engineering College Sri Fatehgarh Sahib. 
  • State wide joint campaign to promote sports culture would witness interactive session in the presence of renowned international sportspersons with budding players motivating them to participate in international level tournaments. 
• The US House of Representatives has passed the Freedom Act, replacing the controversial Patriot Act
  The US House of Representatives has passed the Freedom Act, replacing the controversial Patriot Act,The Freedom bill was passed 338 to 88 votes 
  Vitality of the act
  • Freedom Act, would end the NSA's bulk collection of Americans' phone records, a controversial programme that was made public in 2013 by former security contractor Edward Snowden
  • The bill prohibits the intelligence community from engaging in bulk data collection within the US 
  • Freedom Act is seen as a big win for privacy and civil rights advocates as the bill protects privacy while preserving essential national security authorities
  • The bill mainly focuses on people in the United States and not overseas, would amend controversial sections of the USA Patriot Act, which passed in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks and which expire on June 1 this year
  • The reforms would explicitly prohibit the mass collection of telephone metadata phone numbers, time and duration of calls  by the NSA, as well as electronic data such as emails and web addresses.
  Edward Snowden in 2013 leaked thousands of documents to journalists that reported that NSA for many years have been secretly collecting all records of US landline phone calls 
• Vijaya Bank opens over 5 lakh Jan-Dhan Yojana accounts in Karnataka
  • The Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) the ambitious project of PM Modi that was launched in Dharwad district in Karnataka during August last year
  • Vijaya Bank is implementing the programme through all its 1533 branches
  • Vijaya Bank has so far opened over 5 lakh basic zero balance accounts and issued Rupay Debit cards to the account holders.
  • Over draft of Rs 5,000 is helping poor farmers to buy fertilizers and seeds for their farm it has also helped small entrepreneurs for their business
• China plans to invest USD 50 bn in Brazil for various infrastructure projects
  
  
  • China is planning to invest up to $50bn (£32bn) in Brazil for infrastructure projects
  • The deal is due to be signed by banks from both countries during a visit by Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang to Brazil next week
  • The money will be invested with aim of building a railway link from Brazil's Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast of Peru to reduce the cost of exports to China
  • Beijing said the fund will also finance a joint venture to produce steel. 
  • Brazil currently exports much of its iron ore to China 
• President Pranab Mukherjee gave away Presidential Awards for Classical Tamil
  President Pranab Mukherjee gave away Presidential Awards for Classical Tamil for the years 2011-12 and 2012-13.
  •  S V Shanmugam, a legend in the field of linguistics, received Tolkappiyar Award for the year 2011-12, eminent Tamil scholar R Krishnamurthi got the Tolkappiyar Award for the year 2012-13.
  • Reputed German Scholar Eva Maria Wilden, who is working on classical Tamil, received Kural Pitam Award (Foreigner) for the year 2011-12. 
  • K Iyyappan, E Ezhilvasanthan and K Jawahar received Young Scholar Award for the year 2011-12 
  •  A Sathish, R Venkatesan, B Jaiganesh, M R Devaki and U Alibava bagged the Young Scholar Award for the year 2012-13
  About Presidential Awards for Classical Tamil :-
  •  Presidential Awards for Classical Tamil were instituted to give recognition and honour to distinguished scholars who have made outstanding contribution to Classical Tamil language and literature
  • These awards include one "Tholkappiar Award" for life time achievement to an Indian scholar for outstanding contribution in the field of Tamil studies and two Kural Peedam Award for eminent scholars of Classical Tamil of non-Indian origin and "Young Scholar Awards" for scholars in the age group of 30-40 years for showing interest and excellence in Tamil studies
• 24 agreements inked between India and China
  India and China have signed 24 agreements in key sectors on day two of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first visit to China
  • Protocol for setting up Consulates-General at Chengdu and Chennai besides a MoU on consultative mechanism for cooperation in trade negotiations were among the 24 agreements signed  in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Chinese counterpart Li Keqiang in Beijing
  • An action plan between the Indian Railways and China National Railways on enhancing cooperation in the railway sector 
  • An MoU on education exchange programme and 'Space Cooperation Outline' were also signed. 
  • Four agreements were signed on sister-state and sister-city relations between Karnataka and Sichuan province; Chennai and Chongqing; Hyderabad and Qingdao; and Aurangabad and Dunhuang.
  •  key agreements on developing China India think-tanks, maritime cooperation and ocean sciences.
  •  MoUs between Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) and Yunnan Minzu University on the establishment of a yoga college
  • MoUs between Minzu University and another with Fudan University were signed for Gandhian and Indian studies