Notes:
Edouard Philippe, a centre-right mayor, has been appointed as the new Prime Minister of France by the President Emmanuel Macron. Philippe is not from the President’s new centrist party but from the centre-right Republicans. The choice is seen as an attempt to draw in key figures from both the right and left of French politics.

Notes:
India has been ranked 26th in the list of electricity accessibility according to the World Bank in the current year from 99th spot in 2014. It is because of Indian government’s rural electrification programme, over 13,000 villages electrified out of a total of 18,452 and are on track for completion within the targeted 1,000 days. Additionally, a person who applies for electricity connection should be able to get electricity in 24 hours if power infrastructure is available and in areas where there is no power infrastructure a person should expect electricity in a week.

Notes:
S Ramassamy (80), the former Puducherry Chief Minister, has passed away in Puducherry on May 15, 2017id. He was Home Minister in the DMK-CPI coalition ministry from 1969 to 1973. He shifted his allegiance to the AIADMK in 1973. He became chief minister in 1974 heading the AIADMK-CPI coalition ministry for a brief period. He was also the Chief Minister in the AIADMK government in 1977, which lasted in office for a little over one year. He successfully contested as Independent from Karaikal in 1985 and 1990. Ramassamy joined Congress in 1992.

Notes:
Lewis Hamilton, a British Formula One racing driver from England, has won the 2017 Formula One Spanish Grand Prix tournament at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Barcelona. It is the 71st season of Formula One motor racing.

Notes:
The 2nd meeting of National Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (NPDRR) has started in New Delhi from May 15-16, 2017 on the theme ‘Disaster Risk Reduction for Sustainable Development: Making India Resilient by 2030’. The NPDRR is inaugurated by the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. The NPDRR is a multi-stakeholders National Platform which promotes participatory decision making in disaster management and strengthens federal policy of the country. The meeting is being attended by over 1000 distinguished guests including State Ministers, Parliamentarians, Heads of Local Self Government, and Heads of specialized disaster management agencies, academicians, representatives from private sector organizations, media and civil society organizations.

Notes:
Bajrang Punia has won gold medal for India by defeating South Korea’s Seunghui Lee 6-2 in the men’s 65kg freestyle category at the 2017 Asian Wrestling Championship in New Delhi. With this, he became the first Indian to win gold in the championship. Apart from him, Sarita Mann won silver in the women’s 58kg category and Sumit Kumar won silver medal in the men’s Freestyle 125 kg category. With this, India finished their Asian Wrestling Championship campaign on a resounding note. The Indian wrestlers overall bagged 10 medals comprising gold, five silver and four bronze.

Notes:
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur has collaborated with the British Geological Survey (BGS) to turn Varanasi into a smart city. As part of the project, three dimensional geological modelling of the geology under Varanasi will be prepared to help improve the building of new transport and service infrastructure. The project includes application of geo-scientific methods like drilling, geological, geophysical, tectonics, hydrogeological and remote sensing. It would be the first major 3D subsurface urban study and planning of its kind in India, with the ultimate aim of developing methodologies and input of suburban geology for planning and hazard risk assessment. The purpose of the project is to develop the methodologies and approaches of urban geosciences and engineering of Varanasi as a pilot for other Indian cities.

Notes:
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed Ovais Sarmad of India as Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), at the Assistant Secretary-General level. The appointment has been made after consultation with the Conference of Parties through its Bureau. Sarmad will succeed Richard Kinley of Canada. Currently, Sarmad serving as the chief of staff to the director general of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Notes:
As per latest Economic Outlook Survey of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth forecast for FY 18 will be around 7.4%, with a minimum and maximum level of 7% and 7.6% respectively. As per the survey, agricultural sector is estimated to clock 3.5% growth in 2017-18, while the industry and services sector are expected to grow by 6.9% and 8.4% respectively in 2017-18. According to the survey results, Consumer Price Index (CPI) has a median forecast of 4.8% for 2017-18 with a minimum and maximum level of 4% and 5.3%.

Notes:
The Nandankanan Zoological Park (NZP) is located in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. It is home to about 1660 individual animals representing 166 species, including 67 species of mammals, 81 species of birds, and 18 species of reptiles. It has the largest collection of white tigers in India. The zoo also includes 34 aquaria which are home to a large variety of fresh water fish. The endangered species such as the Asiatic lion, three Indian crocodilians, Sangal lion-tailed macaque, Nilgiri langur, Indian pangolin, mouse deer and countless birds, reptiles and fish have been breeding successfully at Nandankanan. The zoo enjoys a good reputation internationally for successfully breeding black panthers, gharials, and white tigers in captivity.