Notes:
The Japanese family drama ‘Shoplifters’ has received the coveted award for best film, the Palme d’Or, at the Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2018. Poland’s Pawel Pawlikowski won the best director award for his love story ‘Cold War’. Little-known Italian actor Marcello Fonte won best actor for his role as a hapless cocaine-dealing dog groomer who faces down a thug in ‘Dogman’. The Best actress award went to Samal Yeslyamova for Kazakh writer-director Sergey Dvortsevoy’s “Ayka.” A special Palme d’Or was awarded to French-Swiss Jean-Luc Godard for the film ‘Image Book’.

Notes:
The Haryana Government will launch the ‘Chatra Parivahan Suraksha Yojana’ to ensure safety of girl students. For facilitating women, the state government has opened women police stations in districts. Besides, women help desks have also been set up. Earlier, women constituted 6% of the police force which has now been increased to 9% by the present government. Now, it has been decided to further increase this percentage to 11.

Notes:
Rajinder Singh has taken charge as the new President of Hockey India (HI). He succeeded Mariamma Koshy. Prior to this post, Singh was the senior Vice President of HI. He was earlier the Treasurer of HI and currently serves as the Treasurer of Hockey Jammu & Kashmir (J&K).

Notes:
Deepak Joshi from India has been promoted to the FIH Promising List (Outdoor Hockey) umpires. It was announced by the International Hockey Federation (FIH) on May 19, 2018. Joshi hails from Haldwani, Uttarakhand and was a former national-level hockey player for his state team. He switched to umpiring in 2010-11 after completing his Diploma in Sports Coaching from the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports, Patiala. His hard-work and determination in this field saw him being considered for the Hockey India National Championships in 2013 when he was assigned his first assignment. With the support of the Hockey India Umpiring, Technical and Competitions Committee, Joshi excelled in the domestic circuit and was rewarded with a chance to umpire at the international level in 2015 when he officiated in the U21 6-Nations Tournament in Breda, Netherlands. Apart from this, he has been assigned the duties of umpire in some major tournaments like the Uttar Pradesh Junior Men’s Hockey World Cup Lucknow 2016, Hero Men’s Asia Cup 2017 and the recently concluded Gold Coast 2018 XXI Commonwealth Games in Australia.

Notes:
The National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC Ltd) has bagged the S&P Global Platts Global Metals Award 2018 in the corporate social responsibility category at London Grosvenor Square Marriott Hotel in the UK. This is the first time since inception of the awards that an Indian company has bagged an award in this category. NMDC is the largest iron ore mining company in India with iron ore production of around 35 million tonnes per annum (MTPA). It has a domestic market share of about 25% (non-captive category). NMDC also extracts diamonds from its mine in Panna, which is the only mechanised diamond mine in Asia. The S&P Global Platts is the leading independent provider of information, benchmark prices and analytics for the energy and commodities markets. It has been in existence for over 100 years. The S&P Global Platts Global Metals Award recognises top performers, industry leaders and innovators.

Notes:
The 2018 BRICS Ministerial on Environment at Durban, South Africa has agreed to include Indian societal movement “Green Good Deeds” in its official agenda in the next Ministerial in Brazil and another meeting in Russia. With this, the ‘Green Good Deeds’ movement has now got global recognition. Dr Harsh Vardhan, the Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, had formally launched the nation-wide campaign “Green Good Deeds” in January 2018 to sensitize the people and students, in particular, about climate change and global warming. The aim of the campaign is to protect environment and promote good living in the country.

Notes:
On May 18, the Venture Capital Symposium 2018 is organized by NITI Aayog in association with Vision India Foundation in New Delhi to deepen the economic relationships between France and India. The purpose of the event is to support the Start-up India programme. The event facilitates interactions between French investors, Indian investors, Indian start-ups and critical government functionaries. The French investors will explore the investment landscape as well as the socio-cultural richness of India. In the 3-day event, French investors will gain insights into India’s business ecosystems, interact with business pioneers, government officials and think-tank members and most importantly assess potential start-ups to invest in.

Notes:
Raghuvir Singh (95), the lone freedom fighter of Muzaffarnagar district, has passed away in Noida, Uttar Pradesh on May 19, 2018. Singh was part of Subhas Chandra Bose’s Azad Hind Fauj.

Notes:
Megastar Amitabh Bachchan has been honoured by European Union for strengthening Europe-India cultural ties. Bachchan, whose last release “102 Not Out”, co-starring Rishi Kapoor, was well-received by critics as well as audiences, will next be seen in “Thugs of Hindostan”.

Notes:
The Farakka Barrage is built across Ganga River and located in Murshidabad district of West Bengal. The barrage is about 2,240 metres long and serves water to the Farakka Super Thermal Power Station. The Feeder Canal (Farakka) from the barrage to the Bhagirathi-Hooghly River is about 40 km long.