Notes:
Taiwan has become the first Asian country to recognize same sex marriage after the constitutional court’s ruling comes in support of legalizing same-sex marriage. The panel of judges has given the island’s parliament two years to amend or enact new laws, which could potentially make Taiwan the first place in Asia to allow same-sex marriage. It must be noted that South Africa is the only country in Africa to permit same-sex marriage.

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Nauru, the world’s smallest republic, has become the sixth country to ratify the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Framework pact initiated by the Indian and French Governments at the climate change summit held at Paris in 2015. The motivating factor behind the ISA is the need for continents like Asia and Africa to protect the environment while generating energy for development goals. Beside this, five more African nations — Comoros, Cote d’Ivoire, Somalia, Ghana and Djibouti — have committed to sign the Solar Alliance pact during the ongoing meeting of the African Development bank (AfDB) in India. This is the first time that India is hosting the annual meetings of the AfDB. The tiny island nation of Nauru is the smallest state in the South Pacific and third smallest state by area in the world, behind only Vatican City and Monaco.

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The boring of India’s first underwater rail tunnel under the Hooghly River for establishing metro link between Howrah and Kolkata has completed before its scheduled deadline of July 2017. The tunnel is 16.6 km long, out of which 10.8 km runs under the ground. Of this 10.8 km, 502 metres is under the water and the whole thing connects Howrah to the west and Salt lake to the east. It will have 12 stations and six will be underground. Estimated cost of the entire project is $750 million or about Rs 5,000 crores. The final commissioning of the project is expected by December 2019, following which it will be operational. The project is built by Afcons Transtonnelstroy and implemented by Kolkata Metro Railway Corporation Ltd (KMRCL).

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The 70th edition of World Health Assembly (WHA70) has started in Geneva, Switzerland on May 22, 2017 and ends on May 31, 2017. In it, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia has elected a new Director-General of World Health Organization (WHO). He will succeed Dr. Margaret Chan and will take office for a five-year term on July 1, 2017. From India, J P Nadda, the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, has addressed the plenary meeting on the theme – ‘Advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development: building better systems for health’. The WHA is the forum through which the WHO is governed by its 194 member states. It is the world’s highest health policy setting body and is composed of health ministers from member states.

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The world’s first operational robot police officer “Robocop” was officially inducted into the Dubai police force at the 4th Gulf Information Security Expo and Conference (GISEC) in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE) on May 21, 2017. The robot is around 5-foot tall and weighs a 100kg. It can not only identify hand gestures from a distance of up to 1.5 metres, but can also detect people’s emotions and facial expressions. The newly-recruit Robocop will be used for patrolling the city’s malls and tourist attractions. The people will be able to use it to report crimes, pay fines and get information by tapping a touchscreen on its chest. Apart from being able to chat with people, the robocop can also shake your hand and offer a millitary salute. At present it can communicate only in Arabic and English, but there are plans to add Russian, Chinese, French and Spanish to its repertoire.

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The Union Cabinet chaired by PM Narendra Modi has approved the allocation of 2.5% of Central Road Fund (CRF) for development and maintenance of National Waterways (NWs) by amending in the Central Road Fund Act (CRFA), 2000 will provide about Rs. 2000 crore per year to boost inland water transport. In addition to giving a boost to the economy, the policy is expected to provide employment in the Inland Waterways Transport sector as well. It is estimated that 1.8 lakh persons would be provided employment in the Inland Waterways Transport sector in the next 5 years. Jobs are expected to be created for operation, management of fairway, terminals, barges, training aids to navigation. Currently, there are five existing NWs and 106 new NWs. The Central Road Fund (CRF) is a duty on excise and customs levied on petrol and high-speed diesel.

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Lenin Moreno has recently taken office as new President of Ecuador, after defeating his conservative rival & ex-banker Guillermo Lasso, by 2.3% in April’s runoff vote. He served as Vice President from 2007 to 2013, serving under President Rafael Correa. Moreno is the first wheelchair-user to become Ecuador’s leader and one of few such leaders in the world ever to serve as president. His legs have been paralyzed since he was shot during a robbery in 1998. He went on to lead a task force on disability rights as vice-president in Correa’s government. That earned him a nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2012.

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The 28th edition of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit has started in Brussels, Belgium on May 24 and 25, 2017 in which terrorism will top the agenda of the meeting. It is expected that NATO is to join the US-led anti-Islamic State coalition(IS) to fight against Islamist terrorism. The 2018 NATO summit will held in Istanbul, Turkey.

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Olympic silver medallist P V Sindhu has been elected as the new member of Badminton World Federation (BWF) Athletes’ Commission after topped the ballot with 129 votes. With this, she became the second Indian after her compatriot Saina Nehwal to be inducted in the Commission. Apart from the Indian shuttler, Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland, Lithuania’s Akvile and Germany’s Marc Zwiebler were elected for a four-year term.

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The Union Government has recently launched online verification portal ‘e-Sanad’ to make the document verification process easier for students who are planning to study aboard. The portal is an initiative of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), in association with two other ministries — will initially be hosting school leaving certificates with the help of Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). In subsequent phases, the portal will also host documents from central universities.