Notes:
The Union Government has launched a new countrywide campaign “Darwaza Band” in Mumbai on May 30, 2017 for promotion of toilet usage in the rural areas across the country. The campaign has been supported by the World Bank and will lead by iconic star Amitabh Bachchan. The toilet usage campaign is designed to encourage behaviour change in men who have toilets but are not using them. The campaign also features actor, Anushka Sharma, who will be seen encouraging women to stand up for this issue in their villages and assume a leadership role.

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The first-ever women television channel “Zan TV (or Women’s TV)” has started in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 30, 2017 with a staff of all female presenters and producers. The purpose of the women TV channel is to highlight the rights of Afghan women, improve their status and ensure their equity with men in the conservative society. It is being seen as a groundbreaking step for women’s rights, in a male dominated country which is struggling for peace. Media entrepreneur Hamid Samar is the founder of Zan TV.

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Sebastian Vettel, a German racing driver for Scuderia Ferrari, has won the 2017 Formula One Monaco Grand Prix World Championship at Circuit de Monaco La Condamine and Monte Carlo in Monaco.

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The bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra will be honoured with the Dadasaheb Phalke Academy Award under the newly introduced “Internationally Acclaimed Actress” category for being an international icon. The award ceremony will be held on June 1, 2017 in Mumbai. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award is India’s highest award in cinema and it was instituted in 1969.

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Dr Najma Heptulla, the Governor of Manipur and former Minority Affairs Minister, has been appointed as the new Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi for five-years. She succeeded Lt. Gen. (Retd.) M.A. Zaki. Dr. Heptulla is the grand-niece of India’s first education minister, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. She has been a 5-time member of the Rajya Sabha between 1986 and 2012 and deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha for 16 years. She has had the distinction of presiding over the women’s parliamentarians’ group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) in 1993.

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Love Raj Singh Dharmshaktu, a Padma Shri awardee, has become the first Indian mountaineer to conquer the world’s highest peak Mount Everest for a record sixth time on May 27, 2017. He works as an assistant commandant with the Border Security Force (BSF) in Dehradun. He first summited Everest in 1998 and followed it with up with successive ascents in 2006, 2009, 2012 and 2013. He hails from Bona village of Munsiyari in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand.

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The Manipur government has recently declared Dailong village of Tamenglong district as a Biodiversity Heritage Site of the state under Section 37(1) of Biological Diversity Act, 2002. The village covers an area of 11.35 sq km & has population of 1634 of which 819 are males while 815 are females as per Population Census 2011.

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India’s largest public broadcasting agency, Prasar Bharati has signed an MoU with Societe Nationale de Radiodiffusion et de Television (SNRT) at the 5th India Morocco Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) in Rabat, Morocco’s to step up cooperation in the broadcasting sector. The SNRT is the public broadcaster of Morocco and is a member of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

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The International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers is observed every year on May 29 to honor the memory of martyred peacekeepers and pay tribute to all those who have served and continue to serve in UN peacekeeping operations for their high level of professionalism, dedication and courage. The 2017 theme is “Investing in peace around the world”. On this day, in 2017, two Indian peacekeepers, Rifleman Brijesh Thapa and Private Ravi Kumar have been honored posthumously with a prestigious United Nation (UN)’s Dag Hammarskjold Medal for their courage and sacrifice in the line of duty. Currently, India has deployed more than 7,600 military and police personnel to UN peace operations in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Lebanon, Liberia, the Middle East, South Sudan, Sudan and the Western Sahara.

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Swedish film “The Square”, directed by Ruben Oustland, has won the Palme d’Or at the 70th edition of Cannes film festival-2017 in Cannes, France. The movie is about a museum director who is desperate to make a success of his gallery and stages a new installation called “The Square” to promote it. The Palme d’Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival.