Notes:
India’s first-ever Blind Football Academy (BFA) with full time training & rehabilitation for the visually impaired persons is expected to come up at Kochi in Kerala. The Society for Rehabilitation of Visually Challenged (SRVC) and the Indian Blind Federation (IBFF) are making an effort to establish the academy. The purpose to set up BFA is to train and develop the best players to create a national team of world class standard and to qualify for the Paralympics by 2024.

Notes:
India will give Rs 35 crore to children of freedom fighters in Bangladesh during the next five years under the new ‘Muktijodha scholarship’ scheme. As per the scheme, all freedom fighters are eligible for five years multiple entry Indian visa and 100 of them will be provided free medical treatment in Indian hospitals every year. Apart from this, the students at higher secondary level will get a onetime grant of Taka 20,000 (Rs 15, 3700) and those at under graduate level will get Taka 50,000 (Rs 38,430). Students are selected on the basis of merit from every district for the scheme. India initiated the Muktijodha Scholarship Scheme in 2006 for descendants of the 1971 Freedom Fighters. Up to now, more than 10,000 scholarships worth Tk150 million have been disbursed.

Notes:
The Aymanam grama panchayat of ward No. 15 in Kerala has become the India’s first-ever digitised Panchayat ward. For this, Krishan Pal Gurjar (the Union minister of state for social justice and empowerment) has launched the website of the first digitalized panchayat ward number 15 of Aymanam grama panchayat “www.digitalaymanam.com” at a function held at a temple premises in Kottayam district. The website also contains information about blood donors’ forum and telephone directory of the people of the ward.

Notes:
The top-seeded Indo-American pair Leander Paes and Scott Lipsky has won the 2017 Tallahassee Challenger title of the men’s doubles by defeating Argentine third seeds Leonardo Mayer and Maximo Gonzalez by 4-6, 7-6, 10-7 in the summit clash in Florida. This is Paes’ 2nd Challenger level title of the season.

Notes:
Prakash Javadekar, the Union Human Resource Development Minister, has launched Students for soldiers- a nationwide “Vidya – Veerta Abhiyan” on May 2, 2017 to encourage Universities to display portraits of Param Veer Chakra (PVC)-decorated soldiers. The aim of this Abhiyan is to instill a sense of patriotism and nationalism among students. The initiative has been launched in the wake of demand by the ex-servicemen that portraits of martyrs and tanks used in wars should be put on display in the campus to instill sense of nationalism and patriotism among the students. The Param Veer Chakra (PVC) is the India’s highest military decoration awarded to officers or enlisted personnel from all branches of the Indian military for displaying distinguished acts of valour during wartime.

Notes:
Yusra Mardini, a Syrian woman who helped save a boat carrying fellow refugees, has been appointed a new Goodwill Ambassador for United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to work harder for people seeking shelter from war. She is the Syrian refugee & Olympic athlete and has been granted asylum in Germany.

Notes:
Rafael Nadal, a Spanish professional tennis player, has won the 2017 Men’s Singles Barcelona Open Tennis Tournament by defeating Dominic Thiem of Austria in the summit clash by 6-4, 6-1 in Barcelona, Spain. With this, Nadal has won the Barcelona Open singles title a record ten times. The tournament is part of the 500 series on the ATP World Tour and is played on clay courts at the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona.

Notes:
Soumyajit Ghosh, an Indian table tennis player from West Bengal, has won the 2017 ITTF Challenge Seamaster Chile Open men’s singles event by defeating compatriot Anthony Amalraj in the final at Santiago. This was his first ITTF Pro title and he became the third Indian to win an ITTF event. Apart from this, the Indian duo of Ghosh and Amalraj has also won the Men’s doubles title by defeating Philipp Floritz and Hunor Szocs 4-0 in the final.

Notes:
The Government of Japan is hosting the 50th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Board of Governors from May 4 to 7, 2017 in Yokohama, Tokyo. The theme of the meeting is ‘Building Together the Prosperity of Asia.’ The event will emphasis issues such as regional cooperation, trade, financial and economic connectivity across Asia and the Pacific, small and medium sized enterprises, sustainable and inclusive cities, and employment.

Notes:
T C A Anant, India’s Chief Statistician and MOSPI Secretary, will launch the new series of Index of Industrial Production (IIP) with a base year 2011-12 on May 9, 2017 with an aim to map economic activities more accurately. The new data is expected to provide a more realistic and reliable growth in production. Currently, the IIP is calculated on base year of 2004-05. The IIP gives a broad outlook on output of various types of goods like basic, consumer and capital ones, which helps in gauging the level of economic progress and investments in the economy. The other leading indicators – Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Gross Value Addition (GVA) and Consumer Price Index (CPI) are already on the base year of 2011-12. The Wholesale price index (WPI) is also in process to be shifted to the new base year.