National

Citizenship Certificates

• Union Home Secretary Shri Ajay Kumar Bhalla handed over citizenship certificates to some applicants in New Delhi.
• Centre granted the first batch of citizenship certificates to over 300 people under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

IndiaSkills 2024

• India’s biggest skill competition, IndiaSkills 2024, has started in New Delhi.
• The event aims to emphasize the significance of skill development in nation-building.

Bharat 6G 2024 Conference

• Electronics and IT Secretary, S. Krishnan addressed the Bharat 6G 2024 Conference in New Delhi.

India tops major APAC countries

• India tops major APAC countries with the highest data center capacity of around 950MW in the Asia-Pacific region (excluding China), overtaking major countries like Australia, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, Singapore, and Korea, according to CBRE South Asia Pvt. Ltd’s report titled ‘Asia Pacific Data Center Trends Q1 2024’.

National Green Hydrogen Mission

• Government is aiming to develop 600,000 skilled workers for National Green Hydrogen Mission by 2030, identified by Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship and MNRE.

International

India & Russia

• India and Russia held bilateral consultations on Afghanistan in New Delhi.

India & Eritrea

• The second round of Foreign Office Consultations between India and Eritrea was held in New Delhi.

India-UAE

• The 5th meeting of the India-UAE Joint Committee on Consular Affairs was held in New Delhi.

Arms Manufacturing Unit Sri Lanka

• Sri Lanka is in discussion with India to establish an arms manufacturing unit in the island nation.

India-Zimbabwe 

• India and Zimbabwe have agreed to explore cooperation in digital transformation solutions, tele-medicines, rough diamonds, fast payment systems and traditional medicine during the third session of India-Zimbabwe Joint Trade Committee held in New Delhi.

Japan and US

• Japan and the United States have signed a contract to jointly develop interceptors capable of shooting down hypersonic missiles by the 2030s.

Economy

Cross-Border UPI Payments

• An Indian digital payments and financial services portal PhonePe has been launched in Sri Lanka.

India’s total exports of Merchandise and Services

• India’s total exports of merchandise and services in April 2024 is estimated to be 64.56 billion dollars against 60.40 billion dollars in April 2023. The data shows a positive growth of 6.88 percent on a yearly basis.
• Merchandise exports grow by 1.08% at USD 34.99 Billion in April 2024 as compared to USD 34.62 Billion in April 2023.
• The merchandise trade deficit stood at $19.1 billion during April 2024, up from $14.44 billion during April 2023.

Unemployment rate

• Unemployment rate in urban areas for persons aged 15 and above has decreased to 6.7 per cent during the previous quarter January to March 2024.
• According to the Periodic Labour Force Survey quarterly bulletin (January to March 2024), the female unemployment rate decreased to 8.5 per cent.

Share of Coal in Power Generation Capacity

• India's share of coal in its total power generation capacity dropped below 50% in Q1 2024, marking the first time since the 1960s.
• Renewable energy accounted for 71.5 percent of the 13,669 MW power generation capacity added by India in Q1 2024.
• At the United Nations' COP28 climate change conference in December last year, world leaders reached a historic agreement to transition away from planet-warming fossil fuels and triple the global renewable energy capacity by 2030.

Windfall Profit Taxes

• Centre reduced windfall gains tax on domestically produced crude to Rs.5700 per tonne from Rs 8,400 per tonne, effective May 16, 2024.
• India first imposed windfall profit taxes on July 1, 2022, joining a host of nations that tax extraordinary profits of energy companies.

Defence

BHISHM Cube

• Indian Air Force has tested BHISHM Cube, a state-of the-art indigenous mobile hospital, for airdrop in Agra.
• This cube is a part of the broader initiative named Project BHISHM – Bharat Health Initiative for Sahyog, Hita and Maitri, is tailored to treat up to 200 casualties.

Army tank repair facilities

• Indian Army has established two high-altitude tank repair facilities in eastern Ladakh to bolster infrastructure and tank operations along the China border.
• One of the new tank repair facilities has been set up in the Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) sector while the other facility is in Nyoma.

Sports

Federation Cup

• In men’s javelin throw, Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra won the gold medal with throw of 82.27 metres in Federation Cup 2024 in Bhubaneswar.

HCL National Doubles Squash Championship

• Joshna Chinappa and Abhay Singh beat Rathika Suthanthira Seelan and Harinder Pal Singh Sandhu to become the mixed doubles champions in the HCL National doubles squash championship.

Billie Jean King Cup

• Indian team lost 1-2 to Australia in the last league match of the Asia-Oceania Junior Billie Jean King Cup girls under-18 tennis tournament in Shymkent, Kazakhstan.

Sign Language Commentary

• Disney Star has announced sign language commentary for India matches at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup.
• Disney Star has joined hands with India Signing Hands (ISH), a Mumbai-based broadcast company, to add Indian Sign Language (ISL) interpretation to its feed.
• There will be an audio descriptive feed for the visually impaired fans.

Person in News

Lawrence Wong

• Singapore’s deputy leader Lawrence Wong is set to be sworn in as the nation’s fourth Prime Minister.

Md. Golam Sarwar

• Secretary General of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Md. Golam Sarwar concluded his five day visit to India.

Vladimir Putin

• Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in China for a two-day official visit.

Robert Fico

• Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico is fighting for his life in hospital after being shot in a small town north-east of Bratislava.

Awards & Honours

Mastership of American College of Endocrinology

• Noted endocrinologist Dr Shashank Joshi has been awarded Mastership of American College of Endocrinology with Distinction.
• He is the first endocrinologist outside of the US to be awarded MACE with Distinction.

Miscellaneous

Bharat Pavilion at Cannes 2024

• Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Secretary Sanjay Jaju along with Ambassador of India to France and Monaco, Jawed Ashraf inaugurated the Bharat Pavilion at Cannes 2024 in France.
• The Bharat Pavilion has been designed by the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad and is christened on ‘The Sutradhara’ for depicting this year’s theme of ‘Create in India’.

AIIMS New Delhi signed MoU with University of Bolton

• AIIMS New Delhi has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with University of Bolton Institute of Medicine to collaborate in the field of medical research, innovation and education.