Army Inducts Surface to Air Missile Akaash

Neel Mukherjee Honoured with Encore Award, 2014

Neel Mukherjee has been honoured with the 2014 Encore Award, carrying prize worth £ 10,000 for his book The Lives of Others which is based on the life in Kolkata in the 1960s when Naxalite violence was at its peak. Neel Mukherjee's second novel The Lives of Others beat the second novels of Will Wiles, Deborah Kay Davies and Amanda Coe to win the coveted literary honour which is given to a writer for his second novel. Alex Clark was the chair of the Encore Award jury.

A Life Apart was the first novel of Mukherjee published in 2010. The Lives of Others was shortlisted for the 2014 Man Booker Prize

CEAT Cricket Awards 2014-15

India's promising batsman Ajinkya Rahane was honoured with the CEAT Indian Cricketer of the Year Award for the 2014-15 by former Indian cricket team captain Sunil Gavaskar on May 25, 2015 at a function in Mumbai. Legendary Sri Lankan batsman Kumar Sangakkara was presented the CEAT International Cricketer of the Year honour. Sanath Jayasuriya (1997-98), Muttiah Muralitharan (2000-01, 2001-02, 2006-07) and Mahela Jayawardene (2007-08) are the other Sri Lankan cricketers who have won this award.

Former India skipper Nari Contractor presented the CEAT Domestic Cricketer of the Year Award to Ranji Trophy Champion Karnataka's Captain Vinay Kumar. Sunil Gavaskar, one of the three founding members of the CEAT Cricket Rating awards alongwith Ian Chappel (Australia) and Clive Lloyd (West Indies), was in attendance at the award ceremony and also witnessed his world cup winning team captain Kapil Dev receive the CEAT Lifetime Achievement Award for his immense contribution to the game

Indian-American Kids Win 88th Scripps National Spelling Bee Crown

Two Indian-American students, Vanya Shivashankar of Olathe, Kansas and Gokul Venkatachalam of Chesterfield, Missouri were declared co-champions of the 2015 Scripps National Spelling Bee Compe-tition on May 28, 2015 as the domi-nance of the Indian-American students on the prestigious spelling competition of USA continued for the eighth consecutive year.

Only President, PM & CJI Pictures in Govt. Ads : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on May 13, 2015 restrained the Centre and State governments from publishing pictures of ministers, Chief Ministers and Presidents of ruling political parties in government advertisements. The apex court ruled that only the pictures of the President, the PM and the Chief Justice of India would be published in government advertisements

CURIOS

Tunisians Unfurl World's Largest Flag

Tunisians have unfurled a national flag the size of 19 football pitches in a bid to set a Guiness world record and promote patriotism in the face of Islamic extremism. Hundreds of people turned out for the event at Ong Jmel in the southern desert on May 2, 2015. An honour guard of troops saluted the red and white banner as it was unfurled on the sand to the strains of the national anthem. Organizers said that-it took 80 kilometers (50 miles) of fabric, to make the 104, 544 square metre (1,125,302 square foot) flag which weighed in at 12-6 tonnes

HEALTH

World Health Organizations Declares Liberia Ebola-Free

The UN health agency on May 9, 2015 declared Liberia ebola-free, hailing the 'monumental' achievement in the West African country where the virus has killed more than 4,700 people. "The outbreak of ebola virus disease in Liberia is over," the World Health Organization said in a statement, adding that 42 days had passed since the last confirmed case was buried

WILD LIFE

Gujarat's Asiatic Lion Population up by 27%

The population of Asiatic lions in Gujarat's Gir forest has gone up to 523, registering a growth of 27% in the latest counting conducted by the state forest department, the Chief Minister announced on May 10, 2015.

"We have registered a robust growth in lion population, which was 411 in 2010 and now reached 523, which means growth of 27 per cent

According to latest figure, 109 lions, 201 lionesses and 213 cubs were counted

In the World of Press Freedom, India Scrapes Bottom

As the United Nations observed World Press Freedom on May 3, 2015, an assessment of the state of press freedom across the world placed India in the 136th spot among 180 countries worldwide

The Scandinavian countries—Finland, Norway and Denmark topped the list. China, Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia were placed at the end of the list with many Asian African countries where press freedom is dwindling.

India's ranking on the World Press Freedom Index has not improved over the years. It has always scored a three-digit ranking since inception

Twenty one journalists were killed this year. France tops the list because of the killing of eight journalists from Charlie Hebodo in a terror attack

While Iraq tops the list with 166 journalists killings, India is at 9th position with 34 deaths.

India Ranks 100th on Human Capital Index

[Finland Tops list of 124 countries]

India has been ranked at a lowly 100th position on the Global Human Capital Index, which measures countries on development and deployment of human capital. Finland has topped the 124 nation list

SPACE

NASA Spacecraft Crashes into Mercury, Ends Mission

NASA's Messenger spacecraft has crashed into the surface of Mercury, ending its historic 11-year mission that provided valuable data and thousands of images of the planet

Messenger was launched on August 3, 2004, and it began orbiting Mercury on March 18, 2011. The spacecraft completed its primary science objectives by March 2012

In April, 2015 during a final short extension of the mission referred to as XM2-the team embarked on a hover campaign that allowed the spacecraft at its closest approach to operate within a narrow band of altitudes, 5-35 kilometres above the planet's surface

On April 28, the team successfully executed the last of seven orbit-correction manoeuvres, which kept Messenger aloft for the additional month, sufficiently long enough for the spacecraft's instruments to collect critical information that could shed light on Mercury's crustal magnetic anomalies and ice-filled polar craters, among other features.

With no way to increase its altitude, Messenger was finally unable to resist the perturbations to its orbit by the Sun's gravitational pull, and it slammed into Mercury's surface at around 8,750 miles per hour, creating a new crater up to 52 feet wide