Current Affairs May, 2017

British actor Roger Moore, who played the much famed secret agent James Bond, has passed away at the age of 89. Roger Moore has acted as James Bond in seven films for 12 years between 1973 and 1985.

Airlander 10, the world’s largest aircraft has successfully completed a test flight by flying for a total of 180 minutes in Cardington, UK. During the test flight, the aircraft’s’ handling and improved landing technology were tested thus bringing it a step closer to commercial use.

IIT Kharagpur’s Rekhi Centre of Excellence for the Science of Happiness and Madhya Pradesh government’s ‘Rajya Anandam Sansthan’ (Department of Happiness) has signed an MoU to collaborate on the development of a Happiness Index for measuring the well-being of the residents of the state.

The tiny island of Nauru which is the world’s smallest republic has become the sixth country to ratify the International Solar Alliance (ISA) Framework pact.

IAS officer Haulianlal Guite has recently published a philosophical novel for God titled "Confessions of a dying mind: the blind faith of atheism".

Paytm has rolled out its Payments Bank operations by launching its first physical branch in Noida. With this launch, there are three payments bank operational in the country, the other two being Airtel Payments Bank Ltd and India Post Payments Bank Ltd.

• NASA Names New Species After Abdul Kalam
• Federation Cup and Other Football Tournaments & Leagues in India
• RBI to Reconstitute Oversight Committee to Tackle Bad Loans

The Reserve Bank of India is set to reconstitute Oversight Committee to operationalise the banking ordinance, which was recently cleared by the Union Cabinet to amend the Banking Regulation Act for the sake of giving more powers to Reserve Bank of India for effectively dealing with non-performing assets (NPAs) in the banking sector.

A seven-member High-Level Committee on Scouts and Guides has submitted its Final Report to Minister for State (Independent Charge) for Youth Affairs & Sports, Vijay Goel with various recommendations.

The State Government of Madhya Pradesh has put an indefinite ban on the sand excavation in the Narmada River.

NASA has named a new bacteria discovered on the filters of the International Space Station, ISS, as Solibacillus kalamii to honour the late president Dr A P J Abdul Kalam.

The 52nd Annual General Meeting of African Development Bank (AfDB) is being held at Gandhinagar in Gujarat from May 22-26, 2017. This is for the first time that this meeting is being held in India.