1) F45 India appoints ex-cricketer Brett Lee as brand ambassador.

• A master franchise of Australia based functional training system for fitness; F45 India has announced the appointment of former Australian cricketer Brett Lee as brand ambassador for the country.
• The Director of F45 India, Mr. Pradeep Palli stated that the company is also planning to open as many as 300 outlets under the franchise model.
• Presently the fitness company is having their headquarter in Jubilee Hilss, Hyderabad and planning to explore the country by the end of this year. F45 is the most innovative, challenging and systematized team training workout in the world.

• Nikesh Arora, the Indian-born president of SoftBank Group, received a salary package of $73 million or Rs. 500 crore in 2015-16.
• He is one of the top paid executives in the world for the second straight year.
• As per the report, Arora`s pay package stood in the same bracket as those of Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and Walt Disney Co.’s Bob Iger.
• Patrick Soon-Shiong is currently the highest-paid CEO, with compensation valued at $329.7 million at NantKwest Inc., a cancer-research company.
• Among non-CEOs in the U.S., only Blackstone Group LP President Hamilton Evans James had a bigger pay package than Arora.

3) Sunil Bharti Mittal Receives 2016’s Harvard Alumni Award.

• Bharti Enterprises founder and Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal was bestowed with 2016 Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award.
• Sunil Mittal is Indian telecom tycoon, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman and Group CEO of Bharti Enterprises, which has interests in telecom, financial services, and retail and agri business.
• The Group flagship Bharti Airtel, with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa and has customer base of over 275 million. It is India’s largest telecom company and world’s third largest mobile operator.
• He is listed as the eight richest people in India by Forbes with a Net worth of 7 billion dollars. In 2007, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honour.

• According to regulatory filings, Wipro CEO Abidali Neemuchwala received Rs. 12 crore in salary for the year ended March 2016, his first year at the company.
• T.K. Kurien, Wipro’s last CEO and current Executive Vice Chairman, earned Rs. 14 crore.
• Wipro rivals TCS and Infosys CEOs N. Chandrasekaran and Vishal Sikka received Rs. 25 crore and Rs. 49 crore in salaries respectively.

5) Sachin launches his clothing brand `True Blue`.

• Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar launched his premium menswear and accessories brand, and film star Riteish Deshmukh walked the ramp for it.
• Sachin has launched True Blue in association with Arvind Fashion Brands.
• They also announced the launch of a store in Mumbai and plan to open 25-30 stores and aim to get a turnover of Rs. 200 crores in the next five years.

• Rodrigo Digong Duterte was officially declared to be the president-elect by the parliament of Philippine.
• He won a landslide victory in the presidential election taking about six million votes more than his competitor.
• The joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate also proclaimed Maria Leonor Leni Robredo as vice-president.
• They both will assume the charge on 30 June 2016 and serve a single six-year term.

• Pakistan-born Bollywood singer and actress Salma Agha will get an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card that will offer her multiple entries, multi-purpose lifelong visa to visit India and exemption from reporting to police.
• As the Home Ministry took the decision to grant her OCI card, Agha met Home Minister Rajnath Singh, apparently to express her gratitude for the gesture.
• Agha had applied for the OCI card and her application was approved after taking into consideration various aspects.

• Bollywood Actor R Madhavan has become the goodwill ambassador of LEPRA India organization that fight against diseases like leprosy and tuberculosis.
• LEPRA India is a non-government organisation working in the fields of leprosy, tuberculosis, malaria, HIV or AIDS and community health.
• It is also known as the Lepra Society.
• Lepra Society was registered in Hyderabad in 1989 and becomes Lepra India Trust in New Delhi in 1996.
• Presently, Lepra Society is working in 54 districts of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh and since its inception has cured 3.6 lakh persons affected by leprosy and treated 67,000 patients with disabilities.

• Singapore Embattled commodity trader Noble Group announced the resignation of CEO Yusuf Alireza and planned to sell a U.S. unit to bolster its balance sheet as it seeks to regain investor confidence.
• Alireza, a former Goldman Sachs banker had drive Asia`s biggest commodity trader to sell assets, cut business lines and take big write-downs as it battled weak commodity markets and the fallout from an accounting dispute.
• Noble came under the spotlight when it was accused by Iceberg Research of overstating its assets by billions of dollars, claims which Noble rejected.

1) `Lady Singham` Manzil Saini becomes first woman SSP of Lucknow.

• Uttar Pradesh government, appointed Manzil Saini as the new Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) of state capital Lucknow. Saini has replaced Rajesh Pandey who has been attached to the DGP office.
• Popularly known as `Lady Singham` in her work circles, Saini cracked the Civil Services examinations to become the country`s first married woman IPS officer.
• A 2005 batch officer, Saini is the first woman officer in the history of the state to take charge of Lucknow.
• The police officer was earlier posted in Badayun, Muzaffarnagar and Mathura.
• She launched a crackdown against unauthorized usage of party flags by Samajwadi Party workers in four-wheelers and also penalizing them for bearing tinted windows during her tenure as an SSP in Etawah.

• Yoga guru and businessman Baba Ramdev and Amit Agarwal, the head of Amazon India, have been named in a list of most creative business people by American magazine Fast Company.
• Ramdev was ranked 27th in the magazine’s 2016 list of ‘Most Creative People in Business’, while Agarwal was ranked 10th.
• The magazine named Lin-Manuel Miranda, writer of the rap-musical Hamilton as the most creative person in business.
• Miranda was followed by Divya Nag, who heads Apple’s ResearchKit team and American comedian and writer, Jill Soloway. Others in the list include fourth-ranked Jean Liu, president of Didi Kuaidi and Valentino co-creative director Marla Grazla Chlurl.

3) Nirankari mission gets its first woman chief: Savinder Kaur.

• After the death of spiritual leader Baba Hardev Singh, his wife Sawinder Kaur has been named the next spiritual head of the Sant Nirankari Mission.
• Mataji, fondly called by followers, will be the first woman spiritual head and the fifth in line to the sect that was founded in 1929 and has over 10 million followers.
• An alumnus of Convent of Jesus and Mary School Mussoorie, Sawinder Kaur is originally from Farooqabad in Uttar Pradesh.
• She married Hardev Singh in 1975 and since then had been accompanying her husband to every congregation home, getting equal respect and love from their followers.
• An official announcement was made in New Delhi by Rev HS Upashak in the presence of thousands of devotees of the Mission.

• Tsai Ing-wen has sworn-in as the first female and 14th President of Taiwan in front of national flag. She succeeds outgoing President Ma Ying-jeou.
• She is the leader of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) which favours independence from China.
• Earlier, Tsai led the DPP had won the Parliamentary and Presidential elections.
• Ms. Tsai’s victory was the biggest mandate ever won by a DPP President and is only the second-ever victory for the DPP since Taiwan split with China in 1949.
• The first was Chen Shui-bian who also was pro-independence (from China) advocate. During his time as President between 2000 and 2008 tensions had escalated with China.

• Lhakpa Sherpa,US-based Nepali climbed Mount Everest for the seventh time , breaking her own record for the most summits of the world’s highest mountain by any woman.
• Sherpa was accompanied to the top by a Nepalese guide. After her, eight members of a Russian team and eight guides climbed the same northern route.
• She works in a 7-Eleven shop in Connecticut in the US.
• Two Sherpa climbers share between them the record of 21 ascents of Everest, the most number of climbs by men.

• The petroleum exploration arm of London-listed Vedanta Resources Cairn India’s managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) Mayank Ashar has resigned from his post.
• He will be replaced by the company’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Sudhir Mathur as the interim CEO.

1. Cairn India is an oil and gas exploration and production company, headquartered in Gurgaon, India.
2. It is a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources.
3. It was founded in 2007.

7) Nepal confers literary award on Sikkim CM Pawan Chamling.

• Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Chamling was conferred with the Yug Kavi Siddhicharan Award, one of the Nepal’s prestigious literary award.
• The award was bestowed upon him by Nepal Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli for his commendable contributions in promoting Nepali literature in India.
• The award ceremony was organised by Siddhicharan Shrestha Academy on the occasion of 105th birth anniversary of the late poet Shrestha. Yug Kavi Siddhicharan Award carries a certificate of appreciation and a sum of 100,000 Nepali Rupees.
• Pawan Chamling is an author of many books in Nepali, English and Hindi. He is also a publisher. He has been awarded twice by the Sikkim Sahitya Parishad for the best poem Chintan Puraskar in 1987 and Bhanu Puraskar in 2010.
• His other works in Nepali include Prarambhik Kavita (1978), Antyaheen Sapana: Mero Bipana (1985), Ma Ko Hoon! (1992) and Sikkim ra Nariko Maryada.

• FIFA acting Secretary General Markus Kattner was dismissed from his position with immediate effect.
• He was removed after FIFA’s internal investigation uncovered breaches of his fiduciary responsibilities in connection with his employment contract. He was accused of paying himself bonuses worth millions of pounds.
• The German took over as acting General Secretary after Jerome Valcke was sacked for irregularities.
• Kattner joined FIFA in 2003 as Director of Finance, becoming Deputy Secretary General in 2007. His salary and bonuses were part of a contract that was unseen by relevant FIFA committees.

• Britain has granted political refugee status to ousted former President of Maldives Mohamed Nasheed. His lawyer Hasan Latheef claimed that Nasheed had been granted political refugee status but the British government is yet to comment.
• Maldives` first democratically elected president, Nasheed had been allowed to go to Britain in January for spinal cord surgery following a deal brokered by Sri Lanka, India and the UK.
• Nasheed became Maldives` first democratically elected leader in 2008 but was toppled in a coup backed by the military and police. He was jailed for 13 years on terrorism charges after allegedly illegally ordering the arrest of a judge in a trial that put a spotlight on instability in the Maldives.

1) Indian scientist Manvendra K. Singh bags SGD 3 million grant from Singapore`s NRF.

• Dr. Manvendra K. Singh, a scientist from Uttar Pradesh`s Gorakhpur city, was awarded a grant of SGD 3 million (about 14.7 crore rupees) by Singapore’s National Research Foundation (NRF).
• Dr. Singh’s name was announced that he is among the seven young scientists from across the world to be endowed with the Singapore NRF fellowship.
  
• The scientist has been awarded the fellowship to pursue research in the field of congenital and adult cardiovascular diseases.
  

About Manvendra K. Singh:

1. He works as an assistant professor in the cardiovascular and metabolic disorders programme at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore.
2. He is also an adjunct assistant professor at National Heart Research Institute Singapore and Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of Pennsylvania, USA.
   
3. He obtained his masters degree in Biotechnology from Madurai Kamaraj University.
   
4. After completing his masters, he joined MD/ Ph.D program in Molecular Medicine at Hannover Medical School, Germany.
   

2) Shashank Manohar resigns as BCCI president.

• Shashank Vyankatesh Manohar resigned as the President of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
• He also stepped down as the BCCI representative in the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Asian Cricket Council (ACC).
  
• He had succeeded Jagmohan Dalmiya as the cricket body’s president after the former’s demise in October 2015.
  
• It was Manohar’s second stint as the president of the BCCI. Earlier, he served as the president of the cricketing body from 25 September 2008 to 19 September 2011.
  
• He is holding the office of the president of the Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) who is one of the three full members in the state of Maharashtra.
  
• He is also referred to as Mr. Clean and is also known for his spotless track record and integrity in cricketing circles.
  
• 
  

3) Bangladesh executes Jamaat chief Nizami for war crimes.

• Bangladesh executed Islamist party Chief Motiur Rahman Nizami for convicted criminal during the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
• The Jamaat leader was hanged at Dhaka Central jail, after the Supreme Court rejected his final plea against a death sentence imposed by a special tribunal for genocide, rape and arranging the massacre of top intellectuals during the war.
  
• He became the fourth Jamaat leader and the fifth person hanged after being convicted of war crimes by one of the two International Crimes Tribunals.
  
• The war crimes tribunal set up by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2010 has erupted violence and drawn criticism from opposition politicians, including leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami.
  

4) Shashank Manohar elected unopposed as ICC`s first independent chairman.

• Veteran cricket administrator Shashank Manohar was elected unopposed as ICC’s (International Cricket Council) first independent Chairman.
• He was the sole nominee for the position and the ICC Board has unanimously supported his appointment. He will have tenure of two years.
• He was elected to the post after the ICC Full Council’s approval of constitutional amendments proposed by the Board following its April 2016 meeting.
• In order to comply with provisions of ICC rules, Shashank Manohar had resigned from the post of BCCI president.

About Shashank Manohar:

1. Shashank Manohar by profession is a prominent lawyer.
2. He had twice served as the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), from 2008 to 2011 and from November 2015 to May 2016.
3. As a cricket administrator he is known for his impeccable clean image and track record & integrity in cricketing circles.

5) A.R. Rahman named Goodwill Ambassador for Olympics.

• Renowned Music composer A.R. Rahman has accepted the Indian Olympic Association`s offer to become the Goodwill Ambassador for Rio Olympics.
• Rahman is India`s fourth Goodwill Ambassador after Bollywood actor Salman Khan, Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra and cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar.
• Notably, this time, India is to send its largest ever contingent of about 90 athletes to the Rio Olympics starting August 5.

6) Brazil new interim President Michel Temer calls for trust in values for Brazil`s recover.

• Brazil new interim President Michel Temer has addressed the nation after the Senate voted to back the impeachment trial of Dilma Rousseff.
• He has named a business friendly cabinet that includes respected former central bank chief Henrique Meirelles as Finance Minster.
  
• Mr. Temer, has now taken over as President for up to 180 days, the maximum time allowed for the impeachment trial of Ms Rousseff.
  
• Earlier Brazil`s president Dilma Rousseff was suspended for at least six months after the country`s Senate voted 55-22 to impeach and put her on trial.
  
• The Senate`s upper house will try Rousseff for allegedly manipulating the government`s accounts ahead of the last election.
  
• The judges will reportedly be Senators, many of whom are accused of more serious crimes.
  

7) ASI core committee chairman G.C. Mitra resigns from his post.

• Archeological Survey of India (ASI) technical core committee chairman G.C. Mitra, who is looking after the repair work of Jagamohan, the chamber facing the sanctum sanctorum of Sri Jagannath Temple in Puri, resigned from his post.
• Mitra has sent his resignation letter to ASI DG and the superintendent.
  
• It is believed he might have taken the decision after ASI rejected the estimation and the repair plan of Jagamohana at Srimandir prepared by the core committee.
  

Archaeological Survey of India:

Inception: 1861
Headquarters: New Delhi.

1) Australian Craig Wright claims to be Bitcoin creator.

• Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright has reportedly confirmed that he created digital payment system bitcoins and provided technical proof for his claims.
• The creator of bitcoin had earlier developed it under the pseudonym `Satoshi Nakamoto`.
  
• Bitcoins is a virtual currency system in which users exchange bitcoins for transactions and `mine` bitcoins by sharing their computing power.
  

About Craig Steven Wright:

1. Craig Steven Wright (born October 1970) is an Australian computer scientist and businessman.
2. He completed 18 SANS Institute courses and was the world`s first person to receive GIAC certification in Compliance and Audits and was a SANS Institute Mentor.
   
3. He is the founder of the cybersecurity and computer forensics company Panopticrypt Pty Ltd.
   

2) Rohit Sharma signs as Brand Ambassador for Hublot watches.

• Indian opener Rohit Sharma became the `Brand Ambassador` of world famous watch brand Hublot.
• He is the second renowned cricketer after former Australian captain Michael Clarke to be associated with the brand.
  
• Rohit Sharma would be seen promoting the company`s signature `Classic Fusion Aerofusion Chronograph` edition.
  

Rohit Sharma:

1. Rohit Gurunath Sharma is an Indian cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and an occasional right-arm off break bowler who plays for Mumbai in domestic cricket. He is the captain of the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League.
2. Rohit Sharma is the highest individual ODI scorer with 264 runs against Sri Lanka at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata. He also the only player to hit two double hundreds in ODI cricket match.
   
3. Sharma received the Arjuna Award, which is presented every year by the Government of India to recognize outstanding achievements in national sports in India.
   

3) Sachin Tendulkar to be India`s goodwill ambassador at Rio Olympics.

• Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar to be the India`s Olympic goodwill ambassador for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
• He alongwith actor Salman Khan and Shooter Abhinav Bindra are also to be the India`s Olympic goodwill ambassador for Rio Olympics.
  
• A.R. Rahman was also approached by Indian Olympic Association to become goodwill ambassadors of Indian contingent for 2016 Rio Olympics.
  
• This comes after superstar Salman Khan`s appointment as goodwill ambassador created furore, with top athletes like Milkha Singh and Yogeshwar Dutt criticizing the move.
  

4) SC Collegium recommended transfer of Uttarakhand Chief Justice to Andhra Pradesh.

• The Supreme Court (SC) Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India TS Thakur, recommended transfer of Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice KM Joseph to Andhra Pradesh High Court.
• K.M. Joseph was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court by President in July 2014. He was elevated to the post of Chief Justice on recommendation of then CJI Rajendra Mal Lodha.
  
• This is the first set of recommendations made by the SC Collegium for appointment as judges of the apex court after the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act was struck down by a Supreme Court bench on 16 October 2015.
  

About Justice K.M. Joseph:

1. He passed out of the Government Law College in Ernakulam. His father KK Mathew was a judge of the Supreme Court of India.
2. He enrolled himself as an advocate in Delhi in 1982.
   
3. In 1983, he shifted his practice to High Court of Kerala, Ernakulam.
   
4. He had served as a Judge of Kerala High Court for more than 9 years.
   

5) UN selects Mexican diplomat Patricia Espinosa as next chief of its climate change body.

• UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has selected Mexico`s ambassador to Germany, Patricia Espinosa, as the executive secretary of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change).
• She will replace the incumbent Christiana Figueres when her term ends in July.
  
• She will play an important role in implementing the Paris Agreement on climate change that was approved by 195 countries in Paris, France.
  
• Earlier she had served as Mexico’s representative at the UN in New York for drug traffic, human rights, women promotion, social development and children’s rights.
  

6) Rohit Sharma unveils India’s first sports expo.

• Cricketer Rohit Sharma inaugurated the Pune International Sports Expo at the Agriculture College Ground. Shooter Gagan Narang was also present on the ceremony.
• It is the first sports expo being held in the country organised by city-based Steps Sports Entertainment Private Limited and will be open for public till May 8.
  
• It is organised to showcase various products and modern technologies for fitness and sports by Indian as well as multinational brands.
  
• The events will also see Zaheer Khan, Dhanraj Pillai, Sunil Chettri, Prarthana Thombe and Milkha Singh on the dais.
  
• A special event of ‘Bokwa Sessions’ has been organised by fitness expert Paul Mavi, and will have six sessions of ‘Bokwa’ every day throughout the expo.
  

7) Sadiq Khan becomes first Muslim mayor of London.

• Sadiq Khan,was declared the new mayor of London becoming the most powerful Muslim politician in Europe.
• A transport minister in the Labour government of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Khan came under severe attack during the campaign from his Conservative opponent, Zac Goldsmith, for sharing platforms with extremists during his earlier career as a human rights lawyer.
  
• Khan emerged victorious in the 2016 mayoral elections after defeating Conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Zac Goldsmith by 1310143 votes to 994614.
  
• Khan succeeds Conservative Party Mayor Boris Johnson.
  

About Sadiq Khan:

1. Sadiq Aman Khan is a British politician. A member of the Labour Party, he is situated on the party`s soft left and has been ideologically characterised as a social democrat.
2. Born in London to a working-class British Pakistani family, he gained a degree in Law from the University of North London.
   
3. He subsequently worked as a solicitor specialising in human rights. He chaired Liberty for three years.
   
4. Before being sworn in as the Mayor of London, he previously served as MP for Tooting.
   
5. He was a Councillor for the London Borough of Wandsworth from 1994 to 2006 before being elected MP for Tooting in 2005.
   
6. Under the Labour government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Kahn was appointed Minister of State for Communities in 2008. He later became Minister of State for Transport.
   

8) Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s powerful oil minister.

• Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s powerful oil minister, was removed from his post. He is replaced by Khalid-al Falih, the chairman of the country’s state oil company, Saudi Aramco.
• Al-Naimi gained global respect for turning the biggest oil cartel in the world, known as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), into a respectable organization.
  
• He was known to some as the Alan Greenspan of the oil world.
  
• Al-Naimi had reportedly led the organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decision in 2014 to not restrain oil production amid global oversupply.