1.Andhra Pradesh Vijayawada Airport becomes International Airpor.

Unified Andhra Pradesh`s international airport in Hyderabad was transferred to Telangana after bifucration.

The union cabinet on 04-05-2017 has announced that international status for Vijayawada airport in Andhra Pradesh. This is as per provisions of Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, Union minister Arun Jaitley said at a media briefing.

The act bifurcated the state into Telangana and residual Andhra Pradesh. As a result, the capital Hyderabad as well as the states lone international airport situated in the city were transferred to the new state of Telangana.

The decision is in keeping with "passenger traffic growth and demands from airlines and Andhra Pradesh government," an official statement said.

The government hopes that the international tag for the airport at Gannavaram near Vijayawada will help improve connectivity to Andhra Pradesh and attract more domestic and international tourists.

"Airports Authority of India has undertaken upgrade of requisite infrastructure  and facilities for international operations," the statement added. Earlier this year, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu inaugurated the new transit terminal building at the airport.

 1. Indian Scientist Shrinivas Kulkarni Wins Prestigious Dan David Prize.

Indian scientist Shrinivas Kulkarni has won the prestigious Dan David prize as a recognition for his contributions made in the field of astronomy. 

Shrinivas Kulkarni, a professor of astrophysics and planetary science at California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, is a pioneer in the field of time-domain astrophysics. 

He has been credited for building and conducting the Palomar Transient Factory, which is a large-area survey of the night sky that has turned up with thousands of stellar explosions. 

Shrinivas kulkarni would share the award with Andrej Udalski of the University of Warsaw and Neil Gehrels of NASA for their discoveries on time-domain astrophysics in the “Future” category of the prize. 

With this award, Shrinivas Kulkarni will join other prominent Indians who have won the Dan David prize like noted author Amitav Ghosh, music conductor Zubin Mehta and renowned chemist CNR Rao.

1. Hollywood Actor Emma Watson bags first ever ‘genderless’ award.

Hollywood actor Emma Watson picked up the first-ever Genderless Acting Award for the Best Actor category at the MTV Movie and TV Awards.

The 27-year-old actress made history at the annual event held at the Shrine Auditorium here on Sunday, reports mirror.co.uk.

After collecting her award for Best Actor in a Movie, she praised MTV for making their awards genderless. She said, “I feel I have to say something about the award itself. The first acting award in history that doesn’t separate nominees based on their sex says something about how we perceive the human experience.”

 1. Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu selected for USIBC Award.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has been selected for the Transformative Chief Minister Award in recognition for his role in advancing the US-India partnership at the state level.

The award by the US-India Business Council would be presented to Naidu during the USIBC West Coast Summit in the Silicon Valley on May 8, a statement said.

The summit will convene 150 industry leaders from sectors such as information technology, banking, food processing, healthcare, clean energy, digital payments, manufacturing and Government of India officials to explore the impacts of manufacturing in India, digitisation, India`s move towards a cashless society and the future of the US-India trade relations, USIBC said.

Participants will discuss key issues such as how Internet of Things (IoTs), smart city planning, and manufacturing issues are shaping the future of the US-India technology partnership, it said.

Led by USIBC chairman and Cisco Executive Chairman, John Chambers, the summit among others will feature Union Cabinet Minister for Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT Aruna Sundararajan.

 1. Scientists at IIT Kharagpur Develop New Technology to Manufacture Biofuel.

The new technology makes use of natural resources to extract gaseous and liquid biofuel and then converts the wastes into bio fertilizer. At present 2gm of bioethanol can be manufactured from various naturally available ligno-cellulosic components.

However, this process requires chemical treatment that results in polluting the environment. Lignocellulose refers to biomass. The new technology has replaced this chemical treatment with enzymes which degrade the lignin thereby making the manufacturing process totally pollution free. 

Lignins are complex organic polymer deposited in the cell walls of  plants. In this process, the residual biomass can be used as organic fertilizer. 

The Project is funded  by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Department of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Human Resource Development.  

The scientists used corn, sugarcane plants, the waste part of paddy straw, bamboo, banana plant, pineapple and cotton plants, kans grass (kassh phool), castor plant etc to produce biofuel.

2. PM Narendra Modi to lay foundation stone for Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project in September.

The construction of India`s first bullet train project between Mumbai to Ahmedabad will begin from September this year.

Prime minister Narendra Modi and Japan`s prime minister Shinzo Abe will together lay the foundation stone for the project during the latter`s visit to India in September, the report said quoting Railway Board member traffic Mohd Jamshed, as saying. 

Speaking at the summit in New Delhi, Jamshed said the construction work would continue for another five years and mentioned that the government was committed to complete the project by the end of 2022, the report said. 

He further said that India`s bullet train, at the speed of 320 km per hour, will match the speed of the leading highspeed train systems across the world.

Highlights:

1. PM Narendra Modi and Japan`s PM Shinzo Abe will together lay the foundation stone for the bullet train project in September

2. Japan`s PM Shinzo Abe will visit India in September 

3. Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train will have speed of 320 km per hour

1. World No Tobacco Day.

World No-Tobacco Day (WNTD) is observed every year across the world on 31 May.

This day highlights the health risks associated with consumption all forms of tobacco and advocates for effective policies to reduce tobacco consumption. 

In 1988, World Health Assembly of WHO had passed a resolution calling for the celebration of World No Tobacco Day, every year on May 31. Since then, the WHO has supported the observance of World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) every year. 

WNTD is one of eight official global public health campaigns marked by the WHO.

 1. India Mobile Congress (IMC 2017) to be held in September.

India Mobile Congress 2017 (IMC 2017) is scheduled to be held as a three day event from 27th to 29th September 2017 in New Delhi. 

This was announced by the Union Minister for Communications Manoj Sinha. This is the first time India is all set to host its own mobile mega show. 

The Indian telecom market is the second-largest in the world after China. India has a total subscriber base of over 1.18 billion subscribers.

2. Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar for Satyabrata Rout.

Satyabrata Rout has been awarded Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar for the year 2016. He is a professor from the Department of Theatre Arts, S N School of Arts and Communication, University of Hyderabad (UoH).

 He has been awarded for developing a unique method of teaching and practicing direction and design achieved from his experience working with eminent theatre practitioners and scholars. Satyabrata Rout is considered as one of the pioneers  of ‘visual theatre’ in India. 

He has a rich experience of directing a number of plays, participating in national and international theatre festivals and conducting a numerous theatre workshops across the globe. The Sangeet Natak Akademi Puraskar (Akademi Award) is an award given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi. 

The award is the highest Indian recognition given to practicing artists. The award includes a purse of Rs 50000, besides a Tamrapatra and Angavastram. The awards are being presented in the categories of music, dance, theatre, other traditional arts and puppetry.

3. India to Organise Cultural Festival in Egypt to mark Tagore’s 156th Birth Anniversary.

India will organise Tagore cultural  Festival in Egypt to mark the 156th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore from May 8-12. 

Tagore Festival will be organised by the Maulana Azad Centre for Indian Culture (MACIC), which is the cultural wing of the Indian Embassy in Cairo. The fest will be organised in cooperation with the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, Cairo Opera House, Cultural Production Sector, Dancers’ Guild and the Indian Community Association in Egypt. 

The festival will feature a dance show, film screening, a play and painting competition.  As a part of the festival, a dance drama based on Tagore’s work called ‘Chitrangada‘ will be performed by the Kolkata-based Dancers’ Guild. Chitrangada is the warrior princess in the epic, Mahabharata.

1. International Conference on Dara Shikoh to be held.

The international conference on “Dara Shikoh: Reclaiming Spiritual Legacy of India” will be held on April 27 and 28. 

The conference will be organised by the Indian Council Of Cultural Relations (ICCR). The conference will see the participation of eminent scholars from the US, Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and India. 

The objective of the conference is to highlight Dara Shikoh’s contributions to bring about spiritual homogenisation of Hinduism and Islam and his initiatives in building a cohesive social and cultural edifice in India.

1. Pune City Police Receive FICCI Smart Policing Award.

The Pune city police have bagged the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industries` (FICCI) Smart Policing Award for the year 2017.