DAILY TOP NEWS OF THE DAY

NATIONAL (NEWS):

• MoCA launches UDAN 5.1 designed for helicopter routes The Ministry of Civil Aviation(MoCA) launched the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) — Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) 5.1 to enhance connectivity to remote areas of the country and achieve last-mile connectivity through helicopters. For the 1st time, the RCS-UDAN scheme is designed specifically for helicopter routes. UDAN 5.1 is designed in consultation with all stakeholders including helicopter operators.

INTERNATIONAL (NEWS):

• Highlights of PM Narendra Modi's Visit to Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia from May 19 to 24, 2023 Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia from May 19 to 24, 2023 to attend multilateral summits, including the Group of Seven (G7). Key Events & Initiatives: As India has been invited as a guest country for the G7 summit, PM Narendra Modi participated in the annual summit of the G7 advanced economies in Hiroshima under the Japanese Presidency on May 20 2023. He talked about challenges facing the globe, including food, fertiliser and energy security. PM Modi unveiled a 42-inch tall bronze bust of Mahatma Gandhi in Hiroshima, Japan on 20 May 2023.

• Making cities climate-ready crucial to Solving Climate Crisis: World Bank The World Bank (WB) has released a report titled 'Thriving: Making Cities Green, Resilient, and Inclusive in a Changing Climate' providing guidance to policymakers on how to create greener, more resilient, and inclusive cities. The assessment is based upon the 10,000 cities globally.

• WMO approved a Global Tracker for Greenhouse Gas Emissions On May 24 2023, The World Meteorological Congress, the supreme body of World Meteorological Organization (WMO) approved a new Green House Gas (GHG) watch, a global GHG monitoring initiative to support urgent action to reduce heat-trapping gases which are fuelling temperature increase. New Global Greenhouse Gas Watch approved by WMO will support mitigation action taken by the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement. 193 countries of WMO have unanimously approved the creation of a new GHG monitoring mechanism to have a stained, internationally coordinated GHG monitoring.

• India's Al Supercomputer 'Airawat' Ranked 75th in Top 500 Global Supercomputing List On May 24, 2023, India's Al (Artificial Intelligence) Supercomputer 'AIRAWAT', has been ranked 75th globally in the 61st edition of Top 500 Global Supercomputing List which was released at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC 2023) in Germany. AIRAWAT or Al Research Analytics and Knowledge Dissemination Platform is installed at C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing), Pune (Maharashtra) under National Program on Al (NPAI) by the Government of India. The list has been topped by the United States (US) Frontier. This HPE Cray EX system is the first US system with a performance exceeding one Exaflop/s (EXA Floating Point Operations per Second).

BANKING & FINANCE (NEWS):

• Union Govt Approved Digital communication system between PSU banks & CEIB to Check Loan Defaults The Union government has ended paper-based communication and introduced a digital communication mechanism between Public Sector Undertaking (PSU) banks and Central Economic Intelligence Bureau (CEIB) to check the defaults on loans. Under the digital mechanism, the CEIB will digitally send a report regarding borrowers to the PSU banks for a loan amount of Rs 50 crore or higher at the pre-approval stage within 15 days of request.

• HDFC Bank partners Manipal Global Academy of BFSI launches "Future Bankers 2.0" HDFC Bank Limited, India's largest private sector bank, in association with the Manipal Global Academy of BFSI (Banking, financial services and insurance), has launched Future Bankers 2.0, a pan-India recruitment program to transform young graduates into banking professionals within 1 year. Future Bankers 2.0, a one-year professional diploma, aims to create a robust, future-ready talent pipeline for HDFC Bank's retail banking business. The programme provides 8 months of paid internship and on-the-job training at HDFC Bank's branch locations within India. It facilitates strengthening a student's grounding in banking products, processes, compliance framework, and day-to-day banking operations. The course completion will get a Postgraduate (PG) Diploma in Sales & Relationship Banking from the Manipal Academy of BFSI and an assured job opportunity as a personal banker at the grade of Deputy Manager with HDFC Bank.

APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNATIONS (NEWS):

• Senior judge loannis Sarmas appointed as Caretaker PM of Greece Katerina Sakellaropoulou, President of Greece, has appointed Senior Judge loannis Sarmas (66 years old) as the caretaker Prime Minister(PM) of Greece to lead the caretaker government until the repeat election on 25th June 2023. On 25th May 2023, He was sworn in as the PM to replace outgoing PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis after the inconclusive ballot. loannis Sarmas is the President of the Hellenic Court of Audit, (the supreme financial court of Greece), one of Greece's 3 senior courts.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (NEWS):

• Union Ayush Minister Sarbananda Sonowal inaugurated PCIM&H 'e-office' and online portal Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH), visited Pharmacopoeia Commission for Indian Medicine & Homoeopathy (PCIM&H), Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh(UP) and inaugurated "e-Office portal of PCIM&H" and "Online portal". Online portal: The portal is inaugurated for the purpose of selling soft copies of pharmacopoeial monographs. It will promote the hassle-free reach of pharmacopoeia monographs among stakeholders across the world.

ENVIRONMENT (NEWS):

• Hemidactylus pakkamalaiensis: New Gecko Species identified in Pakkamalai hills, Tamil Nadu A team of researchers led by V. Deepak, a herpetologist and scientist at the University of Wolverhampton, United Kingdom (UK), has discovered a new species of rock-dwelling large-bodied gecko named as Hemidactylus pakkamalaiensis (H.pakkamalaiensis from the Pakkamalai hills, Gingee Hill range (southern Eastern Ghats) in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu(TN). The new species, which belongs to the genus Hemidactylus, is named after the Pakkamalai hills where it was recorded. The findings have been published in the latest issue of an international journal, Vertebrate  Zooloay.

IMPORTANT DAYS (NEWS):

• International Missing Children's Day 2023 — May 25 International Missing Children's Day (IMCD) is annually observed across the globe on May 25 to commemorate missing children and generate awareness about the kidnappings of children. The day is widely referred to with a forget-me-not flower as its emblem.