• India has signed a loan deal worth $ 200 million with the World Bank for the National Nutrition Mission (POSHAN Abhiyaan). The loan would help India in achieving its goal of reducing stunting in children 0-6 years of age from 38.4% to 25% by the year 2022.

• Aiming to foster growth for India’s nascent Artificial Intelligence (AI)and Machine Learning (ML) ecosystem, NITI Aayog and Google have signed a Statement of Intent (SoI) to work on a range of initiatives to help build the AI ecosystem across the country.

• India has ranked fourth out of 25 nations in the Asia-Pacific region on ‘Power Index’ that measures their overall power. The US has topped the list.

• May 8 is celebrated globally as the World Red Cross Day. The day is celebrated on this day because it marks the birth anniversary of Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). World Red Cross Day theme of 2018 is “Memorable smiles from around the world”.

• US-based retail giant Walmart has confirmed that it will buy 77% stake in India’s largest e-commerce startup Flipkart for $16 billion. The acquisition, which is the largest e-commerce deal in the world, will value the home-grown startup at a reported amount of $20.8 billion.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been ranked ninth on Forbes’ 2018 list of ‘the world’s most powerful people’. Chinese President Xi Jinping ranked first, followed by Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump at the second and third rank, respectively. The only other Indian to feature on the list is Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani at 32.

• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)signed a space act agreement with Uber Technologies to explore concepts and technologies related to Urban Air Mobility (UAM) for future air transportation such as flying cars in populated areas.

• UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced to hold a climate summit in September 2019 in New York to review the commitments of the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

• President Donald Trump announced US withdrawal from the 2015 landmark nuclear deal with Iran. The historic nuclear deal was reached in Vienna in July 2015 between Iran and the P5 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council) along with Germany and the European Union. Note: The five permanent members of the UN Security Council are China, France, Russia, United Kingdom, and the United States of America.

• Armenia’s parliament elected Nikol Pashinyan as the new prime minister.

• Carlos Alvarado was sworn in as the new President of Costa Rica.

• China has successfully launched a hyperspectral imaging satellite ‘Gaofen-5’ for comprehensive observation of the atmosphere, including air pollution which is one of the country’s major problems. Gaofen-5 is the first China-developed satellite that can monitor air pollution.

• The 2018 World Robot Conference (WRC) will be held in Beijing, China in August 2018.

• Nisha Bhalla,a 46-year-old holistic coach and consultant from Mumbai was felicitated at the recently concluded Annual Women Economic Forum (WEF) 2018 Awards. WEF is the largest global gathering of women entrepreneurs and leaders worldwide. The event was held in Delhi. Nisha was presented the ‘Excellent Woman of Excellence’ award for her spiritual service at the event.

• India was ranked 6th on Global Optimism Index released as part of Grant Thornton’s International Business Report (IBR)in the first quarter of 2018. Austria tops the list.

• Every year, `National Technology Day’is celebrated across India on May 11 to celebrate the anniversary of Shakti, the Pokhran nuclear test held on 11 May 1998. The National Technology Day 2018 theme is “Science and Technology for a Sustainable Future”. Note: The first nuclear test Pokhran with a code named as ‘Smiling Buddha’ was carried out in May, 1974.

• The Telangana government introduced Rythu Bandhu,a scheme to provide 4,000 per acre each to land-owning farmers for Rabi and Kharif seasons, and issued special passbooks for them.

• The department of youth and cultural affairs of the Gujarat government will be co-organisers for the centenary celebrations to mark the independence of Poland in Delhi and other parts of the world.

• President Ram Nath Kovind visited the Army base camp in Siachen, becoming the first President of India to visit the world’s highest battlefield in 14 years.  The previous visit was undertaken by former president APJ Abdul Kalam in April 2004.

• Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in as Prime Minister of Malaysia.Ninety-two-year-old, Mahathir becomes the oldest Prime Minister in the world.

• International Nurses Day (IND)is celebrated every year all around the world on 12th of May to commemorate the birth anniversary of the Florence Nightingale and to mark the nurse’s contributions towards people’s health. The International Council of Nurses (ICN) has chosen the theme “Nurses A Voice to Lead – Health is a Human right” for IND 2018.

• India has become the largest remittance-receiving country in the world,with migrant workers from the country sending home 69 billion US dollars in 2017. India with 69 billion Dollars, China with 64 billion Dollars and the Philippines with 33 billion Dollars are the three largest remittance-receiving countries in the world in 2017.

• A state-run Chinese bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)has launched the country’s first India-dedicated publicly offered investment fund. The fund, named the ICBC Credit Suisse India Market Fund, will invest in exchange-traded funds listed on more than 20 exchanges in Europe and the US that are based on the Indian market.