Satyajit Ray film festival is being organized from today till 4th May, by the National Museum of Indian Cinema, Mumbai.

• Ray is regarded as one of the finest filmmakers the world has ever seen.
• 2nd May is also birth anniversary of Satyajit Ray 
• He is the only Indian Director who received Oscar award.
• Veteran filmmaker Shyam Benegal today inaugurated Satyajit Ray’s Semi-permanent Gallery at the National Museum of Indian Cinema in Mumbai.
• In the coming two days, cine lovers can watch  ‘Jalsaghar’, ‘Heerak Rajar Deshe’, ‘Inner Eye’, ‘Seemabaddha’ and 'Pather Panchali’ besides a panel discussion with Shyam Benegal, Barun Chanda and Shantanu Moitra as panelists.

Indian Coast Guard chief VS Pathania on Wednesday commissioned the second made in India ALH Mk III Squadron at Coast Guard Air Enclave (CGAE) in Kochi.

• The squadron has been commissioned at the Coast Guard Air Enclave, Nedumbassery, Kochi on the 4th of May 2022. Director-General V S Pathania commissioned the 845 squadron (CG) in Kochi.
• Commandant Kunal Naik is leading this squadron comprising 35 men and 9 officers.
• This indigenously developed helicopter features a variety of state-of-the-art sensors that will help increase the country’s maritime prowess. 

Red Shield Division of Indian Army signs MoU for 'Manipur Super 50'

• Red Shield Division of the Indian Army under the aegis of Spear Corps entered into a tripartite agreement with the State Bank of India Foundation (SBIF) and the National Integrity and Educational Development Organization (NIEDO) to establish ‘Red Shield Centre for Excellence and Wellness’ in Manipur’s Bishnupur district.
• The project ‘Manipur Super 50’ is expected to be fully functional for the first batch of 50 students by the first week of July 2022.
• This initiative will be able to create a feeling of mental and social well-being amongst parents and their children by providing quality education thus catering for a better life and evolving responsible citizens for our country.
• The centre which will be opened in Bishnupur Battalion will remain as instrumental in bringing a progressive and inclusive society.

World Athletics Day is observed on May 7 every year to raise awareness about the significance of being involved in some kind of sport.

• It encourages the youth to participate in sports, especially athletics, and stay fit.
• The day was established in 1996 by the then International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) President Primo Nebiolo.
• IAAF is responsible for organizing and sponsoring the day.

World Hand Hygiene Day (WHHD) is annually observed across the globe on the 5th of May.

• WHO launched the “Save Lives: Clean Your Hands” global annual campaign in 2009, which is celebrated as World Hand Hygiene Day on 5th May to further the goal of maintaining a global profile on the importance of hand hygiene in health care.
• This year, WHO is marking the day with the theme – Unite for safety: clean your hands.

World Press Freedom Day is observed globally on 3rd May every year. It is also known as World Press Day. 

• The day also pays tribute to journalists who have lost their lives.
• This year’s World Press Freedom Day theme “Journalism under digital siege,” spotlights the multiple ways in which journalism is endangered by surveillance and digitally-mediated attacks on journalists, and the consequences of all this on public trust in digital communications.

World Asthma Day is observed every year on the first Tuesday of May to spread awareness and care about asthma in the world.

• This year World Asthma Day observed on 3rd May,2022
• World Asthma Day (WAD) (May 3, 2022) is organized by the Global Initiative for Asthma, (GINA) (www.ginasthma.org), a World Health Organization collaborative organization founded in 1993.
•  This year the theme is ‘Closing Gaps in Asthma Care’. Asthma

World Tuna Day is observed on 2nd May. This day is celebrated to raise awareness about the Tuna fish. This fish is very important for both planet Earth and humans.

• This day was established In December 2016, by the United Nations General Assembly.
• This day was first observed in the year 2017.
• Tuna fish is important for developing as well as developed countries as they are a significant source of food and they also have high nutritional value.
• This fish species has a high level of Vitamin B12, Omega 3, minerals, and proteins.

World Laughter Day 2022 celebrated on 1st May. Overview

• World Laughter Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of every May to remind people to laugh and make those around them laugh. This year the day is celebrated on 1st May. 
• Laughter is strong medicine. It draws people together in ways that trigger healthy physical and emotional changes in the body.
• World Laughter Day was first celebrated in Mumbai in 1998 when Dr Madan Kataria, founder of the Laughter Yoga Movement, highlighted a theory through that movement.
• He stated that facial movements could reflect the mental state of a person. 

International Labour Day 2022 observed globally on 1st May

International Workers' Day, also known as Labour Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement and occurs every year on May Day.

History of Labour Day

In 1884 the American Federation of Organised Trades and Labor Unions demanded an eight-hour workday, to come into effect as of May 1st 1886. This resulted in the general strike and the Haymarket (in Chicago) Riot of 1886, but eventually also in the official sanction of the eight-hour workday. Three years later, a French socialist party created an international day to honour the labour movement and marked May 1 in commemoration of the Haymarket Massacre.

Air Marshal Sanjeev Kapoor has assumed the appointment of Director General (Inspection and Safety) of the Indian Air Force.

• The Air Marshal is a graduate of the National Defence Academy and was commissioned in the Flying branch of IAF in December 1985 as a Transport Pilot.
• Sanjeev Kapoor is an alumnus of Defence Services Staff College (DSSC) Wellington, College of Defence Management and National Defence College.
• The Air Officer is a Qualified Flying Instructor with more than 7700 hours of flying experience on various aircraft in the inventory of IAF.
• The Air Officer is a recipient of Vayu Sena Medal and Ati Vishist Seva Medal. 

Former Director-General of News Services Division of All India Radio C Lalengliana passed away at Shillong in Meghalaya yesterday. 

• He was Indian Information Service (IIS) Officer of 1964 batch.
• Lalengliana retired from the service in 1997.
• Besides AIR, he also served in various media units of Information and Broadcasting Ministry and Defence Ministry.

The Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) central board gave its approval to appoint Rajiv Ranjan as an ex-officio member of the RBI’s monetary policy committee.

• Mridul Saggar is being replaced by Rajiv Ranjan.
• Ranjan has been working with the RBI for more than 33 years. Recently, he headed RBI’s “department of economic and policy research.” 
• The MPC has six members.  There are three officials who are from the RBI and there are three external members who are nominated by the central government. This committee’s chairperson is the Governor of the RBI.

Mr. Justice P.C. Pant, Member, NHRC appointed as the Acting Chairperson of the Commission

• The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) member Justice (retired) Prafulla Chandra Pant had been appointed as the acting chairperson of the Commission with effect from April 25.
• A former Supreme Court judge, Justice Pant was appointed member of the NHRC on April 22, 2019.  The post of a chairperson has been vacant since Justice H.L. Dattu, a former Chief Justice of India, completed his tenure on December 2, 2020.

Former petroleum secretary Tarun Kapoor appointed advisor to PM.

• Kapoor, a 1987-batch IAS officer of the Himachal Pradesh cadre, superannuated as the secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on November 30, 2021.
• He has been appointed in the rank and scale of Secretary to Government of India, initially for a period of two years from the date of joining,
• Senior bureaucrats Hari Ranjan Rao and Atish Chandra have been appointed as additional secretaries in the PMO.

Vinay Mohan Kwatra assumes charge as India’s new Foreign Secretary. Key points

• Vinay Mohan Kwatra took charge as India’s new Foreign Secretary. 
• A 1988-batch Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer, Mr Kwatra succeeded Harsh Vardhan Shringla who retired from service.
• Mr Kwatra was serving as India’s envoy to Nepal before assuming the charge of the Foreign Secretary.

The Indian Army’s Director General of Military Operations, Lieutenant General Baggavalli Somashekar Raju has been appointed as the Vice Chief of the Army Staff from May 1. Key points

• He was an alumnus of Sainik School Bijapur and National Defence Academy and commissioned in the Jat Regiment on December 15, 1984.
• Before taking over the new role, Lt General BS Raju was serving as the Director-General of Military Operations during the standoff on the LAC, the de facto border between India and China. 

Former Amazon Music CEO Sahas Malhotra joins JioSaavn as CEO.

• JioSaavn has named Sahas Malhotra, a former Amazon Music director and entertainment industry expert, as its new CEO.
• Previously, Sahas Malhotra worked for Sony Music India and Tips Industries. 
• From the JioSaavn company’s Mumbai headquarters, Sahas Malhotra will manage the company’s efforts in the rapidly growing company's business.
• Sahas Malhotra has more than 24 years of experience in the entertainment sector, including team development, film marketing, music , licensing.

Vietnam opens the longest  2,000 ft. glass-bottomed bridge to attract tourists. 

• The Bach Long bridge - meaning 'the white dragon' -- connects two mountains and hangs over a lush green valley in Vietnam's Northwest Son La Province.
• It is Suspended nearly 500 ft. off the ground.
• The white pedestrian bridge is said to be made of three layers of 40mm thick French-produced tempered glass that can support up to 450 people at a time who can enjoy the views of the green gorge below. 

State of the World’s Forests 2022: 10% of total forest area on Earth lost in 30 years.

• The State of the World’s Forests” (SOFO) is the flagship publication of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
• The State of the World’s Forests” (SOFO) report presents an analysis of the interaction between forests and people, with a focus on a specific pertinent topic.
• The world has lost 420 million hectares (mha), approximately 10.34% of its total forest area in the last 30 years (between 1990 and 2020) due to deforestation.
• This poses severe risks for the 68% of mammal species, 75% of bird species, and 80% of amphibian species that inhabit forests.

The Indian Space Research Organisation will send a spacecraft to orbit Venus to study what lies below its surface, the space body’s Chairperson S Somnath.

• ISRO is expecting to launch the mission by December 2024 with an orbital manoeuvre planned for a year after that,
• In 2025, the Earth and Venus would be aligned in a manner that it would require a minimum amount of propellant for the spacecraft to enter the orbit of the hottest planet in the Solar System. 
• The aim of the mission is to study Venus’ atmosphere, which is toxic and corrosive in nature as clouds of sulfuric acid cover the planet.
• Shukrayaan is the Indian space mission to Venus by ISRO

American technology conglomerate Facebook has partnered with the Indian government to roll out a vaccine finder tool on its mobile app in India, which will help people identify places nearby to get vaccinated.

• The social media giant had, earlier this week, announced a USD 10 million grant for emergency response efforts for the COVID-19 situation in the country.
• Partnering with the Government of India, Facebook will begin rolling out its Vaccine Finder tool on the Facebook mobile app in India available in 17 languages to help people identify places nearby to get the vaccine,”.
• In this tool, vaccine centre locations and their hours of operation have been provided by the

The Asian Games 2022, due to be held in Hangzhou, China in September, has been postponed to 2023 due to rising COVID-19 cases in the country, the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced.

• The Olympic Council of Asia, said it will announce the new dates for the 19th edition of the Games. 
• The Asian Games 2022 were originally scheduled from September 10 to 25.
• The host city of Hangzhou is less than 200km away from Shanghai, which is currently fighting another major COVID-19 outbreak and has strict restrictions in place, including a weeks-long lockdown.
• The OCA also announced that the third edition of the Asian Youth Games, scheduled to be held in Shantou in December, have been cancelled. 

Harshada Sharad Garud made history by being the first Indian woman to win a gold medal at the IWF Junior World Championships in Heraklion, Greece.

• She won the 45-kilogram weight category with a total of 153 kilograms lifted, including 70 kilograms in Snatch and 83 kilograms in Clean and Jerk.
• IWF Junior World Championships that is being organized in Heraklion, Greece from 2^nd to 10^th May 2022.
• The Junior World Championships is organized by the International Weightlifting Federation. The first tournament was held in the year 1975 in Marseille, France.

P. V. Sindhu won her second Asian bronze medal In Asia Badminton Championships after a heartbreaking three-game loss to top-seed and defending champion Akane Yamaguchi of Japan in the semifinal in Manila.

She had won her first bronze in the Asia Badminton Championships 2014 Gimcheon edition. Sindhu has assured a medal in the championship when she defeated He Big Jiao of China by 21-9,13-21 and 21-19 in the quarterfinal. She has won silver in 2016 Rio de Janeiro, and bronze in 2020 Tokyo.

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has launched a Vehicle Movement Tracking System (VMTS) mobile app to track the vehicles carrying sand and other mining material.

• The app will be used at different checkpoints in all the districts of Haryana.
• All vehicle details including vehicle type, vehicle number, moving from, moving to, and driver details will be stored in it. The non-registered individual will not be permitted to enter the zone of sand mining.
• This App has been designed and developed in-house by National Informatics Centre, Haryana. The app will be used at different checkpoints in all the districts of Haryana and vehicle details —like vehicle number, vehicle type, moving from, moving to — along with driver details, like name, driver mobile number and driver license number will be punched into it.
• If the vehicle is to move between source and destination checkpoints, then officials can mark the vehicle exit from the originating check post as an interim exit and at the destination checkpoint it will be marked as a final exit.

Uttar Pradesh government will provide free wi-fi facilities at more than 58 thousand places in the villages of the state.

• Uttar Pradesh government will provide free wi-fi facilities at more than 58 thousand places in the villages of the state. This internet facility will be available for the people within 50 meters of the Gram Sachivalaya (village secretariat) building which is being built in every Gram Panchayat of the state.
• In order to make every village a smart village, high-speed internet connectivity will be provided to the village secretariats and a free high-speed Wi-Fi internet facility will be provided to the villagers within a radius of 50 meters of the village secretariat building. The process of establishment of village secretariats in 58,189-gram panchayats of the state is going on continuously.

Delimitation Panel On J&K Submits Final Report, Suggests Increasing Total Number Of Seats To 90

• The Delimitation Commission on Jammu and Kashmir, headed by Justice (retd) Ranjana Desai submitted its final report .

• The three-member Delimitation Commission has recommended increasing the number of Assembly seats in the Kashmir region to 47 from the previous 46.

• While in the Jammu region the number of seats has been increased to 43 from the earlier 37.

Odisha is planning to create India’s only observatory, which will house data on the state’s indigenous population’s health. 

• The Tribal Health Observatory (TriHOb) is the “first in the nation,” according to the Information Department, and is aimed to be an effective, evidence-based, and policy-oriented centre.
• It will monitor illness burden, health-seeking behaviour, and the healthcare delivery system in relation to tribal health in the state in a systematic and continuing manner.
• ‘Mo School’ Abhiyan chairman Sushmita Bagchi also inaugurated a tribal family health survey among indigenous groups during the event in which the MoU was signed.

In a major boost to industry-starved Bihar, chief minister Nitish Kumar inaugurated on Saturday a greenfield grain-based ethanol plant built at a cost of Rs 105 crore at Purnea.

• The ethanol plant is a zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) plant.
• It is the first plant developed since the center gave the go-ahead to Bihar’s ethanol production and promotion policy-2021.
• The plant has been built on 15 acres of land and is expected to produce 65,000 liters of ethanol per day using 150 tonnes of maize and rice every day.
• It will also produce DDGS (distiller’s dried grains with solubles) as a by-product, which will be sold for animal feed.

A loan scheme named Jivhala has been launched by the Maharashtra Department of Prisons for the inmates who are serving sentences in various jails across Maharashtra.

• The scheme, implemented by the Department of Prisons and Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank, has been started in Pune's Yerawada Central Jail.
• In the initial phase of this scheme, a Rs 50,000 loan will be given.
• The interest rate that will be applicable is 7%. 

To conserve native and endangered animals, crops, marine and biological species, Maharashtra has decided to set up a gene bank project. Overview

• Maharashtra Cabinet approved the ‘Maharashtra Gene Bank’, a first-of-its-kind project in India. To conserve genetic resources in Maharashtra including marine diversity, seeds of local crops, and animal diversity.
• In the next five years, an amount of Rs 172.39 crores will be spent on these seven focus areas. The project will be implemented by the Maharashtra State Biodiversity Board (MSBB) and will be overseen by committees under the chief secretary and the principal secretary (forests).
• The MSBB will coordinate with institutions like the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) Goa to document and conserve rare and endangered marine species.

Maharashtra and Gujarat celebrated their statehood day on 1st May 2022.

• On May 1st, 1960, the bilingual state of Bombay was divided into two separate states by the Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960: Maharashtra for Marathi speaking people and Gujarat for Gujarati speaking people.
• Gujarat was established as the 15th state of the Indian Union.

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi participated in the 2nd India-Nordic Summit along with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark.

• The Summit provided an opportunity to review the progress of the India-Nordic relations since the 1st India-Nordic Summit, which was held in 2018 in Stockholm. 
• Discussions were held on multilateral cooperation in post-pandemic economic recovery, climate change, sustainable development, innovation, digitalization, and green and clean growth.
• Discussions were also held on cooperation in maritime sector with a focus on sustainable ocean management.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the inaugural session of the International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (ICDRI), 2022.

• Heads of states from CDRI member countries including India attended the conference.
• India initiated CDRI as a global partnership of 27 countries. India officially launched the CDRI at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit in New York on 23 September 2019.
• It is an international coalition of countries, UN agencies, multilateral development banks, the private sector, and academic institutions.

Aim: To promote disaster-resilient infrastructure. Headquarters: New Delhi, India (Interim Secretariat) Founders: 

• India,  Australia, Bhutan, Fiji, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Maldives, Mexico, Mongolia, Rwanda, Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom. (13 countries).
• The World Bank and the Green Climate Fund also supported the launch.
• As of March 2021, 29 members, consisting of 22 national governments and 7 organisations have joined CDRI.

The Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilizers and Health & Family Welfare, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya launched PLASTINDIA 2023, international Plastic Exhibition & Conference in the presence of Union Minister of State for Chemicals & Fertilizers and MNRE, Bhagwanth Khuba.

• It will be held from February 1 to February 5, 2023, at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.
• It will attract international plastic players to India.
• It will provide opportunities for the exchange of best practices and technologies among industry players. 
• It will provide opportunities for employment generation, facilitate the growth of the Indian plastic industry and make India a hub for sourcing plastic for global needs.