May

24,
2018
IMD WORLD COMPETITIVENESS RANKINGS
In May 2018, the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking was released for the year 2018 covering 63
economies.
About:

 The Top five most competitive economies in the world are United States followed by Hong Kong,
Singapore, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
 India was ranked at 44 out of 63 in 2018. In 2017, India was ranked at 45. In contrast, China was
ranked 13th.
 Major improvements in India during the last year include bandwidth speed, pupil-teacher ratio in
primary and secondary education, total health expenditure and banking and financial services.

Do you know?
International Institute for Management Development (IMD) is a business education school located in
Lausanne, Switzerland.
MOBILE CONNECTIVITY IN LWE AREAS
In May 2018, Union Cabinet approved Phase-2 of the project to provide mobile connectivity
in Left Wing Extremism-affected States.
Background: Phase-1

 In the first phase, which was completed two years ago, 2,329 towers were installed at a cost of
₹3,167 crore in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Odisha, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Phase-2:

 4,072 mobile phone towers will be installed in 10 Left Wing Extremism-affected States at a cost of
₹7,330 crores.
 Significance:
o This network would be used by the security personnel deployed in LWE affected areas.
Project will also provide the mobile services to help the residents in unconnected inhabited
villages in improving the economic activities in the region.
o It will give impetus to the e-Governance activities in the region.
 Funding: It will be funded by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) of the Department of
Telecommunications.

MODERNIZATION OF MADRASAS
In May 2018, Uttar Pradesh government amended the Uttar Pradesh non-government
Arabic-Persian madrasas (recognition, administration and service rules-2016).

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About:

 Key amendments:
o Along with Urdu, madrasas in U.P will now also be required to teach students in English and
Hindi.
o Madrasas will have to follow the National Council of Educational Research and Training
(NCERT) syllabus and the books prescribed under it.
 Significance: The decision would “improve the quality of education” and also bring “madrasa
students into the mainstream”.
 The decision will come into effect from the 2018-19 academic session.

WORLD’S FIRST ELECTRIFIED ROAD

In May 2018, it was reported that Sweden is testing the first road of its kind that can charge
a vehicle as it drives along.
The state-funded scheme, named eRoadArlanda, could potentially help cut the high cost of
electric cars.

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SARASVATI RIVER
In May 2018, Haryana Sarasvati Heritage Development Board signed MoUs with the Indian
Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the National Institute of Hydrology to study
hydrological aspects relating to the Sarasvati river to speed up the work for its revival.

About:

 Sarasvati River is one of the Rig Vedic rivers mentioned in the Rig Veda and later Vedic and post-
Vedic texts.
 Rigveda mentions the Sarasvati between the Yamuna in the east and the Sutlej in the west. Later
Vedic texts mention that the Sarasvati dried up in a desert.
 The Sarasvati is also considered by Hindus to exist in a metaphysical form, in which it formed a
confluence with the sacred rivers Ganges and Yamuna, at the Triveni Sangam.
 Since the late 19th-century, some scholars have argued that the Vedic Sarasvati river is the Ghaggar-
Hakra River system, which flows through north-western India and eastern Pakistan. However, this is
debatable.

MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL

In May 2018, the novel ‘Flights’ won the 2018 Man Booker International Prize
Flights:

 It was originally written in Polish by Olga Tokarczuk. The book was later translated into English by
Jennifer Croft.
 It has become the first book written by a Polish author to receive the Man Booker International.

Man Booker International:

 The Man Booker International Prize is an international literary award sponsored by the Man Group,
the same organisation that gives the Man Booker Prize for fiction.
 It is annually given for a single work of fiction that has been translated into English and published in
the United Kingdom in the last year.
 It carries a cash prize of £50,000 prize for the winning title, shared equally between author and
translator.

PHILIP ROTH
In May 2018, Philip Roth passed away at the age of 85.
About:

 Philip Milton Roth was an American novelist.

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 Major works: Goodbye Columbus, American Pastoral, Sabbath's Theatre and Human Stain.
 Awards: The Nobel Prize eluded Mr. Roth, but he won most of the other top honours: two National
Book Awards, two National Book Critics Circle awards, three PEN/Faulkner Awards, a Pulitzer Prize
and the Man Booker International Prize.

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