1.America stares at a health scare :-
(I)Protections available to older, poorer and sicker Americans under the country’s existing healthcare system could be curtailed if a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday is approved by the Senate.
2.Amanatullah Khan made Assembly panel chief :-
(I)A fresh round of tussle may erupt in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as its MLA Amanatullah Khan, who was recently suspended from the party for attacking senior leader Kumar Vishwas, has been appointed the chairman of a panel of the Delhi Assembly.
(II)Mr. Khan, the MLA from Okhla, has also been appointed a member in seven newly constituted committees, including the Special Inquiry Committee, of the House by the Speaker.
3.Congress demands Centre to stop telecast of banned Pakistan, Saudi channels in J-K :-
(I)Retorting to the reports of banned Pakistani and Saudi Arabia TV channels being illegally aired in Kashmiri homes and indulging in anti-India propaganda, the Congress Party on Saturday urged the Centre to take cognizance of the situation and stop the telecast of such provocative content.
(II)Congress leader P.L. Punia demanded that the Union Government should take action stringent against the guilty.
(III)“Situation in Jammu and Kashmir is very vulnerable and fragile and in such conditions airing of such channel is dangerous.
4.Notice to ICC: CoA reiterates stand :-
(I)The Committee of Administrators (CoA) reiterated its stand to the BCCI late on Thursday, saying that there was no need to send a notice to the ICC seeking remedial measures for the breach of the Members’ Participation Agreement (MPA) caused at the ICC Board meeting in Dubai on April 26.
(II)In a strongly worded note addressed to the BCCI joint secretary, Amitabh Choudhary, the CoA said: “We stand by our earlier decision and see no reason to reconsider the same.
(III)We fail to understand how you can insist on sending the notice without a resolution passed in the SGM authorising you to do so.
5.President Trump signs USD 1 trillion spending bill to keep government operations open :-
(I)President Donald Trump signed his first piece of major legislation on Friday, a $1 trillion spending bill to keep the government operating through September.
(II)The bill cleared both houses of Congress this week and Trump signed it into law behind closed doors at his home in central New Jersey, well ahead of a midnight Friday deadline for some government operations to begin shutting down.
6.Parle Products sets up new premium division :-
(I)Parle Products, known for its affordable range of confectioneries, has carved out a new division to focus on premium products for better price realisation and to cater to a new segment of customers.
(II)Named as Parle Platina, the division will comprise Parle’s range of premium products. Four of Parle’s 40 plus brands have been transferred into the new division.
(III)These include Hide & Seek, Milano, Mexitos and Simply Good Health range of products in different variants. It will adopt a new identity to indicate the premium positioning.
7.Indian rocket lifts off with South Asia Satellite from Sriharikota :-
(I)The South Asian Cooperation reached stratospheric levels on Friday as the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched the region’s first satellite, witnessed by leadership of all the SAARC countries, sans Pakistan.
8.Cognizant net up 26% :-
(I)Cognizant Technology Solutions reported a 26.3% rise in net profit to $557 million in the first quarter ended March.
(II)Its revenues for the quarter rose 10.7% from a year earlier to $3.55 billion.
(III)Raj Mehta, president, Cognizant, said that the company will significantly ramp up its U.S.-based workforce by hiring experienced professionals in the open market and by making more use of university, veteran, and related programs.
(IV)“We are shifting our workforce largely in response to clients’ increasing need for co-innovation and co-location.
9.Special iPads to help differently-abled students across Tamil Nadu :-
(I)Imagine a classroom in a government school, wherein the teacher poses a question. More often than not, special children with developmental disability are not among the respondents.
(II)Impaired by speech or hearing issues, they are unable to express themselves. But what if there was a way to overcome that?
(III)The Commissionerate of the Welfare of the Differently Abled will soon begin distributing special devices to all districts in the State, that would facilitate communication through pictures and speech synthesis.
10.Bezbaruah named Tea Board chairman :-
(I)P. K. Bezbaruah will take over as the chairman of the Tea Board of India, filling up a post lying vacant since M.G.V.K. Bhanu left three years ago.
(II)His appointment would mark the first such instance of an industry representative being appointed to the top-post of the regulatory body.
(III)He is presently the chairman of the Tea Research Association
(IV)“I will act as a bridge between all the stakeholders” Mr. Bezbaruah told The Hindu from Assam. An alumni of IIM Calcutta and the Wharton School of Business, he joined his family’s tea business after a stint with the Bank of America. “There has to be a positive correlation between price and quality.
(V)The role between the estates and the STG should be that of a partnership rather than adversarial,” he said.
