Persons in News:

Nisha Rani Dutta

• Archery player
• The Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs approved an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh (from National Welfare Fund for Sportspersons) to archery player Nisha Rani Dutta who is living in a poor condition.
• Nisha (21) is from Pathmada village in the Jamshedpur district of Jharkhand.
• The move follows a news report that Ms Dutta, who has played in national and International archery competitions, was forced to sell her bow to repair her mud house. She had been trained by Tata Archery Academy and won gold medal at international archery championships, but discontinued the sport because of poverty. Her house collapsed during last year’s monsoon.
• She won a silver medal at the 2008 South Asian Federation Championship in Jharkhand, a bronze medal at the 2006 Bangkok Grand Prix, and the Best Player Award in the 2007 Asian Grand Prix in Taiwan.

Rafael Nadal: Wins Italian Open

Tennis Player: Rafael Nadal. Currently ranked World No: 2

Spain’s Rafael Nadal won the Men’s Singles title of the Italian Open Tennis tournament at Rome.

He won the title for a record 6^th time.

In the finals Nadal defeated Serbia’s World Number One Novak Djokovic.

Sunny Varkey

• One of the leading NRIs and Private education providers. 
• The Founder and Chairman of GEMS Education Group of institutions in the gulf region.
• Conferred the title of UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Education Partnerships.
• Sunny Varkey is the second Indian to become a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.
• He was lauded for his contribution in innovative public-private partnerships to ensure that underprivileged children across the world receive a good quality education, especially in Africa.
• Sunny Varkey began the Varkey Group in 1980 with ‘Our Own English High School’. Since 1980, the organisation has since evolved to include a number of schools internationally. The Varkey group has also grown to include separate divisions in healthcare and construction in addition to their large role in education under the title GEMS Education. GEMS Education is the largest private school operator in the world for students from kindergarten to grade 12. There are over 100,000 students in GEMS Education schools from well over 100 countries.

Tomislav Nikolic

New President of Serbia 

Replaces Boris Tadic as the President of Serbia

The contest had been seen as a vote on EU membership and the newly-elected President promised that Serbia will not wander off from its European path.

Donna Summer

• American Pop star 
• Donna Summer (63) passed away in Florida, USA.
• Grammy Award winner
• Summer was one of disco’s biggest stars and also had a huge influence on the synth pop and dance music scenes.

Chen Guangcheng: Chinese Activist Leaves China

Chinese activist

Visually challenged activist

Chen Guangcheng and his family have left China on a flight headed for the US

Chen and his wife with their two children, obtained their passports at Beijing’s international airport, shortly before boarding a United Airlines flight. The flight is due to land at Newark airport, just outside New York City, tomorrow evening. He has been offered a place at New York University.

More: About Chen Guangcheng

Tamae Watanbe

• Japanese mountaineer 
• Became the oldest woman to climb Mount Everest at the age of 73 years.

S.K. Thorat

 Chairman of the Indian Council of Social Science Research

He will be the Chairman of the committee to review NCERT’s political science textbooks for schools.

The committee will submit its report within one month.

The Government has set up a committee in the wake of the cartoon row to review NCERT’s political science textbooks for schools. The committee, comprising 5 members from a social science background, will review the textbooks from the point of view of identifying educationally inappropriate material in them.

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2012