Afghanistan formally launched shipping goods to India, through which of the Iran's port?

Arunachalam Muruganantham, inventor of a low-cost sanitary pad-making machine and grassroots mechanism has been featured in Fortune magazine's 2019 list of world's 100 greatest leaders.He is a social entrepreneur from Tamil Nadu.He ranked 45th in the list released by the American publication. The hero of the Oscar-winning documentary short "Period.End of Sentence" has been awarded a Padma Shri in 2016 and was named TIME magazines 2014 list of 100 Most Influential People in the World. Other top awardees : Bill and Melinda Gates - for the work of their charitable organisation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Jacinda Ardern - for her response to Christchurch mosque shootings in February Robert Mueller - for his findings of the Donald Trump campaign's collusion with Russia.

President Ram Nath Kovind conferred the Gandhi Peace Prize for 2015, 16, 17 and 18 at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Delhi. The award comprises a cash award of one crore rupees, a citation in a scroll, a plaque and a traditional handicraft item. Japan's Yohei Sasakawa was conferred with the Gandhi Peace Prize for 2018 for his contribution in Leprosy Eradication in India and across the world. For 2015: Vivekananda Kendra, Kanyakumari was given the award for its contribution in Rural Development, Education and Development of natural resources. For 2016: Jointly to Akshaya Patra Foundation for its contribution in providing mid-day meals to millions of children across India and Sulabh International for its contribution in improving the condition of sanitation in India and emancipation of manual scavengers. And For 2017: Ekal Abhiyan Trust for its contribution in providing Education for Rural and Tribal Children in remote areas pan India, Rural Empowerment, Gender, and Social Equality.

The 'Utkarsh Bangla' scheme of the West Bengal government has won the prestigious 2019 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) award of the United Nations. The scheme aims to create a pool of skilled candidates industry ready. Out of 1062 nominations in 18 categories from all over the world, Utkarsh Bangla emerged No 1 in the Capacity Building category to win this prestigious award of WSIS. Earlier, in 2017, the West Bengal government had received another UN award for its 'Kanyashree' project, a targeted conditional cash transfer scheme aimed at promoting education among girls. WSIS Prizes is an international contest to create an effective mechanism to evaluate and recognise individuals, governments and private bodies for outstanding success in implementing development oriented strategies that leverage the power of ICTs as an enabler of the development.

The 13th Conference of Parties (COP) of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS 13) will be held at 15th to 22nd February 2020 at Gandhinagar in Gujarat. Recently, the Government of India (GoI) has announced that the Great Indian Bustard (GIB) will be its mascot for CMS COP-13. It is an environmental treaty under the aegis of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Representatives from 129 Parties and eminent conservationists and international NGOs working in the field of wildlife conservation are expected to attend the COP. India has been a Party to the CMS since 1983. The Conference of Parties (COP) is the decision-making organ of this convention. CMS, also known as the Bonn Convention, recognizes that States must be the protectors of migratory species that live within or pass through their national jurisdictions and aims to conserve terrestrial, marine, and avian migratory species throughout their ranges.

Fitch Ratings has recently said in its APAC sovereign credit overview report that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is the first Asia-Pacific (APAC) central bank to begin interest rate easing cycle by cutting the policy rate back-to-back in the last two monetary policy reviews in 2019. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), headed by RBI Govenor Shaktikanta Das, cut rates in February and April, citing prospects of benign inflation. In the four months of 2019, the RBI has cut policy interest rates twice twice by 0.25% each to one-year low of 6%. Earlier in April 2019, Fitch Ratings kept India's rating unchanged for the 13th time in a row at BBB- , which is the lowest investment grade, along with a stable outlook. The agency cited various challenges faced by the country such as high public debt, weak financial sector and lagging structural reforms.

The State Bank of India (SBI), ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank would have to comply with additional capital requirement norms by 1st April 2019 as the banks continue to be in the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s list of Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs) for 2018. D-SIBs are required to maintain higher capital as compared to other banks. It means that these banks are too big to fail and failure of any of these banks will have cascading effect on Indian financial system. The D-SIB framework requires the RBI to disclose the names of banks designated as D-SIBs starting from 2015 and place these banks in appropriate buckets depending upon their Systemic Importance Scores (SISs). SIBs are subjected to higher levels of supervision so as to prevent disruption in financial services in the event of any failure.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has given its in-principle approval to Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) Ltd for acquiring 9.9 per cent stake in Bandhan Bank following the Gruh Finance deal. Gruh Finance, the affordable housing finance arm of HDFC Ltd, was taken over by Bandhan Bank in a share-swap deal in January. After the deal was announced, HDFC made an application to the RBI for holding shares in Bandhan Bank. Recently RBI gave its approval to HDFC to acquire the shareholding of up to 9.9 per cent of the paid-up capital of Bandhan Bank upon the effective date of the scheme of amalgamation.

IT services HCL Technologies has set up a CyberSecurity Fusion Centre (CSFC) in Frisco, Texas, US. The main objective of the setting up of the CSFC by HCL Technologies' is to boost business growth by providing customers with a single point of contact for the business security lifecycle - from detection to repairment. HCL would also enhance university-to-industry collaboration under which the firm will conduct on-campus hackathons. The top participants in the hackathons from the winning teams from each individual school will be offered full-time jobs and advanced training at HCL Technologies.

Vani Kapoor became the first Indian to earn a card for the Australian Ladies PGA Tour (LPGA) after coming through its first-ever Qualifying Tournament at the Ballarat Golf Club in Ballarat, Australia.

The World Intellectual Property Day was observed across the world on April 26, 2019 to spread awareness about the role that intellectual property rights like patents, trademarks, industrial designs and copyright play in encouraging innovation and creativity. The theme of World Intellectual Property Day 2019 was "Reach for Gold: IP and Sports".