Who is the author of the book titled Hope in a Challenged Democracy- An Indian Narrative, which released recently?

The 3-day National Cardiology Conference 2019 has been started at Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of medical sciences in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu was the chief guest of this conference. The conference being held for the first time in Uttar Pradesh to provide an opportunity to showcase newer innovations in Cardiology which can help to deliver cost-effective cardiology care for the patients.

P.S. Krishnan, former Secretary to Government of India (GoI), has been conferred prestigious K. Veeramani Award for Social Justice 2018 for his works in the field of social justice for SCs, STs, BCs for the last more than six-and-half decades. The Periyar International Inc., a Chicago-based voluntary organisation, gives an annual award for outstanding contributions to Social Justice at a function in New Delhi.

Union Minister Ananth Kumar passes away at 59 in Bengaluru. He held two portfolios in the NDA Government; of Parliamentary affairs and Chemicals and Fertilizers. Kumar had represented the Bengaluru south parliamentary constituency six times since 1996. In 1998, he was inducted into the Union cabinet headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the minister for civil aviation and was instrumental in the signing of the MoU for the Bengaluru international airport. Kumar was the youngest minister in the Vajpayee cabinet.

National Democratic Alliance (NDA) candidate and former Bihar Governor Ram Nath Kovind will be India's 14th President of the country. He defeated opposition's Meira Kumar, a former Lok Sabha speaker, winning more than 65 percent of the votes in the Electoral College. A total of 32 polling stations including the one in Parliament House was set up in various states and a total number of 4,896 electors, 4,120 MLAs and 776 elected MPs are eligible to cast their ballot.

A group of researchers have unearthed a new 'rain loving' snake species from Mizoram in North-east India. The researchers have named the specie "Smithophis Atemporalis". The species is reported to be a non-venomous kind and strictly aquatic. The maximum recorded size of the new species is about 655 mm or 2.5 feet. The discovery is a result of more than six years of collaboration between scientists from leading Indian and international institutes.

Malaysia resumed a China-backed rail link project after the Chinese contractor agreed to cut the construction cost by one third to 10.6 billion US dollars. The Malaysian government will also take up a multibillion-dollar property and transportation project in Kuala Lumpur involving a Chinese state company, calling it a contribution to China's global "Belt and Road" infrastructure initiative.

India ranked at 17th position among 100 countries in 2018, from the 37th spot in 2017 in the Startup Ecosystem Ranking for 2019 as per the data released by StartupBlink. The United States, United Kingdom, and Canada are the top three countries ranked the first, second and third respectively in terms of global rankings. This ranking was based on the strength of its startup ecosystem. Bengaluru, New Delhi, and Mumbai are the cities with the most vibrant startup ecosystems in India. Bengaluru ranked the top startup city in India at 11th spot, while New Delhi followed it at 18th spot and Mumbai at 29th rank.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2018 with one half to Frances H. Arnold (USA) "for the directed evolution of enzymes" and the other half jointly to George P. Smith (USA) and Sir Gregory P. Winter (UK) "for the phage display of peptides and antibodies".

The President of the United States, Donald Trump on May 8, 2019 imposed harsher sanctions on the iron, copper, steel and aluminium industry of Iran. The move is aimed at stopping Iran from pursuing its nuclear interests and acquiring nuclear weapon and intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Trump administration withdrew from the nuclear deal stating that it had failed to protect American national security interests and enabled Tehran's malign behaviour.