May 17

The Union Home Ministry extended the ban imposed on the Liberation Tigers of Ta
mil-Eelam (LTTE) in India for five more years. Earlier the ban was imposed on LT
TE in May 2012.
* India banned the terror outfit, LTTE after the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi,
the former Prime Minister of India in 1991. It declared LTTE an unlawful associa
tion under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967.
Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh met President Pranab Mukherjee at the Rashtra
pati Bhavan and submitted his resignation of his Council of Ministers.
* 81-year-old Dr. Singh drove to the Rasthrapati Bhavan from his official reside
nce 7, Race Course Road, to submit the resignation of his Council of Ministers.
May 18
Asia's biggest milk brand Amul announced to set up a dairy processing plant in
Varanasi. The plant will initially process five lakh litres per day with the cap
acity to double the production. Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav offe
red Amul 30 acres land in Varanasi.
* Although UP is India's largest milk producing state, the share of organized se
ctor is only one lakh liters milk per day while private players were exploiting
the farmers.
May 19
The Competition Appellate Tribunal (Compact) upheld a penalty of 630 crore rupe
es imposed on real estate firm DLF by the Competition Commission of India (CCI).
DLF, as a result, will have to pay the penalty of 630 crore rupees levied by th
e CCI along with 9 per cent interest.
* This is the first major ruling of CCI in which its order has been upheld by th
e Compact. The Compact has given 60 days time to the company for the same.
May 20
The Prime Minister's Office accepted the resignations of all members of the Pla
nning Commission to paving the way for reconstitution of the institution. Beside
s Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the other full time members of the Com
mission are B.K. Chaturvedi, Saumitra Chaudhuri, Syeda Hameed, Narendra Jadhav,
Abhijit Sen, Mihir Shah, K. Kasturirangan and Arun Maira.
* The term of members of the Planning Commission is co-terminus with the governm
ent. The new government will decide on the reconstitution of the Commission. Thi
s Commission has drafted the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) which envisages an an
nual average economic growth of 8 percent during the policy period.
May 21
The Army has launched a coaching program for the students of Chenab Valley belt
in Jammu and Kashmir to help them crack the prestigious Indian Institute of Tec
hnology Joint Entrance Exam (IIT-JEE).
* The Centre for Social Responsibility & Leadership (CSRL) formed in association
with Army's Delta Force launched Chenab Super-30 program to provide eleven mont
hs free residential coaching for clearing the IIT-JEE to the talented youth of C
henab Valley.
May 22
Director General Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued for the first time, the 'Standard
s of Services' document enlisting the services/transactions offered by DGCA to t
he public, operators and others. The document provides a concise detail of the w
ork involved in processing an application/ request including the related rules a
nd regulations.
For the benefit of general public, the services/ transactions have been broadly
divided into the following:
* Aircraft
* Aircraft Operator
* Foreign Airline Operating Authorization
* Aerodromes
* Air Space and Air Traffic Management
* Approval of Schedules
* Individuals
* Other services
* Organizations
Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) government scrapped the New Recruitment Policy, 2011. U
nder the new policy for non-gazetted posts, the appointees were paid a stipend i
nstead of salary for the first five years.
* The decision to scrap the policy was taken as a part of course correction by t
he J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah after his party National Conferences debacle
in the Lok Sabha election 2014 in J&K.
May 23
The Supreme Court granted one week more time to the Centre to set up SIT under
its former judge M.B. Shah to monitor all black money cases as per its direction
. A vacation bench of justices B.S. Chauhan and A.K. Sikri granted time as the d
eadline fixed by the apex court for constituting the SIT expired yesterday.
* The bench also directed that all documents relating to black money must be kep
t in safe custody of secretary-level officer of revenue department after the pet
itioner senior advocate Ram Jethmalani alleged that some of the "vital" document
s were destroyed in a fire at Shastri Bhawan.
May 25
The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) began drilling its first-ever well i
n the Palar basin for oil and gas under way at Chinnapuliyur village near Gummid
ipoondi, about 55 km from Chennai. The exploratory well is to be drilled to a de
pth of 2,000metres in four months.
May 26
Narendra Damodardass Modi was sworn in as the 15th Prime Minister of the countr
y. The oath of office and secrecy to Modi was administered by President Pranab M
ukherjee.
* The swearing-in ceremony was attended by several world leaders including Pakis
tan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Afgh
anistan President Hamid Karzai. Heads of Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and
Mauritius were also present at the swearing-in ceremony.
Cabinet Ministers:
1 Rajnath Singh (a) Home Minster
2 Sushma Swaraj (a) External Affairs & Overseas Indian Affairs
3 Arun Jaitley (a) Finance Corporate Affairs
(b) Defence
4 M. Venkaiah Naidu (a) Urban development Housing
(b) Urban Poverty Alleviation
(c) Parliamentary Affairs
5 Nitin Jairam Gadkari (a) Road Transport
(b) Highways Shipping
6 D.V. Sadananda Gowda (a) Railways
7 Uma Bharati (b) Water Resources,
(c) River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation
8 Dr. Najma A. Heptulla (a) Minority Affairs
9 Gopinathrao Munde (b) Drinking Water and Sanitation
(c) Rural Development, Panchayati Raj
10 Ramvilas Paswan (a) Consumer Affairs,
(b) Food and Public Distribution
11 Kalraj Mishra (a) Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises