Fifa appoints Fatma Samoura as first female secretary general

 Fifa broke new ground by appointing a Senegalese United Nations official as its first female and first non-European secretary general.

•  Fatma Samoura has no experience working in sports but Fifa President Gianni Infantino hopes that will help it try to regain the trust and credibility of the world.

Fédération Internationale de Football Association(FIFA) :

• Headquarters- Zürich, Switzerland
• Membership-  211 national associations
• President- Gianni Infantino
• Senior Vice-President Issa Hayatou

Vice-Presidents-

1.  Ángel María Villar
2. David Chung
3. Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa
4. David Gill
5. Alejandro Dominguez
6. Sunil Gulati

Secretary General -Fatma Samoura

Anil Kumble re-appointed ICC Cricket Committee chairman

 Former India captain Anil Kumble has been re-appointed ICC (International Cricket Council) Cricket Committee chairman for a second term of three years.

•  Earlier he was appointed as the chairman for his first term in 2012 and now he will continue to head the panel until 2018. 
• Besides, former Indian Rahul Dravid was also named member of the ICC Cricket Committee.
•  Former Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardene also has been appointed member. 
• Former Australia off-spinner Tim May has been elected as current player representative and shall replace Laxman Sivaramakrishnan, who has completed his three-year term.
•  Three-time ICC Umpire of the Year Richard Kettleborough also has been appointed as umpires’ representative in the committee.

ICC (International Cricket Council) :

• Headquarters -Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• Chairman- Shashank Manohar
• President -Zaheer Abbas
• CEO- David Richardson

EPFO paid ₹8,200 crore as monthly pension in 2015-16

The Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) disbursed ₹8,200 crore as monthly pension and ₹47,630 crore as member benefits in 2015-16.

• The retirement fund body, however, said while seeding data, a mismatch between EPF and Aadhaar data in respect of date of birth and name of pensioner was noticed in certain cases.
• It has, therefore, advised members to either correct their details provided to EPFO offices or those given in Aadhaar, whichever is correct.

Axis Bank appoints Sanjiv Misra as chairman

Private sector lender Axis Bank has appointed Sanjiv Misra as independent director and non-executive chairman for five years with effect from May 12, 2016.

• It is for the first time, the chairman is being appointment by the bank and not nominated by SUUTI (Specified Undertaking of the UTI) which has more than 11 per cent stake in Axis Bank.
• This follows a change made in the Articles of Association (AoA) of the bank.
• The bank also elevated Rajesh Dahiya and Rajiv Anand as executive directors. 
• They will be on the board of the bank.

Axis Bank :

Headquarters- Mumbai, Maharashtra

(MD & CEO)- Shikha Sharma 

NITI Aayog to replace Nehruvian 5-year plans with 15-year vision documents

NDA government at the Centre, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has decided to get rid of the Nehruvian five-year plans, and replace them with 15-year vision documents.

• The NITI Aayog has been directed to prepare a vision document at the earliest.
• The current 12th Five-Year Plan will be terminated in the current financial year, 2016-17. The first 15-year vision document will start from 2017-18, along with a seven-year National Development Agenda which will lay down the schemes, programmes and strategies to achieve the long-term vision. 
• The National Development Agenda will be reviewed after a gap of every three years to ensure that it was aligned with financial needs and requirements.
• For the first Development Agenda, the review would be done in 2019-20, in line with the termination year of the 14th Finance Commission.
• “The National Development Agenda will also deal with issues related to internal security, defence and external affairs.
• The Five-Year Plans first started in 1951 under the country’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

NITI Aayog:

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chairperson
• Amitabh Kant, CEO
• Shri Arvind Panagariya, Vice Chairperson

RBI issues norms for branch offices by foreign entities

The Reserve Bank on 13 May said that entities from Pakistan, China, Bangladesh and four other regions will require its prior approval to establish branch office or project office in India. 

• Other countries and regions are Sri Lanka, Afghanistan,Iran and Hong Kong or Macau, RBI said while releasing guidelines for foreign entities to open a branch office (BO) or a liaison office (LO) or a project office (PO) in India. 
• Permission of RBI will also be required for opening a BO/LO/PO in Jammu and Kashmir, North East region and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
•  The approval is also required if the applicant is a Non-Government Organisation (NGO), a Non-Profit Organisation, or a Body/ Agency/ Department of a foreign government. 
• It will also be needed if the principal business of the applicant falls in the four sectors — defence, telecom, private security and information and broadcasting.

AR Rahman becomes India’s fourth Goodwill Ambassador for Rio Games

Music composer AR Rahman accepted the Indian Olympic Association’s offer to become the Goodwill Ambassador for the Rio Olympics.

•  He becomes the fourth India’s Goodwill Ambassador for the Rio Olympics after Salman Khan, Sachin Tendulkar and Abhinav Bindra. 
• There was a storm when the IOA named Salman Khan as a Goodwill Ambassador late last month.
•  Rahman is well-respected across the country and bagged an Oscar for his music in ‘Slumdog Millionaire.’
•  The Olympics this year is going to be a very significant event for India as it will send its largest ever contingent – about 90 athletes – to the Games in Rio de Janeiro beginning August 5.