Current Affairs May 01, 2015

Surender Singh Took Over As Director General of CISF
Senior IPS officer Surender Singh on 1 May took over as the new director general of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF). Singh, a 1980-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of the West Bengal cadre, was serving as a special director in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) before taking up his new assignment as CISF chief. He succeeds Arvind Ranjan, a 1977-batch IPS officer of Kerala cadre who retired on 30 April 2015.

Scientist CNR Rao Conferred with Japan’s Highest civilian Award
Eminent scientist CNR Rao was conferred with Japan’s highest civilian award for his outstanding contributions to science and Indo-Japanese science coperation. The Emperor of Japan conferred the country’s highest award, the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, on the Bharat Ratna awardee. Rao is also the only Indian to be elected as a foreign member of the Japan Academy.The renowned scientist, who has published more than 1600 research papers and authored about 50 books, has been bestowed with about 70 honorary doctorates, received the highest civilian award from several nations and is an elected member of almost all scientific academies across the globe.He had also worked as the Chief Science Advisor to Prime Ministers of India.

West Bengal CM Declares Nadia India’s First Open Defecation Free District
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee declared Nadia as the first Open Defecation Free (ODF) district in the country. The mission to make Nadia Open Defecation Free (ODF) district was started on 19 November 2013. West Bengal is also doing efforts to make two more districts – Hooghly and Burdwan as ODF districts very soon.

Bangalore Railway Station To Be Re-named ‘Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna’
The Union Government approved the name change of the Bangalore city railway station as ‘Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna’ railway station. The decision came following a request of the Karnataka government, which sought the name change of the railway station. In September 2014, the central government had cleared renaming 12 cities and towns of the state including Belgaum as Belagavi and Bangalore as Bengaluru. The other cities and towns whose names were changed then include Mangalore (to Mangaluru), Bellary (to Ballari), Bijapur (to Vijapura), Chikmagalur (to Chikkamagaluru), Gulbarga (to Kalaburagi), Mysore (to Mysure), Hospet (to Hosapete), Shimoga (to Shivamogga), Hubli (to Hubballi) and Tumkur (to Tumakuru).