Current Affairs 12th May 2018

Current Affairs 12th May 2018 - Important Points

• Former Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad returned to power on - 10th May 2018
• Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal quits after Walmart deal on - 9th May 2018
• National Technology Day of India celebrated on - 11th May 2018
•  SpaceX launches most powerful Falcon 9 rocket on - 11th May 2018

Current Affairs 12th May 2018 - Details

Former Malaysian PM Mahathir Mohamad returned to power on - 10th May 2018

Mahathir Mohamad was sworn in as the seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia on May 10th, 2018 making a stunning comeback to politics 15 years after his retirement. Mohamad claimed election victory in the country’s General Elections 2018 and after this he becomes the world's oldest Prime Minister at the age of 92.

Mahathir's coalition, Pakatan Harapan has won 121 out of 222 seats. Mahathir's coalition defeated the governing BN(Barisan Nasional) coalition led by Prime Minister Najib Razak, which has been in power for over 60 years. BN coalition managed to win 79 seats only.

Mahathir’s policy pledges

• Doing away with 6 percent goods and services tax within 100 days of taking office.
• In 2015, the taxes were introduced and this thing was widely blamed by the citizens as it affected their rising living cost.
• To reintroduce gasoline subsidies, which could turn out be a bonus for consumption.
• To increase petroleum royalties to oil-producing states and raising minimum wages.

Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal quits after Walmart deal on - 9th May 2018

Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal announced his exit from the company on May 9th, 2018, hours after the news of American retailer Walmart acquiring Flipkart broke nationally. He stated in a post on social media that it was time for him to hand over the baton and move on.

“Flipkart truly upheld audacity and customer centricity and I got to work with the best people.
We took on some of the biggest challenges and solved many complex problems for India,” he said.
He further added saying, “sadly my work here is done and after 10 years, it’s time to hand over the baton and move on from Flipkart but I’ll be watching and cheering from the outside
— Flipsters, you better continue to do a good job!”

Looking ahead, Sachin is planning to take time off to finish personal projects, catching up on gaming and brushing up on his coding skills. Binny Bansal, on the other hand, will be retain his 5.5 percent stake in the company and remain Flipkart Group CEO. Kalyan Krishnamurthy will also be continuing as CEO of Flipkart.com.

More about Sachin Bansal

• Born on August 5th, 1981, Bansal is an Indian Software engineer and Internet entrepreneur.
• He along with Binny Bansal, both IIT graduates founded India's largest e-commerce platform Flipkart as an online bookstore back in 2007.
• Though they share the same surname but both are are not related.
• Before starting Flipkart, both Sachin and Binny worked with Amazon India as software engineers but they decided to leave within a short span of time to start something of their own.
• Though initially they thought to start a comparison search engine, but they realised that the market for e-commerce in India was very small.
• So they launched Flipkart from an apartment with 4, 00,000 rupees cash in Bangalore.
• During the initial days of Flipkart, Sachin and Bansal used to deliver books across Bengaluru on their scooters.
• Based on performance ground, in August 2016 Sachin was removed as a CEO of Flipkart.

More about Flipkart’s Acquisition

• Walmart, one of the world’s largest multinational retailers acquired Indian e-commerce platform Flipkart in a $16 billion deal on May 9th, 2018.
• The US-based company, Walmart bought 77 percent stake in Flipkart from the existing shareholders including Japan’s Softbank Group.
• So far, the deal is the biggest merger and acquisition in India and marked the entry of Walmart into the Indian retail business.
• With 77 percent stakes, Walmart will be having the controlling rights in Flipkart.
• As a part of Walmart’s condition that it could accommodate only one of the Flipkart founders in the board, Sachin Bansal has resigned, selling his 5.5 percent stake for a  little for about $1 billion.
• The other co-founder, Binny Bansal, however, would be staying back and will be a board member along with Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy.

National Technology Day of India celebrated on - 11th May 2018

The National Technology Day was observed across India on May 11th, 2018 to celebrate the anniversary of Pokhran nuclear tests of 1998. The day is also marked India's technological advancements and scientific prowess.

Important Information

• The Union Ministry of Science and Technology celebrates National Technology Day on May 11th every year.
• This day is considered as a pursuit symbol for scientific inquiry, technological creativity and the conversion of that pursuit in the integration of society, industry and science.
• On the same occasion, various events are being organized in technical institutions and engineering colleges as well.
• Interactive sessions,lectures, presentations, quizzes, and competitions are also held to mark the day.
• The Indian president also presented National Technology Award on this day to individuals and companies for their strong contribution towards science.
• Technology and science ministers have also come forward to celebrate this day by organizing various kinds of events for science development in the country.

 SpaceX launches most powerful Falcon 9 rocket on - 11th May 2018

The California-based aerospace company SpaceX launched its most powerful rocket yet ‘Falcon 9’ on May 11th, 2018, which is expected to carry human beings to space later this year.
The rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida USA with an aim to propel Bangladesh’s first high-orbit communications satellite, namely, Bangabandhu Satellite-1.
It was initially expected to launch it on May 10th, 2018, but due to triggering of the automatic abort switch, the launch was postponed in the last minute.

Important Highlights

• Named after Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of Bangladesh who was assassinated in 1975, the spacecraft will be providing data services during a 15-year mission.
• The satellite will also be offering video and communications coverage over Bangladesh and its territorial waters in the Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bay of Bengal, India, the Philippines, and Indonesia.
• It will also be providing broadband connectivity to rural areas throughout the country.
• The satellite was built by Thales Alenia Space of Cannes in France.
• The Block 5 Falcon 9 rocket is, ultimately, meant to carry astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) around December 2018.
• If things happen as planned, it will be the first time that a rocket will carry people to space since the end of the US space shuttle program in 2011.
• The rocket is built to re-fly up to 10 times with minimal refurbishment aiming to bring down the cost of spaceflight.
• The Falcon 9 Block 5’s avionics are multi-fault tolerant, that means this rocket can still reach orbit after multiple system failures.