Q1. Name the person  who played the villainous British governor in “RRR,” an Asgardian warrior in the “Thor” films, and a member of the 13th Legion in HBO’s “Rome,”  and who has died recently ?

1. Antoine Fuqua
2. Paul Greengrass
3. Ray Stevenson
4. Brian Lowery
5. None of These

Q2. Name the former Mumbai NCB chief who has been booked for allegedly seeking a bribe of Rs 25 crore from actor Shah Rukh Khan for not implicating the actor's son Aryan in the Cordelia cruise 'drug bust' case ?

1. Krishna Gopal Tiwari
2. U. Sagayam
3.  Ashok Khemka
4. Sameer Wankhede
5. None of These

Q3. Name the actor, model and casting director  who was found dead in the bathroom of his apartment in  Mumbai recently ?

1. Aditya Singh Rajput
2. Sushant Singh Rajput
3. Mukesh Chhabra
4. Shruti Mahajan
5. None of These

Q4. Name the veteran actor who , became famous for his work in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi films  and who passed away at a private hospital in Hyderabad recently ?

1. Mahesh Babu
2. Sarath Babu
3. Allu Arjun
4. Ram Charan
5. None of These

Q5. Name the person who scaled Mt. Everest for the 27th time, equalising a world record for the highest number of ascents set earlier by Kami Rita Sherpa ?

1. Dorje Gyalgen Sherpa
2. Phurba Tashi Sherpa
3. Ngima Nuru Sherpa
4. Pasang Dawa Sherpa
5. None of These

Answers

1------------------------------------3   Ray Stevenson

2-------------------------------------4  Sameer Wankhede

3-------------------------------------1  Aditya Singh Rajput

4-------------------------------------2  Sarath Babu

5-------------------------------------4   Pasang Dawa Sherpa 

The Indian Army rescued 500 stranded tourists, including 54 children, from north Sikkim as torrential rain in parts of the Himalayan state caused landslides and roadblocks .Heavy rain was witnessed in Lachen, Lachung and Chungthang on May 19.

As a result of the downpour, approximately 500 tourists, who were travelling to Lachung and Lachen Valley, were stranded at Chungthang due to landslides and roadblocks en route.

On request from SDM Chungthang, troops of Trishakti Corps, Indian Army swung into action and rescued the stranded tourists to safety. The stranded tourists included 216 men, 113 women and 54 children, and they were moved to three different army camps. They were provided with hot meals and warm clothing

TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee, appeared before the CBI at its Kolkata office, where he had been called as part of the agency's probe into the alleged school jobs scam.

Earlier in the day, Enforcement Directorate conducted a raid at the residence of Sujay Krishna Bhadra, considered to be close to TMC top brass in connection with its probe into the alleged school jobs scam.

The raid was carried out at the Behala house of 'Kalighat er Kaku' (Kalighat's uncle) as he is popularly known.

Bhadra had on March 15 appeared before the CBI for his alleged involvement in illegal appointments made in different state-run and state-aided schools in West Bengal.

While the Central Bureau of Investigation is probing the criminal aspect of the scam, the ED is looking into the money-trail involved in the alleged irregularities in the recruitment in schools.

Russia  has labelled Greenpeace an "undesirable organisation", accusing it of anti-Moscow propaganda and attempting to “change power in the country”.

The designation criminalises the work of organisations carrying the brand and puts staff at risk of prosecution.

The Office of the General Prosecutor said the climate advocacy group posed “a threat to the foundations of the constitutional order and security” of the country.  Since the start of Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine, Greenpeace activists have been engaged in “anti-Russian propaganda” and called for Russia’s economic isolation, the statement said.

G7 leaders vowed that attempts to "weaponise" trade and supply chains would "fail and face consequences," in a thinly veiled warning to China over its economic practices.

Pushing back against Beijing's willingness to wield trade measures in diplomatic disputes has been a key theme of the bloc's meeting in Hiroshima though, in the end, its statement on economic security did not directly reference China

Still, the target was clear, with the group warning of a "disturbing rise in incidents of economic coercion" that attempt to "undermine the foreign and domestic policies and positions of G7 members" and partners.

The bloc is particularly concerned about its vulnerability in key sectors including critical minerals, semiconductors and batteries, all of which are vital to modern economies.

It pledged to strengthen supply chains and address disruptions, and ensure that technologies with national security applications are "appropriately controlled" -- also likely to be seen as a reference to keeping certain goods out of Beijing's hands.

Washington has led an aggressive push in recent months to restrict China's access to advanced chip-manufacturing tools, citing national security concerns while pressing Japan and the Netherlands to follow suit.

Sullivan said that past differences between the United States and the European Union countries on how to deal with China have largely faded.

The common strategy will emphasise the need to protect Western powers and their allies while avoiding outright confrontation with China.

Biotechnology company GeneSys Biologics Pvt Ltd is planning to invest USD 50-60 million to set up a new large-scale recombinant bulk manufacturing facility in Genome Valley  in Hyderabad for the production of insulin analogues.

The insulin analogues (medical insulin that are altered forms of the human hormone insulin) will be produced in the recombinant bulk manufacturing facility in which purified bulk insulin will be derived through fermentation.

An official press release said the Hyderabad-based company has already invested approximately USD 50 million in its Genome Valley plant.

GeneSys has partnered with Civica Rx, a US non-profit generic drug company, to manufacture and distribute affordable insulin.

After coming under criticism for levying a 20% tax on overseas credit card payments, the government on  May 19  announced that any payments by an individual using their international debit or credit cards up to Rs 7 lakh per annum would be excluded from the liberalised remittance scheme or LRS limits and will not attract any tax collection at source (TCS).

Existing beneficial TCS treatment for education and health payments will also continue, it reiterated.  Recently, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced a new provision to bring overseas credit card spending under the LRS scheme in which individuals can do remittances of up to USD 2.5 lakh per annum.

Following this, the Ministry of Finance also issued a notification saying that such payments would attract 20% TCS which can be adjusted against advance tax payments or refunded at the time of return filing. 

Under the LRS, there is a limit of $250,000 that one can take out of the country for expenses overseas. 

The government also levies TCS at varying rates for different categories of expenditures under LRS. The rate varies from 0.5% to 20%.

Sterling Oil Resources, a company backed by Nitin Sandesara, a fugitive businessman and one of the leading wilful defaulters of the country, has had an insolvency application accepted by the Mumbai bench of the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT).

The State Bank of India (SBI) lodged the insolvency petition against Sterling Oil Resources when the company failed to fulfill a payment obligation of Rs 1,651 crore. Sterling Oil had provided a guarantee for loans obtained by Sterling Global Oil Resources Private Limited, a group firm situated in Mauritius.

Sterling Global Oil Resources holds an interest in an Oil Prospecting License through Sterling Exploration and Energy Production Company Limited (SEEPCO) in Nigeria, which functions as a subsidiary at the asset level.

SBI was among the consortium members that offered Standby Letter of Credits (SBLC) to foreign currency lenders of Sterling Global Oil Resources. An SBLC agreement was established with the SBLC providers in June 2014. These SBLC facilities were backed by securities and guarantees provided by Sterling Oil Resources as the holding company of SGORPL.

In February 2016, one of Sterling Oil Resources' group companies, Sterling BVI, defaulted on its periodic debt obligations to foreign currency lenders. Consequently, the lenders invoked the SBLCs, and SBI, as the issuer of the standby letter of credit, had to make a payment of Rs 857 crore on behalf of Sterling Global Oil Resources.

Following this, in March 2016, SBI demanded immediate reimbursement from SGORPL for the amounts paid as the SBLC provider. Despite repeated reminders, SGORPL failed to make the payment.

In October 2019, the lender issued a recall notice to both SGORPL and Sterling Oil Resources. When the recall notice was ignored, SBI pursued legal action through the Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), which directed Sterling Oil Resources to promptly settle the outstanding payment. However, as Sterling Oil Resources still failed to comply, SBI resorted to filing an insolvency plea with the NCLT.

Nitin Sandesara, who along with members of his family has been declared a fugitive under the Fugitive Economic Offenders Act, is one of the top wilful defaulters in the country. His company Sterling Biotech owed Rs 1,158 crore to Indian banks. NCLT ordered liquidation of Sterling Biotech after the corporate insolvency resolution process failed to find any takers for the company. Sterling Biotech was acquired by US start-up Perfect Day Inc after paying Rs 638 crore to financial creditors.