Daily Current Affairs: 8 May 2015

1) Achal Kumar Jyoti appointed as Election Commissioner:

--> Achal Kumar Jyoti, a former Chief Secretary during the tenure of Narendra Modi as Gujarat Chief Minister, was on 7 May 2015 appointed as the Election Commissioner, filling one of the two vacancies in the three-member body.

--> His tenure as Election Commissioner will commence from the day he assumes charge, a Law Ministry notification said.

--> Jyoti will have a tenure of nearly three years, when he will turn 65, the age at which ECs demit office under the Constitution.

--> An EC or a CEC has a tenure of six years in office or till he or she attains the age of 65 years, whichever is earlier.

--> After V S Sampath demitted office in January, H S Brahma was elevated as CEC. But after Brahma demitted office, two posts of ECs in the three-member body have remained vacant.

2) Myntra acquired Bengaluru-based Native5:

--> Myntra, an e-commerce portal for fashion and lifestyle products, has acquired Bengaluru-based mobile app development platform company, Native5.

--> This acquisition will strengthen and expand Myntra’s mobile technology team.

--> Native5, led by Kunal Abhishek, Barada Sahu, Shamik Dattaand and Manish Priyadarshi, was founded in 2012 and builds tools and services to enable cross platform app development on the cloud.

--> In April 2013, Myntra acquired Fitiquette, a San Francisco-based technology solution, a virtual fitting room.

3) Windows 10 to be Microsoft's final Windows OS version:

--> Microsoft's Windows 10 OS, which is slated to launch this summer for desktops, may possibly be the last Windows operating system from the company.

--> With the philosophy of "Windows as a service" for the future, Microsoft is planning to push out updates regularly for Windows 10 rather than introduce new versions of the operating system.

4) David Cameron's Conservative Party won UK Election:

--> In an election, the results of which defied all expectations and predictions, the Conservative Party, led by David Cameron, was swept back to power on 8 May 2015.

--> Unlike last term, David Cameron is back in power with clear majority, to govern the United Kingdom for another five years.

--> The Conservative Party won with 331 seats, comfortably crossing the 326 mid-way mark in the 650-seat House of Commons.

--> A distant second, the Labour Party won 232 seats, a loss of 26 seats.

--> Its leader Ed Miliband has stepped down.

5) NPCI cuts inter-bank ATM transaction fees by 10%:

--> National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) on 8 May 2015 announced a 10 percent or 5 paise reduction in charges for transactions on its inter-bank ATM network.

--> The Reserve Bank-promoted body, whose inter-bank network, the National Financial Switch (NFS), witnesses the largest transaction volume, has reduced the charges to 45 paise on an increase in volumes and efficiency, the Corporation said.

--> The NFS has over 400 member banks and connects over 1.92 lakh ATMs.

--> The switching fee is charged to issuing banks for approved transactions.

6) Norway, Philippines Ambassadors killed in chopper crash in Pakistan:

--> Envoys of the Philippines and Norway and the wives of the Malaysian and Indonesian ambassadors were among seven persons killed when a Pakistani military helicopter crashed in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) on 8 May 2015.

--> The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed it had downed the chopper with an anti-aircraft missile.

--> The Pakistan Army, however, ruled out the possibility of any terrorist activity in the crash and said the chopper had crashed due to a technical fault while landing.

7) Jitan Ram Manjhi floats new party in Bihar:

--> Former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi on 8 May 2015 formally launched a new party, Hindustan Awami Morcha (HAM).

--> Earlier after splitting with Nitish Kumar, Hindustan Awami Morcha was launched as a political front.

--> Hindustan Awami Morcha leader Shakuni Choudhary has been named its state president, and the party will contest all the 243 seats in the coming assembly polls.

8) Mhairi Black becomes youngest British MP since 1667:

--> 20-year old student Mhairi Black created history as she became the youngest British MP since 1667.

--> Representing the Scottish National Party (SNP), she defeated Labour Party’s Douglas Alexander in the seat of Paisley and Renfrewshire South.

--> Black thus became the youngest lawmaker since Christopher Monck entered Parliament in 1667 at age 13.

9) Government sets up panel to study MAT on FIIs:

--> Centre on 7 May 2015 announced that it will set up a high-level panel to examine the issue of minimum alternate tax (MAT) on foreign institutional investors (FIIs), a move aimed at calming jittery foreign investors, along with other "legacy issues".

--> The committee will be headed by justice A P Shah, the chairman of the Law Commission.

10) World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day observed:

--> World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day is an annual celebration of the principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

--> World Red Cross Red Crescent Day is celebrated on 8 May each year.

--> This date is the anniversary of the birth of Henry Dunant (born 8 May 1828), the founder of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the recipient of the first Nobel Peace Prize.