News in Short

• The World Bank has announced an aid of $1 billion to support India’s efforts to provide social assistance to the poor and most vulnerable households severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.
• The support package in fiscal and monetary measures will be funded in two phases, an immediate allocation of $750 million for fiscal year 2020 and a $250 million second tranche that will be made available for fiscal year 2021.
• Governments around the world have taken unprecedented steps to restrict the movement of people through lockdowns intended to slow down the spread of the virus. This has had a severe impact on economies and jobs, especially in the informal sector.

• Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and eight other candidates were elected unopposed as member of legislative council (MLC) for a term of six years till 2026.
• The state election office declared all nine candidates elected as MLCs unopposed, including Thackeray, Neelam Gorhe (Shiv Sena), BJP’s Gopichand Padalkar, Praveen Datke, Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil and Ramesh Karad, NCP’s Shashikant Shinde and Amol Mitkari, and Rajesh Rathod of the Congress.
• Thackeray, who was sworn in as the CM on November 28 last year, required to become a member of either Houses of the state legislature by May 27. With this election, Thackeray, who is also the president of Shiv Sena, makes his debut as a legislator.

• Vijay Mallya has lost his plea in the UK Supreme Court to appeal against a 2018 extradition order, triggering a 28-day “required period” after which he could be sent to India.
• While the rejection of permission to appeal has likely ended the legal options available for him in the UK to avoid extradition, he could still approach the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) claiming that he would not receive a fair trial back home.
• The challenge before the Indian agencies would be to convince the ECHR that special provisions will be made to ensure that the Arthur Road Jail facility will be safe for his detention or he could be shifted to another prison facility that meets all the requisite requirements.

• Veteran Bengali author Debesh Roy, who was conferred the Sahitya Akademi award for his novel ‘Teesta Parer Brittanto’, passed away.
• A regular contributor to a number of Bengali dailies, he was a staunch critic of the attacks on liberals by in the country in recent times and attended protest meetings despite his failing health.
• Besides ‘Teesta Parer Britanta’, he will be remembered for books like BorisalerJogenMondal , Manush Khun Kore Keno and Samay Asamayer Brittanto.

• Actor Sai Gundewar, who was known for his appearances in shows like Survivor and Splitsvilla, as well as acting in films PK and Rock On!, passed away at the age of 42.
• The actor had been battling brain cancer before succumbing to the disease on May 10 in Los Angeles.