1.Kannada writer, lawyer, and activist Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi Wednesday scripted history by winning the International Booker Prize for ‘Heart Lamp’, the fi rst Kannada title and the fi rst-ever collection of short stories to be awarded the GBP 50,000 prize.

2.The odisha state government has decided to provide an enhanced pension of Rs 3,500 per month to benefi ciaries aged 80 years and above and persons with more than 80 per cent disability from June this year.

3.The Supreme Court Wednesday refused to hear a plea seeking an FIR against high court judge Yashwant Varma in connection with the discovery of cash from this official residence in the capital.

4.The Supreme Court Wednesday granted interim bail to Ashoka University professor Ali Khan Mahmudabad, arrested for his contentious social media posts on Operation Sindoor, but refused to stay the investigation against him.

5.Topmost leader and the backbone of the Naxal movement, Nambala Keshav Rao alias Basavaraju, and 26 other dreaded Maoists were killed by security forces in a f erce encounter in the dense forests of Abhujmad in Bastar region of Chhattisgarh Wednesday.

6.About 82.77 per cent of students cleared the examinations conducted by the Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE), School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond said.

7.Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi Wednesday directed department secretaries to visit remote areas in 14 districts of the state where PM Janman Yojana is being implemented and assess the situation there.

8.The state government is planning to hold elections to students’ unions in colleges and universities this year, after a gap of seven years.

9.Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi Wednesday directed officials to include widowed girls under the Mukhyamantri Kanya Vivah Yojana (MKVY), which will soon be implemented in the state.

10.A few hours after announcing dates, the State Election Commission (SEC) Wednesday deferred the bypolls to a few three-tier panchayat institutions from May 22 as the early onset of monsoon is expected in the region, an official said.

11.India’s largest aluminium producer Vedanta’s ‘Sangam Watershed Project’ is creating sustainable water-based assets across 41 villages around Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district, along with ensuring year-round water availability for both drinking and agricultural purposes.

12. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil India’s first 9,000 horsepower locomotive engine, take part in a roadshow and multiple events during his two-day visit to Gujarat starting from May 26.

13.The Centre Wednesday defended the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025 in the Supreme Court and said though waqf was an Islamic concept, it was not an essential part of Islam.

14.India lost 18,200 hectares of primary forest in 2024 compared to 17,700 hectares in 2023, according to new data from Global Forest Watch (GFW), a global collaboration of over 100 organisations.

15.President Donald Trump has announced the concept he wants for his future Golden Dome missile defence program — a multilayered, $175 billion system that for the fi rst time will put US weapons in space.