Current Affairs January 2015
International
• Two Years Eight Months and Twenty Eight Nights- the new novel of British author Salman Rushdie to be published after seven years, is based on collection of folk tales known as the Arabian Nights.
• Kepler 438B- one of the eight new planets found in distant solar system by NASA's Kepler space telescope, could be termed as Earth's twin, is 12%larger than Earth and get 40%more light.
• Charlie Hebdo- the French satirical magazine which recently faced a terrorist attack at it's headquarter in Paris killing 12 persons.
• MH370 Met With Accident, Malaysia Declares Officially
• The Malaysian government has officially declared that Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 met with an accident March 8 last year, and all 239 people on board the plane are presumed dead.
• The announcement was made by Director General of Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation Azharuddin Abdul Rahman on Jan 29, 2015.
• Neither the wreckage of the aircraft nor the bodies of those on board have been found yet.
• Saudi King Abdullah Dies: Modi CondolesKing Abdullah died on Jan 23, 2015 of complications from pneumonia and has been succeeded by his brother Salman, the Saudi Arabian royal household said in a statement.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi condoled the demise of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
• "In King Abdullah, we have lost an important voice, who left a lasting impact on his country. I condole his demise," Modi said in a statement
• Sri Lanka Polls: Sirisena won PM Modi Congratulates Sirisena
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Maithripala Sirisena on his victory in the Sri Lankan polls and reaffirmed India's continued support for the nation's peace and development.
• "I spoke to Maithripala Sirisena and congratulated him. I congratulate the people of Sri Lanka on the peaceful and democratic poll process," the prime minister said in a statement.
• He added: "As a close friend and neighbour, reaffirmed India's continued solidarity and support for Sri Lanka's peace, development and prosperity."
• Colombia's Paulina Vega Wins Miss Universe 2014 Title
• Colombian beauty Paulina Vega beat 87 contestants, including India's Noyonita Lodh, to win the Miss Universe 2014 crown here on 25th January, 2015.
• Bangalore girl Noyonita, 21, failed to reach the Top 10, but she had managed to pave her way into the Top 15 at the 63rd edition of the pageant. India has not won the Miss Universe crown since 2000, when now Bollywood actress Lara Dutta had walked away with the accolades.
• At the 2014 pageant, contestants from 88 countries were participating.
National
• Rs.2- the amount of excise duty which has been levied on petrol and diesel recently to raise an annual revenue of Rs.10,000 crore to fund the ambitious plan of government to built an additional 15,000km of National highways over the next three years.
• Niti Aayog- stands for National Institution for Transforming India Aayog which will now replace the 65 year old Planning Commission and will be headed by Prime Minister.
• 27.6%- the percentage of people or 104 million people out of 377 million living in the urban India has been identified as poor, according to preliminary figures of the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC). This is the first time the urban poor have been identified.
• 9th January- on this day in 1915 Mahatma Gandhi set foot on Indian soil and stepped on to the path of being the Mahatma
• Repo rate- this rate was recently cut from 8% to 7.75% by Raghuram Rajan, RBI Governor.
• Bio diesel- bthe cabinet recently allowed private manufacturers of this alternative fuel to sell it directly to consumers like Indian Railways.
• Tejas- the first indigenously built light combat aircraft was handed over to the IAF recently, 32 years after the project was sanctioned.
• Agni V-the nuclear capable missile having a strike range of 5,000km which was successfully test fired for the third time but from the first time from a canister mounted on a truck rather than a concrete launch pad from Wheeler island of Odisha coast recently.
• 2226- the number of tigers in India in 2014 as reported in The 2014 Status of Tigers in India which is 30% more than that of 1706 in 2010.
• Twitter- the micro blogging site which made its first acquisition in India by buying Bangalore based mobile marketing platform Zip Dial for an undisclosed amount.
• Padma Vibhushan- the country's second's highest civilian honour was conferred to 9 people for this year-Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachan, LK Advani, Prakash Singh Badal, Dr.Veerendra Heggade, Mr. Srinivasan, KK Venogopal, Aga Khan and Swami Rambhadracharya. The Padma Bhusan was conferred to 20 people and Padma Shri on 75 people.
• Mann Ki Baat- the monthly radio talk where US President Barack Obama and PrimeMinister Narendra Modi shared similar back stories of humble beginnings and hard work.
• Coal India Limited-in the biggest ever disinvestment exercise, the government mopped up Rs.22557 crore from 10% stake sale in this company.
• Jaishankar appointed as New Foreign SecretaryThe Government appointed India's envoy in the US, S. Jaishankar, as the new foreign secretary on January 28, 2015, replacing incumbent Sujatha Singh six months before her term was to end.
• The sudden appointment has echoes of the sudden replacement of India's then foreign secretary A.P. Venkateswaran by then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in January 1987.
• The appointments committee of the Cabinet, in a decision taken Wednesday, decided to "curtail the tenure" of the incumbent Sujatha Singh, "with immediate effect".
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi's assurance of "consistent policies" and "welcoming environment" leading to US President Barack Obama announcing steps to lead to $4 billion trade with and investment in India.
• "Over the next two years, our Export Import Bank (EXIM) will support $1 billion Made In America goods exports to India. Our Overseas Private Investment Corporation will support lending small and medium businesses across India in more than $1 billion in loans. And our US Trade and Development Agency will invest nearly $2 billion in renewable energy in India," Obama said in his address at the US-India Business Summit here Monday.
• Modi Launches 'Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao' Campaign From Haryana
• In a determined effort to counter the adverse sex ratio in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the nationwide 'Beti Bachao-Beti Padhao' (save girl child and educate her) campaign from Panipat, in Haryana on Jan 22,2015.
• The prime minister flagged off 72 campaign vehicles (raths) on the occasion that will make people aware about the need to save the girl child in areas where the sex ratio is adverse.
• The campaign has been launched from Haryana as the state has the worst sex ratio (number of females per 1,000 males) and child sex ratio in the country. Out of the 100 worst districts in India for sex ratio, Haryana accounts for 12 districts.
• Ashoka Chakra For Two Fallen Bravehearts On Republic Day
• Major Mukund Varadarajan and Naik Neeraj Kumar Singh were posthumously awarded the nation's highest peacetime gallantry award, the Ashoka Chakra, at the Republic Day parade.
• Both of them laid down their lives while fighting heavily-armed terrorists in separate gun-battles in Jammu and Kashmir last year.
• Their widows received the award from President Pranab Mukherjee.
Sports
• Virat Kohli-He recently became the first batsman to score four hundred in four test series against Australia in Australia.
• Australia- they won the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2-0 defeating India in the recently played Test series.
• Stan Wawarinka- the Swiss player who won the tennis singles crown in the Chennai Open.
• Tesfaye Abera- the Kenyan who clinched the men's title at the Mumbai Marathon recently.
• Dinknesh Mekash-the Ethiopian who clinched the women's title at the Mumbai Marathon recently.
• N Srinivasan- the BCCI chief-in-exile, who has been barred from contesting the board's top post by Supreme Court .
• India- this country will host the ICC World Twenty 20 tournament in March-April 2016.
• Cristiano Ronaldo- the Portugal player who won the FIFA Ballon d'Or award for 2014 at a ceremony in Zurich recently, second time in a row and third overall.
• Serena Williams- she beat Maria Sharapova to win her sixth Australian Open women's tennis title and her 19th Grand Slam title.
• AB de Villiers- the South African cricketer who struck the fastest century in one day internationals when he made 100 in 31 balls with 16 sixes and 9 fours against West Indies at the Wanderers, Johannesburg recently.
• Super Over- ICC has decided to use this in the event of tie in the upcoming cricket World Cup final.
• Bangladesh- this country will host the U-19 ICC cricket World cup in February 2016.
• England- this country will host the ICC Women's World cup in August 2017.
Business and Economy
• Economic growth 2013-14 revised to 6.9 percent by base year change
• The Indian government revised the base year for computing national accounts resulting in the upward economic growth rate of 6.9 percent for 2013-14, according to an official statement.
• The GDP estimates under the old method was 4.7 percent.
• The ministry of statistics and programme implementation has released the new series of national accounts, revising the base year from 2004-05 to 2011-12.
• India Ranked World's 128th Freest Economy
• With an economic freedom score of 54.6 out of 100, India has been ranked 128th freest economy in the 2015 Index of Economic Freedom evaluating economic conditions and government policies in 186 countries.
• The annual report by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, in collaboration with The Wall Street Journal, ranks India 26th out of 41 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
• India's total score is down by 1.1 points from last year, with modest improvements in business freedom, property rights, and freedom from corruption offset by declines in labor freedom and trade freedom.
• World Bank: Indian economy to grow by 7 percent in 2016
• Helped along by falling oil prices and by lower interest rates in developed countries, India's economy is expected to grow by seven percent next year and these two factors can be a game-changer if the nation were to seize the opportunity to implement fiscal and structural reforms, World Bank Chief Economist Kaushik Basu said .
• As for this year, Indian economy is expected to grow by 6.4, according to two separate projections released here Tuesday by the Bangkok-based UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and the Washington-based World Bank, which also predicted a 7 percent increase in 2017.
Defence
• Canister launch of n-capable Agni V missile successful
• India successfully conducted the first canister-based trial of its nuclear capable Agni-V missile, which is capable of hitting targets over 5,000 km away, from a military base in Odisha, an official said.
• The long range missile was fired from a mobile vehicle at the Inner Wheeler Island, a launch site in the district of Bhadrak, about 200 km from Bhubaneswar.
• India To Hard Sell Tejas, Dhruv At Air Show
• India will showcase and try to hard sell its indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas and Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv at the air show here in February to prospective buyers from abroad, an official said .
• "Tejas will be on flying and static display at the Aero India Show here Feb 18-22 to solicit foreign buyers, as we have started producing them (fighters) for the Indian Air Force (IAF)," outgoing chairman of state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) R.K. Tyagi told reporters here.
• The defence behemoth will also display military and civil variants of Dhruv at the biennial international event where producers, buyers, users and other stakeholders the world over will participate in thousands.
• India Invites Russia For Defence Sector Make In India
• India has invited Russia to take advantage of the Make in India initiative in defence manufacturing, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said.
• In a meeting between Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Parrikar, the two countries also decided to hold regular review of ongoing projects.
• The meeting came following the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin here last month.
• "We have also invited them to come to India and join ventures in manufacturing here, including spare parts for the various platforms we are using
