Sunday, January 18, 2015

Current Affairs 2014 at a glance

❖ Narendra Damodardas Modi was sworn in as the 15th Prime Minister of India on May 26, 2014.
The swearing in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan was attended by the heads/ representatives of eight SAARC nations. Along with Modi 44 Ministers also took oath.

❖ The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) became the first party in 30 years to win a majority on its
own in the Lok Sabha. In the 16th Lok Sabha elections it won 282 seats. Indian National Congress won 44 seats.

❖ Anandiben Patel became the first woman Chief Minister of Gujarat in May 2014. Sikkim Democratic Front leader Pawan Chamling was sworn in as the CM of Sikkim for a record fifth consecutive term. Biju Janata Dal president Naveen Patnaik was sworn in as the CM of Odisha for the fourth consecutive term. Congress leader Nabam Tuki became the CM of Arunachal Pradesh for the second consecutive time.

❖ Jitan Ram Manjhi succeeded Nitish Kumar as the new CM of Bihar. TR Zeliang succeeded Neiphiu Rio as the CM of Nagaland.

❖ 13 - year-old Malavath Purna became the youngest female climber to scale the Mount Everest on May 25, 2014.

❖ Dalia Grybauskaite was re-elected as the President of Lithuania in May 2014. She is the first female President of Lithuania.

❖ Salvador Sanchez Ceren took office as the President of El Salvador on June 1, 2014. Luis Guillermo Solis became the President of Costa Rica on May 8, 2014. Juan Carlos Varela assumed office as the President of Panama on July 1, 2014.

❖ Peter Mutharika assumed office as the President of Malawi on May 31, 2014.

❖ Major General Kristin Lund of Norway is the first-ever woman to serve as the head of a UN peacekeeping operation.

❖ Nripendra Mishra was appointed as Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is
the former Chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

❖ Former United States Secretary of the State Hillary Rodham Clinton launched her book 'Hard Choices'.

❖ 'RuPay', India's own card payment network, was launched by the President Pranab Mukherjee. It was developed by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI). The RuPay card is accepted at all ATMs.

❖ Justice B. S. Chauhan was appointed the Chairman of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.

❖ Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB) has been included in the second schedule to the RBI Act, 1934.
Now BMB becomes eligible for loans from RBI on bank rate.

❖ RBI made it mandatory for banks to install talking ATMs with Braille keypads from July 2014
onwards. It is for the benefit of persons with disabilities.

❖ P.J. Nayak Committee appointed by the RBI recommended the reduction of government stake in public sector banks to less than 50 percent.

❖ Japan won the Thomas Cup men's badminton title for the first time. Japan defeated Malaysia in the final in New Delhi in May 2014. China won the Uber Cup women's badminton title for the
13th time by defeating Japan in the final in New Delhi. India won a bronze medal for the first time in Uber Cup.

❖ Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) won the Indian Premier League- 7 title by defeating Kings XI Punjab at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on June 1, 2014. It is KKR's second IPL trophy.

❖ Telangana Rashtra Samiti chief K. Chandrasekar Rao was sworn in as the first Chief Minister of Telangana, the 29th State of India, on June 2, 2014. Telugu Desham Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu took over as the first Chief Minister of bifurcated Andhra Pradesh on June 8, 2014.

❖ The Supreme Court appointed Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee to probe the 2013 IPL spot fixing allegations.

❖ Manuel Santos won the Presidential elections of Colombia for the second time in June 2014.

❖ Reuven Rivlin succeeded Shimon Peres as the new President of Israel in June 2014.

❖ Former army chief Abdel Fattah el Sisi was sworn in as the President of Egypt in June 2014.

❖ Mukul Rohatgi was appointed the Attorney General of India in June 2014. Ranjit Kumar is the new Solicitor General.

❖ N. Srinivasan is the first Chairman of the International Cricket Council (ICC).

❖ Petro Poroshenko was sworn in as the President of Ukraine.

❖ Syrian President Bashar al-Assad won a third term in office in June 2014.

❖ Sumitra Mahajan became the Speaker of the 16th Lok Sabha in June 2014. She represents Indore Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh.

❖ Former Intelligence Bureau chief Ajit Doval was appointed the National Security Adviser (NSA). He is the first police officer to be decorated with Kirti Chakra, a gallantry award given during peacetime.

❖ Kedarnath Singh was chosen for the prestigious Jnanpith award for 2013. He is the 10th Hindi writer to receive the honor and is the 49th recipient of Jnanpith award.

❖ The 2013 Moortidevi award was given to Malayalam writer C. Radhakrishnan. He is a scientist
turned writer.

❖ France announced to honor Shah Rukh Khan with Officer of the Legion of Honour for his contribution to cinema.

❖ Former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland is the first recipient of the Tang Prize
for sustainable development. She is the former Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO).

❖ India-born plant scientist Sanjay Rajaram was chosen for the World Food Prize for 2014. He is a renowned wheat scientist.

❖ Irish author Eimear McBride won the 2014 Bailey's Women's Prize for Fiction for her debut
novel 'A Girl is a Half-formed Thing'. This prize was earlier known as Orange Prize.

❖ The autobiography of Hindi actor Dilip Kumar 'The Substance and The Shadow' was launched.

❖ The supersonic cruise missile BrahMos was test-fired. It is an Indo-Russian missile with a range of 290 km.

❖ Okavango Delta in Botswana became the 1000th site to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage Site List.

❖ Rani-ki-Vav, an 11th century stepwell in the Patan area of Gujarat and the Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) in Himachal Pradesh were accorded the UNESCO World Heritage Site status.

❖ The government has accepted the report of Arvind Mayaram Committee on rationalizing definitions of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs).

❖ Salman Rushdie, the India born UK author was named the winner of 2014 Pen Pinter Prize.

❖ Saina Nehwal won the Australian Open Super Series badminton title defeating Spain's Carolina Marin.

❖ Magnus Carlsen of Norway won the World Rapid Chess Championship and also the World Blitz
Chess Championship, both in Dubai in June 2014.

❖ Australia retained the men's Hockey World Cup title by outplaying Netherlands in the final in
The Hague, Netherlands in June 2014. Netherlands defeated Australia to win the women's title.

❖ Rafael Nadal of Spain clinched the 2014 French Open tennis men's singles title beating Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the final. It is Nadal's 9th French open title. Maria Sharapova of Russia won
her second French Open women's singles title by defeating Simona Halep of Romania.

❖ Two Indian Americans Sriram Hathwar and Ansun Sujoe became the co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee contest held in USA.

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