CURRENT AFFAIRS-2014

Current Affairs: 2004 (Part-1)

16^th Lok Sabha ELECTION-2014 in India: An Overview

1.     World’s biggest democratic exercise - India’s 16th Lok Sabha (Lower House) elections which took place from April 7 to May 12, 2014 are over and its verdict is out. It was the longest election in the country’s history. Of the total 543 seats for which elections were contested, BJP led NDA achieved a huge victory on 336 seats whereas Congress led UPA has faced rout in 6 key states winning just 59 seats and the Congress 44 seats. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) which contested on 424 seats has faced downfall as it could win just 4 seats. AAP leader and former Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejrival who contested against Narendra Modi from Varanasi, defeated by a huge margin of more than 3 lakh votes. With this NDA victory, BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi is all set to be the head of the newly elected Indian Government.

2.     The 16th Lok Sabha polls registered a record average voter turnout of 66.4%. Dhubri of Assam witnessed the highest turnout at 88.22% followed by Nagaland at 87.82%; Srinagar of J&K registered the lowest turnout at 25.90%, followed by Anantnag of the same state.

3.     As per the law, an individual cannot be a member of the Lok Sabha/Rajya Sabha as well as the Legislative Assembly. The person has to abandon his membership of one of the two within 14 days of the announcement of the election result by the Election Commission. The case of the late Narasimha Rao is one of its kinds. He had almost retired from politics and did not fight the 1991 Lok Sabha (LS) polls. But the situation took a sharp turn with the assassination of Congress prime ministerial candidate Rajiv Gandhi at Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu where he was campaigning for the same LS elections. The Congress won the elections and the party proposed Sonia Gandhi to be the PM but she declined the proposal. Then Mr. Rao who had the support of Ms. Gandhi was chosen for the job of Prime Minister. Subsequently, he contested a by-election from the Nandyal Lok Sabha constituency in Andhra Pradesh and won with a record margin of over 5 lakh votes as the Telugu Desam Party endorsed his political campaign in the name of “Telugu pride”.

4.     Results of Lok Sabha Polls 2014 at a glance

a.     ALLIANCE                                 TALLY

b.    NDA (BJP + Allies)                    335

c.     UPA (Congress + Allies)            59

d.    AAP                                         4

e.     SP                                            5

f.     BSP                                         0

g.    AITC                                         34

h.     JD (U)                                       2

i.      LEFT                                        11

j.      ADMK                                      37

k.     OTHERS                                   56

l.      TOTAL                                      543/543

5.     Naveen Patnaik of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) was sworn in as Chief Minister of Odisha for the fourth term in a row. He was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor S.C. Jamir on 22 May, 2014. Of the total 147 assembly seats, BJD led by incumbent Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik won 117 seats emerging as the single largest party in the state.

Political Party                    Seats Won

a.     BJD                                          117

b.    BJP                                          10

c.     Indian National Congress           16

d.    Others                                      4

6.     Telugu Desam Party (TDP) led by N. Chandra Babu Naidu emerged as the largest party with 117 seats out of the total 294 assembly seats of the Andhra Pradesh in the recently concluded Assembly Elections in the state.

Political Party                                      Seats Won

a.     TDP                                                                  117

b.    Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party            70

c.     Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS)                        63

d.    Indian National Congress (INC)                           21

e.     BJP                                                                  9

f.     Others                                                              14

7.     The results of the 2014 assembly elections of Arunachal Pradesh are out. The Indian National Congress (INC) led by the incumbent Chief Minister Nabam Tuki won 42 seats of the total 60 assembly seats in the state. BJP with 11 seats is the first runner up whereas People’s Party of Arunachal finished third with 5 seats.

Political Party                          Seats Won

a.     Bharatiya Janata Party                           11

b.    Indian National Congress                       42

c.     People’s Party of Arunachal                   5

d.    Independent                                          2

8.     On 23^rd May, 2014, T R Zeliang of Naga People's Front was appointed by Nagaland Governor, Ashwani Kumar as the new Chief Minister of Nagaland following the resignation of Neiphiu Rio from the post.

9.     Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) led by incumbent Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling has emerged as the single largest party by winning 22 seats out of total 32 in the 2014 assembly elections of Sikkim. The newly established party Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) led by Prem Singh Tamang won 10 assembly seats and will sit in opposition. The SDF which came into being in 1993 has been in power since 1994. This will be party’s fifth consecutive term in power.

10.  Jitan Ram Manjhi is the new Chief Minister of Bihar. He was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor D.Y. Patil at a ceremony at the Raj Bhavan in Patna.

11.  Anandiben Patel becomes the first woman chief minister of Gujarat following the resignation of Nanrender Modi from the post.

12.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi (26 May 2014) is not the first Chief Minister to ascend to the seat of the head of Government of India. Former Karnataka C.M. H.D. Deve Gowda had also moved to the post of Prime Minister in 1996.

13.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi enters PMO to take charge of the office, in New Delhi on Tuesday 27^th May, 2014.

Current Affairs: 2004 (Part-2)

1.     Major General Konsam Himalaya Singh becomes the first Lieutenant General in the army from North East States. Singh is the senior most serving officer in the army from Manipur.

2.     Karnataka grabbed the Irani Cup 2013-14 for the fifth time after defeating Rest of India in the final held at Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore. Karnataka beat Rest of India by an innings and 222 runs to clinch the trophy.

3.     In Andhra Pradesh, “Sammakkaa Saarakka” fair or “Jatara”, the largest tribal religious congregation in the world, began at Medaram in Warangal district of the Telangana region.

4.     Assam becomes the first state to legally ban consumption of all forms of smokeless tobacco, including pan masala containing tobacco and nicotine.

5.     Publisher Penguin India agreed to withdraw American Indologist Wendy Doniger’s book “The Hindus: An Alternative History” from the Indian market. The main contention of all petitioners is that the book insults and offends Hindus and Indians. The issues against the book are factual errors, dates, maps, to use of psychoanalytical tools while viewing Vedic, Hindu and Indian gods.

6.     The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched third-line drug therapy for people infected HIV/AIDS and extended free Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) to them by revising the eligibility norm.

7.     Scientists have developed the first 3-D movie of living sperm that can help doctors to select most viable sperm to improve odds during In Vitro Fertilization (IVF). The 3-D imaging technique also known as Digital Holographic Microscopy (DHM), gives morphology and motility data on sperm consistent.

8.     On the second phase of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), the Government of India stated that it hadn’t violated global trading norms under the World Trade Organization (WTO), even as the US filed a second case against India in WTO.

9.     The Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee submitted its report to the Supreme Court after investigating allegations of spot-fixing and betting in the Indian Premier League (IPL) on February 16, 2014.

10.   Mr. Jatinder Bir Singh has been appointed new Chairman and Managing Director of Punjab and Sind Bank (PSB). He succeeded Mr. D.P. Singh. Previously, Mr. Singh was an Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Water Resources. He is 1983-batch IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre.

11.  The Ministry of Personnel in its order stated that it has approved two additional attempts to all categories of candidates with effect from Civil Services Examination 2014, with consequential age relaxation of maximum age for all categories of candidates, if required. The UPSC conducts the civil service exams to select members of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Police Service (IPS) and Indian Foreign Service (IFS) among others.

12.  The US-based firm, Motorola launched its much-awaited budget phone Moto G in India through Flipkart. The Moto G’s 16GB version is priced at Rs 13,999 and 8 GB version at Rs. 12,499. The Smartphone has a 1.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400, Adreno 305 GPU, a 4.5-inch capacitive (1280 x 720 pixels) touch screen and an edge-to-edge display.

13.  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has allowed Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) to purchase shares in Dabur India up to 30% of the firm’s paid up capital.

14.   The astronomers led by Dr Stefan Keller of the Australian National University (ANU) have discovered the oldest known star, SMSS J031300.36-670839.3, in the Universe which formed shortly after the Big Bang 13.6 billion years ago.

15.   Mr. Sushil Koirala (75) has been elected as sixth Prime Minister of Nepal, since the country became a Republic in 2008, following a peace deal with Maoist rebels in 2006. He is the fourth prime minister from his family, after Matrika Prasad Koirala, Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala and Girija Prasad Koirala. He succeeded Mr. Khil Raj Regmi who had been working as acting Prime Minister of Nepal from March 14, 2013.

16.  Dr. Marco Lambertini has been appointed as the Director General of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) International. WWF was founded on April 29, 1961. Its Headquarters is in Gland, Vaud, Switzerland.

17.  The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved the proposal to convert and expand the pilot programme of Burn Injuries of the 11th Plan period into a full-fledged National Programme on Prevention & Management of Burn Injuries (NPPMBI) during the remaining part of the 12th Plan Period.

18.  The Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) is developing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) for the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to track down Maoists in Naxal-hit states such as Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, etc., and would demonstrate the operational capability of the first such vehicle, Nishant in Jagdalpur.

19.  In India, ‘National Women’s Day’ is observed on February 13 every year to commemorate the birth of India’s first women governor Sarojini Naidu. The search giant, Google marked the 135th birth anniversary of freedom fighter and poet Sarojini Naidu with a doodle.

20.  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has released draft report on enabling Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) in payment system applications. Public Key Infrastructure enabled electronic payment systems that have been introduced by the RBI are– RTGS, NEFT, CBLO, FOREX Clearing, Government Securities Clearing and Cheque Truncation System (CTS).

21.  Indian-born Mr. Satya Nadella has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and member of the Board of Directors of the Internet giant Microsoft.

22.  The Central Consumer Protection Council (CCPC) under the chairmanship of minister K V Thomas set up a sub-committee to draft guidelines to safeguard consumer interest from false advertisements in the country. 

23.  Apple India re-launched the production of iPhone 4 in India, Indonesia and Brazil. This is the first time that the American technology giant Apple has resumed the production of a discontinued phone.

24.  Polaris Financial Technology Ltd.—A Global leader in Financial Technology for Banking, Insurance and other Financial Services was founded in 1993. Its iGTB division is the world’s first complete Global Transaction Banking platform, used by the world’s top transaction banks. Its Headquarters is in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

25.  Indian gold loan company, Muthoot Finance Ltd., has become the first and only Non-Banking Finance Company (NBFC) to have obtained license for setting-up WLAs in India. The Muthoot Group launched its first White-Label ATM at its corporate office in New Delhi and has plans to invest Rs 300 crore in the next three years.

26.  Govt. launched the National Cloud under ‘MeghRaj’ initiative. National Information Centre (NIC) is providing Cloud services under the umbrella of ‘MeghRaj’. In order to utilize and avail the benefits of Cloud Computing, the Central Government has embarked upon an ambitious initiative – ‘GI Cloud’ which has been named as ‘MeghRaj’.

27.  Former Miss World, top-notch model and an energetic performer, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (40) has been voted the world’s fourth most beautiful woman in a recently conducted poll by online magazine Hollywood Buzz. Aishwarya Rai and Deepika Padukone (ranked 29th) are the only Indian women to feature in the list.

28.  “Kashmir Solidarity Day” is a national holiday in Pakistan being celebrated every year since 1990 as a day of protest against Indian control of part of Kashmir on February 5.

29.  Meghalaya’s first Padma Shri awardee Ms. Silverine Swer passed away due to illness at the age of 103. She received the Padma Shri Award from the then president R. Venkataraman in 1990.

30.   In 2006, India banned the use of veterinary drug “Diclofenac”, which is toxic to any vulture that feeds on the carcass of recently treated cattle but SAVE in its study, stated that the drug continues to be sold and used illegally today. International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has put vultures on its list of ‘critically endangered’ species.

31.  With 3.86 million barrels per day of crude oil imports, India has surpassed Japan as the world’s third-biggest crude oil importer in 2013.

32.   New Zealand’s Kathy Cross (56) has become the first woman to be included in the International Cricket Council‘s (ICC’s) umpires’ panel. Previously, she was officiated in the Women’s World Cup in Australia in 2009 and in India in 2013.

33.  The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe has approved domestic trading in the Chinese Yuan (CYN),   Indian Rupee (INR), Japanese Yen (JPY) and Australian Dollar (AUD) and soon these currencies will become legal tender.

34.   As per the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), the Internet user-base in the country reached 190 million at the end of June, 2013.

35.   For the second successive year, Global Intellectual Property Centre (GIPC) International IP Index ranked India lowest amongst the countries assessed for protection and enforcement of Intellectual Property Practices.

36.   Scientists of the Jilin University (China) have invented a printer that uses water to print instead of ink. After about 22 hours, the paper fades back to a plain sheet of white paper which can be re-used. The “water-jet” technology is capable of reprinting several times, spares people their money and saves trees.

37.   Chinese people marked the arrival of the “New Lunar Year” generally considered an auspicious time, across China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. This year is the Year of the Horse which is said to bring prosperity and wealth. The horse signifies kindness, strength, and sociability.

38.   World’s longest death-row (48 years) prisoner Mr. Iwao Hakamada (78) is certified by Guinness World Records. The Japanese court releases him as the evidences used against him were probably fabricated.

39.   As per the quarterly report of Ministry of Finance (MoF), India’s external debt was at $ 426 billion – including the government’s debt of $ 76.4 billion in December 2013. The total external debt of $ 426 billion showed an increase of $ 21.1 billion over the March-end level.

40.  The market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) extended the duration for implementing new Foreign Portfolio Investor (FPI) regulations by three months to June 30, 2014.

41.  The United Nations (UN) General Assembly (193-nation) refused to recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and passed a non-binding Resolution 68/262 that declared invalid Crimea’s referendum.

42.  The Axis Bank launched an electronic Kisan Card on the RuPay platform, through which a farmer can withdraw up to Rs. 1 lakh per day from Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).

43.  The Supreme Court of India appointed batting legend, Mr. Sunil Gavaskar as the Interim President of BCCI to manage Indian Premier League (IPL) 2014 in place of N. Srinivasan and also directed him to resign his job as a Cricket Commentator. The other responsibilities of the board would be performed by BCCI vice-president Shivlal Yadav.

44.  Bollywood actor Arjun Kapoor becomes the national ambassador of the Earth Hour 2014 that was observed on March 29. Under the Earth Hour initiative, citizens are asked to switch off all electricity for an hour. ‘I Will If You Will’ (IWIYW) campaign encourages positive action for the environment. It is organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

45.  The Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) 2014 was held at The Hague, Netherlands on March 31. In the third edition of nuclear summit, 58 world leaders participated to enhance the global nuclear security structure.

46.  As per the data released by the Spices Board at Kochi, the India’s spices export in rupee terms registered an increase of 41% in the current financial year (April-Dec 2013).

47.  The Internet transition from the current Internet Protocol IPv4 to the next-generation Internet protocol IPv6 is set to speed up in 2014 as web addresses under the system IPv4 come to an end. IPv6 addresses are longer and more complex than the familiar 192.168.0.1-style IPv4 addresses.

48.  The Employees’ Provident Fund Organization (EPFO) will provide Universal Account Numbers (UAN) to its over five crore subscribers from October, 2014.

49.  WHO-India launched Indian Rhino Vision (IRV) 2020 programme to protect and increase the population of the one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis).

50.  The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared South-East Asia region as polio-free region.

51.   As per the World’s Riskiest Cities 2014 report, Kolkata emerged as the world’s 7th most risky city, the only entry from India when it comes to being under threat from all types of natural disasters.

52.  The software giant, Microsoft has released the source codes of MS-DOS and Word for Windows in collaboration with the Computer History Museum (CHM) in Silicon Valley. The source code from MS DOS 1.1 and 2.0, as well as Microsoft Word for Windows 1.1a, is made public under a non-commercial license that forbids re-publication elsewhere on the Web.

53.  The Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared from air traffic control screens off Malaysia’s east coast early on March 8, as it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

54.  The Bank of India (BoI) launched an Instant Money Transfer (IMT) scheme and became the first state-run lender to allow withdrawal of funds to individuals from its ATMs without an account in the bank. In other words, the IMT scheme allows customers to withdraw cash without using either debt card or credit card at BoI’s IMT-enabled ATMs.

55.  The deadly Ebola virus detected in the samples of a viral hemorrhagic fever that has killed more than 50 people in the West African nation of Guinea marked the first ever human outbreak of the disease in the country.

56.  The Indian Naval Chief Admiral DK Joshi’s tenure would have normally ended in 2015 but he resigned in the wake of submarine INS Sindhuratna accident on February, 2014. Vice Admiral R.K. Dhowan took over as the Acting Chief till regular Naval Chief is appointed.

57.  The Supreme Court of India has directed (March 25) the Union Government to withdraw all orders that make the Aadhaar card mandatory for availing any service and also directed the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) not to share any information pertaining to an Aadhaar card holder with any government agency without the prior permission of the card holder.

58.  The scientists from the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization 2 (BICEP2 ) found out the primordial gravitational waves, the first direct evidence of cosmic inflation theory.

59.  The British racer, Mr. Stuart Oliver bagged the Tata T1 Prima Truck Racing Championship (India’s first truck racing championship) at the Buddh International Circuit, Greater Noida. Mr. Oliver represented Castrol Vecton team in the race and took 30:26. 848 minutes to complete 15 laps of the 2.5 km loop on the 5.1 km-long track.

60.  The book titled ‘Lal Bahadur Shastri: Lessons in Leadership’ a biographical account on Former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri is co-authored by former PM’s son Anil Shastri and columnist Pavan Choudhary and lunched by Dalai Lama in New Delhi.

61.  The researchers from the University of Geneva discovered a new molecule HSP90 (Heat Shock Protein 90) that could be useful for the treatment of malaria. HSP90 has the potential to kill malaria parasite without harming human red blood cells.

62.  India and the USA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create a joint implementation committee to regularly monitor and boost the PEACE (Promoting Energy Access through Clean Energy) initiative in New Delhi.

63.  The Election Commission signed up Bollywood actor Aamir Khan as its national icon in the run-up to 2014 Lok Sabha poll. Mr. Khan joined the league of four other ‘national icon’– Indian cricket team skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, boxer MC Mary Kom, badminton champion Saina Nehwal and former President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.

64.  The International Hockey Federation (FIH) introduced major changes in the structure of the sport viz. reduced the 70-minute game to 60 minutes, comprising four 15-minute quarters instead of two 35-minute halves. After the first and third quarters there will be a two-minute break while the existing 10-minute half-time will remain unchanged.

65.  The scientists from the University of Vienna have discovered that sea anemones, the water-dwelling predatory creatures, are technically half plant and half animal.

66.  As per the India Human Development Survey (IHDS), 4 out of 10 women in India still have no say in their marriage, 8 out of 10 need permission to visit a doctor, 6 out of 10 practise some form of head covering and the average Indian household gives over Rs.30,000 in dowry.

67.  The Assamese thriller movie, ‘Ekhon Nedekha Nadir Xipaare’ (also known as “As the river flows”) won the Audience Choice Award 2014 in North Carolina film festival.

68.  Ms. Aditi Khanna has become the first women President of Indian Journalist’s Association (IJA) in London. At present, Ms. Khanna is the London correspondent for Press Trust of India. Indian Journalist’s Association (IJA) was established in May 1947.

69.  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cautioned banks to take immediate steps to implement appropriate systems and controls if their systems and ATMs are still working on Windows XP, as Microsoft will stop issuing updates and patches for bugs in its Windows XP operating system (OS) from April 8, 2014.

70.  As per the report published by the Sweden-based Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), India becomes the world’s largest arms importer over 2004-13 and its import of weapon systems is three times more than Pakistan and China.

71.  The astronomers of Oliver Chesneau of the Cote d’Azur Observatory (Nice, France) discovered the largest Yellow star “HR 5171 A” in our Milky Way Galaxy.

72.  Indian Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has been voted the cricketer of the generation by a 50-member jury of current and former cricketers and journalists. The award is meant to honour the most outstanding cricketer between the years 1993 and 2013.

73.  Prolific author and journalist Mr. Khushwant Singh passed away due to cardiac arrest in New Delhi at the age of 99. He was best known for his sharp secularism, his humour and great love for poetry.

74.  The Indian telecom equipment-maker, Vihaan Networks Ltd (VNL) launched its solar-powered ‘WorldGSM’ mobile tower architecture, an environment-friendly and cost-effective mobile system to deliver affordable services in villages.

75.  Karnataka won the Vijay Hazare Cricket Trophy 2013-14 by defeating Railways by four wickets at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata. For the first time, Karnataka won the Vijay Hazare trophy. It is Karnataka’s hat-trick title as they already have bagged the Ranji Trophy and Irani Trohy in this season (2014).

76.  Nagaland and Assam are the first two states to be issued plastic Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC) for the Lok Sabha elections. The new plastic EPICs have many scientific features viz. a hologram with coded details of the voter to prevent duplication, forging and tampering.

77.  Ms Soma Mondal has been appointed as the first female director (commercial) of Navratna Public Sector Unit (PSU) National Aluminium Company Ltd (NALCO).

78.  A national campaign has been launched against the dengue disease titled “U & Me Against Dengue” in six Indian cities with a joint partnership of private and public firm.

79.  The Canara Bank has announced cricketer Shikhar Dhawan as its brand ambassador. Cricketer Rahul Dravid has been Bank of Baroda’s brand ambassador since 2005.

80.  Mr. Amitabh Kant has been appointed as Secretary of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). He succeeded Mr. Saurabh Chandra.

81.  The Indian cricketer Virat Kohli reclaimed the number one position in the ICC Player Rankings for ODI Batsmen. He was able to claim the first position by gaining 12 points during the Asia Cup by scoring 189 runs in three innings with 136 against Bangladesh. He is followed by South African ODI captain AB de Villers, who was at the first position before the Asia Cup.

82.  The ICICI Bank launches portable hand-held machines (or portable POS machines) to avoid inconvenience around entering secret PIN number for card transactions in hotels.

83.  Ms Michelle Bachelet (62) takes oath as the President of Chile for second time. She is the first person since 1932 to win the presidency of her country twice in competitive elections. Previously, Ms Bachelet had been serving as Chilean President from 2006-2010.

84.  As per the report released by the Dubai Department of Economic Development, India has once again emerged as the largest non-oil trading partner of Dubai in 2013-14.

85.  The scientists from the University of East Anglia, UK have discovered traces of four new man-made gases in the atmosphere that are capable of destroying the ozone layer and intensifying global warming. Scientists stated that the new gases are man-made because they were not seen in the atmosphere until the 1960s.  The four new gases have been identified as CFC-112, CFC112a, CFC-113a, HCFC-133a.

86.  The Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) has discovered antibodies that are capable of neutralizing HIV strains. It is a remarkable discovery of potent antibodies that could neutralize and kill multiple strains of HIV.

87.  The 64th National Basketball Championship was held at the Thyagaraj Indoor Stadium in New Delhi. Chhattisgarh won the women’s title after beating Indian Railways by 81-77.

88.  An Indian-American scientist, Mr. Anil Jain from Michigan State University built the world’s first three-dimensional (3D) model of a human fingerprint known as Phantom.

89.  Indian-American attorney, Mr. Vince Chhabria (44) will become California’s first federal judge of South Asian descent.

90.  The Punjab Cabinet has approved the Backward Class (BC) status for the Jat and Jat Sikhs of the State.  Now, Jats and Jat Sikhs are the 69th and 70th community to be included in the category.

91.  Sri Lanka won the 12th edition of Asia Cup Cricket Tournament 2014 by defeating Pakistan at Mirpur in Bangaldesh by five wickets. Sri Lanka equaled the record of India after winning the Asia cup for the fifth time.

92.  The 3rd BIMSTEC (Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation) Summit was held at Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar.

93.  Indian acid attack victim, Ms. Laxmi won the prestigious International Women of Courage Award from the US First Lady Michelle Obama for successfully leading the campaign against acid attacks on women in India.

94.  Former External Affairs Minister, Mr. Jaswant Singh released a book titled, “India at Risk—Mistakes, Misconceptions and Misadventures of security policy”. The book is on 60 years of Indian security issues.

95.  Microsoft Co-founder, Mr. Bill Gates regained the title of the world’s richest person in the Forbes 2014 billionaire list. Mr. Gates has topped the list for 15 of the last 20 years with a net worth of $76 billion and Mexico’s telecommunications tycoon Mr. Carlos Slim Helu is at second place.

96.  Indian shuttler, Arvind Bhat (34) defeated Denmark’s World No. 25 Hans-Kristian Vittinghus to clinch the men’s singles title of the $120,000 German Open Grand Prix Gold. This is the first time an Indian has won a German Open title in any category.

97.  The Union Cabinet has raised the number of workdays under its flagship rural employment guarantee programme MNREGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005) from 100 days to 150 days for tribals. The decision will come into effect from April, 2014.

98.  Japanese researchers are testing tiny ear computer that is worn on the ear and can be controlled with the blink of an eye or the click of a tongue.

99.  Indian golfer, Rashid Khan (23) won the SAIL-SBI golf title 2014 against the Bangladeshi Siddikur Rahman at the Delhi Golf Club course in New Delhi. This was Rashid’s fifth career title and first international win. Owing to this win, Mr. Rashid becomes the 18th Indian to win an international tournament. It was the third year in succession that an Indian won the SAIL-SBI Open. Anirban Lahiri won the SAIL-SBI open for 2013 and 2012.

100.    Assam becomes the first state in the country to observe Child Protection Day with the support of Assam State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (ASCPCR) in collaboration with United Nations Children‘s Fund (UNICEF).

101.    The Vice President of India Mr. M. Hamid Ansari released a book “Ambedkar: Awakening India’s Social Conscience” authored by Dr. Narendra Jadhav. This book is the first ever intellectual biography of Dr. Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar, a Dalit icon and chief architect of the Indian constitution.

102.    India’s first electric zero-emission bus officially has been launched in Bangalore by the Karnataka Transport Minister R Ramalinga Reddy.

103.    The Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) will commence on a mega project to document almost 500 endangered languages in India, each spoken by less than 10000 people.

104.    Former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram inaugurated the India’s first post office savings bank ATM at the Head Post Office in Thyagaraya Nagar, Chennai.

105.    Mr. Ibrahim Mahlab takes oath as new Prime Minister of Egypt. He is a former member of Hosni Mubarak’s political party. Mr. Mahlab replaced Mr. Hazem el-Beblawi who was interim Prime Minister of Egypt since 2013.

106.    Welspun Solar MP project, the largest Solar Power Plant of India was launched at Bhagwanpur in Neemuch, Madhya Pradesh.

107.    ICICI Bank Ltd. launched ‘Branch on Wheels’ in Odisha as part of their financial inclusion plans to provide banking services in remote villages in the state which are devoid of banking facilities. ICICI Bank is the first private sector bank to launch Mobile Branch with ATM. Telecom major, Vodafone India and ICICI Bank announced the launch of mobile commerce initiative called ‘M-Pesa’ service in Odisha.

108.    The US car manufacturer Hennessey has developed the world’s fastest car, “Venom GT” with a top speed of an incredible 435 km/hr.

109.    The Maritime Energy Heli Air Services (MEHAIR) jointly with Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) launches the India’s first seaplane service from mainland at Mumbai, through which tourists will be taken by two Amphibian aircraft to tourist spots like water bodies where there are no runways.

110.    The Indian-origin, Master Shubham Banerjee (12) invents Braigo, a low-cost Braille printer by using toy construction Lego pieces in USA.

111.    Russi Mody (96), regarded as India’s ‘Steel Man’ for his role in elevating Tata Steel (formerly known as Tisco) to its present status of India’s largest steel manufacturing company, passed away on 16 May 2014 in Kolkata. He was born on January 17, 1918 in Mumbai. He joined Tisco in 1939 and rose through the ranks to become its chairman and managing director in 1984.

112.    The government appointed Lt Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag as the next Chief of the Indian Army. The Union Cabinet cleared the name of Vice Army Chief Lieutenant General Dalbir Singh Suhag as the successor to Gen. Bikram Singh.

113.    Indian Railway released a book, titled ‘India Junction – A Window to the Nation’. The book edited by Ms Seema Sharma has been brought out by Public Relations Directorate, Railway Board.

114.    As per the announcement made by Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Robin Kumar Dhowan, the newly inducted aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya, is now operationally deployed and its integral MiG-29K fighters have been fully integrated with the carrier. The 44,500-tonne aircraft carrier bought from Russia at a cost of $2.33 billion and is positioned at Karwar in Karnataka.

115.    INS Vikrant, the first indigenously built aircraft carrier being built at the Cochin shipyard, will be ready for trials in 2017 and for delivery by the 2018 end.

116.    The Prime Minister of Thailand, Yingluck Shinawatra and several cabinet ministers have been ordered to resign by the Constitutional Court of the country. The court ordered that Ms Yingluck acted illegally when she transferred her national security chief Thawil Pliensri to another position in 2011.

117.    Businessman Ahmed Maiteeq (42) of Libya’s National Conference has been elected as the new Prime Minister in May, 2014. Maiteeq defeated his rival Omar al-Hassi, a university professor.

118.    Rajeev Suri (46) has been announced the new CEO of Finnish telecommunications gadget manufacturer Nokia. Previously, Suri was the head of Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN). Suri is one of those rare top corporate executives who have attained heights without pursuing any MBA/PG degree.

119.    Dr. Heena Gavit from Nandurbar a medical graduate, the youngest member of Parliament in the new Lok Sabha, who has not only defeated her opponent with a margin of over one lakh votes, but also has won from a constituency the Congress has never lost since Independence.

120.    For the first time in 52 years, two spellers have been declared co-champions of the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Indian-Americans Sriram Hathwar of New York and Ansun Sujoe of Texas shared the title after an exciting final-round contest on 29^th May, 2014 Thursday night in which they nearly exhausted the 25 designated championship words. After they spelled a dozen words correctly in a row, they both were named champions.

121.    The Supreme Court of India awarded a compensation of Rs.10 lakh each for the families of all the manual scavengers who died in sewerage work since 1993 and also criminalized entering sewer lines without safety gear.

122.    Deepak Sandhu, former Indian Information Service officer of 1971 batch became the first woman Chief Information Commissioner of the country. She was administered the oath of office by President Pranab Mukherjee at a function in Rashtrapati Bhavan.

123.    Legendary anti-British revolutionary Binod Bihari Chowdhury who is known for his participation in the Chittagong Armoury Raid to uproot the British colonial rule from the Indian subcontinent in 1930, passed away on April 10, 2013 at the age of 102.

124.    Gary Becker, a professor in University of Chicago who was conferred with the Nobel Prize in economic sciences in 1992, passed away on May 3, 2014 when he was 83. He is credited for his path-breaking approach to economics as the study of human behavior.

125.    Hindustani vocalist Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan (105) has become the oldest person to be honoured with 2012 Padma Shri award. In 2011, India’s first woman photo-journalist Homai Vyarawalla was honoured with the Padma Vibushan at the age of 97. She died on 15 January 2012.

126.    World’s oldest marathon runner, 101-year-old Fauja Singh from Ilford, east London has announced retirement from the sport after taking part in the Hong Kong marathon held in February 2013. Singh is fondly known as ‘Turbaned Tornado’ among his fans. He entered the records as the world’s oldest marathon runner after his show in Toronto marathon.

127.    As per the projections of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), India’s economy is expected to expand at the rate of 6.4% in 2014 in line with the modest strengthening of global economic outlook.

128.    As per the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) during 2013-14 is estimated at 4.9% as compared to the growth rate of 4.5% in 2012-13.

129.    The Pakistani military conducted a combat exercise “Saffron Bandit” involving fighter jets and ground troops. The exercise is being conducted against the backdrop of an elevated tension with India following a string of ceasefire violations along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir.

130.    Major tea producing nations such as Kenya, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malawi, Rwanda and China held a meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka to set up a global forum named the “International Tea Producers’ Forum” (ITPF).

131.    The Serbian professional tennis player Novak Djokovic became the first man to win three consecutive Australian Open titles when he beat Andy Murray in the finals of men’s singles at Australian Open 2013.

132.    Belarus’ tennis star Victoria Azarenka defeated Chinese opponent Li Na to clinch the 2013 title of Australian Open for the second consecutive time.

133.    India’s first monorail service started in Mumbai. The monorail service that would link the city to major stations started its first phase of 8.93 km between Wadala and Chembur in the eastern fringes of the Commercial Capital.

134.    The National Innovation Council (NIC), in partnership with the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) launched the India Inclusive Innovation Fund (IIIF). IIIF is an impact investment fund that will invest in ventures catering to the country’s poor. It is an autonomous Rs. 500-crore fund with the Union Government contributing 20 %. The balance will come from public sector banks, financial institutions, insurance companies, multilateral/bilateral development agencies, Indian and global corporate.

135.    The second of the five super moons of 2014 has been visible on Friday around 3.30 p.m. January 1, 2014 was the year’s first super moon and January 31, 2014 is the second. January is the only month with two super moons until January 2018.

136.    Mr. Raymond Weil watch marketing pioneer and founder of the well-known eponymous Swiss timepiece brand passed away in January 2014. Raymond Weil Watch Company was founded in 1976 in Geneva, Switzerland.

137.    India ranked 155th out of 178 countries with an index score of 31.23 points in its efforts to address environmental challenges in the 2014 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) issued by Yale University. India ranks behind China (118), Pakistan (148) and Nepal (139).  Among the BRICS nations, South Africa was placed at 72nd position followed by Russia (73), Brazil (77) and China (118).

138.    Tata Motors Managing Director Mr. Karl Slym (51) died on 26 January 2014 in Bangkok after apparently falling from a high floor of a five-star hotel in Bangkok where he had gone to attend a board meeting of Tata Motors Thailand.

139.    In a bid to start a commercial banking, India Post has drawn a plan to install approximately 3,000 ATMs and 1.35 lakh micro-ATMs at the post offices throughout the nation for savings account holders by September 2015. India Post worked with software giant Infosys on this plan.

140.    India Post was founded in April 1, 1774. Its Headquarter is in New Delhi and its Director General is Smt. Padmini Gopinath. The Department of Posts comes under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. Highest post office in the world is Hikkim, Himachal Pradesh (4,700 m).

141.    The University of Cumbria in northwest England has become the first public university in the world to accept the online currency Bitcoin as payment for fees. The acceptance of Bitcoin will initially be limited to the two programmes that address complementary currencies.

142.    National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) launched the 2648 village legal service clinics across the country. The Chief Justice of India, P. Sathasivam inaugurated the free legal clinics in New Delhi.

143.    National Legal Literacy day is observed on November 9 every year.

144.    The Central Government launched the project for the development of the stretch of 37 km of the National Waterway-four (NW-4) between Sholinganallur to Kalpakkam in South Buckingham Canal in Tamil Nadu.

145.    Indian cricket team skipper MS Dhoni has became the first captain to be involved in four One-Day Internationals (ODIs) ties. This feat was achieved by him as India tied the third ODI against New Zealand in Auckland on January 25, 2014. The last three tied matches played by Indian captain MS Dhoni was ICC World Cup 2011 match in Bangalore against England, ODI match played on September 2011 at Lords against England and ODI match played in February 2012 at Adelaide against Sri Lanka.

146.    Indian ace shuttler Saina Nehwal grabbed the Syed Modi International India Grand Prix Gold badminton title by defeating her compatriot P.V. Sindhu in the women’s singles competition. Sania beat P.V. Sindhu 21-14, 21-17 in the final held at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. It is Sania’s third straight victory over Sindhu.

147.    India’s 65th Republic Day celebrated on January 26, 2014 is being marked with a Google doodle portraying “Janbaz (Daredevil) motorcyclists”. Prime Minister of Japan Shinzo Abe was the chief guest. He is the first ever Japanese dignitary to grace the occasion.

148.    India’s dairy major Amul has launched India’s first milk ATM which will sell milk through “Any Time Milk” vending machines. The 24×7 ATM has been installed at the Amul Dairy gate at Anand in Gujarat.

149.    India and China launched the ‘Year of Friendly Exchanges’ at a lively Republic Day reception attended by Vice President Li Yuanchao in Beijing, China. From India, new Indian Ambassador Ashok K Kantha hosted the function. This year China will commemorate the 60th year of Panchasheel (5- Principles), along with Myanmar.

150.    As per the Global Services Survey, India is the most preferred destinations for offshore IT and business process outsourcing services market. The six Indian cities—Bangalore, Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune are among 8 top global destinations for outsourcing of services.

151.    The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to withdraw all currency notes issued prior to 2005 including Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 denominations. As per the RBI, pre-2005 notes can be identified easily as these notes do not have the year of printing mentioned on them. The year of printing in a small font is visible at the middle of the bottom row in notes issued after 2005.

152.    Indian-origin academician, Mr. Rakesh Khurana (46) has been appointed dean of the prestigious Harvard College. He succeeds Evelynn Hammonds and will assume his new role on July 1, 2014. At present, he is the ‘Marvin Bower’ Professor of Leadership Development at Harvard Business School (HBS), professor of sociology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and co-master of Cabot House at Harvard. Harvard College is the school within Harvard University that grants undergraduate degrees.

153.    At the prestigious London School of Economics (LSE) a thesis titled “The New Bihar: Rekindling Governance and Development” has been launched. It was edited by Rajya Sabha MP N K Singh and director of LSE India Observatory Nicholas Stern. In this thesis, the growth of the Bihar was the core point of discussion.

154.    The legendary actor and doyen of Telugu cinema Akkineni Nageswara Rao passed away due to cancer in Hyderabad at the age of 91. He was born in September 20, 1923 in Andhra Pradesh. He was awarded with Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan, Dada Saheb Phalke Award (1991), Nandi Awards for Best Actor, Filmfare Best Telugu Actor Awards, etc.

155.    The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) set up an 8-member panel to review governance of board of banks and examine ‘fit and proper’ criteria for directors including their tenure. The Committee will be chaired by former Axis Bank Chairman P J Nayak.

156.    The Union Cabinet decided to grant minority status to Jain community. The status would help to give constitutional safeguards on Jains and make them eligible for welfare programmes of the minority affairs ministry. The Jains will be the 6th community to have minority status after Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis.

157.    India successfully test fired a nuclear-capable Agni-IV strategic missile from the Wheeler Island off the Odisha coast near Dhamra in Bhadrak district nearly 200 km from state capital Bhubaneswar.

158.    Author Amish Tripathi who created waves in Indian publishing with a $1 million book contract, has cracked it even bigger this time with an American producer purchasing the rights to “The Immortals Of Meluha”.

159.    The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared Pakistan’s troubled north-western city of Peshawar as the world’s “largest reservoir of endemic polio” and has called for urgent action to boost vaccination.

160.    The Union Minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, Dr. Girija Vyas launched the Housing Start-Up Index (HSUI) logo, website and monitoring tool “Integrated Urban Poverty Monitoring System” (IPoMs) for JnNURM and Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY). The Housing Start-Up Index (HSUI) is an index that tracks the number of houses being constructed every year across the nation.

161.    Kalvakuntla Chandrasekhara Rao (KCR) becomes the first Chief Minister of newly formed Telangana as the nation's 29th state.

162.    The Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-India) has detected a “black” private information stealing virus in the Indian online banking transactions space. The virus is chiefly more threatening for the users of credit cards who make payments at the shopping counters. The virus named “Dexter, black POS, memory dump and grabber” can acquire 7 false names when infecting a system and once it is successful in breaking the security protocols of a Point of Sale (POS) terminal, it steals confidential data of the card holder. RBI has made it compulsory for debit card holders to punch in their PIN numbers every time they use the card to minimize frauds. The order was passed following the spread of Dexter virus of Trojan Family which was detected at the Point of Sale (POS).

163.    Karnataka becomes the first state in the country to provide universal health coverage for tertiary care to all the sections of society.

164.    Ms Jamila Bayaz has been appointed as the first female police chief in Afghanistan. Ms Bayaz will lead the District One of Kabul province in Afghanistan.

165.    Legendary Bengali actress Suchitra Sen passed away in Kolkata due to massive heart attack at the age of 82. She was the first Bengali actress to be honored at an international film festival. She received the Best Actress award for ‘Saat Paake Bandha’ at the 1963 Moscow film festival.

166.    India’s first climate change theatre has been opened at Pushpa Gujral Science City in Kapurthala, Punjab. The 18-metre diameter theatre set up in a dome-shaped building has the seating capacity of 125 persons. It was inaugurated by Rajya Sabha member Naresh Gujral.

167.    British Prime Minister David Cameron ordered his cabinet secretary to inquire into newly-released documents suggesting Margaret Thatcher government facilitated the Indian government in 1984 to plan Operation Blue Star against separatists hiding inside the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The bloody and heavily criticized operation led to the assassination of then PM Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards (Satwant Singh and Beant Singh) on October 31, 1984.

168.    Real Madrid forward footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo won the 2013 FIFA world’s best player award at FIFA Awards Ceremony held in Switzerland. He beat Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Franck Ribery of Bayern Munich to win the FIFA Ballon d’Or Award 2013.

169.    The Marathi poet-writer and leader of the Dalit Panthers movement, Namdeo Dhasal passed away on 15 January 2014 in Mumbai aged 64. He was honoured with Soviet Land Nehru Award for Golpitha.

170.    The bilateral exercise titled ‘Sahayog-Kaijin 2014’ was successfully conducted by Indian Coast Guard and its Japanese counterpart held at Kochi.

171.    The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led government has withdrawn the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail in Delhi. The government formally wrote to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) to disapprove the setting up of FDI-funded multi-brand retail stores in the State. With this withdrawal, the national capital territory has become the first State Government to withdraw permission for FDI-funded retail stores.

172.    President Pranab Mukherjee bestowed the Sunil Gangopadhyay Memorial Award for Excellence in Bengali Literature for 2012 and 2013 upon eminent poet and litterateur Nirendranath Chakravarty and Sankha Ghosh at the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata. The award was instituted in 2012 by ‘The Bengal’ a Kolkata-based NGO.

173.    The social networking site, Facebook has acquired Bangalore-based start up Little Eye Labs. Little Eye is a tool that helps Android app developers to measure, analyze and optimize their apps. The entire Little Eye Labs team will move to Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California where they would leverage the social networking giant’s infrastructure to improve the performance of their apps.

174.    As per a new poll conducted by The Times, the co-founder of Microsoft and a billionaire philanthropist Mr. Bill Gates is the most admired person on the planet. He is better known for donating large sums of money to charitable organizations and scientific research and is highly regarded globally. Second most admired person in the poll was US president Barack Obama followed by Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Pope Francis. Chinese President Xi Jinping was at 6th position. Seven Indians in the list of 30 most-admired people include Cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar (5), Prime Minster Narendra Modi (7), Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan (9), former President Abdul Kalam (10), social activist Anna Hazare (14), Former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal (18) and Business tycoon Ratan Tata (30).

175.    The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Bank of Japan (BOJ) signed an agreement to enhance the maximum amount of the Bilateral Swap Arrangement (BSA) between the two countries to $50 billion. The agreement was signed by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan and BOJ Governor Haruhiko Kuroda. The BSA shall be effective until December 3, 2015. The aim of BSA is to address possible short-term liquidity difficulties and supplement the existing international financial arrangements and to strengthen mutual cooperation between India and Japan.

176.    A newly constructed railway platform in Gorakhpur, U.P. entered into the Limca Book of World Records for being the world’s longest railway platform. Platform No. 1 of the Gorakhpur is 1366.33 metres with ramp and 11355.40 metres without ramp. Gorakhpur is the Headquarter of North Eastern Railways zone.

177.    Trident Group has become the first corporate to use Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB) for payment of salaries to its employees. A system that facilitates seamless transfer of payments to Aadhaar Enabled Bank Account (AEBA).

178.    For the first time in India, an indigenously developed stratospheric balloon penetrated into the Mesosphere. It is developed at the Balloon Facility, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Hyderabad under the High Altitude Balloon Development Project (HAA). Till now, only balloons from US and Japan have accomplished this achievement.

179.    The Government of India has started the country’s first comprehensive adolescent health programme—Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram which will also focus on adolescents’ reproductive health. It emphasis on 6 ‘Cs’—Coverage, Content, Communication, Counseling, Clinics and Convergence.

180.    The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched its heavy-duty rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-D5 (GSLV-D5) from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh and placed communication satellite GSAT-14 into orbit. It is India’s 23rd geostationary satellite built by ISRO. It has a life span of 12 years. The 1,982 kg satellite carries six extended C-band and Ku-band transponders and two Ka-band beacons. The satellite will be used for telemedicine and tele-education services. The mission cost India Rs. 365 crore–Rs. 220 crore for the rocket and Rs. 145 crore for the satellite.

181.    Indian Pitta, a bird common to the Himalayan foothills and Western Ghats was spotted at Aravalli Biodiversity Park near Vasant Kunj in Delhi recently. As per ornithologists, Indian Pitta, a small and colourful bird which is mainly seen in closed-canopy forests was spotted in Delhi after 60 years.

182.    Pushpa Kapila Hingorani, a lawyer who is better known as ‘Mother of PIL’ for being the first women to file a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on behalf of voiceless under-trial prisoners in Bihar around more than three decades ago passed away at the age of 86.

183.    As per Green500 list announced at the Supercomputing Conference (SC 2013) in Denver, Colorado, in the US, India’s PARAM Yuva II supercomputer built by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has been ranked no.1 in India, 9th in the Asia Pacific Region and 44th in the world among the most power efficient computer systems.

184.    Ms Ashraf Jehan (56) has been appointed as the first female judge of Shariah Court (Pakistan), which hears cases under the Islamic legislation. Ms Jehan was earlier serving as an additional judge at the high court in Sindh.

185.    The Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government declared 50% subsidy on the power tariff to benefit nearly 28 lakh households with the announcement of 667 litres of water free of cost to all households in the capital who have metered connections.

186.    According to the survey, India’s e-commerce market grew by 88% in 2013 to $16 billion. The increased internet penetration and availability of more payment options boosted the e-commerce industry in 2013. The survey was conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

187.    In an attempt to promote power saving, Tamil Nadu government began the first phase of distributing free Compact Fluorescent Light (CFL) bulbs to over 14 lakh hut-dwellers in the state. The scheme is aimed at saving 40 mw of electricity.

188.    For the first time, Astronomers have discovered phosphorous—one of the vital elements for life in the cosmic remains from a supernova explosion.

189.    The veteran Indian painter Mr. Prokash Karmakar passed away at the age of 81 in Kolkata. He was best known for his landscapes and nudes.

190.    The Vice President of India, Mr. M. Hamid Ansari launched a book titled “Water, Peace and War—Confronting the Global Water Crisis” authored by Mr. Brahma Chellaney. It is focused on a wide range of research from scientific and policy fields to examine the global linkages between water and peace.

191.    The Indian-American scientist, Ms. Sangeeta Bhatia developed a simple, cheap, paper test that could improve cancer diagnosis rates and help people to get treated earlier. She is professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

192.    Northern Railway launched 24x7 security helpline No.1322 to provide speedy assistance to passengers in case of thefts, harassment and other criminal incidents on rail premises.

193.    Former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh inaugurated Indira Paryavaran Bhawan at Aliganj, Jor Bagh Road, New Delhi which will house the Ministry of Environment and Forests and has a provision to accommodate its 600 officials. India’s first on site Net Zero green building built by the adoption of Solar Passive design and energy efficient building material. The building is targeted to achieve LEED India Platinum Rating and GRIHA 5 star rating. Total Cost is Rs. 209 crore. With an Installed capacity of 930 KW peak power, the building has the largest roof top Solar system among Multi storied buildings in India.

194.    The Indian arm of US retailer Target, Target India launched its Target Accelerator Programme in Bangalore to incubate and provide mentoring to its first batch of five technology start-ups. Target will provide funding of up to $30,000 in cash and operational expenses to each of its incubated ventures.

195.    The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) gave its nod to convert 7,200 Km of states roads into national highways. Together with this, during the UPA regime, approximately 17,000 km of the state highways were converted into national highways. Also, the Cabinet decided to rename “Ennore Port” in Chennai as “Kamarajar Port”.

196.    Ms. Lakshmi Swaminathan becomes the first Indian to become president of Administrative Tribunal of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for three years. She is the seventh president of the Tribunal. At present, she is a member of the Panel of Arbitrators of several public sector undertakings and NSE.

197.    India’s top singles star, Somdev Devvarman won his third ATP Challenge Tennis title after beating top seed Aleksandr Nedovyesov by 6-3, 6-1 in the final in New Delhi. Saketh Myneni, lifted the men’s doubles title with Sanam Singh and they put a bow on the Indian swing with doubles titles in the capital city of New Delhi.

198.    The Parliament of India approved the Whistleblowers Protection Bill 2014 to set up a mechanism to encourage persons for leak of information on corruption or willful misuse of power by public servants. The bill also seeks to provide punishment for false or frivolous complaints. Recently, the Rajya Sabha gave its nod to the bill without any amendment after keeping it pending for more than two years. The Lok Sabha had passed the bill in 2011.

199.    India’s oldest parliamentarian, Mr. Rishang Keishing (94) decided to retire after serving the nation for seven decades. His term at Rajya Sabha ends on April 9, 2014. He had served as Chief Minister of Manipur four times. Following his retirement, Mr. Ram Sundar Das of the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) will be the oldest MP in the Lok Sabha.

200.    An Indian origin doctor, Dr. Hemant Thatte developed a 21-chemical solution known as SOMAH Solution that could preserve a donated organ for up to a week before a transplant. Dr. Hemant Thatte is a senior cardiovascular surgeon at Harvard University. The new preservative that is a mixture of 21 chemicals has the potential to store the heart and other organs for up to 7 days. The biggest advantage of SOMAH is that it can be used at room temperatures.

201.    In order to benefit over 50 lakh employees and over 30 lakh pensioners, the Union Cabinet approved terms of reference for seventh pay commission. This includes merging dearness allowance above 50% with basic pay. At present, Dearness Allowance (DA) is around 90% of basic pay and another hike of 10% is expected soon. DA is calculated on the basis of change in retail inflation.

202.    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected 5.4% economic growth for India in 2014-15 and proposed to strengthen the inflation management polices and doing away with supply bottlenecks for better GDP.

203.    The Chief Minister of Bihar, Mr. Nitish Kumar unveiled the world’s longest free Wi-Fi zone at the e-Bihar summit in Patna.  The free Wi-Fi zone is stretched nearly 20 km between the National Institute of Technology (NIT) at the eastern end of the Ashok Rajpath and Danapur at the western end of the state capital, Patna.

204.    Sahil Khan has been described as "the youngest ethical hacker and writer in world" (sic) and nicknamed "Indian Einstein". Syed Sujeel Ahmed of Islam Online said "What's even more amazing is the fact that this whiz kid is self-taught and has never taken a computer class.” These descriptions are far from the truth, as demonstrated by his first book, "Hackers and Crackers". In the book, Khan shows that he cannot distinguish between ASCII art of a computer chip pinout and programming code. Some of his achievements include assembling of the computer at the age of thirteen with the recommendation of his name for the Limca Book of World Records, after a month he made nine computer games without knowing any programming language and without any help. At the age of fourteen he made his own news website. Now, Sahil Khan wants to clarify hacking and give the people some more knowledge to work against hackers.

205.    The Union Ministry of Tourism declared Sikkim as the best State in the implementation of rural tourism projects. The Union Minister for Human Resource Development Dr. Shashi Tharoor presented the National Tourism Award 2012-13 to Sikkim’s Tourism Minister Bhim Dhungel in New Delhi.

206.    The Union Cabinet gave its nod for classifying Odia as a classical language to give impetus to scholarships in the language. It is the sixth Indian language to get such prestigious tag after Sanskrit, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam.  Languages thus far declared to be Classical are: Tamil (2004), Sanskrit (2005), Kannada (2008), Telugu (2008), Malayalam (2013), Odia (2014). Chinese, Sanskrit, Tamil, Hebrew, Greek and Latin are considered as the Classical Languages of the World. Of these only Chinese and Tamil are used by masses now.

207.    As per the global property consultant Cushman & Wakefield report, Connaught Place in Delhi is the world’s eighth costliest office location in 2013. It fell to the eighth position (from 4th position) due to an appreciation in both the US dollar and euro against the Indian rupee in 2013.

208.    Email miles is a new GPS based system that tells us how far our email has travelled. This new technology uses Global Positioning System (GPS) and internet tracking to calculate the number of miles an email has travelled before reaching an inbox.

209.    The Supreme Court ruled that people are free to adopt children irrespective of their religious background. The move paved the way for adoption of child by persons coming from Muslim community even though it is not allowed under their personal law.

210.    The Vice President of India, Mr. Hamid Ansari released a book entitled “Public Issues before Parliament” authored by Mr. Vijay Darda in New Delhi.

211.    The Minister for Minority Affairs Mr. K Rehman Khan inaugurated India’s first Minority Cyber Village in Chandoli in Alwar district of Rajasthan. It will impart computer education to the people in the age group of 15 to 59.

212.    The social media giant, Facebook announced it purchase popular mobile messaging company WhatsApp for a whopping $19 billion. To date, it is the largest acquisition by the Mark Zuckerberg-led firm which will give it a stronghold in the market for messaging. Facebook has its Headquarter in Menlo Park, California, US.

213.    The Union Cabinet approved the creation of Equal Opportunity Commission (EOC) to check discrimination of minority communities in jobs and education.

214.    The space rock known as 2000 EM26 poses no threat and passed the Earth at just under nine times the distance to the moon. Though, it is considered as a potentially dangerous Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) that was large enough to cause significant damage in the event of an impact. Till now, 10,713 known near-Earth objects are discovered.

215.    Dr. Harminder Singh Dua, Indian origin UK doctor discovered 15 microns thick new layer of cornea known as Dua’s layer located at the back of the cornea between the corneal stroma and Descemet’s membrane.

216.    The Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mr. Arun Jaitley launched a book titled “ModiNomics: Inclusive Economics, Inclusive Governance” by Sameer Kocchar in New Delhi.

217.    The Indira Gandhi Zoological Park (IGZP) or Vizag Zoo will be the first zoo in India to have a conservation breeding centre for the endangered wild dog or ‘Dhole.’ The Central Zoo Authority selected IGZP to have a breeding centre for Dholes.

218.    Purushottam Express (Train Number 12801/12802) becomes the first train in India to be attached with a Braille-embedded AC coach for visually challenged passengers. Purushottam Express is a super-fast train running between Delhi and Puri.

219.    Mr. Avinash Arun’s directorial debut, the Marathi feature film “Killa” won the Crystal Bear (Glasernen Bar) for the Best Film awarded by the Children’s Jury in Generation Kplus section at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. It is the first Indian feature film to win this much coveted award.

220.    The President of India, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee presented the International Gandhi Award for the year 2013 to Dr. Vijaykumar Vinayak Dongre and Prof. Guocheng Zhang for making outstanding contributions in the field of leprosy to eradicate the disease through treatment, training and research at Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi.

221.    The Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram presented the Interim Budget 2014-15 in the Lok Sabha with an estimated plan expenditure of Rs. 5,55,322 crore and non-plan expenditure of Rs. 12,07,892 crore. Excise duty on cars, two-wheelers, SUVs and capital goods and consumer durables has been slashed to boost the manufacturing and growth. There is no change in income tax rates.

222.    For the first time, India will host the World Bridge Championship for Bermuda Bowl (men) and Venice Cup (women) in 2015. About 550 players from 66 countries are expected to be seen in action in this world meet.

223.    A study published in the British Medical Journal and before that in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) examined the prevalence of smoking and cigarette consumption in 187 countries between 1980 and 2012 and found that while cigarette smoking among Indian men has fallen from 33.8 percent in 1980 to 23 percent in 2012, it has gone up from 3 percent to 3.2 percent among Indian women within the same time frame.

224.    International Mother Language Day (Bhasha Divas) observed across the world with Bangladesh leading on February 21, 2014. Mother language of one’s country is the sign of independence of that country.

225.    In the latest Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) singles rankings, Chinese tennis ace Li Na ranked World No.2 following her second Grand Slam crown at the Australian Open 2014.

226.    The Catholic country Belgium becomes the first country to allow euthanasia (painless killing) for incurably ill children of any age. This action of legalizing death for the children came 12 years after the country legalized euthanasia for adults.

227.    Belgium becomes the second country after Netherlands to allow mercy-killing for children and the first to lift all age restrictions.

228.    Luxembourg, a country in the Western Europe, allows active euthanasia for over 18 years in age. Switzerland Doctors help adult patients to commit suicide.

229.    Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono declared a state of emergency on the main island of Java because of a major volcanic eruption. Mount Kelud in the east Java erupted and sent a cloud of ash 30 km into the sky and covered villages up to 500 km away.

230.    Delhi Police launches a new helpline number 1093 for North Eastern people living in Delhi. This helpline number has 5 direct lines and all calls are received at the Central Police Control Room (CPCR) situated at Delhi Police headquarters. This step has been taken by the Union and Delhi Government after the Nido Tania racial killing case.

231.    Indian Navy started largest combat exercise called “Tropex 2014” with both the western and eastern fleets amassing in the Bay of Bengal for intensive combat manoeuvres. This month-long exercise is being held under the gaze of India’s first dedicated Military Satellite G-SAT 7 or “Rukmini”.

232.    The third World Congress on Agro-forestry 2014 (WCA14) was held in New Delhi, India. It was inaugurated by President Mr. Pranab Mukherjee. This was the first ever World Agro-forestry Congress in Asia Pacific Region. Its theme was “Trees for Life: Accelerating the Impact of Agro Forestry”.

233.    Odisha Legislative Assembly passed the Odisha Lokayukta Bill 2014 with provision of keeping Chief Minister, ex-Chief Ministers, other ministers and public servants under the purview of a six-member anti-corruption panel. Odisha becomes the first state to enact the law after the Central Act was passed in Parliament in December 2013.

234.    The two electronic chip manufacturing units will be set up by India’s Jaiprakash Associates, IBM and Tower Jazz at a cost of Rs 34,399 crore near the Yamuna Expressway in Uttar Pradesh and another one is France-based ST Microelectronics, HSMC Technologies (Hindustan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation) and Malaysia’s Silterra at Prantij, Gujarat at a cost of Rs 29,013 crore.

235.    Chinese scientists invented a new kind of inorganic fire resistant paper. The paper can be used for long time purpose to save the important documents. It is formed by calcium phosphate compound and it will not catch fire even at 1000 degrees Celsius. It can be torn, folded and destroyed by strong acid.

236.    On the advice of Union cabinet, the President of India, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee imposed President’s rule in Delhi and accepted the resignation of Chief Minister Mr. Arvind Kejriwal, along with his council of ministers. In reference to the provision of Article 239 and Article 239AA of the Constitution, the National Capital Territory of Delhi was to be administered by President. Lt-Governor Najeeb Jung became the direct administrator of the National Capital Territory.

237.    The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader, Mr. Arvind Kejriwal resigned from the post of Chief Minister of Delhi, after failing to introduce and pass the Jan Lokpal Bill in the Delhi Assembly. Mr. Kejriwal took an oath as the second-youngest chief minister of Delhi on December 28, 2013.

238.    The Government of India (GOI) and Asian Development Bank (ADB) signed a $275 million loan agreement to continue improving rural roads in the states of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, and West Bengal.

239.    As per new comparative study by Accenture, India ranked eighth in the list of ten countries in terms of digital governance. Singapore topped the list followed by Norway and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

240.    The Year 2014 has been designated by the Governments of India and China as the Year of Friendly Exchanges. The Vice President of India Mr. Mohammad Hamid Ansari launched the ‘India-China Year of Friendly Exchanges’ in New Delhi.

Current Affairs: 2004 (Part-3)

1.     The UK has launched world’s biggest scanning project- UK Bio-bank imaging study  in which 100,000 British volunteers are participating to undergo a detailed imaging of their brain, heart and vital organs to help researchers study a wide range of common, chronic and life-threatening illnesses like diabetes, cancer and heart disease.  DNA has been collected from all the volunteers who will be compared and cross-referenced with the scans.

2.     The Namibian government has purchased 3,400 India-made Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for its presidential polls. The EVMs have been bought at a cost of Namibian $10 million (approx $948,000) from Bengaluru-based public sector unit, Bharat Electronic Limited (BEL). The South African nation Namibia is the first African country to use such machines in any of its polls.

3.     The apex court passed the judgment on a PIL filed by National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) requesting the court to give separate identity to transgender by recognizing them as third category of gender. This is for the first time that the third gender has got a formal recognition by the Supreme Court.

4.     India’s Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) in a tie-up with Alankit Assignments launched “Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Suraksha Yojana” Scheme in UAE.

5.     A Southern California mite (Paratarsotomus macropalpis) was recently recorded running at up to 322 body lengths per second.   This makes it the world’s fastest land animal. The mite’s speed in terms of body length per seconds is equivalent to a person running roughly 1300 miles per hour.

6.     In order to control ‘fixing’ in sports, the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) has established a committed ‘Sport Integrity Unit’ to investigate into cases of fraud, fixing and illegal betting in any sporting event.

7.     Indian Railways launched a web based Electrical Energy Management System called “RAILSAVER”. RAILSAVER is a part of the project for “Improving Energy Efficiency in Indian Railway System” is being carried out by the Indian Railways under programmatic model of UNDP via Global Environmental Facility (GEF) funding of US $ 5.2 million.

8.     C-DAC Mumbai, IIT-Madras, IIIT Hyderabad, IIT Kharagpur, and C-DAC Thiruvananthapuram have jointly developed the “Sandesh Pathak” software application. The Sandesh Pathak application is part of the project launched by the Indian Government to assist farmers read SMS like (i) Advice to solve farming problems viz. fertilizer, weed management, etc. (ii) Weather forecasts and (iii) Updates on latest technology for agriculture, etc.

9.     NASA has discovered the first Earth-size planet in the “habitable zone” of another star. The newfound planet, called “Kepler-186f”, was first spotted by NASA’s Kepler space telescope and circles a dim red dwarf star about 490 light-years from Earth. Kepler-186f is the outermost of 5 planets orbiting the star Kepler-186. Kepler-186f orbits at a distance of 52.4 million km, theoretically within the habitable zone for a red dwarf.

10.  Wisden has made a very interesting comparison of Tendulkar’s record with England Captain Alastair Cook and Australian Captain Michael Clarke. In December 2013, in Perth (Australia) when for a few moments: 1 Cook + 1 Clarke = 1 Tendulkar (i.e. 200 Test Matches with exactly 15,921 runs and 51 centuries). Wisden or colloquially “the Bible of Cricket” is a cricket reference book published every year in the UK.

11.  HDFC Bank, the second largest private bank of India, has created a new Guinness World Record by its annual blood donation drive it organised in December 2013. This has been recognised as the largest blood donation drive in a single day ever across the world. On December 6, 2013, at 709 locations all over India, 1,115 blood donation camps were put up where 61,902 people participated.

12.  The multinational confectionery company, Cadbury India Ltd, a subsidiary of Mondelez International Inc, has changed its name to Mondelez India Foods Limited. This is in line with the gradual changeover of the name of all subsidiaries of the Nasdaq-listed $35-billion firm globally.

13.  The Bluefin-21 is about 5m-long robotic submarine (Underwater Autonomous Vehicle) that can produce a sonar map of the sea floor. It has used to explore for wreckage of the Flight MH370 missing on March 8, 2014 with 239 people on board in an area defined by 4 ping signals from the flight’s Black Box heard a few days ago.

14.  In February 2014, Collegium of Supreme Court of India, headed by Chief Justice of India P. Sathasivam nominated Justice Rohini as the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court. She will charge as the first woman chief justice of Delhi High Court, 47 years after the court was established in October 1966.

15.  RBI fully sold the Rs 200 billion ($3.31 billion) worth of Government bonds on Thursday April 17, 2014, executing the India’s biggest-ever auction. Life Insurance Corporation had bought a major portion of the debt at the auction. The Benchmark bond yield ended down 11 basis points at 8.85%, the biggest single-day fall since 20 January, 2014.This was India’s biggest debt auction ever.

16.  “The Accidental Prime Minister: The Making and Unmaking of Manmohan Singh” – a memoir by Indian policy analyst Sanjaya Baru released. Mr. Baru was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Media Advisor from May 2004 until August 2008.

17.  Ratan Tata appointed board member of China-backed Boao Forum. For the first time a senior Indian business leader inducted as a member of the Board of Boao Forum for Asia (BFA), an uncommon distinction for an Indian in the Chinese government-backed influential body.

18.  UK-born physicist Stuart Parkin won the Millennium technology prize 2014. Parkin won this prize for his breakthrough in magnetic disk drive storage capacity.

19.  Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Limited acquired Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (owned by Japan’s Diiachi Sankyo) in an all-share deal with total equity value of $3.2 billion. Earlier in 2008, Daiichi Sankyo had bought Ranbaxy Laboratories for $4.6 billion.

20.  Koyal Rana from Jaipur won the Miss India 2014 crown at the 51st edition of the beauty pageant. The runners up were Jhataleka Malhotra (1st runner-up) from Mumbai and Gail Da’Silva (2nd runner-up) from Goa. 2013 Miss India winner Navneet Kaur Dhillion and Miss World 2013 Megan Young crowned Rana the new Femina Miss India 2014.

21.  World Health Day was celebrated all over the world on April 7, 2014. Theme for 2014 was “Vector-Borne Diseases (VBDs)”. The campaign for World Health Day this year is ‘small bite: big threat’. Mosquitoes, flies, ticks and bugs may be a threat to your health – and that of your family – at home and when travelling.

22.  Suvir Mirchandani, a 14 year old Indian origin student at a school in Pennsylvania, has found a way of saving the US government $400 million dollars (£240 million) per annum. Suvir has shown how by simply changing the Font US Govt uses for printing official documents, the US Govt can save $400 million dollars (£240 million) per annum. Suvir calculated that if US government uses “Garamond” font instead of the “Times New Roman”, font usually used by Govt, the Garamond font would use 25% less ink as each character in Garamond is lighter and thinner.

23.  Temptest Stela:  A 40-line inscription on a 3,500-year-old and 6-foot-tall calcite stone block from Egypt. This is being considered as one of the oldest weather reports.

24.  Astronomers from Niels Bohr Institute have discovered a miniature planet “Charkilo” with two rings of ice and pebbles between Saturn and Uranus in the Kuiper Belt.

25.  The Atlantic Council has appointed Jens Stoltenberg as the next Secretary General of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Mr. Stoltenberg will replace Denmark’s Mr. Anders Fogh Rasmussen and take over as leader of the 28-nation military alliance in October 2014.

26.  Lithuania’s incumbent President Dalia Grybauskaite (58) has been declared the winner in the country’s run-off Presidential elections. She got 58% votes whereas her Social Democrat rival Zigmantas Balcytis only 42% votes.

27.  Brazuca - the balls to be used in the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Brazil- has been designed with six in-built HD cameras to capture 360 degree view of the on-field action.

28.  In Thailand, Supatra Sasuphan at 14 years old, this young girl is officially so far the hairiest girl in the world.

29.  India inked $1006.20 million International Development Assistance (IDA) loan agreement with World Bank for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan III.

30.   

31.  India’s Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRL)–Pinaka rockets, capable of decimating hostile targets at 40 kms-range with rapid salvos, successfully test- fired thrice at an armament base in Chandipur, Odisha. Three rounds of Pinaka rockets were successfully tested from the Proof and eXperimental Establishment (PXE) at Chandipur.

32.  BJP leader Sushma Swaraj (62) becomes the first woman External Affairs Minister of India. She is the country’s first woman to be appointed as a full-time Cabinet minister with the external affairs portfolio. Indira Gandhi too held the portfolio between September 1967 and February 1969 and again between July and October 1984, but it was among the portfolios she retained with her as Prime Minister.

33.  Sushma Swaraj has several other first to her name: (a) At the age of 25, she became the youngest cabinet minister in Haryana government in 1977; (b) First woman Chief Minister of Delhi in 1998, (c) She was the first woman spokesperson for any political party in India and won the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award.

34.  In a historic achievement, Malavath Purna (13) became the youngest female mountaineer to scale the Mount Everest. Purna was accompanied by Sadhanapalli Anand Kumar (16), a Class IX student from the Khammam district of Andhra Pradesh. Anand and Purna are both students of Andhra Pradesh Social Welfare Educational Society.

35.  Hockey pioneer and ‘Father of Malaysian Hockey’, Sultan Azlan Shah (86) passed away. He was known for his stupendous contribution to the sport for over 41 years – both as a player and an administrator. His intense love for hockey inspired him to start the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup hockey tournament in 1983.

36.  Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is buying a majority stake in Raghav Bahl’s Network18 Media and Investments and its subsidiary TV18 Broadcast through Independent Media Trust (IMT), of which RIL is the only beneficiary.

37.  Gurgaon based mobile-maker Micromax has appointed Samsung India’s former mobile and IT business chief Vineet Taneja as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Micromax, the country’s second largest Smartphone player.

38.  As per the data of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), during the financial year 2013-14, India received $5.98 billion in FDI from Singapore, whereas it was $4.85 billion from Mauritius. With this, Singapore has replaced Mauritius as the top contributor to India’s FDI.

39.  Kerala Government has announced cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar as the Goodwill Ambassador for the 35th edition of National Games, slated to be held across seven cities in Kerala early in 2015. Mr. Oommen Chandy, the Chief Minister of Kerala announced the name of the Kochi franchise team owned by Sachin Tendulkar in the Indian Super League Football Tournament. The team will be called Kerala Blasters Football Club.

40.  Ahmed Maitiq took oath as Libya’s new Prime Minister along with his cabinet ministers amidst objections against his election process. Libyan Parliament has been in an impasse since former leader Muammar Gaddafi was ousted in 2011 after protests.

41.  Japan wins its first Thomas Cup defeating Malaysia in the final match held at Siri Fort Sports Complex in New Delhi. The Thomas Cup (World Men’s Team Championships), is an international badminton competition. This was the first time India hosted both the events i.e. Thomas Cup and Uber Cup.

42.  Japan won its maiden women’s Asian Football Cup (AFC) defeating Australia in the final match held in Vietnam. Japan became the first country to simultaneously hold both the FIFA Women’s World Cup (2011) and AFC Women’s Asian Football Cup (2014). Aya Miyama, the captain of Japan, was awarded the tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award for her efforts.

43.  Largest breeding ground of the world for Olive Ridley turtles is the Gahirmatha Beach in Kendrapara district of Odisha (India), now a part of the Bhitarkanika Wildlife Sanctuary.

44.  The navies of India and Singapore are conducting the 2014 edition of the ‘SIMBEX 14’ series of annual bilateral naval exercises in the Andaman Sea. SIMBEX 14 is the 21st in the series, designed to enhance inter-operability and mutual understanding between Indian Navy and Republic of Singapore Navy (RSN). SIMBEX stands for ‘Singapore Indian Maritime Bilateral Exercise’.

45.  Gujarat’s famous archeological monument “Rani ki Vav (The Queen’s Stepwell)” is among five international heritage sites to be recreated digitally using latest technology in Scotland, UK.

46.  India’s Mobile Seva Project started by Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) has won the 2014 United Nations Public Service Award. The award has been given in the category of promoting whole of government approaches in Information Age. The United Nations Public Service Awards is the most prestigious international recognition of excellence in public service.

47.  An exhibition marking 100 years of World War I (WW I) has been organized at the German Historical Museum, Berlin (Germany). The exhibition will run until the end of 2014. It will take overall view of the war like events leading up to the war, the war itself and the consequence (both from a European and a global perspective). The WW I began on June 28, 1914 and ended in 1918.

48.  Indologist and Sanskrit scholar Sukumari Bhattacharji (92) who was known for her grasp over English and Sanskrit language, passed away. She started her career as a lecturer in English at Lady Brabourne College in Kolkata. She penned some 34 books.

49.  Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg of Germany defeated main rival Lewis Hemilton of Britain to win 2014 Monaco F1 Grand Prix. This was his second victory of the season and fifth of his career.

50.  Donald Levine (86), the man credited as the father of G.I. Joe (toy) for developing the world’s first action figure, passed away.

51.  Bharatiya Mahila Bank (BMB), India’s first all-women bank, has been included in the second schedule to the RBI Act 1934.

52.  As per the directions of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), all banks will be required to make all new ATMs installed from July 1, 2014 as “talking ATMs” with Braille keypads.

53.  Oracle filed a lawsuit against Google in 2010, claiming that Google had improperly used parts of Java into Android. Oracle seeks around $1 billion as its copyright claims. Google’s Android operating system is the world’s largest-selling Smartphone platform. Oracle Corp won a suit against Google Inc.

54.  In the latest released Forbes ‘Global 2000’ list, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries leads the set of 54 Indian companies in the annual list of the world’s 2000 largest and most powerful public companies. The top three positions of the list is occupied by the Chinese companies.

55.  RuPay, India’s indigenous card payment network launched. The RuPay is a blend of two terms — ‘Rupee’ and ‘Payment’. It has been developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and is being used by certain banks such as ICICI, State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, among others, for clearing and settlement. The RuPay, which works on three channels — ATMs, Point of Sales (PoS) and online sales, is the seventh such payment gateway in the world. A variant of the pre-paid RuPay card would be launched by IRCTC soon, which will help in booking railway tickets.

56.  As per the announcement made by Chief of the Naval Staff Admiral Robin Kumar Dhowan, the newly inducted aircraft carrier, INS Vikramaditya, is now operationally deployed and its integral MiG-29K fighters have been fully integrated with the carrier. The 44,500-tonne aircraft carrier bought from Russia at a cost of $2.33 billion had arrived in India in January, 2014 and is positioned at Karwar in Karnataka.

57.  Also, INS Vikrant, the first indigenously built aircraft carrier being built at the Cochin shipyard, will be ready for trials in 2017 and for delivery by 2018-end.

58.  As per the guidelines issued by the RBI, minors above 10 years of age have been allowed to open and operate independently savings bank account and use other facilities like ATM and cheque books.

59.  The RBI has asked banks not to impose penalties on customers who don’t maintain a minimum balance in any dormant account as part of a consumer protection initiative. A number of banks, including the State Bank of India, do not levy any penalty if the minimum balance is not maintained in an inoperative savings account. In 2012, the RBI directed banks not to charge customers for non-operation or activation of basic savings bank deposit accounts. (8 May,2014).

60.  India tested its first indigenous air-to-air Beyond Visual Range (BVR) ‘Astra’ missile from a Sukhoi-30MKI fighter jet, marking an important achievement in the development of complex BVR weapons. Astra will initially provide a 44-km range with “high single-shot kill probability”, while its Mark-II version will be able to hit hostile aircraft over 100 km away.

61.  The East India Company which had ventured into India in around 1600 AD for the purpose of trade and which later became the precursor of British rule in India has launched a new office in the Qatari capital of Doha in collaboration with local partner Nasser Al Ansari of Octagon International. Although the Company was dissolved in 1874, it was re-born in 2010 and a revived East India Company launched its flagship Fine Foods store in London’s Mayfair.

62.  “Nanauk”, the tropical cyclone that emerged in the east-central Arabian Sea is likely to hit Oman on June 15, 2014. Due to the influence of the cyclone, Delhi witnessed an unexpected hike in moisture levels which caused rain bringing the soaring temperature down.

63.  Indian cinema’s legendary actor Dilip Kumar’s autobiography ‘The Substance and the Shadow’ that narrates his life since birth was launched. The book is written by author and former journalist Udaya Tara Nayar.He was born in Peshawar, Pakistan and his original name was Muhammad Yusuf Khan. He spent his childhood in Maharashtra and left home to start a canteen before he was picked up as a potential actor. Guinness World Record for winning the maximum number of awards by an Indian actor.

64.  The 290 km-range BrahMos supersonic anti-ship cruise missile was successfully test- fired from country’s largest indigenous warship INS Kolkata off the coast of Karwar in Karnataka. The combat ship is yet to be formally inducted into the Indian Navy. The missile was test-fired from INS Kolkata, which is a new ship under Project 15-Alpha series.

65.  Member of Air Navigation Services of Airports Authority of India (AAI), Somasundaram, has been conferred upon the esteemed Bharat Ratna JRD Tata Award 2013 instituted by Aeronautical Society of India (ASI).

66.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a book titled ‘Getting India Back on Track: An Action Agenda For Reform’ edited by Bibek Debroy, Ashley J. Tellis and Reece Trevor. The book’s foreword has been written by Ratan N Tata.

67.  Reuven (Ruby) Rivlin, Knesset member of Likud Party, has been elected 10th President of Israel, following a vote by members of the parliament. The Knesset is the unicameral national legislature of Israel.

68.  Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) achieved its full power generation potential and thus became India’s first nuclear power plant to generate 1,000 Mega Watt (MW) of electricity.

69.  Two ships ICGS Achook and ICGS Agrim, the fifth and sixth ships in a series of 20 fast patrol vessels have been inducted into the Indian Coastguard.

70.  Rural Development Minister and senior BJP leader from Maharashtra Gopinath Munde (64) died in a road accident in Delhi, while he was on his way to Delhi airport when his car was rammed by a speeding Indica, leading to his death. Munde was chosen as the Rural Development Minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet.

71.  The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways set a deadline for public transport vehicles running in major cities with a population of over 10 lakh to install Global Positioning System (GPS) devices by February 20, 2014. The Union government has directed all state governments to follow the guidelines.

72.  A 6-shot cylinder revolver, “Nirbheek” is the India’s first gun for women to defend themselves. This 0.32 bore light weight revolver is designed and manufactured to give tribute to December 2012 gang-rape victim Nirbhaya.

73.  In the seventh season of the Indian Premier League (IPL), IPL-7 which was held from April 16 – June 1, 2014 was played at venues in UAE & India. Based on security demands for the 2014 Lok Sabha General Elections the venues for some matches were shifted outside India. 8 teams participated in IPL-7. Sharukh Khan’s Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) chased down a huge 200-run target to beat Preity Zinta’s Kings XI Punjab in the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 7. Kolkata Knight Riders beat Kings XI Punjab by 3 wickets.

74.  Rafael Nadal won the French Open title for the ninth time and the fifth time in a row, by beating Novak Djokovic 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4 Sunday 8th June, 2014 in the final.

75.  Maria Sharapova won the French Open title for second time by beating Simona Halep in the final. She has now won five Grand Slam titles, taking her to joint-11th on the Open era list alongside Martina Hingis.

76.  Roger Federer won the Gerry Weber Open for the seventh time by defeating Alejandro Falla, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (3), Sunday 15 June, 2014 in Halle, Germany.

77.  IIT-Kanpur on 3^rd June, 2014 Tuesday unveiled its second supercomputer, which ranks fifth in the country in terms of performance and is considered the best for educational institutions. The supercomputer has been ranked 130th in TOP500, an international list of the most powerful computer systems.

78.  Indian scientist Rasik Ravindra on 12 June 2014 was elected as a member of the UN Commission on the Limits of Continental Shelf (UNCLCS). He was unanimously elected by securing support of all 111 members who were present and voted.

79.  The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries include: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE.

80.  Top Ten stunners that rule the list of the World’s Most Beautiful Women 2014 include Monica Bellucci, Kate Upton, Angelina Jolie, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Irina Shayk, Meryem Uzerli, Charlize Theron, Amber Heard, Rihanna, and Scarlet Johansson.

81.  World’s Top Five Oil-Importing Countries include China which imports 6.30 million barrels per day; USA imports 6.24 million barrels per day, India imports 3.86 million barrels per day, Japan imports 3.64 million barrels per day and Germany imports 2.67 million barrels per day.

82.  Jammu and Kashmir became the first state in the country to declare all election booths in the Lok Sabha polls 2014 as no smoking zones. It will be mandatory for all election booths to display the warning ‘No Smoking Area – Smoking here is an offence.”

83.  An Indian American student Kush Sharma (13) won the epic spelling bee at the Central Library in Kansas City in Missouri and secured a berth in the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington scheduled for May 2014. Indian Americans have dominated the contest over the years. New York student Arvind Mahankali won the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee.

84.  For the first time, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) launches its Zero Discrimination Day on March 1 in Beijing, China, to support those who are infected by HIV/AIDS.

AWARDS-2014

1.      This year the President has approved 109 Padma awards including one duo case and 14 in the category of Foreigners/NRIs/PIOs/Posthumous. These comprise 5 Padma Vibhushan, 27 Padma Bhushan and 77 Padma Shri Awards. Padma Awards are the country’s highest civilian awards.

2.      An Indian-born scientist, Dr. M. Madan Babu won the Protein Science Young Investigator Award for 2014 at Cambridge, UK. He got the award for his effort in the field of biological system and to understand intrinsically disordered proteins and gene regulation clearly. He became the first scientist from MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology to win this award.

3.      Sikkim won the National Tourism Award 2012-13.

4.      Eight scientists on 26 September 2013 were selected for Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for the year 2013.

5.      Gyan Correa’s “The Good Road” the first ever Gujarati film is selected as India’s entry for the best foreign film category at the Academy Awards 2013.

6.      Legendary vocalist Lata Mangeshkar was presented the first national Yash Chopra Memorial Award by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting as a mark of tribute to the legendary filmmaker Yash Chopra on the eve of his first death anniversary. It is instituted by the TSR Foundation of T. Subbarami Reddy. It carries a cheque of Rs 1 million and a citation.

7.      Legendary actress Waheeda Rehman has been conferred with the first Centenary Award for the Indian Film Personality of the year at the 44th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) held in Goa in November 2013.

8.      Bhaag Milkha Bhaag bagged seven Black Lady awards in 59th Idea Film fare Awards 2013.

9.      ‘12 Years a Slave’ won the best picture award in the 86th Annual Academy Oscar Awards 2014.

10.  Marathi film ‘Killa’ won the Crystal Bear award at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival.

11.  Bangladesh’s Kamar Ahmad Simon’s documentary ‘Are You Listening’ won the Golden Conch Award of MIFF 2014.

12.  The Assamese thriller movie ‘Ekhon Nedekha Nadir Xipaare’ (also known as “As the river flows”) bagged the Audience Choice Award 2014 in North Carolina film festival.

13.  Bollywood megastar Aamir Khan has been Selected for a US Award for his Television Show 'Satyamev Jayate' on 21 September 2013.

14.  Documentary “Gulabi Gang” is screened at the 14th New York Indian Film Festival that has run from May 5 to 10, 2014. Directed by Nishtha Jain, it is based on the life of Sampat Pal Devi, a child bride and former government health worker. In 2006, Sampat Pal Devi formed the Gulabi Gang of pink saree-clad women which works for rights of women in destitute Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

15.  Ratan Tata (76), the Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons and former chairman of the Tata Group, has been honoured by Queen Elizabeth with a GBE (Knight Grand Cross) one of the UK’s highest civilian awards. He is the only Indian among 5 foreigners to be awarded as part of the ‘Honorary British Awards to Foreign Nationals’ for 2014.

16.  Indian-origin sculptor Anish Kapoor has been honoured with Knighthood one of the highest honours in Britain, by Queen Elizabeth II on her birthday honours list 2013 for services to Visual Arts.

17.  UK-born physicist Stuart Parkin bagged the Millennium technology prize 2014. Parkin won this prize for his breakthrough in magnetic disk drive storage capacity.

18.  Professor Dr. Tej Vir Singh won the 2013 UNWTO Ulysses Prize for Excellence in the Creation and Dissemination of Knowledge in Madrid, Spain.

19.  The Indian-born scientist and Professor (Emeritus) at Stanford University, Mr. Arogyaswami Joseph Paulraj (69), won the prestigious Marconi Society Prize 2014 for developing the theory and applications of Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antennas. Prize includes $100,000 honorarium and a sculpture and its honorees become Marconi Fellows.

20.  Former Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Dr. Shashi Tharoor named as the Person of the Year by the animal rights body PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) – India for taking steps to advance animal protection. Mr. Tharoor recommended the National Council for Teacher Education (NCERT) to ban the use of animals, viz. for dissection, etc, in training teachers.

21.  Pakistani teen activist Malala Yousafzai who survived bullet-injury inflicted by the Taliban for supporting girls’ education has won the UN Human Rights Prize 2013. She has also won the prestigious International Children’s Peace Prize 2013.

22.  Eminent scientist and Bharat Ratna awardee Prof. CNR Rao has become the first Indian scientist to be elected as honorary foreign member of Chinese Academy of Science (CAS). He is first Indian scientist to reach the h-index of 100.

23.  Eminent NRI industrialist and educationist Lord Swraj Paul has been conferred with the ‘International Indian of the Decade’ award on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the publication of India Link International—a monthly magazine published from London. He is presented this award for his exceptional achievements in the fields of industry, education and philanthropy.

24.  NGO, the Harmony Foundation honored former Miss Universe Sushmita Sen with the Mother Teresa Memorial International Award 2013 for her efforts towards achieving social justice in Mumbai. Along with Sushmita Sen, seven individuals and an association, India Rescue Mission, were also awarded the Mother Teresa Memorial International Award for Social Justice 2013 for their contributions in the field of human rights and community development.

25.  France conferred its highest civilian award ‘Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur’ on social worker and founder of NGO, Naz Foundation Anjali Gopalan for her work on transgender and HIV positive patients.

26.  Myanmar’s pro-democracy activist and parliamentarian Aung San Suu Kyi finally collected the EU democracy prize (1990 Sakharov prize) that had been awarded 23 years ago while she was under house arrest. The Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought, named after Soviet protester Andrei Sakharov has been awarded annually by the European Parliament since 1988.

27.  New Zealand’s author Ms Eleanor Catton became the youngest winner of the Man Booker Prize for fiction. She won the award for her novel “The Luminaries”. “The Luminaries” is the longest book ever to win the Booker Prize.

28.  Karan Thapar, a well-known Indian television journalist has been honored with the International Press Institute (IPI) India Award for Excellence in Journalism.

29.  Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan was awarded with the Deutsche Bank Prize for Financial Economics 2013. The award has been given in recognition to his academic contributions in macro economics research which influenced financial and macro-economic policies around the globe.

30.  Scientist Vinod Prakash Sharma has been honored with the Gujar Mal Modi Award for Innovative Science and Technology 2013 for his achievements in malaria research, control and prevention including other vector borne diseases.

31.  Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi (age 20) performed brilliantly to regain the Politiken Cup Chess Title in Copenhagen, Denmark. He had won the DC International Open in US. The youngest international Grandmaster in India (on July 1, 2006) won the same tournament in 2009. This was Negi’s second title in the last three outings.

32.  Four Indian American Professors Kannan Soundararajan, Rajeev Alur, Salil P Vadhan and Senthil Todadri are among the 13 mathematicians, theoretical physicists and theoretical computer scientists who have won 2013 Simons Investigators Awards.

33.  Kolkata-born (India) chemist and physicist Sunetra Gupta has joined leading female scientists like Marie Curie at the art exhibition at the prestigious Royal Society.

34.  Paradip port (Odisha) has been conferred with the ‘Major Port of the Year’ award in recognition of its outstanding performance in 2012-13.

35.  Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden who uncovered the most extensive US global electronic surveillance programmes has been awarded German “Whistleblower Prize” for the year 2013 worth $3,900 in absentia.

36.  Zubin Mehta western classical music conductor of Indian-Parsi origin has been honored with the Tagore Award for Cultural Harmony 2013 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to cultural harmony.

37.  Infosys Executive Chairman N R Narayana Murthy has been conferred with the prestigious “Canada India Foundation Chanchalani Global Indian Award 2014” for his exceptional vision and leadership in the IT sector.

38.  US President Barack Obama honored legendary US singer-songwriter Carole King with Gershwin Prize for a lifetime achievement in popular music. With this achievement King has become the first woman to be awarded the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song.

39.  Ms Aparajita Datta, a wildlife biologist has won Whitley Award for a project to conserve ‘Hornbill’ bird in Arunachal Pradesh State. She is the Winner of the 2013 Whitley Award donated by WWF-UK.

40.  This year’s ISRO Young Scientist Award was given to Jenita Mary Nongkynrih, a young woman scientist from Meghalaya. This award carries a cash of Rs 50,000 and citation. She was awarded for her Urban Information system project in the North East.

41.  33-year-old, Delhi-born Raj Chetty, a professor in the Department of Economics at the Harvard University has won the esteemed John Bates Clark medal. Chetty is the first person of Indian-origin to win this award. John Bates Clark Medal is frequently called ‘Baby Nobel’ ‘The Economist’ listed him as one of the top eight young economists in the world.

42.  Leading mathematician and founder of Super30 classes Mr. Anand Kumar bestowed with the prestigious 2014 Ramanujan Mathematics Award at the 8th National Mathematics Convention. The Ramanujan Mathematics Award is given to a person who has at least three papers published in international journals and is involved in teaching mathematics.