Vidyul IAS Academy M.

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NEWS BULLETIN
(1 to 31 August 2014)
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375 anniversary of Chennai

The city of Chennai (previously known as Madras)
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celebrated its 375 anniversary on 22 August 2014.
The city was established on 22 August 1639 as on this
date the East India Company acquired a small piece of
land from the king of Chandragiri (Peda Venkata Raya)
for establishing Fort St. George. This event laid the
foundation of the modern city of Madras.
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2 Summer Youth Olympics

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2 Summer Youth Olympics concluded at Chinas
Nanjing city on 28 August 2014.Hosts China topped
the medals tally at these games.
The first-ever Summer Youth Olympic Game was held
in 2010 at Vancouver (Canada).
Rugby making its return to the Olympic programme
after 92 years with these Games.
INS Kamorta
INS Kamorta is Indias first Naval vessel with all
weapon systems built indigenously, that was
commissioned into the Indian Navy on 23 August
2014.it was handed over to Indian Navy by Garden
Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd. (GRSE) earlier
on 12 July 2014.
liquor prohibition
Kerala government announced proposal to clamp
complete prohibition on liquor .The state govt.
proposed to make Kerala a dry state in 10 years.
Presently Gujarat is the only dry state of India.
Indias Most Admired Companies
ITC Limited replaced IT giant Tata Consultancy
Services (TCS) as Indias most admired company in
Forbes list of for 2014 released during August 2014.In
the latest list for the year 2014, ITC is followed by
engineering and infrastructure major L&T, Hindustan
Unilever, carmaker Maruti Suzuki and public sector
bank SBI among the top five most admired companies
in India.
Knowledge Vault
Google is in the process of building the largest store of
information in human history that autonomously
gathers and merges data from across the web to
provide unprecedented access to all facts about the
world. The name given to this enormous project of
information and knowledge is Knowledge Vault.

(1 to 31 August 2014)

Modis Japan Visit

Narendra Modi arrived at Japan on 30 August 2014
on his first bilateral foreign visit outside South Asia
after becoming Prime Minister. The two countries Modi
visited before Japan are Bhutan and Nepal. This Japan
visit is expected to boost bilateral relations in several
key fields such as defence, civil nuclear and
infrastructure besides commerce.
Varanasi into a smart city
India and Japan signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) on 30 August 2014 to turn
Varanasi into a smart city. Kyoto, Japanese city
would provide its expertise to turn Varanasi in a smart
city.
Digital India Project
The ambitious e-governance project of the Union
Govt., approved by the Union Cabinet which aims to
ensure that government services are available to
citizens electronically and help people gain benefits
from the latest information and communication
technology.
Worlds 100 Most Innovative Companies
5 Indian companies were listed among Forbes list of
the
released- Hindustan Unilever was listed at
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14 place and in the list and was followed by TCS
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(57 place), L&T (58 place), Sun Pharma Industries
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(65 place) and Bajaj Auto (96 place) among Indian
companies.
Shanta Kumar committee
Shanta kumar is heading high-level committee to
recommend restructuring of Food Corporation of India
(FCI) that was constituted by Government.
Fourth Deputy Governor
S.S. Mundra (Subhash Shivratan Mundra) took over as
the fourth Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of
India (RBI) during July 2014. Three other deputy
governors of the RBI are Urjit Patel, HR Khan, and R.
Gandhi. Mundra filled the vacancy created by the
retirement of K.C. Chakrabarty in April 2014, two
months before his five-year tenure was come to an
end.
P. Vijaya Bhaskar Committee
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) constituted a
committee to monitor the growing phenomenon of
shadow banking. P. Vijaya Bhaskar has been
appointed as the Chairman of this committee.Shadow
banking refers to banking-like activity by non-banking
finance companies (NBFCs) that remain outside the
regulatory net.

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Vidyul IAS Academy M. 092155-08500, 99928-58885

New Chairman
Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi was selected as the
Chairman of the Estimates Committee of Parliament by
the Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan on 16 August
2014.
Committee on Public Undertakings- Shanta Kumar
Public Accounts Committee (PAC) - K.V. Thomas
Uriamghat
Uriamghat is situated along the disputed AssamNagaland border. It came to news during August 2014
due to raids by armed groups from Nagaland, that left
11 dead and seven injured and forced over 10,000
people to take shelter in relief camps
Surya Kiran-VII
Surya Kiran-VII is a joint bilateral army exercise
between India and Nepal being conducted from 18
August to 31 August 2014. It is being held in the
mountain terrain of Pithoragarh in the Northern
Himalayas.
New Chairman of UPSC
Rajni Razdan took over as the new Chairman of Union
Public Service Commission on 16 August 2014..She
succeeded Prof. D.P. Agrawal, who also administered
the oath of office and secrecy to her.
INS Kolkata
PM Narendra Modi dedicated to the nation the largest
indigenously-built destroyer warship..This huge 6800tonne warship has been manufactured by Mazgaon
Dock Limited defence unit.
Greatest-ever female chess player
Judit Polgar of Hungary, The greatest-ever female
chess player retired from competitive chess arena on
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14 August 2014 with the conclusion of the 41 World
Chess Olympiad at Tromso (Norway). She had been
the world No.1 woman player for 25 years
RBI an additional post
The Reserve Bank of India announced an additional
post in the rank of Deputy Governor that is Chief
Operating Officer (COO).The RBI has been
deliberating on a broad HR restructuring exercise to
align organisational resources and structures with the
needs of the domestic economy and changes in the
external environment.
Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana
Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana is the new
scheme announced by the PM Narendra Modi on 15
August 2014 to help the poor in opening bank
accounts, it will come with the facility of a debit card
and an accidental insurance cover of Rs. 1 lakh.

(1 to 31 August 2014)

Capital of Andhra Pradesh

Vijayawada city was chosen as the adhoc capital of
Andhra Pradesh by the state government on 12 August
2014. It would be used as ad hoc capital of the state
until the needed infrastructure and other projects for
the new capital are completed.
Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha
M. Thambidurai was elected as the Deputy Speaker of
the Lok Sabha.He was elected unanimously as almost
all parties moved motions for his election, including the
Congress. He is the MP from all India Anna Drumuk
Party (Tamilnadu)
Go-India
Indian Railways recently launched a contact-less
smart card enabling passengers to pay for reserved as
well as unreserved travelling train tickets as part of a
pilot project. It is part of a pilot project to be
implemented on two sectors New Delhi Howrah
and New Delhi Mumbai.
Ebola outbreak
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the
Ebola outbreak in West Africa to be an international
public health emergency. The emergency was
declared a Public Health Emergency of International
Concern (PHEIC), which is the name of the formal
declaration of health emergency by the WHO.
PrivateCore
Social networking company Facebook during August
2014 acquired which cyber-security startup firm to
boost its huge server network. PrivateCore is a
California-based cyber-security startup firm that was
launched in 2012. The company specializes in
protecting servers against malware and other kinds of
virus intrusions.
100% foreign direct investment (FDI)
The Union Cabinet cleared a proposal to allow in
Indian Railways. Apart from this, two U.S. companies
GE and EMD were shortlisted for a proposed diesel
locomotive factory to be built in Bihar. After 100% FDI
in Indian Railways, except operations of trains, FDI can
be brought into all other areas like high-speed train
systems, freight terminals, building of rail links,
electrification and signalling systems.
RBI bi-monthly policy
The Reserve Bank of India presented its bi-monthly
policy review on 5 August 2014. It kept unchanged
policy repo rate at 8.0% and cash reserve ratio (CRR)
4.0% .The SLR of scheduled commercial banks was
reduced by 50 basis points from 22.5% to 22.0% .it will
effect from 9 August 2014.

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Vidyul IAS Academy M. 092155-08500, 99928-58885

Justice Manjula Chellur
Justice Chellur on 5 August 2014 took over as the first
woman Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, which is
the oldest High Court of India
Micromax
Micromax Became during the quarter of April-June
2014 toppled South Korean mobile giant Samsung to
become the largest mobile handsets selling company
in India.
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20 Commonwealth Games 2014

On 3 August 2014 the curtains were raised on the
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20 Commonwealth Games 2014 held at Glasgow
(Scotland).
England was placed at first spot in the medals tally.
Australia was at second place.
Canada was at third place.
England finished at the top in the medals tally for
the first time since Commonwealth Games of 1986
(Edinburgh). From 1990 Australia dominated six
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Games till 19 Commonwealth Games in 2010.
Gold Coast City Australia would host the
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21 Commonwealth Games of 2018.
India was placed at fifth placed

(1 to 31 August 2014)

Cartoonist Pran Kumar

Noted Indian cartoonist Pran Kumar Sharma, popularly
known as Pran, passed away on 5 August 2014 at the
age of 75. He was the creator of iconic Indian cartoon
characters such as Chacha Chaudhary and his friend
Sabu, Shrimatiji, Pinki, Billoo, Raman and Channi
Chachi.
Actor Sir Richard Attenborough
Renowned Actor-Director Sir Richard Attenborough
passed away at the age of 90 on 24 August 2014. As
the Director of much-lauded Gandhi he became an
unflagging pillar to British cinema. In 1982 his film
Gandhi won 8 Oscar awards to etch its name in the
history of film making.
Book Strictly Personal
Daman Singh, the daughter of Manmohan Singh is the
author of the book Strictly Personal, the new
biography of the former Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur, which is to be
released during August 2014.

Narendra Modi visited Nepal

Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Nepal on 3 and 4
August 2014. He became the first Indian Prime
Minister to come to Nepal on a state visit in last 17
years. The last Prime Minister to visit Nepal was Late
Inder Kumar Gujral. Prime Minister Narendra Modi
announced$1 billion financial assistance for Nepal.
Magsaysay Awards 2014
Ramon Magsaysay Awards 2014 as announced on 31
July 2014. 6 winners are - Hu Shuli (China), Saur
Marlina Manurung (Indonesia), Randy Halasan (The
Philippines), Wang Canfa (China), Omara Khan
Masoudi (Afghanistan), The Citizen Foundation
(Pakistan)
The Magsaysay Awards, often regarded as Asias
version of the Nobel Prize, are named after the
popular Philippine president Ramon Magsaysay,
who died in a 1957 plane crash. These are given
to personalities from Asia for their contribution in
various fields of the society.
Prof. Bipan Chandra
Prof. Bipan Chandra, who passed away on 30 August
2014, was a renowned academician associated with
History. He was considered to be a specialist in
economic and political history of India. He wrote
several authentic books on modern Indian history .

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