International Affairs

The British start-up DeepMind Technologies an artificial intelligence company has

been purchased by the American tech giant Google. The deal was confirmed at
Googles London office which represents Googles biggest ever single acquisition in
Europe. The acquisition of DeepMind will prove to be helpful for Google in further
developing its most recent Hummingbird search update which was created to make
Google more human and searches which can now understand context like a human
brain.

National Affairs

V.P Agrawal has been removed from his position by the Aviation ministry. He was
chairman of the state-run Airports Authority of India (AAI). After him, Alok Sinha has
been given additional charge as AAI chairman who is currently a joint secretary in the
Aviation Ministry.
Awards & Honours

UNWTO Ulysses Prize for Excellence in the Creation and Dissemination of

Knowledge has gone to Dr. Tej Vir Singh of Lucknow. Dr.Singh is the Founding Director
of the Centre for Tourism Research & Development (CTRD) and professor in India. At
the University of Garhwal, Dr. Singh commenced his first Himalayan tourism training
course as the Founding Director of the Institute of Himalayan Studies and Regional
Development. The award recognizes those who had given an exceptional contributions
to knowledge and innovation in tourism.

CNNs Richard Quest has been awarded with UNWTO Award for Lifetime
Achievement for the year 2013. He received the award during the UNWTO Awards
Ceremony which was held in Madrid, Spain. He got the award for his reporting across
the globe which has displayed the challenges and achievements of the tourism industry
and raising it into the mainstream of the international agenda. This award is given to
those who played a key role for the development at the national, international, local or
regional level.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis grabbed Best New Artist at the 56th Grammy for the
year 2014. The award ceremony commenced with dazzling performance by Beyonce
and Jay Z. The duo rapper won the first of the major awards beating the likes of Kanye
West, Jay Z, Kendrick Lamar and Drake. The duo took the award home for their
phenomenal success with hits like Cant Hold Us, Same Love and Thrift Shop at the
56th Grammy award which was held at LAs Staples Center. They also won awards for
the best rap performance, best rap album and best rap song for Thrift Shop.

Late K Prasad Babu, a Sub-Inspector of the Andhra Pradeshs counter-Maoist force

has been posthumously awarded with Ashok Chakra during 65th Republic Day
celebration. Ashok Chakra is the highest peacetime gallantry award of India which has

been given to Andhras anti-Naxal unit cop who played a vital role in killing nine Maoists
and injuring several others. Babus father received the award from Pranab Mukherjee,
President of India before the commencement of the Republic Day Parade
The granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi, Ela Gandhi has been honoured with
Amadelkufa in South Africa. Amdelkufa means Sacrifice in Zulu language. Gandhi was
honoured for her lifetime role to the South African freedom struggle. Gandhi formed the
trio of Indian-origin South Africans along with Mac Maharaj and Sunny Singh. The trio
played a vigorous role in the Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) which was the
armed struggle wing of the African National Congress.

Appointment

H C Meena is the newly appointed Secretary Security in the Cabinet Secretariat.

Meena who is a 1976 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer has served as the
Director General (DG) in Rajasthan. Meena will serve the post till his superannuation
which is till 30 September 2014.
Death

The Managing Director (MD) of Tata Motors Karl Slym has recently died after falling
from a hotel in Bangkok. Slym was in Bangkok to attend a Tata Motors Thailand Limited
board meeting. Slym in his initial career worked for Toyota in UK. Before Tata group, he
worked as the executive vice-president of SGMW Motors in China.

Current Affairs Updates: 30th January 2014

January 31, 2014 by Current Affairs Today at 2:55 am Leave a Comment

International Affairs

The first public university to accept fees in digital currency, Bitcoin is Cumbria
University of UK. The new system for processing the payments is already working
effectively. The payment of fees via Bitcoin will be only pertinent to two new courses on
the roles of complimentary currencies in economic systems that will be taught from May
2014 at the Institute for Leadership and Sustainability (IFLAS). Its worth mentioning
here that Cumbria is considered to be the first public university in the world to accept
the digital currency, Bitcoin.
National Affairs

Valerie Trierweiler, French First Lady will visit India for the first time and will make her
first public appearance after her husband Francois Hollande, President of France was
cheating on her for a French actress. She will be here for a charity work. She will have
a two days Mumbai trip which is organised by French relief organisation Action against
Hunger (ACF). She will also visit a hospital in Mumbai where malnourished children
are having a training programme by medical staff.

The Department of Posts in India is about to start ATMs from this February. In
eagerness of getting a banking licence from the Reserve Bank of India, the Department
of Posts will come up with its own ATMs. The first of them set to be operational on
February 5 across three cities Chennai, New Delhi and Bangalore. After that the Indian
Postal Department is planning to start 3,000 ATMs. Around 1,000 machines will be
introduced in the first year. The other 2,000 will be started within six months to one year
after the initial phase of rollout.
The White Label ATM licence has been given Vakrangee Ltd by the Reserve Bank of
India. But whats White-label ATMs. These ATMs are those which are run by a nonbanking entity in its own brand name (like Vakrangee ATM) not by the banks but after
passing through all the mandatory and stern qualification and process undertaken by
the RBI. By this licence, Vakrangee is permitted to set up minimum 15,000 ATMs
across the country in 3 years. These ATMs will run like that of a bank-run ATMs.
Indias largest lender and one of the oldest financial institutions in the country State
Bank of India (SBI) has now launched its channel on Youtube, a popular video sharing
website and will also be soon launching its handle on Twitter, a micro-blogging
website.SBI, which controls about a fourth of the deposits in the system is doing so to
connect with its customers and hence spreading its footprint on social media through
the launch of platforms like Youtube and Twitter. SBI which has over 15,000 branches
and more than 43,000 ATMs considers that Youtube channel will facilitate it connect
with the youth and techno savvy customers.
MK Alagiri, elder son of DMK party chief M Karunanidhi has been suspended by
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagams (DMK) amid tension over leadership fall out. It is being
said that he was creating confusion amidst the party by urging partymen not to work
and was criticising the disciplinary action taken by the party against some members for
their anti-party activities. The continuation of Alagiri in the party is not appropriate and
will tear down the party discipline. Thats why Alagiri has temporarily been suspended
from the party.
The top stock exchange Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has launched new Interest
Rate Futures (IRF) in long tenure 10-year government bonds. Market regulator
Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) gave the approval for launching IRFs to
BSE. Later further, NSE and MCX-SX have also started live trading in the IRF. This will
benefit brokerage houses, banks, primary dealers and insurance companies among
others. Its worth mentioning here that an IRF is usually a contract between a buyer and
a seller in accord to the future delivery of any interest-bearing asset such as
government bonds.

Awards & Honours

The annual United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) Awards for
Excellence and Innovation in Tourism has been bagged by none other than Gods own

country Kerala. For the first time India has received this award. Kerala Tourism was
conferred with this honour at Madrid in Spain. The Kerala Tourism bagged this coveted
award for its sustainable development programme in the world famous backwater resort
of Kumarakom.
R.A. Mashelkar famous scientist, Dipika Pallikal, Yuvraj Singh is among those
personalities who have been awarded with the Padma awards, Indias highest civilian
honours ahead of 26 January, the Republic Day. Its worth mention here that on the
occasion of Republic Day, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and Padma Shri are
announced every year.

Personalities who were honoured with Padma Vibhushan include Dr. Raghunath A.
Mashelkar famous scientist and B.K.S. Iyengar Yoga Guru.
Actor Kamal Haasan, Author Ruskin Bond, ace shuttler Pullela Gopichand and famous
tennis sportsmen Leander Paes are among those who received Padma Bhushan
awards.
While Bollywood actor Paresh Rawal, actress Vidya Balan, Indian cricketer Yuvraj Singh
and ace squash player Dipika Rebecca Pallikal are among those who got Padma Shri
awards. Recently Dipika has entered the top 10 of WSA ranking which the official
womans squash world ranking.

Current Affairs Updates: 29th January 2014

January 30, 2014 by Current Affairs Today at 2:55 am Leave a Comment

National Affairs

The central bank of India, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has declared that
currency notes printed before 2005 will remain legal. The rule was about to be enacted
to curb black marketing from the market through withdrawing currency notes printed
prior to 2005.

India and France are working jointly to build the third Indo-French satellite which has
been designed for climate change studies. The new satellite is being built by Indian
Space Research Organisation (ISRO)and National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) of
France.

On 23 January, India celebrated the 117th birth anniversary of Neta ji Subhash

Chandra Bose to pay him rich tributes. Pranab Mukherjee, President of India offered
floral tributes to Netaji at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Various programmes were being

organized in nationwide to mark the birth anniversary of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose.
On this occasion, Cuttack his birth place has witnessed a good number of visitors.
National Girl Child Day was observed nationwide on 24 January. In order to raise
awareness and consciousness towards the girl child, this day is observed every year.
The focus is to make sure that every girl is valued, respected and treated uniformly in
society. Earlier, the Indian Post has launched a special savings scheme for the girl child
aged between 10 and 20 of India. According to the scheme, the parents of girls have to
open a Savings Bank account or Monthly Income Scheme (MIS) or Recurring Deposit
(RD) or Fixed Deposits and they can also buy National Savings Certificate (NSC).
According to Indias central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the economic
growth of India is expected to fall below 5 % in 2013-14 in absence of pick-up in
manufacturing sector but is likely to recover to 5.5% in 2014-2015. The headline CPI
inflation is expected to range between 7.5 and 8.5 % with an upside risk for the fourth
quarter.
According to United Nations (UN) report, the economic growth of India is expected to
5.35% in 2014. The UN World Economic Situation and Prospects 2014 (WESP) report
has revealed it which exposes that full-year growth slowed down to 4.8 % in 2013 from
5.1 % in the year 2012. While the global economy is expected to take at a pace of 3 %
in 2014 and 3.3 % in 2015 which will be compared to an estimated growth of 2.1% in
2013. This year, Indias economic growth pace is expected to grow at a slower-thanprojected rate of 5.3 % this year.
The LPG Connection Portability Scheme has been launched by the Union Ministry of
Petroleum & Natural Gas across the country. This scheme is covering 480 districts of
India and all expected LPG markets which have multiple LPG distributors. Through this
scheme, an LPG consumer can switch to the distributor of his or her choice within a
group of LPG distributors in the surrounding area. In order to facilitate LPG to
consumers, Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) itself have made more than 1400 group
distributors. To opt for portability procedure is very simple. Any transfer fee or additional
security deposit will not be charged for transfer of connection under this scheme. The
scheme has already been launched as a pilot project in 24 districts covering 13 states
by OMCs which includes Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum.

Appointment

Prestigious Harvard College has chosen Indian-origin academician Rakesh Khurana

as its new Dean. Khurana will succeed Evelynn Hammonds who is Professor of African
and American Studies. Khurana will take the responsibilities from July 1. He is the
Marvin Bower Professor of Leadership Development at Harvard Business School, comaster of Cabot House in Harvard and Professor of Sociology in the Faculty of Arts and
Sciences.

Sports

Finally New Zealand won the series after beating India in 4th ODI by 7 wickets. The
host won series by 3-0 and easily chased the target given by India 279. India lost the
Hamilton cricket match by 7 wickets and the series against New Zealand. The first two
ODIs were won by New Zealand while the third one day ended with a tie.

Current Affair Updates: 28th January 2014

January 29, 2014 by Current Affairs Today at 2:30 am Leave a Comment

International Affairs

A financial assistance of $400 million has been provided by Asian Development

Bank (ADB) for first tranche line of credit to India Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd
(IIFCL). The loan has been given to help speeding up infrastructure growth through
increased private sector investment. The line of credit will be used to advance direct
loans by state-owned IIFCL which will have two years to utilise this limit. Nilaya Mitash,
Joint Secretary in the Finance Ministry and Narahari Rao, Officer-in-charge of ADBs
India Resident Mission signed the loan agreement for the first tranche. The project
agreement was signed by Sanjeev Ghai, Chief General Manager, IIFCL.
National Affairs

Geological Survey of Indias Advanced Light Helicopter named Garuda Vasudha

was launched with the help of Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), Bangalore. A Dhruv
category built Garuda Vasudha which was launched by Dinsha Patel, Minister of
Mines is dedicated to the nation. The Advanced Light Helicopter will be used for broad
surveys by the GSI for tracing hidden mineral health. To locate mineral resources to
fulfil the rising demands, the Remote Sensing and Aerial Survey Wing of Geological
Survey of India will be using both the aerial and heliborne survey.
Books

Resurgent India: Glimpses of Rajiv Gandhi Vision of India was recently launched by
Hamid Ansari, Vice President of India in Delhi. The former Lok Sabha Secretary
General P.D.T Acharya is the author of book.The main objective of book is an
assessment of Rajiv Gandhis contributions towards India. In the presence of Veerappa
Moily, Petroleum and Environment Minister the book was launched.
Death

The former Deputy Chief Minister of Jharkhand Sudhir Mahato has passed away
after he suffered a cardiac arrest in Singhbhum district. He was a leader of the
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). In 1990, for the first time he won the assembly

elections from Ichchagarh and served till 2005. In 2005, he became the Deputy Chief
Minister of Jharkhand.

Sports

The first grand slam title Australian Open was claimed by Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka
after he defeated injury-troubled world number one Rafael Nadal. The eighth seed
crushed Nadal in the Australian Open final and take it 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in 2 hours 21
minutes. It was a dramatic win for Wawrinka, who had not cushed Nadal in their
previous 12 matches as he assembled to win the fourth set and clinched the
championship.

Tennis ace Sania Mirza of India and her partner Horia Tecau of Romania could not
clinch the Australian Open mixed doubles after they were defeated by French Kristina
Mladenovic and Canadian Daniel Nestor. Before this, Sania had grabbed the Australian
mixed doubles title with Mahesh Bhupathi in 2009. Sania was eyeing for her third mixed
doubles Grand Slam title and second in Australian Open when she and Tacau lost
against the French-Canadian duo 3-6 2-6 in a 58-minute match in Melbourne.

Saina Nehwal, India ace shuttler has clinched the Syed Modi International India
Grand Prix Gold badminton title by defeating her compatriot P V Sindhu in the womens
singles competition which was held in Lucknowy. The London Olympics bronze
medallist Nehwal crushed Sandhu in the womens singles summit clash 21-14 21-17
which lasted for 40 minutes. This victory made her earn 7000 points and it will also
allow her to climb the ranking ladder.

Skipper and Indian cricket team captain MS Dhoni has made another record by
becoming the first captain to be involved in four tied One Day International matches.
Dhoni achieved this in Auckland while he was playing third ODI match against New
Zealand. Meanwhile the previous three tied matches where Dhoni was involved are
against England in ICC World Cup 2011 match, against England during ODI match
2011 and against Sri Lanka during ODI match 2012.

Shane Warne has been appointed by Australian team to mentor Australias spinners
for World T20 Tournament which will be played in Bangladesh. He will train the spinners
of the squad for the three-match series against South Africa. Its worth mentioning here
that George Bailey is the captain for the Australian Twenty20 cricket team. Currently the
team is ranked at eighth position in the list of International Cricket Council.