Kerala won 61st National Volleyball Championship Title

On 16 January Kerala defeated Tamilnadu to retain the men s title in the 61st Sen
ior National Volleyball Championship at the Sawai Man Singh Indoor Stadium in Ja
ipur.In the women s section, Railways defeated Kerala and won the title in the fi
nal.
Malaysian Open Badminton Championship Winners
Men s Singles: Lee Chong Wei (Indonesia) won the Men s singles title after defeated
Sony Dwi Kuncoro in the final at Kuala Lumpur on 20 January.
Men s Doubles: Mohd Ahsan (Indonesia) -Hendra Setiawan (China) defeated Ko Sung-hy
un-Lee Yong-dae (Malaysia) in the final.
Women s Singles: Tai Tzu-ying (Thailand) won the women s singles title after defeate
d Yao Xue (Korea)
Women s Doubles: In the event Bao Yixin-Tian Qing (China) won the title after def
eated Misaki Matsutomo-Ayaka Takahashi (Japan)
Lalith Babu takes top honours
Lalith Babu defeated Swapnil Dhopade in the final round to clinch the Chennai Su
per Kings International Grandmaster chess tournament that concluded at the Nehru
Stadium in Chennai on 23 January 2013.Lalith Babu won Rs.200,000 and the trophy
after becoming the first Indian player to claim the Chennai Open
Australian Open Tennis Tournament
2013 Winners
Womens Single s :- Victoria Azarenka of Belarus won the Women s Singles title of the
Australian Open Tennis tournament after defeated Li Na of China in the final at
Melbourne on 26 January .
Men s Singles:- Novak Djokovic (Serbia) has won the men s singles title after defe
ating Andy Murray (Britain) in four sets. This is Djokovic s fourth Australian Ope
n and over all six Grand Slam single title.
Women s Doubles:- Top seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci won the title, defeatin
g wild cards Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua in the final.
Men s Doubles : Top seeded American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan won the men s double
s title. Americans Mike and Bob Bryan won their record 13th Grand Slam doubles t
itle, defeating the Dutch team of Robin Haase and Igor Sijsling .
Magnus Carlsen Won Tata Steel Chess Championship
Magnus Carlsen won Tata Steel 2013 Chess tournament title in the final at Nether
lands on 27 January .In the final round tournament, he scored 10 points , winni
ng clear first ahead of second-place finisher Aronian (Armenia).World champion V
iswanathan Anand at third position.
Mumbai won 40th Ranji Trophy Title
On 29 January Mumbai won its 40th Ranji Trophy title against Saurashtra by an in
ning and 125 runs in the final at Wankhede at Mumbai .Wasim Jaffar was declared
Man of the Match. Ajit Agarkar was the captain of the winning team.
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ECONOMY
Philippines introduced sin tax
A sin tax on cigarettes and alcohol was introduced in the Philippines on 01 Januar
y 2013, as part of a government bid to boost finances.Many stores started sellin
g tobacco and drink at inflated prices before midnight , ahead of the official i
mplementation of the tax hikes on January 01, hitting partygoers in the pocket.T
ax on cigarettes will gradually be raised to 30 pesos ($0.72) per pack by 2017,
roughly doubling the current price to around 52 pesos.Duty on alcohol will also
increase gradually until 2017, increasing the price of a bottle of beer by 23.50
pesos, with varying levels for other drinks including wine and spirits.
LIC Launched New Jeewan Nidhi & Flexi Plus Policies
The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India launched two new Insurence policie
s New Jeevan Nidhi, a pension scheme, and Flexi Plus on 3 January .New Jeewan Ni
dhi provides the facility of insurance coverage of full amount while the insured
person keeps depositing premiums.The Flexi policy is a unit linked insurance p
roduct. The plan not only provides a lump sum benefit on death but also maturity
benefit irrespective of survival of the policy holder
Mukesh Ambani 18th richest man in world
Indian business magnate Mukesh Ambani is the 18th richest person in the world wi

th a personal wealth of $24.7 billion in 2012, according to the Bloomberg Billio

naires Index, a daily ranking of the world s 100 wealthiest individuals. Mexican t
elecommunications magnate Carlos Slim remained the world s richest person last yea
r holding a personal fortune of more than $70 billion.Microsoft founder Bill Gat
es and the founder of fashion retailer Zara, Amancio Ortega, got a second and th
ird places respectively.
Indian Companies Top Globally in R&D Investment
According to the European Commission report Indian companies have come on the to
p globally when it comes to growth in their research and development (R&D) inves
tments, leaving their counterparts in the US and Europe far behind.Indian firms
rank far below when it comes to absolute R&D investments made by them and the to
p-ranked company from the country.These are the only 14 Indian companies present
in a list of top-1500 entities worldwide in terms of their annual R&D investmen
ts.The top-ranked Indian company is Infosys at 329th place and Japanese company
Toyota Motor appears at the top of the ranking in the 2012 Scoreboard.
IMF forecasted Indian Economic Growth Rate to be 5.9 percent in 2013
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 23 January 2013 pegged India s economic g
rowth rate in 2013 at 5.9 per cent and projected a higher growth of 6.4 per cent
next year in line with the gradual strengthening of global expansion.
World Bank s Global Economic Prospects 2013? Report
According to the World Bank Global Economic Prospects 2013? report , India s growth
is expected to inch closer to that of China in near future, in which the econom
ies of developing countries like India, China and Brazil are projected to be rec
overing and higher growth rate.The World Bank expects that by 2015, the growth r
ate of China would be 7.9% and that of India 7%.While the growth of the world ec
onomy growth is projected to inch up from 2.3% in 2012 to 2.4% in 2013, with the
high-income countries remaining at the same level of growth of 1.3% in both 201
2 and 2013, it is the emerging markets like India, China and Brazil that would s
how significant signs of recovery.They are expecting a recovery in India from 5.
1% growth in 2012 to 6.1% growth in 2013.