Sunday, January 25, 2015

Current Affairs 2014 at a glance

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

● The Tax Administration Reform Commission (TARC) headed by Parthasarathi Shome suggested
abolition of the post of Revenue Secretary and merger of CBDT and CBEC.

● The 40th G7 Summit was held in Brussels, Belgium in June 2014. This Summit was held without Russia.

● Indian Vice President Hamid Ansari visited China to celebrate the 60th anniversary of signing of the Panchsheel in June 2014.

● Indian-origin V.K. Rajah was appointed the Attorney-General of Singapore.

● General Dalbir Singh Suhag succeeded General Bikram Singh as the 26th Chief of Indian Army on July 31, 2014. Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha took over as the Chairman of the
Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC) on July 30, 2014.

● Shashi Kant Sharma, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) became a Member
of the United Nations Board of Auditors for a term of six years.

● The President appointed new Governors for six States in July 2014. They are: Kaptan Singh
Solanki - Haryana, Balramji Das Tandon- Chhaatisgarh, Keshari Nath Tripath- West Bengal, Ram
Naik- Uttar Pradesh, Padmanabha Acharya - Nagaland and Om Prakash Kohli - Gujarat.

● S.S. Mundra is the fourth Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. He will have tenure of 3 years.

● Former External Affairs Minister and a senior Congress Party leader K.Natwar Singh released his
autobiography 'One Life is Not Enough'.

● Out of 187 countries, India is ranked 135th in the 2014 UNDP Human Development Index. Norway is the topper

● Germany won the 2014 FIFA World Cup. It beat Argentina in the final played at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on July 13, 2014. It is Germany's 4th World Cup Football title.

● Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeated Roger Federer of Switzerland in Wimbledon men's singles tennis final. In the Wimbledon women's singles final Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic beat Eugenie Bouchard of Canada.

● The 6th BRICS Summit was held in July 2014 in Fortaleza, Brazil. The leaders signed a document to create the $100 billion New Development Bank. Its headquarters will be in Shanghai, China and the first President will be from India for a six year term. It is Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's first Summit.

● Sadananda Gowda presented the Railway Budget on July 8, 2014. Union Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley tabled the Economic Survey 2013-14 in Parliament on July 9, 2014 and presented his maiden Budget on July 10, 2014.

● Harry Potter fame actress Emma Watson was appointed Goodwill Ambassador by UN Women. Tennis player Sania Mirza is the brand ambassador for Telangana State.

● Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the new President of Turkey and Ahmet Davutoglu is the new Prime Minister of Turkey.

● General Prayuth Chan-ocha took over as the Prime Minister of Thailand in August 2014.

● In August 2014 four more States got new Governors. Rajasthan - Kalyan Singh, Maharashtra - Ch. Vidyasagar Rao, Karnataka- Vajubhai Vala and Goa- Mridula
Sinha.

● Congress leader K.V. Thomas is the Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament.

● Former Chief Justice of India Justice P. Sathasivam was appointed the Governor of Kerala in September 2014.

● Daman Singh, the daughter of the former Prime Minister of India Dr. Manmohan Singh, has written a book "Strictly Personal: Manmohan and Gursharan".

● Narendra Modi launched Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) on August 28, 2014. The aim of the scheme is the financial inclusion of all Indians.

● Manjul Bhargava, a mathematician of Indian origin won the Field Medal. He was conferred
the award at the International Congress of Mathematicians held
in Seoul, South Korea in August.

● Former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan was appointed the Chairman of the Expenditure Management Commission.

● Jaipur Pink Panthers beat U Mumba to emerge champion of the inaugural STAR ProKabaddi League in Mumbai on August 31.

● The 2014 Summer Youth Olympics were held from August 16 to 28, 2014 in Nanjing, China.
China topped the medals tally with 65 medals, including 38 Gold. India got two medals. Weightlifter Ragala Venkata Rahul bagged a silver medal and Atul Verma won a bronze in Archery.

● Shah Rukh Khan was appointed the ambassador of 'Turn Back Crime' campaign of Interpol. Amitabh Bachchan is Maharashtra's horticulture ambassador.

● India and Australia signed a civil nuclear agreement on September 5, 2014. The deal was signed during the visit of the Australian
Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

● The 20th edition of the Commonwealth Games was held from July 23 to August 3, 2014 in Glasgow, Scotland. England topped the medal chart with 174 medals. India bagged 64 medals
and finished fifth.

● Marin Cilic of Croatia defeated Kei Nishikori of Japan to win the 2014 US Open men's singles tennis title. Serena Williams of USA won women's singles title beating Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the final. The mixed doubles title was won by India's Sania Mirza and Brazil's Bruno Soares.

● The 17th Asian Games were held in Incheon, South Korea from September 19 to October 4, 2014. China topped the medals tally with 342 medals. India won 57 medals and took the 8th position.

● Chennai Super Kings won the Champions League T20 title, defeating Kolkata Knight Riders
in the final in Bangalore on October 4, 2014.

● Narendra Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Mission on the birth anniversary of Mahatma
Gandhi on October 2, 2014. The Mission aims to make India clean by October 2, 2019, Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary.

● Ancient Nalanda University was inaugurated after 800 years on September 19, 2014 by External
Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Bihar. The Chancellor is Amartya Sen and the Vice Chancellor is Gopa Sabharwal.

● The Union Government launched Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Antyodaya Yojana for urban and rural poor on September 25, 2014.

● The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Summit was held in Wales, UK on September 4-5, 2014.

● Ashraf Ghani was sworn in as the new President of Afghanistan on September 29, 2014.

● John Key was re-elected the Prime Minister of New Zealand.

● O.Pannerselvam became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu succeeding Jayalalithaa.

● Justice H.L. Dattu became the 42nd Chief Justice of India on September 28, 2014.

● Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award 2014 was presented to A. Sivathanu Pillai, an eminent missile scientist.

● October 31 was celebrated as National Unity Day. It is the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India's first Home Minister.

● Devendra Fadnavis became the Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Manohar Lal Khattar was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Haryana in October 2014. Both are from BJP. Laxmikant Parsekar of BJP is the new Goa Chief Minister.

● India was reelected to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) for the period of 2015 to 2017.

● Dilma Rousseff was re-elected for her second four-year term as the President of Brazil.

● Australian author Richard Flanagan won the 2014 Man Booker Prize for his novel "The Narrow Road to the Deep North".

● Pakistani girls' rights activist Malala Yousafzai shared the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize with India's Kailash Satyarthi. She also won the World's Children's Prize given by Sweden and America's Liberty Medal.

● Former Prime Minister of Norway Jens Stoltenberg became the 13th Secretary General of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on October 1, 2014.

● Arvind Subramanian is the new Chief Economic Adviser and Rajiv Mehrishi is the new Finance Secretary of India.

● Indian Prime Minister attended the 9th G20 Summit in Brisbane, Australia in November 2014.

● The 18th SAARC Summit was held in November 2014 in Kathmandu, Nepal.

● Anil Kumar Sinha is the new Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Rajinder
Khanna is the new Chief of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Prakash Mishra is the
new Director General of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

● The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2014 is given to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).

● Rolene Strauss of South Africa was crowned Miss World 2014 in London on December 14, 2014.